William Morris's Flowers by Rowan Bain; Anon

$29.99 AUD

Category: Art

A passionate advocate of craftsmanship over mass-production, William Morris (1834- 1896) designed a huge variety of objects, but it is his highly original carpet, fabric and wallpaper patterns that have continued to capture the imagination and exert their influence on the decorative arts. Around 600 suc h designs are attributed to Morris, of which the vast majority are based on natural forms, including trees, plants and flowers. This beautifully designed, accessibly priced gift book offers a wealth of designs by Morris in which flowers are the principal motif, bringing together not only completed patterns but also working drawings in pen and watercolour, and examples of his pearwood, floral-pattern printing blocks. It also explores examples of the sources that inspired Morris's flower-based designs: his own gardens at the Red House in Kent, Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire and elsewhere; 16th- and 17th-century herbals; illuminated medieval manuscripts; late medieval and Renaissance tapestries; and a range of decorated objects, particularly from the Islamic world, that Morris studied at the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A). Authored by Rowan Bain, curator at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, north London, and lavishly illustrated with almost 100 colour illustrations, this exquisite book will both inform and delight ...Show more

What Great Paintings Say: Faces of Power by A. Taschen; Rainer Hagen; Rose-Marie Hagen

$25.00 AUD

Category: Art

Behind the Mask The intrigue, drama, and covert messages hidden in the faces of powerful men and women Byzantine empresses, French revolutionaries, and Spanish generals: history's most impressive figures stare boldly out of the canvases in this collection of formidable paintings. Each individual represe nted in these images radiates with strength and splendor; be they an aristocratic widow in mourning, a murdered politician, or a jovial group of Ukrainian rebels. Authors Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen tease out the stories and secrets of 13 masterpieces by artists including Goya, Titian, Vel zquez, and Ilya Repin. Regal, holy, and wise, the men and women in these works will inspire you with their conquests and resilience. TASCHEN reproduces these masterworks in stunning quality, working in collaboration with esteemed art collections all over the world, including in Brussels, St. Petersburg, New York, and Naples. Combining astute analysis with magnified painting details, this book is a unique historical investigation in tribute to the movers and shakers of the past. ...Show more

Picasso and the Art of Drawing by Christopher Lloyd

$49.99 AUD

Category: Art

In this generously illustrated and lively book, Christopher Lloyd sets out and interprets the lifelong achievement of Picasso (1881-1973) as a draftsman. Although there have been many publications about his drawings that have tended to focus on particular periods of his career, this stunning volume spec ifically examines how drawing serves as the vital thread connecting all of Picasso's art, just as it also links his private world with his public persona of which he was becoming increasingly aware in his later years. Picasso and the Art of Drawing ultimately showcases how the basis of the titular artist's style as painter, sculptor, printmaker, and designer was manifestly achieved through drawing. ...Show more

Michelangelos David

$30.00 AUD

Category: Art

Houghton Revisited: The Walpole Masterpieces from Catherine the Great's Hermitage by Thierry Morel

$55.00 AUD

Category: Art

In 1779 the family of Sir Robert Walpole, Britain's first prime minister, sold his remarkable art collection to Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. More than two centuries later, these masterpieces, rarely seen outside Russia since that time, are returning to Houghton Hall, the great house built by Walpole. This handsome book illustrates these superlative works hanging once again in William Kent's magnificent interiors. Thierry Morel uncovers the wonders of Walpole's collection, which includes paintings by Van Dyck, Poussin, Rubens and Rembrandt, and traces its journey to the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, to which most of the works now belong. Other essays explore Walpole's artistic tastes and collecting habits, and his beautiful house, one of the finest Palladian buildings in England. ...Show more

The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St Clair

$22.99 AUD

Category: Art

'A charming, absorbing history that takes us on a journey from the silk roads to sportswear, from ruffs to spacesuits . . . I devoured this quietly feminist book' SUNDAY TIMES All textiles begin with a twist. From colourful 30,000-year old threads found on the floor of a Georgian cave to what the linen wrappings of Tutankhamun's mummy actually meant; from the Silk Roads to the woollen sails that helped the Vikings reach America 700 years before Columbus; from the lace ruffs that infuriated the puritans to the Indian calicoes and chintzes that powered the Industrial Revolution, our continuing reinvention of cloth tells fascinating stories of human ingenuity. When we talk of lives hanging by a thread, being interwoven, or part of the social fabric, we are part of a tradition that stretches back many thousands of years. Fabric has allowed us to achieve extraordinary things and survive in unlikely places, and this book shows you how -- and why. With a cast that includes Chinese empresses, Richard the Lionheart and Bing Crosby, Kassia St Clair takes us on the run with escaped slaves, climbing the slopes of Everest and moonwalking with astronauts. Running like a bright line through history, The Golden Thread offers an unforgettable adventure through our past, present and future. ...Show more

What Great Paintings Say : Italian Renaissance by Taschen; Rainer Hagen; Rose-Marie Hagen

