This series acts as an introduction to key artists and movements in art history. Each title contains 48 full-page colour plates, accompanied by extensive notes, and numerous comparative illustrations in colour or black and white, a concise introduction, select bibliography and detailed source information for the images. Monographs on individual artists also feature a brief chronology.

R. B. Kitaj (1932-) is recognized as a modern master whose powerful, controversial and highly personal paintings, pastels and drawings reflect his unfashionable commitment to the human figure as a subject, and his complex involvement with the art of the past, with political and social issues, and with his own Jewish identity. Marco Livingstone's definitive and much praised monograph on Kitaj is based on an extraordinary series of interviews and letters between the artist and the author, and provides full and up-to-date documentation of Kitaj's life and work. The artist himself participated actively in the design of the book, and a series of articulate and revealing 'prefaces' to his own paintings are also included here. For this expanded third edition, the author has written a new chapter surveying Kitaj's work in the 1990s, a tragic period dominated by his now famous confrontation with the critics of his 1994 retrospective exhibition, the subsequent death of his wife the artist Sandra Fisher, and his eventual return to the United States. This text is complemented by a new plate section illustrating 22 recent works, and three additional 'prefaces' written by the artist. The Bibliography and Catalogue of Works have been expanded and updated, and finally many illustrations that were black-and-white in earlier editions are now reproduced in full colour. With its fresh account of a productive and turbulent phase in Kitaj's career, this new edition will be indispensable for all admirers of the artist.

«Marina Abramovic is a widely revered artist whose courageous performance works have revolutionized visual arts. A pivotal figure for several generations, Abramovic has been enthusiastically embraced by the newest crop of artists, critics and art historians. Her iconic endurance works have featured prominently in virtually every comprehensive survey of performance art. With a career that spans more than thirty years, Abramovic continues to produce groundbreaking new work, including the acclaimed seven-day performance «Seven Easy Pieces» at the Guggenheim in 2006. As the first book in more than a decade to look at her challenging work in its entirety, this monograph will offer a fresh take on an artist whose work is key to the latest developments in contemporary art.»

«Alfred Hitchcock (UK, 1899-1980) is undeniably the world's most famous film director. His name has become synonymous with the cinema, and each new generation takes the same pleasure in rediscovering his films, which are now treasures of our artistic heritage. Hitchcock started out in the British silent cinema of the 1920s, which reached its peak with successful thrillers such as «The Man Who Knew Too Much» (1934), «Sabotage» (1936) and «The Lady Vanishes» (1938). Recognized as a 'young genius', Hitchcock moved to Hollywood and set about reinventing cinematic tradition, combining the modern with the classic in films such as «Vertigo» (1957), «North by Northwest» (1959) and «The Birds» (1963). Hitchcock gave talented actors such as James Stewart and Cary Grant the chance to play enduring antiheroes and imprinted the public imagination with the myth of the 'blonde', as embodied by Grace Kelly, Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren.»

This book brings together the finest collection available of star clusters, galaxies, nebulae and other such spectacular phenomena caught on film. Each beautiful image, made from a series of delicate yet rich platinum prints, is accompanied by a clear and engaging caption. Malin's short texts (approximately 100 words) describe the depicted phenomena and some of the mythology surrounding them. The book is divided into nine sections, using the constellations as a framework to identify the positions of the images in the sky. Each section is introduced by a short text describing the featured constellations and a celestial map. In his introductory essay, Malin outlines the history and importance of photographing the night sky, describing how very long exposures taken with a telescope reveal stars and distant galaxies too faint to be seen by the eye. By studying galaxies, we learn about our origins and perhaps our destiny and, the origins of the ingredients of life and the destinies of stars like the Sun and the planets associated with them. Much of our current knowledge on these subjects was gleaned from black and white photographs like those in this book, which were originally taken for scientific purposes. Using the world's most sophisticated telescopes and his own revolutionary techniques, Malin brings us awe-inspiring images of distant worlds and amazing phenomena. He is a pioneer of space photography and has invented new ways of capturing the unseen universe on photographic plates, leading to the discovery of two new types of galaxies. His photographs capture light that has travelled immense distances, sometimes thousands of light years, to reach us.

