Over the last few decades the contemporary art world has become more globalized and more visible than ever before – and yet in many ways it remains closed and obscure. What actually happens behind the doors of a contemporary artist’s studio? At an auction house before a major sale? In the vaults of an art storage unit? How can art museums keep up with Instagram – and why does everyone seem to hate art fairs? Join curator, writer and art historian Matthew Israel on a year-long journey through the contemporary art world. From Los Angeles to Hong Kong via Venice, Basel, Paris and New York, from biennials in summer to auction houses in autumn, Israel reveals the joys and anxieties of this sometimes baffling, often intimidating field. Blending an insider’s knowledge with in-depth profiles, interviews with key art-world figures and a keen ear for an anecdote, A Year in the Art World is a compelling, generous companion for any art-lover curious about how art is being made, valued, sold, cared for and looked at today.

Comic, revealing, piquant, splendid and absurd, Breakfast at Sotheby's is a book of pleasure and intelligent observation. Breakfast at Sotheby's is a wry, intimate, truly revealing exploration of how art acquires its financial value, from Philip Hook, a senior director at Sotheby's 'Reading it is like participating in a hugely enjoyable personal tutorial given by a cultured, witty, clear-eyed, world teacher with a fully functioning sense of humour. A real delight' - Spectator 'Hook's view of the art world is that of the professional auctioneer. In an A-Z format, it is an entire art education contained in under 350 pages. Wry, dry and completely beguiling' - William Boyd, Guardian, Books of the Year 'How to nail the mad, bad, crazy contemporary art world in print? Sotheby's senior director Hook draws on 35 years' experience in this informal memoir. He unravels, with humour, piquancy and erudition, what drives the economics of taste' - Financial Times, Books of the Year 'It's very hard to write an amusing book about art that has some serious things to say. But Philip Hook has done it' - Sunday Times, Books of the Year 'An auctioneer's alphabet of quirky reflections and off-beat lists such as 'middle-brow artists' and 'fictional artists': an ideal volume for the art-lover's bedside' - Martin Gayford, Spectator, Books of the Year 'His delightful Breakfast at Sotheby's is a house sale of a book, a chance for him to clear out 35 years of memories as an art dealer and auctioneer, first at Christie's and then Sotheby's, a rival auction house' - Economist Philip Hook is a director and senior paintings specialist at Sotheby's. He has worked in the art world for thirty-five years during which time he has also been a director of Christie's and an international art dealer. He is the author of five novels and two works of art history, including The Ultimate Trophy, a history of the Impressionist Painting. Hook has appeared regularly on television, from 1978-2003 on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow.

Travel through time to discover the paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects that enrich our world. Are you seeking a lavishly illustrated timeline that showcases a glorious gallery of art from all around the world? Then Art Year By Year may be the book for you! Over 500 images of art movements such as the Renaissance, Neoclassicism, Impressionism, and Pop Art are explored and explained, accompanied by striking visual detail that truly brings the artwork to life. Further featuring biographies of the key figures behind some of the world's best-known artworks, from Botticelli and Hiroshige to Goncharova and Morisot, Art Year By Year has something for everyone to admire. With passion in every page, you can explore: - Feature panels discussing artists, art movements, and techniques - Specific works of art analysed, with details pulled out and explained - Pages that explore a single theme through time and across different cultures - Inspiring quotes from artists add insight With every story plotted on a timeline, the pages give a snapshot of each era, and reveal the influences and connections behind the artworks and artistic movements that have reflected our world. With more than 500 images of paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures, Art Year by Year is the ultimate visual guide to the history of art, century by century, year by year! A must-have art book for children and adults alike who are curious about art, whether you're an educator, an art enthusiast, or a lover of creativity seeking to explore some of the greatest known artworks throughout history, Art Year By Year is sure to delight.