$25.00 AUD

Category: Art

Classics Under the Magnifying GlassItaly's most precious painting treasures dissected Surreptitious messages, concealed myths, and historical truths lie hidden in the great works of the Italian Renaissance, behind heavy gold leaf and religious symbology. Although often obscured by the archaic language o f historical painting, careful analysis and expert interpretation bring these images to life. Discover masterpieces of the most beloved creative epoch in this fascinating art historical inquiry. Images of war, romance, birth, and knowledge, works of the Italian Renaissance have much to say, when given a voice. Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen do just that--pulling apart each of the 12 featured paintings with all the talent of true detectives to offer an illuminating portal to the past. From Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam to Ucello's The Battle of San Romano, from Antonello da Messina's St. Jerome in His Study to Pinturicchio's Penelope with the Suitors, the artworks under investigation are a diverse representation of the period's innovation and brilliance, sourced directly from some of the most impressive collections in the world, including the Uffizi, Prado, and National Gallery London. ...Show more

Monet: Impression Sunrise by National Gallery of Australia

$49.95 AUD

Category: Art

OLD PAPER AUSTRALIAN PRINTS & DRAWINGS I by Kirsty Grant

$25.00 AUD

Category: Art | Reading Level: General Adult

Celebrates the riches of the Australian print and drawings collection at the National Galery of Victoria began in the 1860s. The collection now documents, in great depth and with works of outstanding quality, the development of the graphic arts in Australia over the two centuries since European settleme nt. ...Show more

RODIN AND EROS by BONAFOUX PASCAL

$20.00 AUD

Category: Art

The theme of the erotic is ever present in the work of August Rodin, both in his sculptures and in his many drawings. Throughout his career, he depicted sexual desire in all its facets, in every mood from delicate innocence to frank intensity, bearing witness to an endless fascination with the flesh and a love of the female form. Taking a chronological path through Rodin's career, this is an intimate approach to the many faces of sex and sensuality in his body of work and in the society within which his art was forged, from mythological portrayals of passion to the context of contemporary erotic literature. The topics featured include his relationships with women, his friendships with poets and artists, and the controversy that his sculptures caused in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when French society was marked by a hypocritical disparity between public morals and private desires. In a 1916 interview, Rodin spoke out against his critics: "They protest against the immorality of my work, they criticize me for loving women.... But they are incapable of understanding what I do." This witty and insightful book, packed with beautiful images, will shed new light on this intriguing aspect of the artist's world and his skill at capturing the fleeting nature of pleasure in timeless art. ...Show more

Leonardo Da Vinci - The 100 Milestones by Martin Kemp

$44.99 AUD

Category: Art

To commemorate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death, world-renowned da Vinci expert Martin Kemp explores 100 of the master's milestones in art, science, engineering, architecture, anatomy, and more. Leonardo da Vinci was born in the small Tuscan town of Vinci in April 1452. Over the centu ries, he has become one of the most famous people in the history of visual culture. Spring 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of his death in May 1519, with exhibitions and events planned across Europe and the United States. This lavishly illustrated volume by Martin Kemp--one of the world's leading authorities on da Vinci--offers a fresh way of looking at the master's work. Kemp focuses on 100 key, broadly chronological milestones that cover an extraordinary range of topic across Leonardo's many fields of discipline: painting, where he brought new levels of formal and emotional grandeur to his works, including The Last Supper and Portrait of Lisa del Giocondo (the "Mona Lisa"); anatomical studies, which are extraordinary for their sense of form and function (Studies of the Optics of the Human Eye and Ventricles of the Brain); engineering marvels, noted for their range and extraordinary visual quality (Gearing for a Clockwork Mechanism and Wheels without Axles and Designs for a Flying Machine); and his progressive engagement with a range of sciences--anatomy, optics, dynamics, statics, geology, and mathematics. ...Show more

Leonardo Da Vinci - Self Art and Nature by François Quiviger

$39.99 AUD

Category: Art | Series: Renaissance Lives Ser.

This incisive and illuminating biography follows the three themes that shaped the life of Leonardo da Vinci and, through him, forever changed Western art and imagination: nature, art, and self-fashioning. Nature and art helped form Leonardo. He spent his first twelve years in the Tuscan countryside befo re entering the most reputed artistic workshop of Florence. There he blossomed as one of the most promising painters of his time and promptly applied his skills to explore and question the world through science and invention. Leonardo was also self-fashioned: he received only a basic education and grew up around peasants and artisans. But from the 1480s onwards, he transformed himself into a court artist and became a familiar of kings and rulers. Following the chronology of Leonardo's extraordinary life, this book examines Leonardo as artist, courtier, and thinker, and explores how these aspects found expression in his paintings, as well as in his work in sculpture, architecture, theater design, urban planning, engineering, anatomy, geology, and cartography. Fran ois Quiviger concludes with observations on Leonardo's relevance today as a model of the multidisciplinary artist who combines imagination, art, and science--the original, and ultimate, Renaissance Man. ...Show more