Let's experiment in our art with building up a surface texture, using washes on a sand background, fabric or paper wrinkles, backgrounds with a heavy texture or a still life with a textured gesso background. Using mediums and gels, as modifiers of fluidity, modelling paste, transparency with textures, impasto with a brush or spatula, we can copy or learn for example from the style of Oskar Kokoschka. Add fillers to paint, create a landscape with acrylics or oils over modelling paste and study the style of Julian Schnabel. In the third section Painting Over Textures we look at dripping paint, washes, glazes with acrylics, using newsprint for volume, varnish and wrinkles, wax, a landscape with organic materials, using objects in collage, relief with foam, crackled paint and other atypical textures. The effects are truly stunning and your artworks will definitely be original. Looks great fun as well, with super exercises to follow and a simple text. Packed with colour images, 96pp. One of the excellent Barron's publications.

Discover original modernist design in a 100 year history of graphic news items and their trailblazing influence on the emerging Avant-Garde movements. An illustrated press where the images are as important as the text has become an increasingly rare art form. This weighty compendium celebrates the golden age of graphic journalism as a distinct and unique genre and a laboratory for developing avant-garde aesthetics. Spanning from 1819 to 1921, the collection covers a broad range of news graphics and political and satirical cartoons. Alongside the works of renowned artists such as Jean Cocteau, Juan Gris, and Käthe Kollwitz, the most famous illustrators of the time are also well represented. Thomas Nast, Honoré Daumier, Gustave Doré and the numerous relatively unknown press graphic artists, the so-called ?special artists,? whose work is rediscovered here. Their rich and varied press work is considered not only in connection to the genre and the historical painting of the 19th century but also in its capacity as a pioneering influence on modern art. With striking examples of proto-cinematic narrative thinking, disruptions of the single image space, and daring forays into abstraction, this material is shown to have laid the groundwork for much of the avant-garde artistic expression that followed. The book also explores Vincent Van Gogh's careful attention to the illustrated press of his time. He was inspired not only by the artistic aspect of it but also by the spirit of social reform that it represented. An avid collector, he owned a large number of press graphics and went so far as to consider it a "Bible for Artists". 604 huge heavy pages, 25.5 x 5 x 37.3 cm. Text in English, French and German. Published 12th May 2023, hot-off-the-press from Taschen. All in colour.

The first monograph to be published on the work of Barry Flanagan (1941-2009), one of Britain's preeminent sculptors which includes over 200 colour reproductions and a newly compiled chronology. This splendid heavyweight tome charts his life and work to his first exhibition in London at the Rowan gallery in 1966, and his last sculptures made in Ibiza in 2009. Flanagan graduated from St Martin's School of Art where he had established a reputation as a leading figure of the avant-garde, as a writer of concrete poetry, and as a pataphysician, espousing Alfred Jarry's science of imaginary solutions. He received international critical acclaim for his intuitive and inventive approach to his materials which aligned him with new art practices and the emergent art movements of Arte Povera, Land Art and Process Art. From 1972, reassessing the function of public sculpture, Flanagan began to explore more traditional materials working with stone and bronze for which he is now best known. His characterful Hares are found displayed in numerous public spaces; he was drawn to the animal for its anthropomorphic potential and rich cultural iconography. Flanagan was born in Prestatyn in 1941 to a family of music hall performers and was himself an accomplished dancer and a keen cellist. The lyrical, structural and spatial qualities of music remained a constant influence on his preoccupations which infused his creative approach and poetry and architecture were also fundamental to his practice of three dimensional art. He lived in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin and Ibiza as well as New York where he took a suite at the Chelsea Hotel and described himself as 'an itinerant sculptor'. In 1991 he was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts and was awarded the OBE. Here are his hares moving through the landscape, leaping, darting and in the mating season on its hind legs, boxing. As a nocturnal creature it is often associated with the Moon, creativity and fertility and by some religions regarded diabolical, a sign of primeval magic. On page 11 is an absolutely glorious leaping hare. It is the first of two tipped-in illustrations, a rare technique in book form these days, followed by literally hundreds of colour and black and white examples, mostly full page from his magnificent sculptures such as in Grant Park Chicago, a dog in bronze photographed in close up, an elephant with a hare balanced on its head, smooth polished tumbling stones, a magnificent horse and several human nudes (accompanied by the hare) to acrobatic hares, bookend hares and a cellist hare sitting thoughtfully on its plinth. 150 colour reproductions, 288 huge pages. 11¼ x 16".
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From the mighty halls of ancient Alexandria to the coffered ceilings of the Morgan Library in New York, human beings have had a long, enraptured relationship with these collections of knowledge, learning, and imagination offering a sense of infinite possibility. In this new photographic journey, Massimo Listri travels to some of the oldest and finest libraries to reveal their architectural, historical, and imaginative wonder. Through great wooden doors, up spiraling staircases, and along exquisite, shelf-lined corridors, he leads us through outstanding private, public, educational, and monastic libraries, dating as far back as 766. Between them, these medieval, classical, baroque, rococo, and 19th-century institutions hold some of the most precious records of human thought and deed, inscribed and printed in manuscripts, volumes, papyrus scrolls, and incunabula. In each, Listri's poised images capture the library's unique atmosphere, as much as their most prized holdings and design details. Featured libraries include the papal collections of the Vatican Apostolic Library and the Trinity College Library, home to the Book of Kells and Book of Durrow. With meticulous descriptions accompanying each featured library, we learn not only of the libraries' astonishing holdings - from which highlights are illustrated - but also of their often lively, turbulent, or controversial pasts like the Franciscan monastery in Lima, Peru, with its horde of archival Inquisition documents. At once a bibliophile beauty pageant, an ode to knowledge, and an evocation of the particular magic of print, the book is above all a cultural-historical pilgrimage to the heart of our halls of learning. Heavyweight, brand-new Taschen publication. 16.7 x 22.5cm. 512 pages, gorgeous colour illustrations.

