A Century’s Worth of Pleasure and PauseSelling the most delicious vicesVices or virtues: drinking and smoking provided marketers with products to be forged into visual feast...
What is worse than Nero? What is better than Nero’s Baths?’ – so wrote the poet Martial in the first century AD, demonstrating the power that buildings have on public consciousnes...
The art of astrology, from ancient science to modern-day practiceFrom the beginning of human history, individuals across cultures and belief systems have looked to the sky for meaning. The mo...
The aesthetic of our contemporary environment, including everything from housing developments to furniture and websites, is partly the result of a school of art and design founded in Germany in 191...
Fernando Botero is an artist with his own style. For more than six decades, the Colombian’s “Boterismo” technique has captured collectors, institutions, and public spaces worldwid...
Albertus Seba’s unrivaled catalog of animals, insects, and “freaks of nature”The Cabinet of Natural Curiosities is one of the 18th century’s greatest natural history a...
The Case Study House program (1945–1966) was an exceptional, innovative event in the history of American architecture and remains to this day unique. The program, which concentrated on the Lo...
Focusing on a carefully curated selection of Catholic art and artefacts, this book explains the meaning of the iconography and the mystic power of the faith's ritual objects. A wealth of often hidd...
In the latter half of the 19th century, in the verdant countryside near Aix-en-Provence, Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), busily plied his brush to landscapes and still lifes that would becom...
The complex phenomenon of colour has received detailed attention from the perspectives of physics, chemistry, physiology, psychology, linguistics and philosophy. However, the people who work most c...
A plain speaking, jargon-free account of contemporary art that identifies key themes and approaches, providing the reader with a clear understanding of the contexts in which art is being made today...
Future generations will consider the beginning of the 21st century as a historic moment when the effectiveness of elections as a democratic procedure began to be exhausted. The primary reason for t...
Whether it's Double Indemnity, Kiss Me Deadly, or The Big Sleep, roam a screen world of dark and brooding elegance with this essential handbook to Film Noir. From private eyes and perfect crimes to...
Graphic Design School is organized into two main sections, ‘principles’ and ‘practice’. The first section deals with the fundamentals of design, such as composition, hierarc...
Sickness and health, birth and death, disease and cure: medicine and our understanding of the workings of our bodies and minds are an inextricable part of how we know who we are. As we face new cha...
The Greek myths are timeless classics, whose scenes and figures have captivated us since ancient times. The gods and heroes of these legends hold up a mirror to the human condition, embodying unive...
For centuries humanity has engaged in a virtual exploration of space through astronomical observation, aided by astounding scientific and technological advances. In more than sixty years since the ...
Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji and the three volumes of his subsequent One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji show his fascination with a single motif: Mount Fuji. Hokusai's near-obsession with ...