Paul Cézanne’s famous series of paintings of peasants playing cards has long been considered among his most important and powerful works. The image of seated peasants, still and seeming silent, concentrating on their game of cards, can be seen as the human counterpart to the landscapes of Cézanne’s home countryside, notably Montagne Sainte-Victoire, which held such iconic significance for him. More
“Ormond’s narrative is… [a] combination of exhaustive investigation with delicacy of touch—of reserved thoughtfulness with visual sensitivity” – Modern Language Review. When Linley Sambourne died in 1910, a host of obituaries paid tribute to his long career as a cartoonist and his contribution to late Victorian and Edwardian political satire. A hundred years on, the distinguished 19th-century scholar Leonee Ormond has written an illuminating biography, using his own copious records preserved intact in his house at 18 Stafford Terrace, Kensington, London - now a museum. More
Robin Hood Gardens in Tower Hamlets, East London, was designed by Alison + Peter Smithson and completed in 1972. In 2008, this large social housing scheme was threatened with demolition and became a controversial conservation case. This book uncovers the history of the project, arguing for its historical and architectural significance and for its future role in housing provision. More
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) is perhaps best known for his mystical biblical scenes and candid self-portraits, but it was his magnificent paintings of gardens, houses and landscapes, set in the small alleys and overgrown backyards of his home village of Cookham, which proved more popular during his lifetime. Published to accompany an exhibition at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, this book is the first to focus specifically on Spencer’s landscape paintings, and to consider them as a group, rather than as punctuation marks between the figure paintings. More
Accompanying an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, London, this publication is the first to celebrate the important creative collaboration between the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) and his muse, the dancer Jane Avril (1868–1943). Avril was one of the stars of Moulin Rouge in the 1890s, and was nicknamed ‘La Mélinite’ after a form of explosive. More
This book accompanies an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, London, that will be the first to offer a comprehensive account of the parallel artistic paths charted by Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson during the 1930's. It will bring together an extraordinary group of paintings and reliefs to show how each artist was driven by a profound belief in the potential of abstract art to attain the highest aestethic and spiritual power. More
Art in the Age of Terrorism tackles one of the most difficult topics imaginable - a war that is quintessentially postmodern in its decentred identity, globalized character and confused conflict of cultures. In this book both artists and arts theorists explore in a series of essays the various ways in which art can help articulate the zone of grey that lies behind the black and white term 'terrorism'. More
n the Grand Canyon and on the icy flanks of Mount Everest, deep in rainforests and deserts, under water and at the mouths of live volcanoes – Tony Foster paints his expansive watercolours at the edges of the world. Presented here with personal accounts of his journeys, they are an exultant testament to the power of art and the richness and fragility of our planet. More
Makoure Scott is a young New Zealand artist who is rapidly establishing an international reputation. This, his first book, presents a selection of his work today, featuring in particular his Synapse series, in which primary geometric forms 'synapse' in various crossroads, intersections and parallels mirroring the tension and fusion of nature and spirit. Via strong geometric forms Arohanui attempts to capture the principles of the Maori spiritual term arohanui, its intersection with colonial beliefs and the resulting tension. Dream Waka presents a series of textural winter northland landscapes, attempting to capture the various cultura parallels of Maori and Pekeha influences. More
Best known for a dramatic, layered and visionary urban imagery, Richard Walker (born 1954) is a painter, printmaker and photographer. This unique book is both a kind of autobiography – compiled and written by himself – and a selective catalogue of his work, past and present. More