Phaidon Press

The author has now turned his attention to the USA with 160 of the dullest postcards from the land of opportunity. The book provides not only amusement, but a commentary on how America has changed, and a celebration of those places that have been forgotten by conventional history.

The 20th Century Art Book was hailed upon its release as an exciting celebration of the myriad forms assumed by art over the last century. Complementing the phenomenally successful Art Book, and most recently The American Art Book, it presents a new and original way of bringing art alive. This new mini edition has all the visual energy and compelling insights of the original but in a light and highly portable format, making it ideal both for dipping into and for using as a serious sourcebook. Covering the truly international nature of the modern art scene, it encompasses established, iconic works of art and the classics of the future. 500 artists are placed in alphabetical order, each represented by a full-page colour plate of a definitive work and an incisive text which sheds light on both image and creator. This book is above all easy to use: cross-references help the reader make connections between artists; there is a jargon-free glossary of artistic terms and movements; and an international directory of museums and galleries lists the works on view to the public. Ideal for those approaching the subject for the first time, it is a fun and unintimidating look at the ever-expanding boundaries of art.

This book explores witty thinking — the most entertaining area of graphic design. Witty thinking is playfulness with ideas, words playing against images, unexpected connections prompting new insights. It is clever thinking, not funny drawing. A Smile in the Mind analyses the thought processes behind the images. It shows how to make the case for witty solutions and, through a series of interviews with the world's top designers, suggests how to get ideas. Gathering together the best examples of graphic wit over the past three decades, this book includes work from over 300 designers in the USA, Britain, Europe and Japan. Written with insight and a lightness of touch, it offers designers a friendly read, a helpful sourcebook and a trigger for ideas.

Richard Prince emerged in the 1980s as one of America's new, highly innovative artists who worked with the margins of American subcultures and visual debris. Highly idiosyncratic subject matter — such as one-line jokes, cartoons, cowboys (borrowed from the Marlboro ads) and motorcycle gangs — are central to his work. In the late 1970s Prince was working for the cutting services of Time Life publications in New York, and had access to thousands of cut-up magazines of which only the advertisements remained intact. He began to re-photograph the advertisements and compose his own pictures from this highly familiar, Pop imagery — updating Pop Art's homage to consumerism and its icons in the 1960s. Recently Prince's work has taken an unexpected turn, and the artist has emerged as a consummate painter, producing some of the most unusual and admired works in the current painting scene. Prince is one of America's best-known artists internationally, and in 1992 was honoured with a one-person retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Other museums which have held solo shows of Prince's work include the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Kunsthalle Dusseldorf; IVAM, Valencia; and the Haus der Kunst, Munich, among many others.

This book focuses on the history and development of outdoor advertising since the beginning of the 19th century. The author examines the rise of commercial art, the development of advertising as a discipline and an industry and the role it plays in modern life, also making reference to examples of successful ad campaigns.

Alexey Brodovitch (1898 — 1971) a legend among graphic designers. Escaping from the Bolshevik revolution and settled in Paris and then in new York, AB was one of the pioneers of graphic design of the twentieth century. He more than 20 years has taken the place of the main artist of magazine Harper's Bazaar, he has worked on several collection of publications together with Richard Avedonom and Andre Kertesom, he himself was a talented photographer and informally spent in new York activities called «Design-laboratory», which brought up the young generation of photographers and designers, who later became famous artists or art-Directors. This is a book about his life and creativity, based on the stories of his colleagues and those with whom he worked. In it you will find a previously unpublished materials from the archives and private collections from around the world. It offers deep analysis and evaluation of unique and large contribution AB in visual art.

Before you is the first comprehensive and exhaustive monograph Elliott Erwitt (1928), one of the most talented photographers of his generation. This album features pictures of famous personalities and ordinary people, strange and funny photos, made over fifty years of the period of his career. More than 200 previously unpublished photographs являютя the best reflection of their Creator, his undoubtedly bright and often humorous style. This book Elliott Erwitt Snaps («Clicks»), consisting of 500 pictures, speaks about the fact that the photographer nothing to invent, to take the picture, everything is already there in this world and in just one click of the camera to make a unique frame. In the photographic lexicon of Elliott Erwitt the word «personal» refers to the photos, taken for themselves. Erwitt rented as a professional for many customers, but always found the time to do and «Amateur» photos. In his opinion, the word «Amateur» there is no negative meanings: because it comes from the word «love». Shoot for his own pleasure. Or, as he would have said, to complicate the picture... Its work cannot be confused either with whose other, because only he could see, it would seem, in the everyday moments of life something ironic, not serious, and, on the contrary, in comic situations to see and capture the serious moment.

