David Hockney's reflections on life and art, drawn from conversations during his time self-isolating in rural Normandy, alongside his iPad drawings and paintings.On turning eighty, David Hockney sought out rustic tranquillity for the first time: a place to watch the sunset and the changing seasons, and to keep the noise of the world at bay. When Covid-19 and lockdown followed, life at La Grande Cour—the centuries-old Normandy farmhouse where he had set up a studio ...

David Hockney has been described as Britain's 'greatest living artist'. In this fascinating collection of archive interviews we hear - in his own words - about his paintings, his schooldays and the attitudes he had while growing up. Hockney discusses the influence that his family had on him, as well as his passion for drawing and his work rate. He also touches on the importance of different types of medium, the different periods in his life - and his future.Due to the age and natur...

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 ...

The third volume of Richardson’s magisterial Life of Picasso, a groundbreaking contribution to our understanding of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.Here is Picasso at the height of his powers in Rome and Naples, producing the sets and costumes with Cocteau for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and visiting Pompei where the antique statuary fuel his obsession with classicism; in Paris, creating some of his most important sculpture and paintin...

The prize-winning scholar's "expert, holistic, down-to-earth guide" to the beauty and function of architecture ( Booklist , starred review).We spend most of our days and nights in buildings. They are the setting of our everyday lives as well as a public art form. Yet architecture remains a mystery to most of us. In How Architecture Works, Witold Rybczynski, a renowned critic and winner of the Vincent Scully Prize f...

Picasso was born a Spaniard and, so they say, began to draw before he could speak. As an infant he was instinctively attracted to artist’s tools. In early childhood he could spend hours in happy concentration drawing spirals with a sense and meaning known only to himself. At other times, shunning children’s games, he traced his first pictures in the sand. This early self-expression held out promise of a rare gift. Málaga must be mentioned, for it was there, on 25 October 1881, that Pablo R...

Interviews with the French American progenitor of conceptual art, revealing in his own words his artistic journey and commitment to avant-garde art.Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp is a collection of in-depth interviews with the artist, covering his transition from painting to conceptual art, the creation of the Large Glass, his invention of "readymades," and his preference for art that is intellectual or "pre-meditated" versus art that inspires "ret...

This insightful title explores children’s relationship with and understanding of architecture and its impact on their world.Children are rarely introduced properly to architecture, but there are in fact few subjects more important—because the quality of the architecture that surrounds us has such an impact on our mood and sense of well-being.The bitter truth is that in modern times we’ve built a world that’s far too often ugly or charmless—and we’ve done so...

A painter of the Impressionist movement, Alfred Sisley was born on October 30th 1839 in Paris but was of British origin. He died on January 29th 1899 in Moret-sur-Loing. Growing up in a musical family, he chose to pursue painting rather than the field of business. In 1862 he enrolled in Gleyre’s studio where he encountered Renoir, Monet, and Bazille. The four friends left their master’s studio in March 1863 to work outdoors, setting their easels to paint the forest scenes of Fontainebleau....

Art Nouveau gives a name to the decorative and architectural style developed in the 1880s and 1890s in the West. Born in reaction to the Industrial Revolution and to the creative vacuum it left behind, Art Nouveau was at the heart of a “renaissance” in the decorative arts. The primary objective of the movement was the creation of a new aesthetic of nature through a return to the study of natural subjects. In order to achieve this, artists such as Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Antoni Gaudí, ...

For Claude Monet the designation ‘impressionist’ always remained a source of pride. In spite of all the things critics have written about his work, Monet continued to be a true impressionist to the end of his very long life. He was so by deep conviction, and for his Impressionism he may have sacrificed many other opportunities that his enormous talent held out to him. Monet did not paint classical compositions with figures, and he did not become a portraitist, although his professional tra...

IntroductionArt Deco derived from France in 1908 to 1939. The trend took off in the 1920’s and quickly flourished throughout many parts of the world. The Great Depression resulted in the style to tail off as people were looking for something new. The style began to wane further with the onset of the Second World War as people cared less for luxury and glamour as they had more important things to worry about during the war like basic needs for survival like food and shelter. There a...