Beginning with 'Gilles de Binche' (Antwerp, 2005) and concluding with 'Against the Day' (Brussels, Moscow and Malmo, 2009-10), acclaimed painter Luc Tuymans produced a landmark suite of seven thematically linked bodies of work. Their meta-narrative, which traces the philosophical and psychic roots of contemporary civilization, weaves together a range of photographic source images, from St Peter's to Disneyland to Big Brother, that together tell the banal and terrifying story of our times. Luc Tuymans: Is It Safe? features this source imagery alongside more than 100 of the artist's newest paintings, many never before published. Accompanying each body of work is an introductory text written by the artist, while the essay 'Tuymans, Loyola, Leibniz', specially commissioned by Mexican artist Pablo Sigg, provides historical and philosophical context. 'Proper', an essay by Belgian art historian Gerrit Vermeiren, looks at one body of work in detail, tracing the themes and sources of each painting and capturing the cultural atmosphere of the moment in which they were produced. And an extensive interview between Tuymans and his assistant Tommy Simoens offers additional insight into the artist's thinking and motivations. Celebrated as one of the world's most gifted and visionary painters, Tuymans has been creating iconic works of contemporary painting for nearly three decades. With their enigmatic compositions and modulated colours, these works are moving and unmistakable, and their power continues to win new converts to Tuymans's chilling vision of history painting.

«This new monograph examines the life and works of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), whose compelling career and legacy continue to captivate audiences, artists and critics alike. As one of the greatest and most prolific sculptors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Rodin transformed sculpture-making and reinvigorated what was considered to be a dying art form. Born into a working-class family, Rodin had little formal education in the fine arts and struggled against poverty throughout his career. At an early age, he attended the Petite Ecole, a school for drawing and mathematics, learning skills aimed at the commercial sector. Then, having failed the entrance examinations for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts three times, Rodin supported himself by working for several commercial studios as an assistant for a few years. In 1863, devasted by the death of his beloved sister, Maria, the artist joined a religious community, the Order of the Blessed Sacrament, which was under the direction of Father Pierre-Julien Eymard, who would become the subject of one of Rodin's first sculptures. Realizing that religion was not his calling, Rodin returned to Paris, where he began to work in the studios of Albert Carrier-Belleuse, a fashionable commercial sculptor, who was to have a considerable impact on the art and career of the young sculptor. At this time, Rodin also began to work on his own, creating portraits of his father and studying the works of Rubens. After a trip to Italy in 1875, Rodin also studied the works of Michelangelo, whose influence was crucial to his development and his determination to be a sculptor. Rodin's signature style of working directly from the model was formed early with his «Man with the Broken Nose», which was rejected for the Salon exhibition in 1865, although the marble version was accepted ten years later. Rodin then created «The Age of Bronze», the first work in which a sense of his true potential can be seen. The originality of this work was met with resistance, and critics accused Rodin of making a cast from a live model, suspicious as they were of the incredible realism of the statue. In spite of this, Rodin's «The Age of Bronze» was purchased in 1880 by the French state, who subsequently commissioned the sculptor for the large entrance portal for the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, soon to be called «The Gates of Hell». Drawing inspiration from Dante's «The Divine Comedy» and Baudelaire's «Les Fleurs du Mal», Rodin created such masterpieces as «The Kiss», «The Thinker» and «The Three Shades», originally parts of «The Gates of Hell». Another monumental project, «The Burghers of Calais», also demonstrates the sculptor's tendency to play with the relationship between volume and space through the technique of fragmentation and assemblage as Rodin studied every aspect of the work intensively, creating maquettes and sculptures for the heads, hands, feet and the lines of the burgher's robes. Other important works such as Rodin's «Monument to Balzac» and his portraits of Victor Hugo, among many others, are also examined in detail. In 1910 Rodin was named Grand Officer in the Legion of Honour and became one of the very few artists to achieve such a high status. This new monograph is a perfect introduction to the work of this original and influential sculptor. The book combines Jane Mayo Roos' scholarly yet accessible text with 200 beautiful photographic reproductions of Rodin's works, from his early drawings to his well-known sculptures. In relating the history of Rodin's sculpture, the author has set the artist's career in the context of the art world of the period and emphasized the ways in which his sculptures differed significantly from the works produced by his contemporaries. In addition, Roos also offers an analysis of the making of sculpture in the nineteenth century, explaining the role mechanical reproduction played in the processes by which marble and bronze sculptures were made at the time, thereby clarifying the existence of posthumous casts.»