«The nature of photography» — this is the ABC of photography. The book became the results of the training course, which Stiven Shart led for many years, but publication will be useful not only to students. Its goal is not to study the subject of the image, as in the description of the physical and external properties of picture elements, which are the tools of the photographer for the definition and interpretation of the content. Stiven Shart teaches us how to look at the photo, helps us to look at the surrounding world through the eyes of the man with the camera. «The nature of photography» will serve as a tool for critical analysis and understanding of the photos at all. In addition to the work Stiven Shart, in the book you will find photos, and other photographers, both classic and modern — all genres. On their example, the author shows how what is in front of the lens, is transformed into an image.

A short version of the «Atlas of the world architecture of the XXI century». This so-called travel publication of a small, handheld, format, that is very convenient for those who travel on vacation or a business trip. The material posted on the geographical principle, is equipped with a large and small maps, maps of the cities, so the described constructions on them easy to find. Constructions of more than 1,000, including new projects. Each is equipped with one photo and a brief description, addresses, web sites, phone numbers.

During the age that brought the great flowering of the English language in the work of Shakespeare, Jonson, and the King James version of the Bible there also emerged a truly English style of architecture and decoration that has had a romantic appeal ever since. So strong was this appeal to the Victorians that they were to christen it «Jacobethan» and incorporate it into numerous houses of their own period in England and America. From the accession of Elizabeth in 1558 to James I's death in 1625, a delayed Renaissance swept England, and pervaded the domestic architecture and interiors of the day. Far from taking on a purely Italianate style, however, a peculiarly English form emerged, which was not only to be expressed in the great houses, the typical castle-palace of the period, but also in the smaller houses of town and country. This illustrated book shows not only the magnificence of the architecture through specially commissioned photography of Elizabethan and Jacobean houses, but also plunders the great pattern books of the time to show the roots of the often wild elaboration of the period. In architecture and in furnishings, classical detail was constantly fused with a Tudor vernacular, to create a style that has been enduringly popular up to the present day.

David Seymour, or Szymin, was born in Warsaw in 1911, the son of a Polish publisher. In 1929 he studied graphic arts and photography at the academy in Leipzig, where he specialized in the new techniques of printing pictures in colour. In 1931 he moved to Paris to study sciences at the Sorbonne but with the political problems that developed in Poland he was advised to take up photography by David Rappaport, founder of the Rap agency, who in 1932 provided him with his first 35 mm camera. He began to contribute to magazines such as Vu, Regards and Ce Soir, travelling throughout Europe to capture significant events that have left their mark on much of the history of the twentieth century. He travelled to Spain in 1936 to cover the Civil War, and in his photographs of the plight of the civilian population he achieved some of his finest work This book covers the full range of Seymour's career, from early photos of unrest in France for European and American magazines to his UNICEF-sponsored study of children in postwar Europe, which attracted worldwide attention. Among his many photographic essays are outstanding portraits of personalities such as Bernard Berenson who were treated with the same intensity as anonymous sitters. A founder member of Magnum, Seymour was President at the time of his death in 1956 while photographing Suez. This monograph on Seymour forms an elegantly produced introduction to one of the key figures in twentieth-century photography.

