Intro Art Books

Few artists tried as hard as Claude Monet (1840–1926) to capture light itself on canvas. The painter of whom Cézanne said “only  an eye, but my God what an eye!” he stayed true to the principle of absolute fidelity to the visual sensation, painting...

A new introductory guide to the art of looking at and engaging with photography. Photographs, even the most iconic, often have something seemingly obvious about them. They appear to represent the "real" world and our first instinct is that they can be...

Arranged alphabetically, this biographical encyclopedia features  every major photographer of the 20th century alongside her or his most  significant monographs.  From the earliest representatives of  classical Modernism right up to...

In this exploration of contemporary photography, David Levi Strauss questions the concept that “seeing is believing”. Identifying a recent shift in the dominance of photography, David Levi Strauss looks at the power of the medium in the age of...

Photography has a complex relationship to art. This volume uses an innovative framework to help readers appreciate photography as its own modern art form. In his unique and insightful approach, professor of photography David Bate presents iconic...

George Eastman’s career developed in a particularly American way. The founder of Kodak progressed from a delivery boy to one of the most important industrialists in American history, and a crucial innovator in photographic history. Eastman died in 1932,...

A vibrant and insightful account of the diverse artists and activists who made up the New Deal art programs and the influential legacy of the artwork they left behind. What role should the arts play in a democracy? At the height of the Great Depression,...

The third edition of this classic study, a complete introduction to one of the most popular and recognizable artists of the 20th century. Salvador Dalí was, and remains, among the most universally recognizable artists of the twentieth century. What...

The arresting paintings of Frida Kahlo were in many ways expressions of trauma. Through a near-fatal road accident at the age of 18, failing health, a turbulent marriage, miscarriage and childlessness, she transformed the afflictions into revolutionary...

A new edition of this classic illustrated survey on the life and work of Spanish surrealist Joan Miró by historian and close friend Roland Penrose. Among the great twentieth-century masters, the surrealist painter Joan Miró stands out for the atmosphere...

This Is Not a Book Everyday enigma from Belgium's leading Surrealist From men in bowler hats, floating in the sky, to a painting of a pipe above the caption "this is not a pipe", René Magritte (1898–1967) created an echo chamber of object and image, name...

When is a urinal no longer a urinal? When Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) declared it to be art. The uproar that greeted the French artist’s Fountain  (1917), a porcelain urinal installed in a gallery, sent shock waves  through the art world...

Artists’ Film offers a lucid, accessible account of artists’ unique contribution to the art of the moving image in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. International in scope and accessibly written by a renowned authority on the subject,...

First published in 1979, this updated edition of the pioneering study in the World of Art series surveys a full century of performance, from the Futurist manifesto of 1909 through the second decade of the new millennium. The standard reference since its...

This seminal 1929 surrealist novel by the painter Giorgio de Chirico merges the realms of dream and reality. In the artist’s only novel, de Chirico invites the reader into a world where language, time, space, and meaning are fluid, highlighting...

Surrealism was launched as a literary and artistic movement by French  poet Andre Breton in 1924, and by the time of his death in 1966 it had  become one of the most popular and recognizable art movements of the  twentieth century...

A Legacy in Stone Castles and fortresses of medieval Europe Follow photographer Frédéric Chaubin as he embarks on a unique, century-spanning journey through Europe. Featuring images of more than 200 buildings in 21 countries, Stone Age. Ancient Castles...

A new comprehensive overview of expressionism, tracing its evolution from the nineteenth century to the present day. Expressionist artists believed in art's ability to communicate emotion, irrespective of any representational or narrative content. In...

Advertising in the Atomic Age From “The World’s Finest Automatic Washer” to the Cadillac which “Gives a Man a New Outlook” As McCarthyism swept across the United States and capitalism was king, white America enjoyed a feeling of pride and security that...

Dress Codes The ultimate compendium of clothing from the 18th to the 20th century Clothes define people. A person’s attire, whether it be a sari, kimono, or business suit, is an essential code to his or her culture, class, personality, even faith...