Kategoria BISAC: Art >> History - General

Stillness in Motion brings together the writing of scholars, theorists, and artists on the uneasy relationship between Italian culture and photography. Highlighting the depth and complexity of the Italian contribution to the technology and practice of photography, this collection offers essays, interviews, and theoretical reflections at the intersection of comparative, visual, and cultural studies. Its chapters, illustrated with more than 130 black and white images and an eight-page colour section, explore how Italian literature, cinema, popular culture, and politics have engaged...

This book is the first comparative examination of the conception and founding of German national, central, and state museums in the German-speaking world during the long 19^th century. These museums were founded by actors who competed and emulated each other, some motivated by monarchism (Bavarian National Museum), some by love of literature (Schiller Museum), and some by trans-national notions (Germanic National Museum).

Religious subject matter is not central in 20th century art. One might therefore suspect that, for the avantgarde, the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) would have eclipsed religion altogether. However, as Juan Jose Lahuerta argues in this book, the war caused a considerable revival of certain themes of religious art. In particular, it intensified Pablo Picasso's lifelong preoccupation with the subject of the Crucifixion.

The work of the Swiss surrealist painter Max von Moos (1903-1979) throws additional light on the paradox at hand. In 1938, i.e. one year after Picasso painted...

While many publications focus on the aesthetics and symbolism of African art, few explore the historical dynamics and exchanges that have informed the way people in Africa have created, preserved, collected, and sold their artworks to local and foreign patrons. The book addresses key issues of market trends, the transformation in taste and aesthetics in relation to changing historical conditions, and the role of artisans, traders, and collectors in mediating knowledge and value in the international art market.

Africa in the Market, which is richly illustrated, introduces to...

The world's most influential contemporary-art curator explores the history and practice of his craft

Hans Ulrich Obrist curated his first exhibit in his kitchen when he was twenty-three years old. Since then he has staged more than 250 shows internationally, many of them among the most influential exhibits of our age.

Ways of Curating is a compendium of the insights Obrist has gained from his years of extraordinary work in the art world. It skips between centuries and continents, flitting from meetings with the artists who have inspired him...

To what extent did mythological figures such as Circe and Medea influence the representation of the powerful 'oriental' enchantress in modern Western art? What role did the ancient gods and heroes play in the construction of the imaginary worlds of the modern fantasy genre? What is the role of undead creatures like zombies and vampires in mythological films?
Looking across the millennia, from the distrust of ancient magic and oriental cults, which threatened the new-born Christian religion, to the revival and adaptation of ancient myths and religion in the arts centuries later, this...