This volume on Tomma Abts (b. 1967) will be published in conjuction with the exhibition of the same name that will be on display at New York's New Museum of Contemporary Art from 9 April to 29 June 2008. It explores how the artist creates forms that delight the eye and challenge the mind. While working within strict parameters, Abts has reinvented abstraction for the twenty-first century. This is the first monograph on Abts, providing an extensive overview of more than ten years of work. It includes illuminating essays by three top critics, as well as full color reproductions of virtually every painting and drawing made by the artist since 1997.

«Pedro Almodovar (Spain, b. 1951) single-handedly represents the revival of Spanish cinema as part of the cultural flowering of the Movida Madrilena in the 1980s. New York was first to hail the unbridled imagination of this provocative director, whose films are filled with transsexuals, neurotics («Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown», 1988) and even drug-addicted nuns («The Law of Desire», 1987). In his maturity, Almodovar has continued to draw inspiration from his underprivileged childhood in a remote corner of La Mancha, making melodramas bursting with heightened passions expressed by unforgettable actors such as enelope Cruz («All About My Mother», 1999; and «Broken Embraces», 2009) and Gael Garcia Bernal («Bad Education», 2004).»

«Here the photographers of Magnum, 50 years after the legendary group began its documentary mission, address the world following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989; a period which has seen the triumph of US capitalism at one extreme and the resurgence of ancient blood feuds at the other. The book is built around photo-essays selected and introduced by the photographers, many shot especially for the book. From Henri Cartier-Bresson to Magnum's newest recruits, each photographer navigates the issues of history in their own way — some tackling the dramatic changes in the world head-on in the traditional manner of the «concerned photographer», others choosing subjects and aesthetic viewpoints which are entirely personal. The result is an album of contemporary photography about the world today. «Magnum» is introduced by historian, broadcaster and cultural commentator Michael Ignatieff, linking the substance and pace of change in the post-Cold-war world with the historic role of the Magnum witness and image-maker. This is a book about history and humanity, journalism and art, and revealing the photographers of Magnum entering a new era»

