In the 1860s, the brothers Richard and Samuel Redgrave sat down to write the book that was, in effect, the first popular account of British painting. With remarkable industry, they examined and sifted through the earlier studies and documentary sources while also contributing a great deal of firsthand knowledge. Many of the artists of the time were personal friends or acquaintances, and Richard Redgrave was a member of the Royal Academy.
Published to accompany the 1994 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, this book constitutes the most extensive survey of modern illustrated books to be offered in many years. Work by artists from Pierre Bonnard to Barbara Kruger and writers from Guillaume Apollinarie to Susan Sontag. An importnt reference for collectors and connoisseurs. Includes notable works by Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.
Black artists have been making major contributions to the British art scene for decades, since at least the mid-twentieth century. Sometimes these artists were regarded and embraced as practitioners of note. At other times they faced challenges of visibility - and in response they collaborated and made their own exhibitions and gallery spaces. In this book, Eddie Chambers tells the story of these artists from the 1950s onwards, including recent developments and successes. Black Artists in British Art makes a major contribution to British art history. Beginning with discussions of the pioneering generation of artists such as Ronald Moody, Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling, Chambers candidly discusses the problems and progression of several generations, including contemporary artists such as Steve McQueen, Chris Ofili and Yinka Shonibare. Meticulously researched, this important book tells the fascinating story of practitioners who have frequently been overlooked in the dominant history of twentieth-century British art.
Discusses the beginnings of landscape painting in Britain to the rise of the classical tradition under the Italian influence; the topographical tradition; landscape artists who drew inspiration from visits to Italy; the tradition of the Netherlands and the rise of the Picturesque.
Christopher Neves classic book is a journey into the imagination through the English landscape. How is it that artists, by thinking in paint, have come to regard the landscape as representing states of mind? Painting, says Neve, is a process of finding out, and landscape can be its thesis. What he is writing is not precisely art history: it is about pictures, about landscape and about thought. Over the years, he was able to have discussions with many of the thirty or so artists he focuses on, the inspiration for the book having come from his talks with Ben Nicholson; and he has immersed himself in their work, their countryside, their ideas. Because he is a painter himself, and an expert on 20th-century art, Neve is well equipped for such a journey. Few writers have conveyed more vividly the mixture of motives, emotions, unconscious forces and contradictions which culminate in the creative act of painting. Each of the thirteen chapters has a theme and explores its significance for one or more of the artists. The problem of time, for instance, is considered in relation to Paul Nash, God in relation to David Jones, music to Ivon Hitchens, hysteria to Edward Burra, abstraction to Ben Nicholson, the spirit in the mass to David Bomberg. There are also chapters about painters ideas on specific types of country: about Eric Ravilious and the chalk landscape, Joan Eardley and the sea, and Cedric Morris and the garden.
By examining the studios and studio-houses used by British artists between 1900 and 1940, this book reveals the ways in which artists used architecture - occupying and adapting Victorian studios and commissioning new ones. In doing so, it shows them coming to terms with the past, and inventing different modes of being modern, collaborating with architects and influencing the modernist style. In its scrutiny of the physical surroundings of artistic life during this period, the book sheds insight into how the studio environment articulated personal values, artistic affinities and professional aspirations. Not only does it consider the studio in terms of architectural design, but also in the light of the artist's work and life in the studio, and the market for contemporary art. By showing how artists navigated the volatile market for contemporary art during a troubled time, the book provides a new perspective on British art.