In 1893, George Allen the publisher gave Hugh Thomson (1860-1920) a commission to illustrate Pride and Prejudice. Already well known for his delightfully humorous and accurate drawings of 18th century life, this book features illustrations from Mansfield Park and Emma, and clearly shows his talent for capturing the moods and personalities of Jane Austen's characters with great humour and affection. These delightful pen and ink sketches have been beautifully reproduced on glossy white paper, one or two per page, with a quotation from the novels. The first is 'In vain did Lady Bertram smile and make her sit on the sofa with herself and Pug.' - Fanny Price and Lady Bertram. All the characters of Henry and his sister Mary Crawford, Mr Elton admiring Emma's artwork, Mr Weston talking to his wife, referring to Frank Churchill having asked Emma for the first two dances and finally 'He stopped to look the question.' - Mr George Knightley proposes to Emma. 33 illustrations covering the two novels in this volume, a companion with code 93287 and 93288. Paperback.

When Hugh Thomson received a commission to illustrate Pride and Prejudice from George Allen in 1893, he was already well known for his delightfully humorous and accurate drawings of 18th century life. This book features 65 of his 160 illustrations capturing the moods and personalities of Jane Austen's characters, Mr and Mrs Bennet, Mr Bingley inspecting Netherfield Park, Mr and Mrs Bennet with their daughters Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia, and Mr Darcy saying to Mr Bingley about Elizabeth 'She is tolerable.' All the beautiful costumes of the young ladies, Mr and Mrs Gardiner and their children, the post arriving by rider on horseback, news of Lydia and the reaction on Mrs Bennet's face on being told by Elizabeth of her engagement to Mr Darcy: 'Unable to utter a syllable.' A delightful collection, 48 page softback.

A companion to 93286 and 93287, we have three in this set of facsimile reprints to collect of the glorious and affectionate pen and ink illustrations to the original 1890s publications. The three popular Jane Austen novels covered in this collection are Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. 'He cut off a long lock of her hair.' - John Willoughby and Marianne Dashwood. With her sisters, here are the compliments of the young ladies being quite charming, Mrs Ferrars looking down her nose, whispers and feathers, the housekeeper and manservant and Edward arriving at Barton Cottage. In Northanger Abbey we meet Mr and Mrs Morland talking about young Catherine who 'grows quite a good-looking girl' and in Persuasion, Charles Musgrove spoiling his children, and Captain Wentworth removing young Walter from Anne Elliot and Wentworth attending to the unconscious Louisa Musgrove. 33 illustrations, 20 page softback.

England's gardens range from the Baroque splendour of Blenheim Palace, whose vast acres were designed by Capability Brown at enormous expense, to the low-density suburban housing of the 19th and 20th centuries which were planned specifically to allow the ordinary householder to own his or her plot of land. In the early 17th century Capability Brown was a millionaire many times over, although his work at Blenheim came to an abrupt end when his client the Duchess of Marlborough, Queen Anne's favourite, fell out of favour, as described in the 2018 film starring Olivia Colman. Brown kept overall control of his vast projects by using large numbers of sub-contractors, so that the failure of one of them was not an overall disaster. The author of this study is an economist by profession, and there are some interesting conclusions in his statistics relating to the fruit and vegetable consumption, and life expectancy, of different classes. A prominent feature of large country houses was the Kitchen Garden maintained by hundreds of staff. A cook was likely to insist on a certain size of fruit or vegetable to preserve aesthetic standards at the dining table, and the result was huge quantities of wasted produce, so that eventually most kitchen gardens were phased out in favour of a daily expedition to Covent Garden or other markets. The head gardener was a prestigious position which in earlier times required the holder to be formally dressed and also to be married. When the famous gardener Joseph Paxton was appointed to Chatsworth at the age of only 23, he proposed to the niece of the Housekeeper on his first morning. Head gardeners wielded enormous power over the 100 or so staff under them, and could require an apprentice to move hundreds of miles away to another estate. Royalty has always had the means to lead the way in garden design, and the author examines the changing goals and expectations in royal patronage, from Henry VIII's Hampton Court to Prince Charles's Highgrove House, with an interesting aside on the horticultural role played by Camilla Parker-Bowles, now the Queen. In the 20th century gardening became a respectable occupation for middle class women, and a few, most famously Gertrude Jekyll, became leaders in garden design. 422pp, colour photos.

