Warhol - A Life As Art by Blake Gopnik

$38.85 NZD

Category: Art + Design

"Superb...Gopnik persuasively assembles his case over the course of this mesmerising book, which is as much art history and philosophy as it is biography" Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian When critics attacked Andy Warhol's Marilyn paintings as shallow, the Pop artist was happy to present himself as shallow er still: He claimed that he silkscreened to avoid the hard work of painting, although he was actually a meticulous workaholic; in interviews he presented himself as a silly naïf when in private he was the canniest of sophisticates. Blake Gopnik's definitive biography digs deep into the contradictions and radical genius that led Andy Warhol to revolutionise our cultural world. Based on years of archival research and on interviews with hundreds of Warhol's surviving friends, lovers and enemies, Warhol traces the artist's path from his origins as the impoverished son of Eastern European immigrants in 1930s Pittsburgh, through his early success as a commercial illustrator and his groundbreaking pivot into fine art, to the society portraiture and popular celebrity of the '70s and '80s, as he reflected and responded to the changing dynamics of commerce and culture. Warhol sought out all the most glamorous figures of his times - Susan Sontag, Mick Jagger, the Barons de Rothschild - despite being burdened with an almost crippling shyness. Behind the public glitter of the artist's Factory, with its superstars, drag queens and socialites, there was a man who lived with his mother for much of his life and guarded the privacy of his home. He overcame the vicious homophobia of his youth to become a symbol of gay achievement, while always seeking the pleasures of traditional romance and coupledom. (Warhol explodes the myth of his asexuality.) Filled with new insights into the artist's work and personality, Warhol asks: Was he a joke or a genius, a radical or a social climber? As Warhol himself would have answered: Yes. ...Show more

642 Things to Draw by Chronicle Books

$35.00 NZD

Category: Art + Design | Series: 642 Ser.

This deceptively simple and addictive sketchbook-with-content includes tons of hip and entertaining things to draw. Encourages artists to try their hands at things like a bike, mistakes, Fred Astaire, synchronized swimmers, a sippy cup, RUN DMC, feelings, a waffle, the view from an airplane, and many ma ny more. ...Show more

The Art Book (Mini) by Tom Melick

$19.98 NZD

Category: Art + Design

The Second Edition of The Art Book is a substantially expanded and updated version of the hugely successful original. Introducing 100 new artists selected from all periods and from across the globe, the new edition includes for the first time leading figures from the fields of photography and performanc e art. Works and text entries for a selection of artists from the original have also been updated. Winner of the Illustrated Book of the Year award in 1994, The Art Book has been an outstanding success and has become a well-known landmark in the art book world. Now published in over 20 different languages and in mini, midi and hardback formats, it has received rave reviews from numerous newspapers and magazines and has made many appearances on the bestseller lists. Complemented by The 20th Century Art Book, The American Art Book, and now The 21st Century Art Book, its unique approach brings art alive. An A-Z guide to the greatest painters and sculptors from medieval to modern times, it debunks art-historical classifications by throwing together brilliant examples of all periods, schools, visions and techniques. Each artist is represented by a full-page color plate of a definitive work, accompanied by explanatory and illuminating information on the image and its creator. Glossaries of artistic movements and technical terms are included, making this a valuable work of reference as well as a feast for the eyes. By breaking with traditional classifications, The Art Book represents a fresh and original approach to art: an unparalleled visual sourcebook and a celebration of our rich and multi ?faceted culture. ...Show more

Still Looking Good by Alice Connew; Oliver Connew

$40.00 NZD

Category: Art + Design

Magritte by Taschen

$26.99 NZD

Category: Art + Design

This is not a book: Everyday enigma from Belgium's leading Surrealist From men in bowler hats, floating in the sky, to a painting of a pipe above the caption "this is not a pipe,"Rene Magritte (1898 1967)created an echo-chamber of object and image, name and thing, reality and representation.Like other S urrealist works, Magritte's paintings combine a precise, mimetic technique with abnormal, alienating configurations which defy the laws of scale, logic, and science: A comb the height of a wardrobe, rocks that float in the sky, clouds that drift through an open door. The result is a direct yet disorientating realm, often witty, often unsettling, and always prompting us to look beyond the visible, to what is hidden by what we see. This introductory book explores Magritte's vast repertoire ofvisual humor, paradox, and surprisewhich to this day makes us look and look again, not only at the painting, but at our sense of self and the world. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN s Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions " ...Show more

