History & Criticism

In this vivid and captivating journey through the colors of an artist’s palette, Victoria Finlay takes us on an enthralling adventure around the world and through the ages, illuminating how the colors we choose to value have determined the history of culture itself....

The unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them....

Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way....

All That Glitters is a dazzling insider’s account of the contemporary art world and the stunning rise and fall of the charismatic American art dealer Inigo Philbrick, as seen through the eyes of his friend and fellow dealer.

A fascinating biography of the philanthropist Albert Barnes, whose pioneering collection of modern art was meant to transform America’s soul.

In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo....

Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Since the 1990s he has been an indispensable cultural voice: Witty and provocative, he has attracted contemporary listeners to fine art....

Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative....

At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe.....

Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this "gratifying, generous, and lush" true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times)....

While the Civil War raged in America, another very different revolution was beginning to take shape across the Atlantic, in the studios of Paris....

Have your sense of art history overturned and your eyes opened to many artforms often ignored or dismissed. From the Cornish coast to Manhattan, Nigeria to Japan, this is the history of art as it's never been told before....

When Picasso became Picasso: the story of how an obscure young painter from Barcelona came to Paris and made himself into the most influential artist of the 20th century....

The first major biography of the pathbreaking, perpetually influential surrealist artist and iconoclast whose inspiration can be seen in everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyoncé - by the celebrated biographer of Cézanne and Braque....

For just over a decade, from 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated former sail-making warehouses clustered at the lower tip of Manhattan became the quiet epicenter of the art world.

When Roxana Robinson’s definitive biography of O’Keeffe was first published in 1989, it received rave reviews and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year....

A dazzling biography of one of the 20th century's most respected painters, Helen Frankenthaler, Fierce Poise is an exhilarating ride through New York's 1950s art scene and a brilliant portrait of a young artist through the moments that shaped her....

The first biography of the large life of one of the most important, enigmatic, yet private artists of the 20th century. Drawn from almost 40 years of conversations with the artist, letters, and papers, it is a major work written by a well-known British art critic....

It is one of the enduring enigmas of the human experience: many of our most iconic, creative endeavors are not achievements but conversions, corrections after failed attempts....

Is there such a thing as a timeless classic? More than a decade ago, Rochelle Gurstein set out to explore and establish a solid foundation for the classic in the history of taste....

Das abenteuerliche Leben der Sehnsuchtsbilder von Caspar David Friedrich – mitreißend erzählt von Florian Illies. Kein deutscher Maler löst solche...

In the late 1970s and early to mid 1980s, San Francisco was a creative incubator, bringing forth all manner of new music acts. Ground zero for the scene was the Mabuhay Gardens....

Plutarchs's (46-120 A.D.) epic chronicle of the lives of great Grecians and Romans....

In this companion volume to The Discoverers, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel J. Boorstin brings to life more than three thousand years of human artistic achievement...

A former New York Times Paris bureau chief explores the Louvre, offering an intimate journey of discovery and revelation.

From prominent critic and biographer Blake Gopnik comes a compelling new portrait of America’s first great collector of modern art, Albert Coombs Barnes. Raised in a Philadelphia slum shortly after the Civil War, Barnes rose to earn a medical degree and then made a fortune from a pioneering antiseptic treatment for newborns. Never losing sight of the working-class neighbors of his youth, Barnes became a ruthless advocate for their rights and needs.

At twenty-five years old, Michael Stewart was a young Black aspiring artist, deejay, and model, looking to make a name for himself in the vibrant downtown art scene of the early 1980’s New York City. On September 15, 1983, he was brutally beaten by New York City Transit Authority police for allegedly tagging a 14th Street subway station wall. Witnesses reported officers beating him with Billy clubs and choking him with a nightstick. Stewart arrived at Bellevue Hospital hog-tied with no heartbeat and died after thirteen days in a coma.

Step into the dazzling world of Tudor England, where art and power intertwine. In Secrets of the Tudor Portraits, Sylvia Barbara Soberton uncovers the hidden stories behind some of the most iconic images of the Tudor period. From the commanding presence of Henry VIII in Hans Holbein’s Whitehall Mural to Elizabeth I’s carefully crafted image as the Virgin Queen, these portraits are more than mere likenesses—they are coded messages, political propaganda and deeply personal reflections of their sitters. Through meticulous research and vivid storytelling, this book delves into the lives ...

What does it mean to be someone's "muse"? Historically, to be called a “muse” among artistic circles has been marketed as a flattering title. But the very concept of a muse underestimates these women and their abilities. At its root, muse is a support role, the title a consolation prize that claims to recognize a woman’s greatness—but only in her support of another. I'm Not Your Muse reclaims the narrative of 31 of these extraordinary women.

Западноевропейская живопись – это тысячи имен знаменитых художников и их шедевров. Приходя в галерею или музей, вы ходите по залам, пытаясь узнать хотя бы немного о каждой картине и ее авторе. Хотите легко разбираться во всех стилях, эпохах и именах? Этот прекрасно иллюстрированный справочник:. Познакомит с искусством западноевропейской живописи во всем многообразии ее жанров, техник и стилей.