Picasso Portraits Cowling Elizabeth Thames&Hudson

What makes great art great? Why do some works pulse in the imagination, generation after generation, century after century? From Botticelli’s Birth of Venus to Picasso’s Guernica, some paintings and sculptures have become so famous, so much a part of who we are, that we no longer really look at them. We take their greatness for granted; our eyes have become near-obsolete. We need a new way of seeing • Unsatisfied with traditional interpretations of masterpieces, which are so often interested only in learning about art, and not from it, Kelly Grovier combed the surface of revered works from the Terracotta Army to Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits, in a quest to find the key to their lasting power to move and delight us. He discovered that every truly great work is hardwired with an underappreciated detail that ignites it from deep within

Unperson is one of the first photo books of North Korean Defectors. The 15 intimate portraits and the stories of the brave people who decided to take that chance to flee to South Korea. The road to South Korea is dangerous and can take years with the many different borders of Mongolia, Laos, Thailand, and China. The people fleeing are filled with the fear of being arrested and sent back to labour camps. Once they arrive in South Korea, they often struggle to find a new identity, lost between their North Korean past and South Korean future. Tim Franco travelled to the crossing points, aiming to capture the diversity of landscape that is the background of North Korean defection. He chose to use an 8x10 camera with Polaroid film to capture each defector

While certain photographs have become world-famous images indelibly printed on the cultural consciousness, the stories on the other side of the lens have been all too often distorted, obfuscated or overlooked, the social and political environments misunderstood or forgotten. By evoking the lives and backgrounds of nearly forty great photographers, Juliet Hacking also brings new light to their work, forging a greater understanding of each photographic pioneer. In addition, many rarely seen portraits and self-portraits are brought to light. Seen together, these entries form a holistic examination that, while drawing attention to the contributions of each individual, adroitly guides the reader through the major innovations, movements and developments in the history of photography with authority, dexterity and zeal

This book traces the extraordinary life of an artist whose unforgettable imagery combined cruelty and wit, honesty and insolence, pain and empowerment • Admired by the Surrealists and photographed by the greatest, Frida was most renowned for her self-portraits and unusual still lifes. She learned about suffering at an early age. She contracted polio when she was six and was seriously maimed in a bus accident at the age of eighteen, which led to injuries that affected her for the rest of her life. She had a legendarily turbulent marriage to the great mural painter Diego Rivera, with whom she formed a strong attachment to indigenous Mexican folk art and a deep commitment to Communism

This sweeping overview of Rembrandt's extraordinary achievement as a draughtsman fills a gap in the otherwise enormous literature on the artist. Beautifully illustrated, mostly in colour, the more than 150 drawings - culled from a corpus of some 800 - are discussed in detail. The drawings span Rembrandt's entire productive life as an artist, from early self-portraits in the 1620s to late drawings from the 1660s of the victim of an execution, a state coach, and historical and mythological images. The scope of the book allows readers to delve into the very broad range of Rembrandt's oeuvre of drawings

A remarkable examination of Edvard Munch's prints, which were central to his creative process and established his reputation as an artist • Edvard Munch (1863-1944), one of the most famous expressionist artists, is best known for The Scream. However, this was just one of the many haunting depictions of raw human emotion, which he fully developed in highly sophisticated prints • Munch's youth was marked by sickness and poverty, and his early works centered around the expression of deep emotional experiences, specifically the deaths of his mother and teenage sister, as well as passionate yet unhappy love affairs of which his deeply religious father disapproved. Experimental and innovative, the style that Munch developed was a radical deviation from the nature of the society portraits and grand Scandinavian landscapes then in vogue

Rembrandt is among the few outstanding artists of universal appeal, his striking self-portraits lauded the world over – yet he remains an elusive, enigmatic figure • Here, the distinguished art historian Christopher White carefully considers the known facts to build a sensitive and thorough account of the artist’s life and work. He describes the radiant happiness of Rembrandt’s marriage, tragically cut short by the death of his wife, and discusses the catastrophe of his bankruptcy. The psychological factors that may have awakened Rembrandt’s sudden interest in landscape are also explored, as is the artist’s final decade, when he retreated into the private world of his imagination. This comprehensive introduction has now been revised and updated to reflect recent scholarship, and the bibliography has been expanded; Rembrandt’s artworks are now faithfully reproduced in colour throughout

Chaumet Tiaras: Divine Jewels — фотособрание тиар Chaumet. Драгоценный головной убор стал визитной карточкой парижского ювелирного дома: более 250 лет его мастера создают поразительные тиары для королевских особ, знаменитостей и женщин, которые хотят прик

Neutral hues, an ill-fitting man's suit and wiggling locks of cut hair supplant Frida Kahlo's (1907-54) usual lively color palette, indigenous Mexican dress and long plaits in Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (1940). Nevertheless, the painting remains unmistakably Kahlo's. In the wake of a divorce from artist Diego Rivera, Kahlo turns to her favorite genre, self-portraiture, to express her deepest emotional and psychological urges. Inscribed with the lyrics of a popular song that translate as "Look, if I loved you it was for your hair. Now that you're without it I no longer love you", the work oscillates between evocations of a popular culture shared by many and unflinching forays into the private sphere. Curator Jodi Roberts essay, too, moves between the public and the private as it situates Kahlo's painting in the context of the Mexican Revolution's legacy, the Surrealist tradition and the artist's own life to explore the ways in which Kahlo constructed and reconstructed her own identity

Rasem Badran's influence is rapidly spreading throughout the developing world. Covering the full spectrum from urban planning to individual residences, his work is human-scaled, responsive to it's environment and meets the social and cultural requirements of the people who use it. He is often seen as the natural successor to the seminal Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy • This volume provides a thorough overview of Badran's work, bringing together the architect's own dramatic collection of drawings, plans and photographs, many seen here for the first time • A comprehensive chronology of Badran's work completes this fascinating survey of one of the most influential and revolutionary architects of our time

Recent advances in technologies and home-generated renewable energy have made building away from urban and rural infrastructures more practical and affordable than ever. This survey of the world's most innovative off-grid homes reveals the cuttingedge architecture and technology that is enabling us to escape to some of the most extraordinary natural environments on the planet • All of the houses featured in this book are fully, or almost fully, self-sufficient in terms of energy, water and, in some cases, food. Architecture and interior design expert Dominic Bradbury reveals how each architect has made everyday living in these wild and natural settings a rewarding and tempting reality. From snowbound cabins in the far Northern Hemisphere to coastal retreats that can only be accessed by boat, the diverse projects collected here show the innovative ways in which architects and their clients are tackling extreme climates, remoteness and construction challenges to enable a new way of life that is both liberating and sustainable

As feminism gained momentum in 1970s America, three photographers Abigail Heyman, Eve Arnold and Susan Meiselas published massively influential photobooks informed by the movement. The first, Heyman's Growing Up Female (1974), is a kind of feminist diary: the photographer casts a lucid eye at her own life and questions the imprisonment of women in stereotype roles. The second, Eve Arnold's "The Unretouched Woman" (1976), shows unknown women and celebrities in spontaneous everyday moments. The photos were deliberately not retouched or staged and offer a nuanced vision of women far from the glamor of glossy magazines. The third, Susan Meiselas Carnival Strippers (also 1976), is the fruit of three years of investigation into fairground striptease sideshows in the Northeastern United States