World of art

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.

This volume is a survey that illuminates the works of Mondrian and the architecture and designs of Oud, Wils, Huszar and Rietveld, all of whom aimed to create an objective art concerned with universal values, expressed in primary geometric forms and pure colors. De Stijl ("The Style"--Also known as neoplasticism) was the name given to the work of the architects, designers and artists associated with the magazine of the same title edited by Theo van Doesburg and founded in Holland in 1917. De Stijl was international in its outlook: in contact with the Bauhaus and the Russian Constructivists, it helped create the ideology and formal language of modernism.

All the components of Greek art which were to culminate in the Classical styles of the 5th century BC can be traced in the development of vase painting in early Greece, from the 11th to the 6th centuries BC. Geometric styles gave way by about 700 BC to the influence of the Near East; in the following Orientalizing period the Greeks learned how to tell a story in pictures; and by the 6th century various regional studios were competing with the dominant Corinthian and Athenian potters and painters for markets east and west. Early Greek vases display the Greek painter's craft at its most mathematical, its most colorful, and in its most directly narrative mode. They closely mirror the history and culture of their day. The later achievements of Greek art can only be fully understood in the light of this formative period of variety, competition and experiment.

"Edward Lucie-Smith discusses major subjects and issues: Magic Realism, Expressionism and other concepts shared with Latin American literature; the great muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco; the interaction of politics, society and art; the continuing interest in folk art; and the dialogue between avant-garde European and North American movements and "indigenist" thinking in the work of artists such as Wifredo Lam, Matta, Rufino Tamayo and Frida Kahlo. A new final section presents the leading artists of today, some of whose work in the fields of interactive installation, photography and video art reveals a continent embracing the experimental and the new."--Jacket.

Uses drawings, paintings, and photographs to help illustrate the history of fashion in ancient Egypt, classical Greece and Rome, and modern Europe.

Sir John Summerson's short (roughly 80 page) classic is an informal yet trenchant explanation of the classical grammar that has shaped Western architecture from antiquity through the current age. Various architectural elements and styles are explained in a delightful prose that engages and informs.

Discusses the historical and artistic aspects of Athenian red figure vases of the classical period through the fourth century.

Here, in a single, concise volume, is all that the art lover and the student will ever want to know about what is undoubtedly the most popular and significant event in the history of painting. Many entries cover not only the lives and careers of the main participants - painters (e.g. Monet), critics (e.g. Zola), patrons, dealers and collectors, as well as writers and musicians - but also techniques, prices and localities, while a wealth of information on the cultural, social and political background helps to set Impressionism in context. In recent years, major exhibitions and publications worldwide have stimulated a fresh reassessment of the movement and brought into question many widely held assumptions. Bernard Denvir's immensely useful book incorporates this new thinking and brings the story of the reception of Impressionism right up to date. It also includes a chronology of events and a gazetteer of the major collections.

"The red figure vases produced by the Greek colonists in South Italy and Sicily in the later fifth and the fourth centuries BC were at first closely modeled on Athenian prototypes. But they quickly evolved, exhibiting the highly individual styles and characteristics that are explored in this fascinating study. The red figure vases of the period are not only immensely pleasing as works of art, but of great interest and importance for the light they shed on mythology and drama, local customs and the relations between the Greek settlers and the native inhabitants. Some of the latter, especially in Apulia, seem to have acquired considerable wealth and wer able to indulge their taste for very large vases, elaborately decorated with exuberant floral pattern-work and multi-figured compositions. Close to 600 illustrations reproduce a wide selection of the more significant vases, and demonstrate not only their considerable artistry, but also the endless fascination of their subject matter."--Publisher description.

"A illustrated introduction to the history of Native American art, distinguished by its broad coverage and nuanced discussion." "This narrative draws upon Native American history, the testimonies of oral tradition and the latest research in North American archaeology." "Strong focus on the individual artists, their roles in society, their communities, and on the cultural and social contexts of the objects they created."--BOOK JACKET.

"Authoritative and brilliantly illustrated. . . . The book recommends itself not only for its synthesis of existing knowledge, but also for its original ideas." -- The Daily Telegraph" For most people there is no more satisfying expression of Greek art than its sculpture. It was the first, the only ancient art to break free from conceptual conventions for representing men and animals, and to explore consciously how art might imitate or even improve upon it. The first stages of this discovery, from the semi-abstract beginnings in the eighth century BC to the more representational art of the early fifth century, are explored and illustrated in this handbook. This handbook chronicles the development of Classical Greek sculpture and includes not only illustrations of the masterpieces of architectural sculptural from the temple of Zeus at Olympia and the Parthenon, but also many original works of bronze sculpture from that period, some of which have only recently been discovered.