Almost exact contemporaries, the French painters Boucher and Chardin represent contrasting trends in the way women are depicted. This discerning book takes as its starting point two paintings of the mid-18th century, Chardin's "Lady Taking Tea" and Boucher's "Woman on a Daybed". It has been suggested that both painters used their wives as models, and both provide an intimate portrait of a woman's personal domestic life. Chardin was devoted to his first wife Marguerite, a young woman in poor health who died young. Boucher married the lively 17-year-old Marie-Jeanne for her looks, and neither of them was faithful. In "Lady Taking Tea", Chardin captures a quiet, contemplative moment. The woman seen in profile has downcast eyes as she stirs the tea in a blue and white cup, lost in her own thoughts. Boucher's "Woman on a Daybed", by contrast, is looking out of the picture slightly to the viewer's left, her lips pursed in the mischievous smile for which Marie-Jeanne was celebrated. Her elaborate dress is frilled down the front, and she extends her pointed foot in a high-heeled slipper to the end of the bed. Whereas Marguerite is retiring, Marie-Jeanne is provocative, and her surroundings emphasize this, with a curtain half open and crumpled clothes on the footstool. Both paintings feature a teapot, Chardin's in brown earthenware and Boucher's in blue and white china. The author goes on to investigate tea-drinking in other paintings, including Nicolas Lancret's erotic "Morning", in which the woman's breast is exposed as she pours tea for a male visitor. Scenes of women's lives from this period often have erotic content, but there is also a tradition of formal tea parties emphasizing the respectability of the sitters, for instance Hogarth's "An Assembly at Wanstead House", Richard Collins's "Tea Party" of 1725 with a family gathered reverentially round an expensive pewter tea service, or Francis Hayman's "Jonathan Tyres and his Family", an elaborately posed ensemble that can be seen in London's National Portrait Gallery. 144pp, large softback, chronology, numerous colour reproductions.

From 1931 to 1949, Julian Levy's New York gallery played an essential role in the shift of the avant-garde from Paris to America. It championed experimental film and photography and served as a venue for artists fleeing Europe and Hitler. It presented the first New York exhibitions of artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Joseph Cornell, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Arshile Gorky, Lee Miller, René Magritte, and Dorothea Tanning, all the while promoting a vision of art at its broadest. There were 'idea shows' suggested by such critical thinkers as André Breton and Marcel Duchamp, as well as shows about fashion, design, dance, popular culture and even music including a performance by Paul Bowles. It was also a place to watch the identity of the art gallery as a commercial institution taking shape, from a mere curiosity shop full of books, prints and lampshades among the first wares, to a contemporary art gallery - naked, white and modern. All this history argues for the need to read Levy's memoirs afresh. He tells the world he lived in with wit and appetite in a book that deals in sensual adventure; Levy was devoted to Surrealism, to Duchamp and Alfred Stieglitz, whom he claimed as his godfathers in art. Both men were high priests of early Modernism, prone to sermonising and wearing capes and to be reverent, especially of photography, then a new medium of dubious aesthetic standing. Duchamp inducted the young man into the living pleasures of both media when he invited him to tag along on a trip to Paris. On board ship, the two men speculated on the makings of a self-lubricating mechanical woman and discussed plans to shoot a film using Man Ray's equipment. The film was never made, but the trip altered the course of Levy's life and his co-travellers as artists, dealers, publishers, curators, writers and lovers of printed matter passed all their inclinations on to the young Levy. Besides running a gallery for almost 19 years, Levy wrote extensively and helped create exhibitions throughout his life with a high sense of style. There are tales of luminaries like James Joyce and incendiary episodes such as Duchamp's Kiss and Levy's purported rescue of Eugène Atget's great photographic archive of Paris. Levy slightly glorified his early investment and enthusiasm for the work at the expense of Berenice Abbott's essential role. Levy introduced Yves Tangui to New York, conceived the idea for Dalí's 'Birth of Venus' Pavilion at the World's Fair, shared a summer house with Max Ernst and fished with André Breton. He was with Gorky in the final tragic days before the painter's suicide. The memoir is a story of prescient vision and lifelong devotion. 320 page paperback, 32 pages of black and white photos, 2003 first edition US paperback facsimile of the original 1977 publication.