With remarkable clarity, Julian Bell tells the story of how art has evolved through the millennia and across the world. He follows the changing trends in the making and significance of art in different cultures, and explains why the art of the day looked and functioned as it did. Key images and obje[...]
"What is art? Is that art?" At the end of the twentieth century, these questions continue to provoke and to bedevil discussion. The uncertainty that prompts them can be productive for artists, who may thrive on such a state of tension. Yet uncertainty can also shade into the suspiciousness with whic[...]
What is art and where did it begin? Why do we make it and why does it change? These are some of the many questions that Julian Bell considers in his highly acclaimed book, now available in paperback. Bell, himself a painter, takes a global perspective and uses a wide range of objects to set up juxta[...]
"I believe in the absolute necessity of a new art of colour, of drawing and--of the artistic life," Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in 1888. "And if we work in that faith, it seems to me that there's a chance that our hopes won't be in vain" His prediction would come true. In his brief an[...]
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) is acknowledged as one of the great masters of modern art, following in the tradition of the Impressionists. He is best known as a painter of intimate, domestic interiors, but he was also a highly accomplished draughtsman who produced a wealth of lithographs and drawings. [...]
A new version of a Phaidon classic published in 1937, this evocative and fascinating book, now issued as a paperback, presents 500 of the world's greatest self-portraits, arranged in a simple chronological sequence from ancient times to the late twentieth century. 'The mirror, above all - the mirror[...]