History of art / art & design styles
Showing 1–16 of 18 results
-
50 Treasures From Winchester College
£20.0050 Treasures From Winchester College
Winchester College was founded in 1382 and is one of England’s oldest schools. This publication includes essays on fifty objects from across these collections, each written by a member of the school community.
£20.00 -
A Little History of the Royal Academy
£8.95A Little History of the Royal Academy
Packed with illustrations, this brief introduction to the Academy’s 250-year story considers how its homes and some of its characters have made it what it is.
£8.95 -
A New Way of Seeing
£20.00A New Way of Seeing
A new way of appreciating art that puts the artwork front and centre, brought to us by one of the freshest and most exciting voices in cultural criticism. What makes great art great? Why do some works pulse in the imagination, generation after generation, century after century? From Botticelli’s Birth of Venus to Picasso’s Guernica, some paintings and sculptures have become so famous, so much a part of who we are, that we no longer really look at them. We take their greatness for granted; our eyes have become near-obsolete. We need a new way of seeing. Stepping away from biography, style and the chronology of ‘isms’ that preoccupies most art history, Grovier tells a new story in which we learn from the artworks, not just about them.
£20.00 -
Art: Explained
£14.99Art: Explained
Why did Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel, or Rembrandt obsess over painting his own image? What’s the secret behind the Terracotta Army, or Andy Warhol’s soup cans? ‘Art: Explained’ offers straightforward and satisfying answers to 100 of these fascinating questions. If you’ve ever looked at an art masterpiece in awe, but wondered just what it means, here is your guide.
£14.99 -
Bold Ventures
£16.99Bold Ventures
In ‘Bold Ventures’, Belgian poet Charlotte Van den Broeck goes in search of buildings that were fatal for their architects – architects who either killed themselves or are rumoured to have done so. The buildings range across time and space – from a church with a twisted spire built in 17th-century France to a theatre that collapsed mid-performance in 1920s Washington, DC., and an eerily sinking swimming pool in her hometown of Turnhout. Drawing on a vast range of material, from Hegel and Charles Darwin to art history, stories from her own life and popular culture, patterns gradually come into focus, as Van den Broeck asks: what is that strange life-or-death connection between a creation and its creator?
£16.99 -
England on Fire
£24.99England on Fire
Bestselling author and online curator Stephen Ellcock selects pivotal images to chart the fiery and chaotic spirit of England as it has developed over several thousand years – and continues to develop. With texts by novelist and musician Mat Osman that reclaim Albion as an unhinged and rebellious magical kingdom that is open to all.
£24.99 -
Fallen Idols
£20.00Fallen Idols
In 2020, statues across the world were pulled down in an extraordinary wave of global iconoclasm. From the United States and the United Kingdom to Canada, South Africa, the Caribbean, India, Bangladesh, and New Zealand, Black Lives Matter protests defaced and hauled down statues of slaveholders, Confederates, and imperialists. Edward Colston was hurled into the harbour in Bristol, England. Robert E. Lee was covered in graffiti in Richmond, Virginia. Christopher Columbus was toppled in Minnesota, beheaded in Massachusetts, and thrown into a lake in Virginia. King Leopold II of the Belgians was set on fire in Antwerp and doused in red paint in Ghent. Winston Churchill was daubed with the word ‘racist’ in London. Statues are one of the most visible – and controversial – forms of historical storytelling.
£20.00 -
Francis Bacon
£16.99Francis Bacon
The Times Art Book of the Year 2021
NOMINATED FOR THE PLUTARCH AWARD 2022
‘Must surely be the definitive life of Francis Bacon ? A biography that no Bacon fan – or indeed foe – can afford to overlook ? Mesmerising’ THE TIMES
‘A magnificent triumph ? I was captivated by every line’ OBSERVER
£16.99 -
How to Enjoy Art
£14.99 -
Muse
£14.99Muse
The perception of the muse is that of a passive, powerless model, at the mercy of an influential and older artist. But is this trope a romanticised myth? Far from posing silently, muses have brought emotional support, intellectual energy, career-changing creativity and practical help to artists. This book tells the true stories of the incredible muses who have inspired art history’s masterpieces. From Leonardo da Vinci’s studio to the covers of Vogue, art historian, critic and writer Ruth Millington uncovers the remarkable role of muses in some of art history’s most well-known and significant works.
£14.99 -
On a Pedestal
£20.00On a Pedestal
This is a book for people who are interested in statues – and for people who aren’t. It explores those immortalised in marble and bronze – and what the rest of us think about them. As Roger Lytollis travels Britain he encounters a man at Liverpool’s Beatles statue convinced that Rod Stewart was in the Fab Four. In Edinburgh he walks into a row over Greyfriars Bobby’s nose and in Glasgow learns why the Duke of Wellington wears a traffic cone on his head. London brings a controversial nude statue and some hard truths about racism. Elsewhere, Roger sees people dancing with Eric Morecambe, finds a statue being the backdrop to a marriage proposal and, everywhere he goes, pigeons. Always pigeons. ‘On a Pedestal’ examines public statues around the nation.
£20.00 -
Terence
£12.99Terence
A complex and contradictory man, design apostle Terence Conran’s influence is everywhere in modern Britain. This is the story of an authentic creative genius: an often unhappy man who always made Britain a more cheerful place. This extraordinary book, beautiful to look at and compelling to read, offers privileged insights, never before published, from Terence’s many collaborators, several friends and numerous enemies. Frank, amused, indiscreet, sharp, rude, respectful and knowing, it tells Terence’s story as it evolved from before the humble chicken brick to Bibendum’s sophisticated poulet de Bresse, via personal successes and corporate calamities, culminating in that peculiar temple to the religion he invented: The Design Museum.
£12.99 -
The Annunciation: A Pilgrim’s Quest
£50.00 -
The Beloved Girls
£14.99The Beloved Girls
Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure – someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind? The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot, seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes – a mysterious West Country manor house – where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. She and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later, is still shaping the present.
£14.99 -
The Beloved Girls
£8.99The Beloved Girls
Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure – someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind? The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot, seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes – a mysterious West Country manor house – where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. She and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later, is still shaping the present.
£8.99 -
The Real and the Romantic
£35.00The Real and the Romantic
A fresh look at a period of English art that has surged in interest and popularity in recent years, authored by one of Britain’s leading art historians and critics. The 21st century has seen an enormous surge of interest in English art of the interwar years. Work by artists like Stanley Spencer and Eric Ravilious has soared in value while new critical attention has been paid to others, often women, who were previously overlooked, such as Winifred Knights and Evelyn Dunbar. High-profile exhibitions have attracted record-breaking visitor numbers and challenged received opinion, encouraging a more nuanced understanding of the cultural landscape of the 1920s and 1930s. With these new perspectives in mind, ‘The Real and the Romantic’ takes a fresh look at this richly diverse period in English art.
£35.00