Kahlo by Andrea Kettenmann

$33.00 NZD

Category: Art + Design

Suffering and the female experience The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is one of the most important 20th century painters, and one of the few Latin American artists to have achieved a global reputation. In 1983 her work was declared the property of the Mexican state. Kahlo was one of the daught ers of an immigrant German photographer and a Mexican woman of Indian origin. Her life and work were more inextricably interwoven than in almost any other artist's case. Two events in her life were of crucial importance. When she was eighteen, a bus accident put her in hospital for a year with a smashed spinal column and fractured pelvis. It was in her sick bed that she first started to paint. Then, aged twenty-one, she married the world-famous Mexican mural artist Diego Rivera. She was to suffer the effects of the accident her whole life long, and was particularly pained by her inability to have children. Kahlo's arresting pictures, most of them small format self-portraits, express the burdens that weighed upon her soul: her unbearable physical pain, the grief that Rivera's occasional affairs prompted, the sorrow her childlessness caused her, her homesickness when living abroad and her longing to feel that she had put down roots, profound loneliness. But they also declare her passionate love for her husband, her pronounced sensuousness, and her unwavering survival instinct. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions ...Show more

Rock Covers – 40 by Robbie Busch; Jonathan Kirby; Julius Wiedemann (Editor)

$60.00 NZD

Category: Art + Design

Album art is indelibly linked to our collective musical memories; when you think of your favorite albums, you picture the covers. Many photographers, illustrators, and art directors have become celebrities from their album artworks--the best examples of which will go down in history as permanent fixture s in popular culture. Paying tribute to this art form, Rock Covers brings you a compilation of more than 750 remarkable album covers, from legendary to rare record releases. Artists as varied as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Iron Maiden, and Sonic Youth are gathered together in celebration of the cover art that defined their albums and their cult status. Each cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing the art director, photographer or illustrator, year, label, and more, while nearly 250 records that marked particular turning points for a band, an artist, or the music genre, are highlighted with short descriptions. This far-reaching catalog of visualized rock is contextualized with insider interviews with professionals who shaped the history of rock, and by top-10 record lists from ten leading rock collectors.   About the series TASCHEN turns 40 this year Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. In 2020, we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program--now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production. ...Show more

The Book of Flowers - Pierre-Joseph Redoute: The Complete Plates by Dr H Walter Lack (Botanical Garden and Museum, Berlin)

$60.00 NZD

Category: Art + Design

Floral Masterpieces The finest floral treasures of Pierre-Joseph Redoute French flower painter Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1759-1840) devoted himself exclusively to capturing the diversity of flowering plants in watercolor paintings which were then published as copper engravings, with careful botanical descr iptions. The darling of wealthy Parisian patrons including Napoleon's Josephine, he was dubbed "the Raphael of flowers," and is regarded to this day as a master of botanical illustration. This elegant catalogue brings together all color engravings from Redoute's illustrations of Roses, Lilies and Choix des plus belles fleures et quelques branches des plus beaux fruits (Selection of the Most Beautiful Blooms and Branches with the Finest Fruits), offering a complete overview of Redoute's marvelous ability to combine accuracy with beauty, as well as a glimpse into the magnificent greenhouses and gardens of a bygone Paris.About the series: Bibliotheca Universalis-- Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, the name TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together nearly 100 of our all-time favorite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.Bookworm's delight -- never bore, always excite!Text in English, French, and German ...Show more

Dali Basic Art Series by Gilles Néret (Editor)

$33.00 NZD

Category: Art + Design

Lobsters and lunacy: The zaniest Surrealist of them all Painter, sculptor, writer, film-maker, and all-round showman Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was one of the twentieth century's greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics. One of the first artists to apply the insights of Freudian psychoanalysis to art, he i s celebrated in particular for his surrealist practice, with such conceits as the soft watches or the lobster telephone, now hallmarks of the surrealist enterprise, and of modernism in general.Dali frequently described his paintings as "hand-painted dream photographs." Their tantalizing tension and interest resides in the precise rendering of bizarre elements and incongruous arrangements. As Dali himself explained, he painted with "the most imperialist fury of precision," but only "to systematize confusion and thus to help discredit completely the world of reality."Revolutionizing the role of the artist, the mustache-twirling Dali also had the intuition to parade a controversial persona in the public arena and, through printmaking, fashion, advertising, writing, and film, to create work that could be consumed and not just contemplated on a gallery wall.This book explores both the painting and the personality of Dali, introducing his technical skill as well as his provocative compositions and challenging themes of death, decay, and eroticism. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions ...Show more

