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Charting Auguste Rodin’s relationships with the dancers who shaped his signature style and his mythic persona. Juliet Bellow traces Rodin’s interactions with dance makers and performers during his late career (1890-1912) through a series of interrelated case studies. His exchanges with Loïe Fuller, Vaslav Nijinsky, and members of the Cambodian Royal Ballet troupe were central to Rodin’s development of a modern sculptural aesthetic and the construction of his artistic celebrity. But this was not a simple case of one-way influence. These performers actively courted an affiliation with Rodin, wielding sculpture’s cultural authority to move dance from the realm of commercial entertainment to that of “high art.” Bringing together art history and performance studies, Rodin’s Dancers demonstrates that in their search for innovation, dancers and sculptors experimented with one another’s means of expression, sites of display, and techniques of publicity. The book provides more than a new interpretation of Rodin’s art: it considers how and why the name “Rodin” came to stand for a powerful constellation of ideas about art, authorship, and creative genius within the vibrant spectacle culture of Belle Époque Paris.
A shattering tale of oppression and resistance during Franco’s dictatorship, by a beloved Spanish novelist
Manifesto houses reflect new visions for how we can live. Often extreme and uncompromising, they are vehicles for innovation, new ideas and news ways of doing things. Most houses are the product of multiple layers of norms and expectations built up over time, whether methods, materials and technologies, or social, cultural, economic and political pressures. Yet, at various moments houses have been built that break with the past and do something different – houses that stand outside of these expectations and instead are conceived to embody whole new theories or agendas. We call these ‘manifesto houses’. For the first time, this compelling thread in the history of architecture is surveyed by Owen Hopkins. He brings together a collection of twenty-one such manifesto houses, exploring the visions for architecture conjured by Andrea Palladio, Eileen Gray, Frank Lloyd Wright, Harry Seidler, Lina Bo Bardi, Anupama Kundoo and Sou Fujimoto, among others. The Manifesto House: Buildings that Changed the Future of Architecture looks in detail at the ideas and ambitions embodied in each house, the contexts that shaped them and their subsequent impact and influence on the future of architecture.
The two-volume definitive resource of prints by postwar American artist Richard Diebenkorn
A vital, engaging, and hugely enjoyable guide to poetry, from ancient times to the present, by one of our greatest champions of literature
The dramatic story of a pivotal figure in the Haitian Revolution, who shook the Atlantic world to its core
For curious readers young and old, a rich and colorful history of religion from humanity's earliest days to our own contentious times In an era of hardening religious attitudes and explosive religious violence, this book offers a welcome antidote. Richard Holloway retells the entire history of religion-from the dawn of religious belief to the twenty-first century-with deepest respect and a keen commitment to accuracy. Writing for those with faith and those without, and especially for young readers, he encourages curiosity and tolerance, accentuates nuance and mystery, and calmly restores a sense of the value of faith. A Ranging far beyond the major world religions of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, Holloway also examines where religious belief comes from, the search for meaning throughout history, today's fascinations with Scientology and creationism, religiously motivated violence, hostilities between religious people and secularists, and more. Holloway proves an empathic yet discerning guide to the enduring significance of faith and its power from ancient times to our own.
A lively, engaging guide to music around the world, from prehistory to the present
A deeply researched history of assassination in the modern world, from Franz Ferdinand to Osama bin Laden
A rich history of Gilded Age partisan politics, aesthetics, and the creation of New York City’s Civil War monuments
A biography of Horace, one of the most popular poets from antiquity, revealing the little-known man behind his famous lines
Sussex Modernism looks at how artists and writers harnessed the landscapes, cultures and histories of their locations to reimagine how art should be made. This wide-reaching book by Hope Wolf explores a breadth of work by over 70 artists associated with different modernist movements, comparing divergent forms of creativity generated in this rich and varied region. While some who visited or had a home in Sussex practised a kind of dissident retreat, others took an explicitly activist position. Well-known figures, including Virginia Woolf, Jacob Epstein, David Jones, Gluck, Edward Burra and Lee Miller, are joined by countercultural artists of the 1960-80s. Women artists whose power was regional rather than national are also introduced, as are the voices of modernism's opponents. This is a book of jostling perspectives on art, place and politics. Offering a new history of modernism, this book intertwines literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, film, photography, textiles, music, domestic decoration and horticultural experiments across a period of over 100 years. It reflects on how forward-thinking ideas reverberate today and reveals much more is to be learned from how artists drew on their capacities within Sussex to promote psychic and social change.
The first collected correspondence of one of America’s greatest songwriters—revealing a fascinating life and lasting influence
The first in-depth study since the 1980s of the Royal Pavilion ina building that is often considered the most poignant architectural expression of the Romantic imagination and that has become a hallmark of Regency style Created between 1787 and 1823 by , the Royal Pavilion in Brighton is perhaps the most daring and enchanting example of a building that expresses the European fascination with what in the early nineteenth century was considered the ‘Orient’, in particular China and India. who with the contributions of several other gifted and inventive architects, artists and designers, created a building that draws you in, takes you on a journey and plays with your senses. Featuring new photography, this lavishly illustrated book will provide a fresh look at the sumptuous Chinoiserie interiors of the Royal Pavilion and their enduring appeal. Drawing on recent research, conservation projects, and A Prince’s Treasure: From Buckingham Palace to the Royal Pavilion (2019-2022), this book will celebrate the colours and sensual beauty of these interiors while situating the Royal Pavilion in the context of the time of its creation and development under royal ownership, from its beginning in the wake of the French Revolution, through its transformation and extension , to its fate and legacy in the early Victorian era.
A broad and deep survey of American intelligence from before the Revolution to the present
An absorbing history of Europe’s nine most puzzling texts, including the biggest mystery of all: the Voynich Manuscript
The remarkable history of Britain and its animals, told through ten iconic species
A leading economist explores the U.S. dollar’s inexorable postwar global expansion and argues that today’s outsized footprint may portend greater financial instability at home and abroad
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