Denounced as a charlatan and feted as a mystic, French artist Yves Klein (192862) scandalized the art world with his enthusiastic embrace of postwar mass culture and his exploitation of controversial publicity tactics. Today, we know Yves Klein not only as one of the most radical artists of the postwar period, but also as an iconic role model for contemporary practiceshe reinvented abstract painting, conceived new horizons for performance art, and was a trailblazer in the realm of land, body, and conceptual art. In this new critical biography, Nuit Banai examines the relationship between...
Denounced as a charlatan and feted as a mystic, French artist Yves Klein (192862) scandalized the art world with his enthusiastic embrace of postwar m...
The most internationally acclaimed Japanese author of the twentieth century, Yukio Mishima (1925-70) was a prime candidate for the Nobel Prize. But the prolific author shocked the world in 1970 when he attempted a coup d'etat that ended in his suicide by ritual disembowelment. In this radically new analysis of Mishima's extraordinary life, Damian Flanagan deviates from the stereotypical depiction of a right-wing nationalist and aesthete, presenting the author instead as a man in thrall to the modern world while also plagued by hidden neuroses and childhood trauma that pushed him toward his...
The most internationally acclaimed Japanese author of the twentieth century, Yukio Mishima (1925-70) was a prime candidate for the Nobel Prize. But th...
Winner of the Franco-British Society Literary Prize 2015 Few figures of twentieth-century French culture carry such an air of romance and intrigue as Albert Camus. Though his life was cut short by a fatal car accident in 1960, when he was just forty-six years old, he packed those years with an incredible amount of experience and accomplishment. This new entry in the Critical Lives series offers a fresh look at Camus life and work, from his best-selling novels like The Stranger to his complicated political engagement in a postwar world of intensifying ideological conflict....
Winner of the Franco-British Society Literary Prize 2015 Few figures of twentieth-century French culture carry such an air of romance and...
Igor Stravinsky (1882 1971) was perhaps the twentieth century s most celebrated composer, a leading light of modernism and a restlessly creative artist. This new entry in the Critical Lives series traces the story of Stravinsky s life and work, setting him in the context of the turbulent times in which he lived. Born in Russia, Stravinsky spent most of his life in exile and while his work was deliberately cosmopolitan, the pain of estrangement nonetheless left its mark on the man and his work, distinguishable in an ever-present sense of loss. Jonathan Cross shows how that work emerged over...
Igor Stravinsky (1882 1971) was perhaps the twentieth century s most celebrated composer, a leading light of modernism and a restlessly creative artis...