(Hardback)

From decorative 1890s Art Nouveau posters via typographical ads from the 1960s to social media-led work of the 2010s, Jens Mller explores how this persuasive visual language reached every part of society and changed the world. With hundreds of seminal works and industry leader profiles, it's a treat for design fans and professionals alike.

(Hardback)

With an acute sense of observation and subjects ranging from the biblical tower of Babel to the small-town festivals of peasant life, the master draftsman Pieter Bruegel the Elder provides a unique witness to both the religious mores and the close-knit folk culture of his time.

(Hardback)

Caravaggio was a force to be reckoned with. Precise in technique, violent in temper, the notorious bad boy of Italian Baroque is now considered one of the greatest artistic influences of all time. This book presents an accessible introduction to the life and times of the dramatic master, exploring Caravaggio's most famous and revolutionary works alongside his equally intense biography.

(Hardback)

Discover the revolutionary work of Cubism, hailed as the first avant-garde movement of the 20th century. With key works from major artists, this introduction explains the history, theory, and legacy of the movement's fragmented planes, multiple perspectives, and collaged elements.

(Hardback)

When is a urinal no longer a urinal When Marcel Duchamp declared it to be art. From his infamous Fountain to reworked Mona Lisa with mustache and beard, this essential introduction to Duchamp surveys his audacious practice of "readymades" and beyond and its critical place in 20th-century art.

(Hardback)

Discover some of the most stunning masterpieces of ancient Egypt. This catalogue gathers sarcophagi, statues, murals, and other timeless treasures by unknown masters from the Old Kingdom to the Roman Period. Find out why these centuries-old gems of World Cultural Heritage are displayed alongside masterworks of Michelangelo and da Vinci, from New York to Cairo.

(Hardback)

It was never a sure thing that James Ensor (1860-1949), the Belgian painter of macabre and ghoulish scenes, would become a nationally revered figure. An expressionist before the term was coined, he used the iconography of masks and skeletons to point up the essential horrors of life, and often underwrote his images with a sardonic gallows humour.

(Hardback)

From night skies to morning mists to the much-cited Wanderer above a Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich mastered the emotional and metaphysical experience of nature. This introductory book presents his most important and celebrated works to explore an oeuvre of sublime and haunting impact and a trailblazer of Romantic aesthetics.

(Hardback)

Architect, magazine editor, artist, academic: Gio Ponti's multifaceted oeuvre blurred boundaries across creative disciplines and lead the evolution of modern design in Italy. Filled with archival images, a timeline, and map of his Milanese buildings, this dedicated introduction traces Ponti's most celebrated works and provides an extensive overview of the master designer's sublime career.

(Hardback)

Architect, artist, ecological visionary, Friedensreich Hundertwasser left a thrilling trail of imagination and activism in buildings, paintings, manifestos, and more. From naked addresses and tree planting campaigns to the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, Hundertwasser refused the straight line in every sense. His vision was as much for society at large as for singular buildings.

(Hardback)

With his geometric structures perched upon the hillsides, beaches, and deserts of California, John Lautner is responsible for some of the most original buildings of the 20th century. This introductory book surveys his key works and his iconic aesthetic in an age of space-age technology, economic growth, and affluence.

(Hardback)

Even in his unrealised projects, Le Corbusier redefined modern living, synthesising functionalism, expressionism, and expansive urban thinking from Switzerland to Chandigarh, India. This book provides a succinct introduction to his trailblazing ideas, writings, and buildings, which continue to resonate and influence to this day.

(Hardback)

Meet the pioneer of Pop art in this introduction to Roy Lichtenstein, whose high-impact cartoon-based images exploded onto the art scene at the end of the 1950s and transformed the notion of fine art forever. Appropriating the form and content of mass media, Lichtenstein reveled in American consumer culture while elevating it for critique at the same time.

(Hardback)

Explore the lyrical seven-decade career of Catalan-born Joan Mir, a towering figure of 20th-century art, whose highly individual style reflected Surrealist, Dadaist, and abstract elements in dazzling colors and unique symbolic narratives. From automated drawing to sculptures made of gas, this modernist legend abandoned categorization and approval in favor of his own dreamlike worlds.

(Hardback)

Over seven decades, Oscar Niemeyer designed approximately 600 buildings, including almost all public structures in his homelands futuristic new capital, Braslia. This essential introduction presents Niemeyers unique, voluptuous modernist touch and its transformative influence on buildings of business, faith, culture, and the public...

(Hardback)

Peaking in the 1960s, Pop Art began as a revolt against mainstream approaches to art and culture and evolved into a wholesale interrogation of modern society, consumerism, the role of the artist, and of what constituted an artwork. Epitomized by Warhol's Campbell's soup cans, Pop Art drew on mass-market sources and products as well as the banal and kitsch.

(Hardback)

Meet Gerhard Richter, the German artist who redefined painting. Between abstract works and photography-based paintings, Richter pushes the medium's boundaries and reminds us of its urgency and importance in a world overwhelmed by digital images. This introduction to one of the greatest artists of our time explores his entire career.

(Hardback)

Join the heady ride of Der Blaue Reiter, the group of artists who galloped just three years of the early 20th century together, but in their rejection of establishment standards and charge into a new artistic realm marked a major step in the evolution of European Expressionist and abstract art.

(Hardback)

Brace yourself for the blues: Declaring that a "new world calls for a new man", showman-artist Yves Klein made his name with his large monochrome canvases, International Klein Blue, and "living paintbrushes," in which naked women, daubed in paint, made imprints of their bodies on large sheets of paper.

(Hardback)

It was the decade of daring Expressionist canvases, the Bauhaus total work of art, drag balls, Metropolis, and Marlene Dietrich. From cutting-edge kino to crowded jazz bars, come and roam the daring, freewheeling spirit of 1920s Berlin with this vivid cultural portrait of the age through painting, design, fashion, film, and more.

(Hardback)

It was the decade of Coco Chanel, Josphine Baker, Art Deco, Surrealism, caf culture and cabarets. American luminaries mingled with European artists like Dal and Picasso in Montparnasse's bohemian arts scene, while Brassa captured the vibrant dance halls of Montmartre. Explore anew the annes folles of 1920s Paris through this vibrant portrait.

(Hardback)

Discover the gentler face of modernism in this introduction to Alvar Aalto, the Finnish architect who defied the slick geometries set by the International Style to prioritize soft, poetic, undulating forms. Whether a villa, a sauna, or a lamp design, Aalto's organic structures championed environmentally sound and progressive design with a deep-rooted sense of humanity and home.

(Hardback)

The 20th century saw art go abstract. Where once clear certainties and indisputable forms prevailed, now anarchy seemed to reign supreme. Sensibilities diffused into strange new shapes, colors assumed new significance, lines abandoned literal meaning. Dive in and discover some of the most dynamic and progressive art of modernity.

(Hardback)

From vast, splattered canvases to quiet pools of color, enter the world of Abstract Expressionism, the movement which put feelings into paint and turned New York into the global center for contemporary art. This book features works from 20 key artists, including Jackson Pollock, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning.