Art styles not defined by date – The Bell Bookshop

Fungi collected in Shropshire and other neighbourhoods

Emma — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Venture into the woods alongside a pioneering female mycologist. Very little is known about M. F. Lewis – not even her first name. Mysterious, prolific, and deeply enamored with the world of mushrooms, she left us a treasure trove of mycological illustrations. For over forty years, from 1860 to 1902, Lewis rambled across England and Wales, recording an astonishing biodiversity of fungi. Her delicately drawn, boldly colored images evoke the strange and powerful beauty of this kingdom. This handsome volume collects hundreds of Lewis’s watercolors, contextualized by an introduction about the legacy of female naturalists in the Victorian era. It’s a must-have for today’s mushroom lovers who are curious about the history of mycology and for any admirer of vintage botanical illustration who wants to discover something different.

Gnomes

Emma — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A newly reissued edition of the beloved illustrated survey of gnome life, history, and lore, which has sold astronomically since its original publication in 1977 Did you know that gnome couples always have twin children? Or that a gnome is seven times as strong as a human? Do you want to hear some gossip from the gnome who knew Rembrandt? Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet’s charming illustrations and physician Wil Huygen’s detailed observations of the gnomes’ habits, anatomy, and lifestyle are a delight for readers of all ages. Children will adore the gnome family’s underground home and the constant interaction with animals; adults will appreciate the tongue-in-cheek scientific data. Gnomebody is immune to the gnomes’ tremendous appeal-and a whole new generation is waiting to love them for the first time!

The History of Western Art

Emma — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A concise, reader-friendly illustrated survey of Western art and architecture from prehistory to the present day.

Acknowledging how architecture, painting, sculpture and the decorative arts reflect the culture and society of their time, this latest addition to the Art Essentials series invites the reader to experience and appreciate the entirety of Western art from prehistory to today.

Focusing on the ‘history’ in art history, each of the twelve chapters opens with a question to ponder, followed by a summary of the major historical developments of the period, touching on social structure, political organization, migration, race, religious beliefs, scientific advances and customs. An exploration of these themes in the visual arts reveals how architecture, sculpture and painting simultaneously shape, reflect, and document the culture of the time and place they were created. A secondary focus explores the constantly evolving aesthetic preferences that swing between naturalism and abstraction, with each era and style either rebelling against the previous or seeking to improve it. Antecedents and outside influences are also discussed.

Prime

Emma — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The most exciting rising stars in contemporary art – who’s who and what’s next – featuring 107 artists born since 1980, as chosen by a new generation of art experts and leaders

This stunningly illustrated survey brings together more than 100 of the most innovative and interesting contemporary artists working across all media and spanning the globe. These are tomorrow’s art superstars as chosen by the future leaders of the art world: the curators, writers, and academics with their fingers on the pulse of contemporary art and culture.

Artists featured include: Lawrence Abu Hamdan; Farah Al Qasimi; Korakrit Arunanondchai; Firelei Báez; Meriem Bennani; Amoako Boafo; Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley; Jordan Casteel; Jesse Darling; Jadé Fadojutimi; Louis Fratino; Lauren Halsey; Kudzanai-Violet Hwami; Joy Labinjo; Lina Lapelyte; Carolyn Lazard; Ad Minoliti; Tyler Mitchell; Toyin Ojih Odutola; Ima-Abasi Okon; Thao Nguyen Phan; Christina Quarles; Tschabalala Self; Paul Mpagi Sepuya; Shen Xin; Avery Singer; Martine Syms; Salman Toor; Zadie Xa

The 100+ nominators originate from institutions including: Baltimore Museum of Art; Bellas Artes Projects (Manila); ESPAC (Mexico City); The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre (Ho Chi Minh City); KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin); MoMA (New York); Museo de Arte Moderno (Medellín); Museums Victoria (Melbourne); RAW Material Company (Dakar); Sharjah Art Foundation; Studio Museum in Harlem (New York); Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong); Tate Modern (London); Whitechapel Gallery (London); Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); and X Museum (Beijing)

Artifacts

Emma — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

‘Even a seasoned art history buff will find new things to discover in this book.’ – Hyperallergic

‘Fascinating facts and illuminating anecdotes.’ – The Art Newspaper

The perfect miscellany for every art lover – an essential and engaging collection of facts, figures, and findings about art, artists, and the art world, past and present

This extraordinary compendium of compelling facts, figures, and findings gathers and distils obscure and fascinating information about art, artists, and the art world. Fun, surprising, and compelling, in this covetable book you will learn:

– which artist’s work is stolen most often (Picasso)
– names of artists’ pets: Fat Fat & Cous-Cous (Louise Nevelson’s cats), Giotto and Goya (John Baldessari’s dogs)
– artist couples (Nancy Rubins and Chris Burden; Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely; Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst)
– things artists collect: prosthetic arms and legs (Sophie Calle), glass eyes (Hiroshi Sugimoto)
– odd jobs and side hustles: telephone marketer (Tomma Abts), crop duster (James Turrell)
– artists who were rejected from art school (Francisco Goya, Auguste Rodin)

… and hundreds of other miscellaneous details. Thoughtfully and thoroughly researched, this intriguing book offers refreshing and surprising perspectives on the world of art.

The five page-turning chapters cover:
– Artists
– Art School
– Art Studio
– Art Museum
– Art World

Germany

Emma — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

From Neil MacGregor, the author of A History of the World in 100 Objects, this is a view of Germany like no other

For the past 140 years, Germany has been the central power in continental Europe. Twenty-five years ago a new German state came into being. How much do we really understand this new Germany, and how do its people now understand themselves?

Neil MacGregor argues that uniquely for any European country, no coherent, over-arching narrative of Germany’s history can be constructed, for in Germany both geography and history have always been unstable. Its frontiers have constantly floated. Königsberg, home to the greatest German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, is now Kaliningrad, Russia; Strasbourg, in whose cathedral Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany’s greatest writer, discovered the distinctiveness of his country’s art and history, now lies within the borders of France. For most of the five hundred years covered by this book Germany has been composed of many separate political units, each with a distinct history. And any comfortable national story Germans might have told themselves before 1914 was destroyed by the events of the following thirty years.

German history may be inherently fragmented, but it contains a large number of widely shared memories, awarenesses and experiences; examining some of these is the purpose of this book. Beginning with the fifteenth-century invention of modern printing by Gutenberg, MacGregor chooses objects and ideas, people and places which still resonate in the new Germany – porcelain from Dresden and rubble from its ruins, Bauhaus design and the German sausage, the crown of Charlemagne and the gates of Buchenwald – to show us something of its collective imagination. There has never been a book about Germany quite like it.