«Contemporary World Interiors» takes the reader on a global tour of the best and most provocative interior design and architecture projects of the past 25 years, presenting the characteristic traits, influences, and enduring ideas of the contemporary interior. Rather than simply charting passing trends, author Susan Yelavich, a veteran New York-based curator and critic, describes some 450 specific projects by famous designers and promising newcomers alike, in countries as far-ranging as Russia, Israel, Chile, South Korea, and South Africa, as well as more familiar locales in Europe, Japan, and North America. A carefully edited selection of more than 1000 color photographs and plans illustrates the book, all reproduced at a generous format. The book is organized in 11 chapters by building type, with an introduction that presents an overview of the changes and ideas affecting interior architecture and design over the past three decades. As Yelavich points out, gone are the days when any one aesthetic language dominated, as the International Style did in the years after World War II. The new interior climate is inclusive, and once-alien styles flourish side by side. All kinds of interiors — from the once-minimal loft to the once-antiseptic hospital room — show evidence of a renewed interest in ornament, in craft and materiality, and in spatial complexities, often tempered by modernist, postmodernist, or deconstructivist influences. Each chapter opens with a brief introduction of dominant historical precedents and themes, then moves to detailed descriptions of 20 to 50 individual projects, noting the designer, project name, location, year of completion, and significant aspects of the interior, including its architecture, furnishings, color palette, and materials, as well as the designer's or client's aims. The book begins with chapters on residential interiors — houses, lofts, and apartments — following Yelavich's argument that domestic space has become the catalyst for entirely new ways of thinking about other kinds of interiors, from the office worker's cubicle to the nurse's station to the librarian's reading room. The book moves on to offices, civic spaces, religious spaces, cultural spaces, retail, restaurants, hotels, and therapeutic spaces. Within the chapters, readers will find familiar names and places, such as the Tate Modern in London by Herzog and de Meuron; Nobu restaurant in New York, by David Rockwell; and the thermal baths in Vals, by Peter Zumthor; as well as new discoveries, such as the Psychiatrist Hospital in Zeeland, the Netherlands, by the Dutch firm Mecanoo; the Korean Presbyterian Church in New York, by Greg Lynn; and the Joyce Department Store in Taipei, by the New York firm Tsao and McKown.»

A man of many talents, Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was a distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Christ Church College, Oxford, and a successful author of children's books. Long before he published the famous Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll was a dedicated and prolific photographer, creating approximately 3,000 images during his twenty-five years of photographic activity. He is mostly remembered for his exceptional photographs of children, which include portraits of Alice Liddell, the inspiration behind his classic book. Carroll also used to compile his photographs into albums and send them to major cultural figures in Victorian society, in hopes that they might want similar portraits of themselves or their children. His photographs thus include sitters such as the family of the Pre-Raphaelite painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, among others. His work also features portraits of family members and close friends as well as landscapes and still lifes, demonstrating the remarkable extent and complexity of Carroll's photographic art. His work has become embedded deeply in modern culture, influencing many artists. His photographs have seen a recent resurgence in popularity, demonstrating their importance to the history of photography. Carroll is now considered one of the greatest Victorian photographers.

This book provides a unique perspective on the story of photography through the particular history of the photobook. The first of two extensive volumes, it is a study of the major trends and movements that have shaped the photobook genre since the birth of photography in the early nineteenth century. It represents a valuable catalogue of rare and important photobooks. This volume covers the history of photobooks from the earliest examples of the genre from the nineteenth century, through the modernist and propaganda books of the 1930s and 40s, to the radical Japanese photobooks of the 60s and 70s. While the history of photography is a well-established canon, much less critical attention has been directed at the phenomenon of the photobook, which for many photographers is perhaps the most significant vehicle for the display of their work and the communication of their vision to a mass audience. In the first of two volumes, both co-edited by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook provides a comprehensive overview of the development of the photobook, from its inception at the dawn of photography in the early nineteenth century through to the radical Japanese photobooks of the 1960s and 70s, by way of the modernist and propaganda books of the 1930s and 40s. In his introduction, Badger argues that the photobook is one of the most significant photographic genres due to the extent of its distribution and level of availability, and contests the traditional notion that the history of photography is best represented by the original print. This study provides an important corrective to the traditional history of photography. The selection of photographers made by Badger and Parr challenges the popular canon, and their survey of the history of the photobook reveals a secret web of influence and interrelationships between photographers and photographic movements around the world. The book is divided into a series of thematic and broadly chronological chapters, each featuring a general introductory text providing background information and highlighting the dominant political and artistic influences on the photobook in the period, followed by more detailed discussion of the individual photobooks. The chapter texts are followed by spreads and images from over 200 books, which provide the central means of telling the history of the photobook. Chosen by Parr and Badger, these illustrations show around 200 of the most artistically and culturally important photobooks in three dimensions, with the cover or jacket and a selection of spreads from the book shown. Volume One also features an illuminating and provocative introduction, 'The Photobook: Between the Film and the Novel' by Badger, which is accompanied by a preface written by Parr.