Homes For Our Time by Philip Jodidio

$60.00 NZD

Category: Art + Design

Across small cottages and lavish villas, beach houses and forest refuges, discover the world's finest crop of new homes. This cutting-edge global digest features such talents as Shigeru Ban and Marcio Kogan alongside up-and-coming names like Aires Mateus, Xu Fu-Min, Vo Trong Nghia, Desai Chia, and Shunr i Nishizawa. Here, there are homes in Australia and New Zealand, from China and Vietnam, in the United States and Mexico, and on to less expected places like Ecuador and Costa Rica. The result is a sweeping survey of the contemporary house and a revelation that homes across the globe may have more in common than expected. Among guava trees and abandoned forts in Western India is a sanctuary designed for and by Kamal Malik of Malik Architecture. The House of Three Streams is a sprawling spectacle with high ceilings, verandas, and pavilions, perched atop a ridge overlooking two ravines. A medley of steel, glass, wood, and stone, the house weaves along the contour of the landscape, almost as an extension of the forest. Encina House by Aranguren & Gallegos, an elegant, sloping structure reminiscent of a gazebo, similarly inhabits its surrounding vista. Ensconced in a pine forest north of Madrid, the lower level is embedded in rock and connected to the upper by a natural stone wall. Shinichi Ogawa's Seaside House is an immaculate two-story minimalist marvel in Kanagawa that overlooks the Pacific. Its living area spills onto a cantilevered terrace and infinity pool, almost dissolving into the ocean as one seamless entity. In Vietnam, Shunri Nishizawa's House in Chau Doc exudes tropical sophistication with exposed timber beams, woven bamboo, plants, concrete panels, and inner balconies and terraces. Its corrugated iron panels act as moveable walls and shutters, ushering in views of surrounding rice fields.These homes-along with more than 50 others-are each remarkably distinct in design. They all, however, toe the line between inside and outside, each one symbiotic with its surroundings. ...Show more

Le Corbusier by Jean-Louis Cohen; Peter Gössel (Editor)

$33.00 NZD

Category: Art + Design

Architectural poetry in the machine age "Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light." --Le Corbusier Born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, Le Corbusier (1887-1965) adopted his famous pseudonym after publishing his ideas in the review L'Esprit Nouveau in 1 920. The few buildings he was able to design during the 1920s, when he also spent much of his time painting and writing, brought him to the forefront of modern architecture, though it was not until after World War II that his epoch-making buildings were constructed, such as the Unite d'Habitation apartment complex in Marseilles, and the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Architecture Series features: an introduction to the life and work of the architect the major works in chronological order information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts and plans) ...Show more

Wright by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer; Peter Gössel (Editor)

$33.00 NZD

Category: Art + Design

That's Wright One of the greatest pioneers in the history of architecture Acclaimed as the "father of skyscrapers," the quintessentially American icon Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was an architect of aspiration. He believed in giving cultivated American life its fitting architectural equivalent and a pplied his idealism to structures across the continent, from suburban homes to churches, offices, skyscrapers, and the celebrated Guggenheim Museum.Wright's work is distinguished by its harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture, and which found its paradigm at Fallingwater, a house in rural Pennsylvania, cited by the American Institute of Architects as "the best all-time work of American architecture." Wright also made a particular mark with his use of industrial materials, and by the simple L or T plan of his Prairie House which became a model for rural architecture across America. Wright was also often involved in many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass, paying particular attention to the balance between individual needs and community activity.Exploring Wright's aspirations to augment American society through architecture, this book offers a concise introduction to his at once technological and Romantic response to the practical challenges of middle-class Americans. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Architecture Series features: an introduction to the life and work of the architect the major works in chronological order information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts and plans) ...Show more