This richly illustrated book plunges you into the vibrant and provocative world of graffiti and street art in this wide-ranging exploration of a much-misunderstood culture. Our journey spans the tumultuous birth of graffiti in 1970s New York, to its explosive growth and evolution. Be seduced by the visceral impact of the bright colours and intricate shapes, the hard-hitting social and political commentary, and the stories that spontaneously spring from our urban canvases. This book encapsu...

This richly illustrated book plunges you into the vibrant and provocative world of graffiti and street art in this wide-ranging exploration of a much-misunderstood culture. Our journey spans the tumultuous birth of graffiti in 1970s New York, to its explosive growth and evolution. Be seduced by the visceral impact of the bright colours and intricate shapes, the hard-hitting social and political commentary, and the stories that spontaneously spring from our urban canvases. This book encapsu...

A fly-on-the-wall account of the smart and strange subcultures that make, trade, curate, collect, and hype contemporary art.The art market has been booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion.In a series of beautifully paced narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie's auction, the wo...

For skeptics, art lovers, and the millions of us who visit art galleries every year—and are confused—What Are You Looking At? by former director of London’s Tate Gallery Will Gompertz is a wonderfully lively, accessible narrative history of Modern Art, from Impressionism to the present day.What is modern art? Who started it? Why do we either love it or loathe it? And why is it such big money? Join BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz on a dazzling tour that will ...

Keith Haring is synonymous with the downtown New York art scene of the 1980's. His artwork-with its simple, bold lines and dynamic figures in motion-filtered in to the world's consciousness and is still instantly recognizable, twenty years after his death. This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition features ninety black-and-white images of classic artwork and never-before-published Polaroid images, and is a remarkable glimpse of a man who, in his quest to become an artist, instead became an icon...

Travel through the history of architecture in The LEGO Architect. You’ll learn about styles like Art Deco, Modernism, and High-Tech, and find inspiration in galleries of LEGO models. Then take your turn building 12 models in a variety of styles. Snap together some bricks and learn architecture the fun way!

This compelling narrative goes behind the scenes with the world’s most important living artists to humanize and demystify contemporary art.The best-selling author of Seven Days in the Art World now tells the story of the artists themselves—how they move through the world, command credibility, and create iconic works.33 Artists in 3 Acts offers unprecedented access to a dazzling range of artists, from international superstars to unheralded ...

From posters to cars, design is everywhere. While we often discuss the aesthetics of design, we don't always dig deeper to unearth the ways design can overtly, and covertly, convince us of a certain way of thinking. How Design Makes Us Think collects hundreds of examples across graphic design, product design, industrial design, and architecture to illustrate how design can inspire, provoke, amuse, anger, or reassure us.Graphic designer Sean Adams walks us through the power...

How dull plays are killing theatre and what we can do about it.Had I become disenchanted with the form I had once fallen so madly in love with as a pubescent, pimple-faced suburban homo with braces? Maybe theatre was like an all-consuming high school infatuation that now, ten years later, I saw as the closeted balding guy with a beer gut he’d become. There were of course those rare moments of transcendencethat kept me coming back. But why did they come so few a...

Now that we 'curate' even lunch, what happens to the role of the connoisseur in contemporary culture?‘Curate’ is now a buzzword, applied to everything from music festivals to artisanal cheese. Inside the art world, the curator reigns supreme, acting as the face of high-profile group shows and biennials in a way that can eclipse and assimilate the contributions of individual artists. Curatorial-studies programs continue to grow, and the business world is adopting cu...

If you've ever considered going to an art museum and then thought, errr, I'll do something else ... If you've ever arrived at one and left a little glazed and confused ... If you've ever thought, I might read an eight-page article about art museums but not a whole book ... Then this is your story. Museum Legs -- taken from a term for art fatigue -- starts with a question: Why do people get bored and tired in art museums and why does that matter? "Amy Whitaker's sparkling meditations on the mu...