In the mid-1980s the sprouting of new movements that had driven modern art since the nineteenth century finally went dormant, sputtering out with a last few half-hearted labels ('pattern painting', 'neo-geo', 'commodity art'). But this was not the end of art history — far from it. In the years since, art's creative development has remained more vibrant than ever, resulting in a staggering diversity of new forms. Defining Contemporary Art responds to this unique landscape with an innovative approach to art history. Assembled and written by eight of the most prominent curators working today, all of whom have both witnessed and shaped this period, Defining Contemporary Art tells the story of the two hundred pivotal artworks of the past twenty-five years. These artworks include not only the most talked about pieces but also the quietly influential works, those which may have been overlooked at the time of their making but which went on to change the paradigm of their era. Arranged year by year, these two hundred works provide a true chronological depiction of creativity in our era, forming a mosaic in which readers may find their own patterns. Each author, in addition to selecting twenty-five artworks from 1986 to 2010, has singled out one year from this period as a key moment in its development, tracing the shifts in the artistic climate and the important exhibitions of new art, influential retrospectives, milestones and anecdotes that serve as the seeds of more conventional histories. Defining Contemporary Art is not a conventional history. In a period when artistic developments no longer proceed via tidy movements, when narratives of progress no longer hold sway, when the art world has not one centre but many, this book provides the reader with all the materials to compose a picture of the most vital period in art: our own.

Ancient Egyptian art has an enduring fascination. From the geometrical precision of the great pyramids at Giza to the golden treasures found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, the products of the Egyptian civilization attract and intrigue. Far from being art work in the modern sense, they represent the concrete expression of a profound belief in the primacy of the Egyptian way of life and the continuation of the spirit in the afterlife. This comprehensive book traces Egyptian art from its origins in prehistoric times through the supreme achievements of the pharaohs to the Roman period. Placing the works of art in their historical, geographical and spiritual context, Jaromir Malek seeks to create a more complete and realistic view of this fascinating culture. Beyond the period of ancient Egyptian art itself, Malek traces the history of Egyptology and looks at the influence of Egypt on modern art, a topic which has so far been almost completely ignored. Through its wealth of illustrations, this book reveals the immense variety and superb quality of the objects and buildings that have survived from ancient Egypt.

Graphic Agitation 2 explores graphic protest in the digital age, in particular over the years since the Gulf War. The book deals with a range of protest imagery from hi-tech and low-tech to no-tech and is comprehensively illustrated with images ranging from lollipop wrappers to websites. Graphic Agitation 2 is a survey of social and political graphics since the early 1990s. It illustrates and contextualises work produced in relation to key themes such as: environmental movements; the rise of corporate power; branding; wars (e.g. in the Balkans and the Gulf War); and human rights — all of which have been prominent items in the news over the last few years. The graphic design projects discussed in this book are all of 'the digital age' but they are not all digital-based. The author deals with the impact of digital innovations on traditional methods of social and political protest and also looks at how they work together. This mix of media is both appealing and informative.

Jeff Wall (b.1946) adopts the nineteenth-century poet Baudelaire's famous description of one of his contemporaries as 'a painter of modern life' to describe his own very different work: huge transparencies mounted on to light boxes that diffuse a brilliant glow of white light evenly through his photographs of contemporary urban scenes and 'constructed' social situations. Wall is foremost among the pioneering artists who since the late 1960s have brought photography to the forefront of contemporary art. His constructed images employ the latest sophisticated technology in the creation of compelling tableaux, which are evocative of subjects ranging from Hollywood cinema to nineteenth-century history painting. When exhibited in their glowing light boxes they evoke both the seduction of the cinema screen and the physical presence of minimalist sculptures such as Dan Flavin's fluorescent light installations or Donald Judd's metal and Perspex wall reliefs. All of these elements — traditional figurative painting, cinema, Minimalism, Conceptual art, documentary photography — are consciously evoked and explored in Wall's work. Associated closely since the late 1960s with Conceptual artists such as Dan Graham, with whom he collaborated on The Children's Pavilion (1988-93), Wall has engaged at a sophisticated level with theories of representation and its social dimensions both as an artist and as a theoretical writer on contemporary art and culture. The survey by Thierry de Duve, author of «Pictorial Nominalism» and «The Definitively Unfinished Marcel Duchamp», proposes an alternative history of modernism. Critic and curator Arielle Pelenc talks with the artist on themes ranging from storytelling to cinematography. Boris Groys, author of «Contemporary Art from Moscow», focuses on the meaning of light in Wall's work. The update section by French art critic and historian of photograpy Jean-Francois Chevrier surveys Wall's work from 1995 to the present. The artist has chosen texts by Blasie Pascal and Franz Kafka for the «Artist's Choice», and the «Artist's Writings» celebrate Wall as an art historian and theorist by including key essays and important interviews.

