Jackson Pollock

The almost mythic Jackson Pollock--a roughshod, ill-mannered, prodigiously ambitious, aggressive, alcoholic, tormented artist--is alive and unwell in this book. But Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel, the chief curator and adjunct assistant curator, respectively, of the New York Museum of Modern Art's Department of Painting and Sculpture, also go deeply into Pollock's art in eye-opening ways. This book is the catalogue for the retrospective of Pollock's art-shattering oeuvre at the New York Museum of Modern Art in the autumn of 1998 and London's Tate Gallery in the spring of 1999. It includes many biographical pictures as well as colour plates of Pollock's paintings, from the awkward but earnest early works to the late, great, famous canvases. Varnedoe's essay, aptly titled "Comet: Jackson Pollock's Life and Work," deftly invites the reader into Pollock's world, starting with his country studio: "The structure, often called a barn, is in fact more like a glorified tool shed." Karmel's essay, "Pollock at Work: The Films and Photographs of Hans Namuth," is a truly groundbreaking exploration of Pollock's technique. Karmel has scrutinised every frame of every piece of film, still or moving, ever taken of Pollock painting. He arrives at absolutely original conclusions: Pollock's all-over swirls of dripped and flung paint often began as figurative works and clearly relate to such all-American stalwarts as Thomas Hart Benton. Karmel makes countless other sharp observations, noting the difference, for example, between fast-looking marks and the slow, deliberate movements with which they were made (and vice versa). His essay is a work of brilliant scholarship, written thrillingly, and it will forever change the way any serious viewer looks at Pollock's paintings. It makes this volume absolutely essential for understanding the work of this great, sad artist. --Peggy Moorman

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Jackson Pollock

The almost mythic Jackson Pollock--a roughshod, ill-mannered, prodigiously ambitious, aggressive, alcoholic, tormented artist--is alive and unwell in this book. But Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel, the chief curator and adjunct assistant curator, respectively, of the New York Museum of Modern Art's Department of Painting and Sculpture, also go deeply into Pollock's art in eye-opening ways. This book is the catalogue for the retrospective of Pollock's art-shattering oeuvre at the New York Museum of Modern Art in the autumn of 1998 and London's Tate Gallery in the spring of 1999. It includes many biographical pictures as well as colour plates of Pollock's paintings, from the awkward but earnest early works to the late, great, famous canvases. Varnedoe's essay, aptly titled "Comet: Jackson Pollock's Life and Work," deftly invites the reader into Pollock's world, starting with his country studio: "The structure, often called a barn, is in fact more like a glorified tool shed." Karmel's essay, "Pollock at Work: The Films and Photographs of Hans Namuth," is a truly groundbreaking exploration of Pollock's technique. Karmel has scrutinised every frame of every piece of film, still or moving, ever taken of Pollock painting. He arrives at absolutely original conclusions: Pollock's all-over swirls of dripped and flung paint often began as figurative works and clearly relate to such all-American stalwarts as Thomas Hart Benton. Karmel makes countless other sharp observations, noting the difference, for example, between fast-looking marks and the slow, deliberate movements with which they were made (and vice versa). His essay is a work of brilliant scholarship, written thrillingly, and it will forever change the way any serious viewer looks at Pollock's paintings. It makes this volume absolutely essential for understanding the work of this great, sad artist. --Peggy Moorman

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Tate to Tate: A Walk along London's South Bank

Shows a group of people walking east along the South Bank. Concertina-bound, this graphic book features the diverse group, of different races and ages, and as you follow their progress from spread to spread you start to notice various details.

Vincent Van Gogh: The Drawings

Out of This Century: The Autobiography of Peggy Guggenheim

The fascinating biography of a society heiress who became the bohemian doyenne of the art world. Written in her own words, it is the frank and outspoken story of her life and loves: her stormy relationships with such men as Max Ernst and Jackson Pollock, of artistic discoveries and the excitement of promoting great work.

Barbara Hepworth: Works in the Tate Collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St Ives: Works in the Tate Gallery Collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St Ives

Tate Britain Companion to British Art

Fra Angelico (Published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The Guggenheims

The Delirious Museum

Cy Twombly at the Hermitage: Fifty Years of Works on Paper

Birmingham Back to Backs (National Trust Guidebooks) (National Trust Guidebooks)

A National Trust guidebook for visitors to National Trust Properties. It covers history, horticulture, garden history, history of art, architecture, social history, natural environment, and conservation.

Return of the Diva - The Biography of Whitney Houston

Now, with the release of her spectacular new album, I Look to You, it has been confirmed: the diva is back.

Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi

Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi

Rembrandt by Himself: Catalogue to the National Gallery Exhibition

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was not a handsome man. He was, however, an exceptional painter of himself. This sumptuous catalogue, published to coincide with the exhibition of his self-portraits at the National Gallery in London, has glossy reproductions of all the paintings and etchings from the show, plus copies of lost ones and those not released by galleries or private collectors, thoroughly annotated to elucidate their history. The scholarship is impressive, being mostly drawn from the Rembrandt Research Project, which for years has been working with a combination of X-ray technology and patient research to ascertain the age of the pictures and the identity of their painter. This is not as obvious as it sounds; Rembrandt had many pupils, and he encouraged them to copy his own self-portraits as practice, leading to the unusual situation of a host of Rembrandt self-portraits not by Rembrandt. The findings of the project have been contentious, with paintings unexpectedly relegated or elevated through reappraisal. What shines through, though, is the sheer diversity of Rembrandt's genius, from the early paintings and etchings where he gurns in a mirror to study expression, through the periods of dressing up as variously an oriental potentate, a soldier, an artisan and St Paul, to the famous trilogy of self-portraits painted in his last year which seem to show a man old beyond his years. The catalogue also contains a selection of works by his pupils Gerrit Dou and Samuel van Hoogstraten, and essays by Rembrandt scholars that seek to revise the somewhat Romantic conceit that the series is some sort of spiritual autobiography. However, a difference between art and art history is the "now" factor, which means that as perceivers inextricably bound up with a modern sense of introspection we cannot avoid imposing a narrative that imbues an existential beauty. Rembrandt By Himself, an intelligent and resourceful accompaniment to the exhibition, will continue to transport the reader when the portraits in the exhibition have long returned to their respective homes. --David Vincent

Hogarth's Marriage A-la-mode (In the National Gallery)