Dada was probably the most perplexing, astonishing and revolutionary art movement in world art history. How does one account for a work such as Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain' 1917, a porcelain urinal just as if taken from a men's toilet, tipped sideways, inscribed with the fictional artist's name of 'R. Mutt' and submitted for prestigious exhibition in New York? Or a performance at the Cabaret Voltaire at around the same time in Zürich where an audience is goaded into a hostile reaction to no...

Matisse's profound impact on twentieth century art makes him essential to understanding the art of the present. His art conveys some of the most uplifting, life affirming imagery in western culture. At the same time it is among the most creative and influential.This ebook povides an understanding of Henri Matisse and his revolutionary art to students and anyone who wants to understand and appreciate this outstanding and much loved artist. Discussion is focused around the keys to de...

The story of Australian Colonial art. This ebook provides a comprehensive introduction to Australia's history and development from precolonial times, discovery, settlement and exploration to the centenary period (1880s) through the eyes of the artists at the time, including free settlers, visitors and convicts. It explores the way artists related to their new and alien landscape, the indigenous population and emerging society over time. The art is presented with analysis in its historical ...

Nineteenth century France was a period of rapid modernisation and expansion. Édouard Manet, the quintessential painter of modern life, was a man of his times and his paintings were powerful, often shocking, representations of modern society. In particular, Manet scandalised French society with his iconoclastic depictions of women as objects of pleasure and commerce, as products of a burgeoning capitalism and a commodity of the bourgeois male. An understanding of the historical and social c...