The artist's body

Peter Osborne
Phaidon Press Limited

This book marks a new, original and authoritative re-examination of a major turning point in late twentieth-century art. Since the mid 1960s Conceptual art - an art that consists of ideas, written down, enacted or simply carried in your head - has directly challenged the very notion that a work of art is by definition an object of visual pleasure. Conceptual art is first and foremost an art of questions. As this book demonstrates, Conceptual art continues today to raise fundamental questions not only about the definition of art itself but about politics, the media and society. Conceptual art, since its zenith from 1966 to 1972, has influenced not only all subsequent art but made a major contribution to the history of ideas. It, in turn, drew much of its inspiration from the writings of thinkers ranging from the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein to the playwright Samuel Beckett. For the first time, excerpts from these key influential writings are included alongside the major original texts by artists, critics, curators and art historians. An international movement, Conceptual art encompasses not only North America and Western Europe but also South America, Eastern Europe, Russia, China and Japan. Its legacy is global, ranging from small local participatory projects to large-scale installations at major museums and biennales.

Mary Ann Caws
Phaidon Press Limited

Surrealism is a survey of the twentieth century's longest lasting and, arguably, most influential art movement. Championed and held together by André Breton for over forty years, Surrealism was France's major avant-garde artistic tendency from 1924 onwards, rapidly spreading around the globe to become an international phenomenon. During World War II, Surrealism's exiled artists and writers had a major impact on American art and were a primary influence for the Abstract Expressionist generation. The official Surrealist movement continued to the end of Breton's life in 1966, and its legacy is still pervasive today, in contemporary art as well as in numerous quotations from surrealist imagery in cinema, advertising and the media.



Survey Mary Ann Caws - a distinguished scholar, translator and associate of the surrealists - describes in clear, perceptive and lively prose the essential characteristics that define Surrealism, as well as tracing a concise path through the chronology of this prolific and wide-ranging movement. The text also demonstrates how Surrealist art and writing are interdependent.



Works provides an extensive colour plate section with extended captions for every artwork. Following the movement from its beginnings in the 1920s up to the 40s and950s, its six sections trace the themes that predominated at different stages.



Artists include Eileen Agar, Jean Arp, Antonin Artaud, Hans Bellmer, Jacques-André Boiffard, Brassaï, Victor Brauner, André Breton, Jacques Brunius, Luis Bunel, Claude Cahun, Leonora Carrington, Giorgio de Chirico, Joseph Cornell, Salvdor Dalí, Paul Delvaux, Oscar Domínguez, Marcel Duchamp, Nusch Eluard, Max Ernst, Léonor Fini, Esteban Francés, Wilhelm Freddie, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Jindrich Heisler, Geores Hugnet, Valentine Hugo, Marcel Jean, Frida Kahlo, André Kertész, Frederick Kiesler, Greta Knutson-Tzara, Wifredo Lam, Jacqueline Lamba , Len Lye, Dora Maar, F.E. McWilliam, René Magritte, Man Ray, André Masson, Roberto Matta, Henri Michaux, Lee Miller, Joan Miró, Pierre Molinier, Henry Moore, Max Morise, Paul Nougé, Gordon Onslow Ford, Meret Oppenheim, Wolfgang Paalen, Roger Parry, Roland Penrose, Pablo Picasso, Kay Sage, Kurt Seligmann, Jindrich Styrsky, Maurice Tabard, Yves Tanguy, Dorothea Tanning, Toyen, Tristan Tzara, Raoul Ubac, Remedios Varo, Wols



Documents section includes important rediscovered writings alongside the key texts by leading figures. Many of the texts have been specially translated for this volume by Mary Ann Caws and Jonathan Eburne.

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Phaidon Press Limited

In 1967 the critic Germano Celant defined as Arte Povera ("poor art") theork of 13 world renowned young Italian artists. This work documents andxplains the sculpture and installation work of these artists in the contextf the critics who shaped it and the broader cultural framework ofontemporaneous philosophers, film-makers and curators.;The innovative worksf the artists were lyrical, open-ended combinations of unlikely fragments -ive horses wandering through a gallery, a slab of marble with a lettuce -iving the most banal materials a metaphysical dimension.;The artists includenselmo, Boetti, Calzolari, Fabro, Kounellis, Mario and Marisa Merz, Paolini,ascali, Penone, Pistolleto, Prini and Zorio, many of whom have emerged asorld class artists who continue to exhibit internationally. Their work andtatements are published alongside contemporaneous texts by critics and otherhinkers of their day.

AA.VV.
Electa

Ephrem Yon, Philippe Sers
Passigli Editore

Emilio Vitta Zelman
Edizioni Electa

Roberto Borali
Burgo editore

AA.VV.
Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani

Alessandro Piras
Skira

Vincenzo Ruggieri
Rubbettino Editore

Olga A. Polyakova
Vivay Publishing

We are proud to offer this important book on icons dating from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. These sixty icons from the Kolomenskoye State Museum are presented with full descriptions of their origins and symbolic meanings written by a leading specialist in Old Russian art. This lesser-known collection shows the evolution and development of Russian iconography through its themes, styles and details - for example, historical figures such as Peter the Great featured in the battlefield on one of the intercession icons. These images are at once powerful and moving, engaging the observer in the story depicted in the painting or drawing the eye to a face that seems to look directly out at the viewer. This book provides a fascinating insight into the world of the mysterious and beautiful icons. Icons: Masterpieces of Russian Art is a valuable resource for art historians, scholars of religious practice, and collectors of icons.

Paola Pallottino
Franco Cosimo Panini

Catalogo dell'omonima mostra allestita presso il Museo della Figurina di Modena dal 30 gennaio al 19 aprile 2009, il volume raccoglie per la prima volta le più significative illustrazioni ispirate alle fiabe di Esopo, dalla vasistica greca alla miniatura medievale, dalle xilografie alle raccolte di figurine. Le fedeli riproduzioni delle immagini, tra le quali anche opere di Gustave Doré e Arthur Rackham, accompagnano il lettore lungo il corso del libro, sono accompagnate da testi sintetici ma esaurienti. In allegato, la grande ed elegante tavola sinottica bifronte a colori sulla quale sono riprodotte, in sequenza cronologica dal XIV al XX secolo, oltre un centinaio di figure che documentano l'evoluzione degli stili e dei soggetti raffigurati.