Following on from the comprehensive book, the «Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century Architecture», «21st Century Houses» looks at the best residential houses built internationally since the turn of the millennium. This book offers an accessible overview of houses that have been built around the world by both established architects and new, emerging talents. Designed for a general readership, each project is given two double page spreads with a comprehensive selection of images of the exterior and interior, and an informative text about the building and its context. Projects featured will include Lotus House in Japan by Kengo Kuma, Villa NM in New York by UNStudio, Dragspel Huset in Sweden by 24 H-Architecture, and Slice House in Brazil by Procter-Rihl.

A survey of the life and times of Rembrandt van Rijn, one of the most famous and well-loved artists. From his precocious early work in his native Leyden to his emotional late work and his immense artistic influence, Rembrandt's life is traced within the context of the Netherlands in the 17th century, the highly literate and cosmopolitan environment of Amsterdam and Rembrandt's wealthy and influential patrons.

Born in Philadelphia, Steve McCurry studied history and cinematography at Pennsylvania State University before working as a freelance photographer in India. He is most famous for his evocative color photography, which has captured stories of human experience that, in the finest documentary tradition, transcend boundaries of language and culture. His career was launched when he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan — just before the Russian invasion — to take the first pictures of the conflict. Since then many of McCurry's images have become modern icons. A high point of his career was the rediscovery of an unidentified Afghan refugee girl, which many have described as the most recognizable photograph in the world today. His coverage won him the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad, an award dedicated to photographers exhibiting exceptional courage and enterprise. McCurry has covered many areas of international and civil conflict, including the Iran-Iraq war, Beirut and the Gulf War. His travels have also taken him to southeast Asia and the spiritual temples of Angkor Wat and Cambodia, made known to many through his memorable images for «National Geographic» magazine. A member of the prestigious international photo agency Magnum since 1986, he is the recipient of numerous awards including Magazine Photographer of the Year, awarded by the National Press Photographers Association. This was awarded in the same year in which he won an unprecedented four first prizes in the World Press Photo Contest. He has won the Olivier Rebbot Memorial Award twice. This monograph on McCurry follows a chronological order, identifying major themes and examining key works; a beautifully produced, affordable introduction to one of the leading figures in photography today.

The Art Museum is the finest art collection ever assembled between two covers. This revolutionary and unprecedented virtual art museum in a book, features 1,000 oversized pages of over 2,700 works of art. It is the most comprehensive and visually spectacular history of world art ever published. Ten years in the making, this unique book was created with a global team of specialists in all fields of art, including museum curators and educators, who have collected together important works as they might be displayed in the ideal museum for the art lover. Unrestricted by the constraints of physical space, this luxurious book is organized by innovative color-coded «galleries» «rooms» «corridors» and «special exhibitions» which display hundreds of paintings, sculptures, frescos, photographs, tapestries, friezes, installations, performances, videos, woodblock prints, folding screens, ceramics and manuscripts that tell the history of world art. This is the only museum to house Leonardo's Mona Lisa, a collection of Rembrandt's finest self portraits, Velazquez's Las Meninas and Picasso's Guernica, as well as ceramics from China, Hokusai's woodblock prints, gold artefacts from Peru, and works by Jackson Pollock in one place. With intelligent in-depth text throughout, explanatory labels for each artwork, a comprehensive glossary and detailed location maps, The Art Museum, is accessible for everyone from casual art fans to experts in the field.

Like its successful predecessors 10x10 (published in 2000) and 10x10_2 (published in 2005), 10x10_3 is a comprehensive overview of contemporary world architecture. Generously illustrated, this volume presents 100 of the world's most exceptional emerging architects, selected by 10 esteemed members of the international architecture community. Arranged alphabetically by architect, the book features more than 1,500 illustrations and approximately 250 buildings and projects from the past five years, including recently built work as well as competition entries. The result will be an up-to-the-minute collection representing the best of both global and regional architecture around the world.

Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York in the years immediately following the Second World War and quickly became one of the most powerful and influential movements in the history of modern art. Building on developments in European avant-garde art of the preceding decades, a wave of artists such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still developed a new abstraction that was simultaneously elemental and sophisticated. Though several of Abstract Expressionism's key figures were emigres, including Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann and Arshile Gorky, it was art's first definitively American movement, establishing New York as the new capital of artistic innovation for years to come while creating a visual language that would soon reach to the farthest corners of the globe. The enduring importance of Abstract Expressionism reflects the boundless ambition of its practitioners and their engagement with the key intellectual currents of their time, including existentialism and Jungian mysticism. For many critics and art historians, their achievements represent the high-water mark of the modernist movement begun almost a century earlier. Abstract Expressionism continues to occupy a distinguished place not only in history books and museum collections but also in the popular consciousness, where its enduring appeal is testament to its profound achievements. Editor Katy Siegel has assembled a complete overview of the subject in three sections. The definitive Survey recounts in detail the movement's emergence, high period and later accomplishments, incorporating both contemporaneous critical writing and up-to-the-minute scholarship. The Works section presents large full-colour images of over 200 key artworks, each accompanied by an informative caption. And the Documents section provides a generous archive of primary and secondary texts, including artist's statements, exhibition reviews and critical writings. The extensive back matter includes biographies on all the artists and authors plus a full bibliography.

»Art & Today» is an innovative and extensive survey of international contemporary art from the 1980s to the present. Over four hundred of the most significant contemporary artists from around the world are represented in this comprehensive overview — some emerging, some mid-career, and others long established. Each of the book's sixteen chapters address recurring and relevant themes as diverse as «Art & Popular Culture,» «Art & Its Institutions,» and «Art & Globalism,» rather than follow a strict chronological, geographical, or stylistic structure. Lively and up-to-date, «Art & Today» explores an era in which art defies simple categorization. The result is a surprising and original yet clear and reasoned perspective on contemporary art that breaks from prescribed classifications to offer a survey as expansive as the art it describes.For instance, in the chapter «Art & the Body,» one might find performance discussed alongside figurative painting, sculpture and photography alongside video, and North American artists alongside Asian artists. The chapter «Art and Globalism» discusses artists whose nationality, generation, and medium are as diverse as those of Alan Sekula, Michal Rovner, Cildo Meireles, Manuel Ocampo, Chen Zhen, and Andreas Gursky. Internationally renowned art critic and scholar, Eleanor Heartney is respected for her clear language and pragmatic approach to contemporary art. Her straightforward, engaging descriptions and explanations will appeal to both experts and newcomers alike, and will serve as an invaluable resource for years to come.

The traditional landscape genre was radically transformed in the 1960s when many artists stopped merely representing the land and made their mark directly in the environment. Drawn by vast, uncultivated spaces of desert and mountain as well as by post-industrial wastelands, artists such as Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson moved earth to create colossal primal symbols. Others punctuated the horizon with man-made signposts, such as Christo's Running Fence and Walter de Maria's The Lightning Field. For Richard Long, journeys became works of art while Dennis Oppenheim immersed his entire body in the contours of the land. Survey: Brian Wallis discusses the key artists, works and issues that define Land Art historically, as well as its later ramifications. Works: this book fully documents the 1960s Land Art movement and surveys examples of Environmental Art to the present day. Earthworks, environments, performances and actions by artists ranging from Ana Mendieta in the 1970s and 80s to Peter Fend in the 1990s are illustrated with breathtaking photographs, sketches and project notes.

Martin Scorsese is one of the most celebrated film-makers working today in Hollywood. A five time Academy Award Nominee for Best Director, Scorsese's films consistently push the boundaries of what viewers expect to see on the silver screen. From Taxi Driver to Goodfellas to The Departed, Scorsese continually challeneges audiences with his gritty, often brutal films. Developed from over 30 years of interviews with his friend and fellow director, Michael Henry Wilson, Scorsese on Scorsese is the first book to examine the career of this cinematic master in his own words. Illustrated with documents, and personal photos from Scorsese's own archive along with film stills, this in-depth look at all of Scorsese's masterpieces from his early short films all the way up to his recent Shutter Island (2010) is a key reference work for both fans of the director and professionals looking for the keys to the master's work.