The art market has been booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. In a series of narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie's auction, the workings in Takashi Murakami's studios, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of Artforum magazine, the...

An illustrated history of sharks discusses common myths and misconceptions, depictions of the predators in art, and their importance to the ecosystem.

Gordon Parks is a living legend. At age eighty-four, he can look back on accomplishments in many fields, including fiction, poetry, film, and music. But first and foremost, Parks is a photographer--a man whose indelible photojournalism, including two decades at Life magazine, has made him one of this country's most esteemed image makers. Accompanied throughout by Parks's recollections and reflections, the nearly 300 images collected in Half Past Autumn...

Hear the voice of the Bard! Who Present, Past, & Future sees Whose ears have heard The Holy Word That walk'd among the ancient trees. --from "Songs of Experience" Both as poet and painter, William Blake created uncompromising, highly original art. He was strongly influenced by the spiritual: he claimed to have seen angels, and to have spoken with the many supernatural beings who populated his verses and visual images. The many remarkable works gathered...

Set to accompany the John Piper exhibition at the Tate Liverpool and written by its curator, this book presents a comprehensive examination of the English artist's role as champion of modernism in Britain. John Piper (1903-1992) is renowned for his extraordinarily diverse practice that embraced landscape, architectural and abstract compositions, as well as his theatre and stage sets for Benjamin Britten and his stained-glass windows. Tate Liverpool's...

"The Smithsonian First Ladies Collection is a beautifully illustrated book inspired by one of the most popular attractions at the Smithsonian: the first ladies exhibit at the National Museum of American History. This striking book showcases the treasures from first ladies throughout history, ranging from Martha Washington's silk dress and dressing mirror to Michelle Obama's 2009 inaugural gown and jewelry. These and many other unforgettable objects--including...

"An incisive and illuminating analysis of the enduring legacy of the post-Civil War period known as Reconstruction--a comprehensive story of Black Americans' struggle for human rights and dignity and the failure of the nation to fulfill its promises of freedom, citizenship, and justice"-- "The companion volume to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture exhibit, opening in September 2021. With a Foreword by Pulitzer...

"This memorial edition arose out of the great Leonardo Exposition held at Milan [1938] ... Authors of the sections of this work have labored to assemble the documents that show how deeply Leonardo penetrated in the most varied fields of human knowledge."

Compelling and alluring, this disquieting volume presents a host of deftly crafted dissectable female wax models and "slashed beauties" created to demonstrate anatomy in museums and fairgrounds around the world in the 18th and 19th centuries. Incisive commentary reveals the evolution of these enigmatic and sensual sculptures from the death masks, wax effigies and votive offerings of the Renaissance, and later to artist's muse, erotic fetish and the...