Art : History

A controversial and fascinating attempt to define what is 'contemporary' about contemporary art, and the dramatic changes that have taken place in the last twenty years. Stallabrass reveals the growing inclusiveness of the contemporary art world, pointing to the greatly increased visibility for women and non-western artists, and the blurring of boundaries between art and other areas of culture. Does this modernization threaten to undermine the world of art as we know it, or is this. just another example of a global market demanding a certain product? And where are the artists in all this? - ;Tunnels and sculptures made from human hair; photos of rats running through drains, sharks in formaldehyde - is this what art is about today? This is a controversial and fascinating attempt to define what is 'contemporary' about contemporary art, and the dramatic changes that have taken place in the last twenty years. Stallabrass reveals the growing inclusiveness of the contemporary art world, pointing to the greatly increased visibility for women and non-western artists, and the. blurring of boundaries between art and other areas of culture. Does this modernization threaten to undermine the world of art as we know it, or is this just another example of a global market demanding a certain product? And where are the artists in all this? - more...

Price: $8.95

New edition of this key guide to art history, which takes a critical reading of the field's most innovative and influential texts over the past two centuries, including the most important new writing on the most recent work in a variety of new media. - ;What is art history? Why, how, and where did it originate, and how have its methods changed over time? The history of art has been written and rewritten since classical antiquity. Since the foundation of the modern discipline of art history in Germany in the late eighteenth century, debates about art and its histories have intensified. Historians, philosophers, psychologists, and anthropologists among others have changed our notions of what art history has been, is, and might be. This anthology is a guide to understanding art history through critical reading of the field>'s most innovative and influential texts, focusing on the past two centuries. Each section focuses on a key issue: art as history; aesthetics; form, content, and style; anthropology; meaning and interpretation; authorship and identity; and the phenomenon of globalization. More than thirty readings from writers as diverse as Winckelmann, Kant, Mary Kelly, and Michel Foucault are brought together, with editorial introductions to each topic providing background information, bibliographies, and critical elucidations of the issues at stake. This updated and expanded edition contains sixteen newly included extracts from key thinkers in the history of art, from Giorgio Vasari to Walter Benjamin and Satya Mohanty; a new section on globalization; and also a new concluding essay from Donald Preziosi on the tasks of the art historian today. - more...

Price: $21.00

With the help of over 100 illustrations, many of them little known, Martin Henig shows that the art produced in Britannia rivals that of other provinces and deserves comparison with the art of metropolitan Rome. more...

Price: $130.00

Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, goldsmiths produced work of a high standard in both design and craftsmanship, both for personal adornment, and to embellish bookbindings, reliquaries, vessels and weapons. Some works are well known, particularly the magnificent gold and garnet regalia from Sutton Hoo, but this represents only a fraction even of the surviving work, and much more has been lost. more...

Price: $110.00

The Art of the Steal tells the story of several larger-than-life figures - the billionaire tycoon Alfred Taubman; the most powerful woman in the art world, Dede Brooks; and the wily British executive Christopher Davidge - who conspired to cheat their clients out of millions of dollars. It offers an unprecedented look inside this secretive, glamorous, gold-plated industry, describing just how Sotheby's and Christie's grew from clubby, aristocratic businesses into slick international corporations. And it shows how the groundwork for the most recent illegal activities was laid decades before the perpetrators were caught by federal prosecutors. more...

Price: $15.00