A unique reference book for all those using electronic media, The Cyberspace Lexicon provides a much-needed guide through the maze of existing and emerging technologies. From interactive video and multimedia, through to hypermedia, arcade games, high-band networks and virtual reality, this book explains all the essential concepts and technical terms. Techniques and technologies are defined, key concepts are explained, and 'buzzwords' are clarified. In-depth illustrated features covering major issues complement clear, concise entries designed for quick reference. With numerous colour photographs showing the latest programs and applications, this is an invaluable sourcebook for any media professional or student.

Cubism originated in Paris between 1906 and 1908 with the revolutionary experiments of Picasso and Braque. It was a movement which spread very rapidly throughout Europe and the world and which extended from painting into other fields of artistic expression such as sculpture and design. In questioning the imperative to be representational and in emphasising an autonomous vision of the world, Cubism was a radical innovation which continued to affect artistic movements well into the century. Philip Cooper examines the wider contemporary cultural background of the artists (and writers) who contributed to Cubism. He gives an account of the emergence and development of this movement and explores its various aspects and phases such as analytical Cubism and synthetic Cubism. There is a full discussion of the Cubists' pioneering approach and use of materials, including the invention of papier colle and collage.

«Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) is truly an artist for the twenty-first century. In his sculptures, he refashions artefacts and antiques into surprising, sometimes monumental constructions such as «Template» (2007): hundreds of wooden doors and windows taken from demolished Ming and Qing dynasty temples and arranged into a massive outdoor sculpture.As much as these materials look to the past, they also speak of the present, because never before (and probably never again) have they been available in such abundance. Like his benches carved from centuries-old temple beams, «Template» is a sly commentary on the speed with which China's building boom is obliterating its past. (When Template collapsed in a rainstorm two weeks after its unveiling at Documenta 12, the artist embraced its demise as a clever artistic twist).In China today, making art that's critical of current cultural and economic policies is not a particularly safe career move. But Ai's father, the poet Ai Qing, walked a similar path, absorbing European avant-garde styles while studying in 1930s Paris and later standing by them in the face of Communist opposition, a move that eventually led to his exile to the distant provincial town where his son Weiwei came to be born and raised. In the late 1970s, Ai Weiwei moved to Beijing, banding together with other pro-democracy artists in a loose collective known as the Stars Group.In 1981, following government retaliation against one of their exhibitions, Ai moved to New York, where he attended art school and lived the life of the bohemian for twelve years, his East Village apartment serving as a base for countless visiting Chinese artists. When his father became ill in 1993, Ai returned to China, settling in Beijing and finally taking up his art career in earnest. Weiwei's artistic forebears belong primarily to the Western modernist avant-garde (Duchamp and Beuys are particularly relevant).But Ai has equally and increasingly been influenced by modernist architecture and contemporary urban planning, citing the need for an ideal for living in a country where runaway economic development has shown little regard for the everyday life of the individual. In stark contrast to the glass-and-steel high-rises going up around Beijing, the art galleries, ateliers and homes, Ai designs are boxy and modest, made from brick and other vernacular materials. Their resolution of Eastern and Western styles is a fitting parallel to his antique readymade sculptures. What truly marks out Ai as a twenty-first century artist is the multiplicity of his roles: not just artist, designer and architect but also curator, publisher, web blogger and compass for an entire generation of Beijing artists.He has been described more than once as the Chinese Warhol, overseeing a factory-like studio (Fake) with dozens of assistants engaged in countless projects in a range of disciplines. And indeed his outsize public persona is an inseparable part of his art. It should come as no surprise that when Herzog & de Meuron came to Beijing to conceive of a new stadium for the 2008 Olympics, Ai was the one who provided them with a design concept: an interlaced form based on the woven baskets his wife collects at local antique markets.At a time when the West is finally discovering Chinese contemporary art, Ai is one of the few to have transcended the label 'Chinese artist'. In part thanks to his gallery Urs Meile (Lucerne and Beijing), Ai has won the support of strong European collectors. His work is increasingly being shown at major venues around the world (Kunsthalle Bern, Kunsthaus Graz, Tate Liverpool) and included in major international exhibitions (the Moscow Biennial, the Guangzhou Triennale, Documenta). A complex, multi-faceted artist, Ai is poised to make a deep impact on contemporary art far beyond China's borders. Ai Weiwei is represented by Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne and Beijing.»

