Books published by Yale University Press

A pioneering collector of Cubist art, the English art historian and critic Douglas Cooper was one of the most important—and controversial—figures in the international art world of the 20th century   Born into a wealthy family whose money was made in the 19th century in Australia, Cooper (1911- 1984) built up much of his collection of works by Picasso, Braque, Gris and Léger in the 1930s. He also trained himself to become a respected art historian, his reputation as a scholar resting largely on his catalogue of the Courtauld Collection (1954) and his catalogue raisonné of Juan Gris (1977). He also curated exhibitions of Gauguin, Braque and two major displays of Cubism. The second of these, The Essential Cubism, held at the Tate Gallery in 1983, was one of the most remarkable accumulations of Cubist painting, sculpture and drawings ever assembled.   Based on extensive research and packed with new material and fresh interpretations, IRASCIBLE! focuses attention on Cooper’s colourful life and significant accomplishments: his financing and directorship of the Mayor Gallery in London as a very young man in the 1930s, when he became close to artists such as Francis Bacon, Paul Nash, Henry Moore, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, and Max Ernst; his wartime experiences as an ambulance driver in support of the collapsing French army in 1940; his job as a senior Monuments Man in charge of tracking down Nazi-looted art in Switzerland; his move to Provence in the early 1950s, taking his collection with him; and his legendary clashes with leading figures and institutions in the British art world. This book is the definitive account of Cooper’s collecting, art dealing, writing and curating.

The remarkable untold story of Shakespeare's first theatre - the playhouse before the Globe In 1576, in a muddy field in Shoreditch, James Burbage erected London's first purpose-built commercial playhouse. A place of high culture and quick profit, run by cunning dreamers, the Theatre for the first time offered London's players the chance to control what they staged. At a time when playgoing was held to be close to a sin, this entertainment factory was a flashpoint for controversy - but would also become Shakespeare's first theatre, where he learned to ply his trade before his company moved to the Globe.   Through the life of this little-known playhouse, Daniel Swift tells the story of how Shakespeare became Shakespeare, and the Elizabethan stage began to flourish. Introducing us to the businessmen who dreamed up the Theatre, the carpenters who built it, the preachers who hated it, and the actors who performed upon its small stage, The Dream Factory recreates the world that produced Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream - and the audiences who first saw them.

The creative and collaborative history of vanguard printmaking studio and publisher Brand X

The life, dramatic reign, and enduring legacy of the pharaoh Ramesses the Great, with lessons for the present, from internationally acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson

The untold history of slavery and resistance in California, from the Spanish missions, indentured Native American ranch hands, Indian boarding schools, Black miners, kidnapped Chinese prostitutes, and convict laborers to victims of modern trafficking

An exploration of a powerful voice in contemporary art whose works distill art history, philosophy, and world events

The stranger-than-fiction story of the Enlightenment visionaries who discovered the unexpected effects of inhaling nitrous oxide   At the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol, England, founded in the closing years of the eighteenth century, dramatic experiments with gases precipitated not only a revolution in scientific medicine but also in the history of ideas. Guided by the energy of maverick doctor Thomas Beddoes, the institution was both laboratory and hospital—the first example of a modern medical research institution. But when its members discovered the mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, their experiments devolved into a pioneering exploration of consciousness with far-reaching and unforeseen effects.   This riveting book is the first to tell the story of Dr. Beddoes and the brilliant circle who surrounded him: Erasmus Darwin, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey, who supported his ideas; James Watt, who designed and built his laboratory; Thomas Wedgwood, who funded it; and the dazzling young chemistry assistant, Humphry Davy, who identified nitrous oxide and tested it on himself, with spectacular results. Medical historian Mike Jay charts the chaotic rise and fall of the institution in this fast-paced account, and reveals its crucial influence—on modern drug culture, attitudes toward objective and subjective knowledge, the development of anesthetic surgery, and the birth of the Romantic movement.

"This publications highlights the Alex Katz Foundation Collection, of over 150 works, at the Portland Museum of Art. The collection includes artists with strong ties to the state of Maine, leading figures in American modernism, a strong core of work by some of today's rising artists, and major figures in the global contemporary art sphere. This book also includes selected essays by the artists"--

A showcase of a collection spanning from Old Master prints to innovative contemporary works

A brisk, concise, and readable overview of Irish history from the Protestant Reformation to the dawn of the twenty-first century

A controversial Swahili classic by one of Tanzania’s most revered writers, banned on publication and finally translated into English

This survey of the life and work of American painter Susan Watkins explores how she and other women artists carved paths to success at the turn of the twentieth century

A founding document of African American Studies, reissued for today’s students and scholars

A compelling examination of how economic development projects ignore local history, and of the effects of this shortsightedness

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

The final volume of Marcel Proust’s masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time

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