Edward Lucie-Smith

The mention of 'Faith in The City of London' conjures up images of ceremonial events in St. Paul's Cathedral, but there are over 40 other Anglican churches, as well as Jewish, Dutch, Catholic and Welsh places of worship squeezed in between The Square Mile's towers of commerce. Intrigued by this incongruity, highly acclaimed London photographer Niki Gorick has gained unique access to capture the day-to-day workings of these ancient buildings and discovered a vibrant, diverse spiritual life stretching out into many faiths. 0This is a book about London and Londoners from a completely new angle, revealing a rich mix of characters, traditions and human interest stories. From weddings, communions, evangelical bible studies and Livery company carol services, to Knights Templar investitures, huge wet fish displays, Afghan music and vicars wielding knives, the photographs show an extraordinary range of spiritual goings-on and charismatic personalities. 0For the first time, it's possible to get a real insight into a side of London's Square Mile not dominated by money-making, where City workers are trying to connect to life's deeper meanings and where religious traditions and questions of faith are still very much alive.

Albert Paley first came to prominence as one of the leading craft jewelers in America, an accomplishment that eventually led in 1969 to his extraordinary work as a monumental sculptor. Today he is recognized as one of the country's most gifted metal artists. The Art of Albert Paley is the first monograph on this important artist. Paley was born in Philadelphia and later trained at the Tyler School of Art, where he pursued his interests in jewelry and metalwork. It was this twin foundation that forged Paley's career, beginning in the early 1960s, at the height of American abstraction. Specifically, the artist's command of jewelry design prepared him for what remains his most famous commission, the portal gates of the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. These elegant eight-foot gates took Paley and an assistant one year to complete; they were unveiled to the public in 1974. Since that time he has made architectural sculptures for museums, organizations, and private clients worldwide, including the Reading Terminal Convention Center, Philadelphia; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, Houston; and the Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, Florida. In The Art of Albert Paley, noted critic and art historian Edward Lucie-Smith discusses the diversity and significance of Paley's achievements and explores how, like so many American artists, his work crosses the boundaries that separate art from craft. The more than one hundred illustrations reproduce not only Paley's major works, but also his preliminary drawings, many published here for the first time. This survey also includes a complete list of Paley's works, including major commissions, chronology, and exhibition history.

"Internationally renowned art critic Edward Lucie-Smith has achieved a first: Flesh & Stone, a volume of gay erotic photography featuring his own work, accompanied by a text highlighting the depiction of the male nude form in classical sculpture and contemporary photography. Flesh & Stone teases the viewer into deconstructing pairs of photographs presented side-by-side: flesh or stone? Lucie-Smith captures details from well-known art masterpieces and anonymous male lovers. An important contribution to the way homosexuals see themselves expressing love, desire and emotions."--BOOK JACKET.

One of the most significant developments in the art world of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s has been the rise to prominence of art made by minority cultures. Race, Sex, and Gender examines the controversial challenges these groups present to today's artists and critics. Works by African-Americans, feminists, homosexuals, and Latino-Hispanics - once considered marginal - have come to transform contemporary art. As this so-called minority art has moved into a more dominant position, museums - once official symbols of culture - have formed a more secure alliance with the avant-garde. The result is that "minority" art has become, in effect, our most major concern. In this provocative volume, art historian Edward Lucie-Smith seeks to determine how these different groups came to acclaim, and how they have revolutionized the kind of art shown in museums and galleries. Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nancy Spero, Hannah Wilke, Larry Fuente, Cheri Samba, and Martin Puryear are among those artists whose work is pictured and discussed as Lucie-Smith probes issues of racial identity, sexual orientation, and gender politics. Statements from the artists as well as from theoreticians and critics are given, offering additional commentaries on these crucial new topics. Organized by profusely illustrated chapters devoted to specific minority groups, Race, Sex, and Gender is a timely introduction to the issues that are shaping contemporary art.

Collected talks, lectures, and conversations spanning 1975-1995.

A clear, swift-moving account of the visual arts in the past half century. All the most recent trends and artists are discussed including Minimal and Conceptual art, Arte Povera, the influence of Joseph Beuys, Neo-Expressionism, Neo-Conceptualism and the work of Feminist and Gay artists as aspects of Postmodernism. The emergence of the powerful work - until recently considered 'peripheral' - of African-American and regional American artists, and new trends in Latin American, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, modern African, Caribbean and Aboriginal art are all introduced and discussed, providing a world panorama of art at the end of the century. A full bibliography and for the first time comprehensive chronologies of key events from 1940 to the present make this book a unique guide to the main issues, concepts and players.