Art Nouveau conjures up images of nymph-like female figures and sinuous organic tendrils, as well as radical geometric simplicity. In its brief life span, which broached the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the style spread across the world in myriad incarnations. this comprehensive book places Art Nouveau in the context of its time and explores architecture, interior design, furniture, sculpture, painting, graphic arts and jewellery.

Tuymans' monochromatic palette and choice of subject matter — domestic interiors, commonplace objects or family portraits — link painting with post-war filmmaking and amateur photography. The sources of other images on his canvases give his work a brooding violence. Although modest in scale and sensitive in execution, this work is powerful in its haunting evocation of lost lives and repressed histories. In general Tuymans' works are painted in groups for each show and with the venue and the exhibition space in mind. For example, when he represented his country in the Belgian Pavilion at the 2001 Venice Biennial, Tuymans produced a cycle of works based on the murder of the first post-independence Prime Minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Other works in the cycle show images of African sculpture copies from a statue in a Belgian restaurant and images from the Belgian Royal Museum's African collection. These works raised issues about colonialism and post-colonialism, but also came at a time when a parliamentary commission was investigating the links between the Belgian government and royal family's policies and the death of Lumumba.

Dating from the 1850s to the First World War, the Arts and Crafts Movement was an international phenomenon of enormous scope and influence. It encompassed everything from architecture to town planning, metalwork and embroidery, in places as diverse as California and Budapest. Born of thinkers and practitioners in Victorian England its ideological currents reflect the era's most pressing social, political and artistic concerns. In this book Rosalind Blakesley explores the common ideas that give cohesion to a movement of otherwise bewildering breadth and stylistic heterogeneity. At the origins of the movement was a reaction against industrialization, the long-standing division between traditional crafts and Fine Art and the over-elaborate ornamentation which disguised an object or building's true 'function'.Early British Arts and Crafts practitioners campaigned for a revival of old craft techniques, for the elevation of the applied arts and for 'honesty' in design, ideas that were picked up and developed across Europe and the United States, with national variants quickly emerging. Germany, for example, recognized the potential of industrial techniques and experimented with standardization in design; in Finland, then annexed to Russia, Arts and Crafts was allied to the search for self-expression and a national style in art. Examining both acknowledged Arts and Crafts centres and lesser-known communities, Rosalind Blakesley concludes her authoritative and accessible survey with an evaluation of the Movement's significance in the twenty-first century.

«Magnum photographer Steve McCurry never set out to take portraits. Critically acclaimed and recognized internationally for his classic reportage, over the last 20 years he has worked for the «National Geographic» and other publications on numerous assignments: along the Afghan border, in Baghdad, Beirut and the Sahel. McCurry's coverage of the monsoon won first prize in the World Press Awards, and was part of his portfolio when he was named Magazine Photographer of the Year in 1984. In 1985, McCurry photographed an Afghan girl for the «National Geographic». The intensity of the subject's eyes and her compelling gaze made this one of contemporary photography's most celebrated and best-known portraits. McCurry is now equally famous for his other portrayals of memorable faces that he has encountered while travelling throughout the world. Compelling, unforgettable and moving, McCurry's images are unique street portraits: unstylized and unposed snapshots of people that reveal the universality of human emotion.»