Whether you're an art fan, aficionado, or collector, this completely unique book should be on your required reading list. Like a textbook for a class given by all of the world's leading experts, Collecting Contemporary Art is the one and only book to teach you everything you ever wanted to know about the contemporary art market. The introduction explains the ABCs of buying art on the primary and secondary markets, at auction, and at art fairs and gives an overview of the world art scene and its social circles. The main body of the book brings together tell-all interviews with the biggest players in the global art market: the Critic (Rimanelli), the Dealer (Boesky, Brunnet/Hackert, Coles, Deitch, Fortes, Gagosian, Gladstone, Glimcher, Hetzler, Lybke, Perrotin, Rosen, Shave, Wirth), the Consultant (Cortez, Fletcher, Heller, Segalot, Westreich), the Collector (Brant, Broad, Habsburg, Joannou, Lambert, Lehmann, Lopez, Paz, Pinault, Rothschild Foundation, Saatchi), the Auction House Expert (Cappellazzo, de Pury, Meyer), and the Museum Curator/Director (Dennison, Eccles, Heiss, Lowry, Peyton-Jones). Rounding up the book are chapters on the year in art collecting-giving a timeline of the most important annual auctions, exhibitions, fairs, etc. around the world-as well as a glossary of terms every art savvy player should know. The text is illustrated by the work of the hottest artists in today's market, including Matthew Barney, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, Lisa Yuskavage, and many more. All in all, these elements add up to the equivalent of an invaluable and privileged real-world collector's education-all between the covers of one book.

Matar was nineteen years old when his father was kidnapped. In the year following he found himself turning to art, particularly the great paintings of the Sienese School. They became a refuge and a way to think about the world outside the urgencies of the present. A quarter of a century later, having found no trace of his father, Matar finally visits the birthplace of those paintings. A Month in Siena is the encounter between the writer and the city. It is an immersion in painting, a consideration of love, grief and a profoundly moving contemplation of the relationship between art and life.

Words from the wise: insiders' tips on how to navigate the art market like a pro Art is about life, the art market is about money. -Damien Hirst Whether you're an art fan, aficionado, or collector, this completely unique book should be on your required reading list. Like a textbook for a class given by all of the world's leading experts, Collecting Contemporary is the one and only book to teach you everything you ever wanted to know about the contemporary art market. The introduction explains the ABCs of buying art on the primary and secondary markets, at auction, and at art fairs and gives an overview of the world art scene and its social circles. The main body of the book brings together tell-all interviews with the biggest players in the global art market: the Critic (Rimanelli), the Dealer (Boesky, Brunnet/Hackert, Coles, Deitch, Fortes, Gagosian, Gladstone, Glimcher, Hetzler, Lybke, Perrotin, Rosen, Shave, Wirth), the Consultant (Cortez, Fletcher, Heller, Segalot, Westreich), the Collector (Brant, Broad, Habsburg, Joannou, Lambert, Lehmann, Lopez, Paz, Pinault, Rothschild Foundation, Saatchi), the Auction House Expert (Cappellazzo, de Pury, Meyer), and the Museum Curator/Director (Dennison, Eccles, Heiss, Lowry, Peyton-Jones). Rounding up the book are chapters on the year in art collecting-giving a timeline of the most important annual auctions, exhibitions, fairs, etc. around the world-as well as a glossary of terms every art savvy player should know. The text is illustrated by the work of the hottest artists in today's market, including Matthew Barney, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, Lisa Yuskavage, and many more. All in all, these elements add up to the equivalent of an invaluable and privileged real-world collector's education-all between the covers of one book. About the author: Adam Lindemann started collecting tribal art as well as works of artists of the 80s before turning to contemporary art, which has been his passion for the past several years. This book was conceived as a short handbook of information and advice for new collectors, but Lindemann's research eventually led him to an international tour of the art world and personal interviews with some of its leading figures. The results are shared with the reader on these pages-along with images of over a hundred art works which help define the contemporary art market today. Издание на английском языке.

Prophet, poet, painter, engraver - William Blake (1757-1827) was an artist of uniquely powerful imagination and far-reaching creative gifts. His work expresses the spiritual drama of the English national being, integrating poetry and visual art in a sustained work of visionary creativity unparalleled in English art history.Revealing Blake to be far more than a revolutionary social radical, this classic study reshapes our understanding of the artist's achievement. Kathleen Raine details the enriching effect of mystical, alchemical and gnostic philosophy on Blake's art. She unravels the complex, deeply felt symbolism expressed in his paintings and prints, and describes the powerful impact of his reading of Dante, Milton and the Bible.Raine's compelling text guides the reader through the life and thought of this extraordinary artist. Fully alive to the uniqueness of Blake's art - which has "a reality, a coherence, a climate" all it's own - she introduces famous work such as Jerusalem, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Four Zoas and The Book of Job, relating them to Blake's world view and explaining their prophetic qualities, their fierce energy, and their central place in British Romantic art.

'A major work of art' Time A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic. They regard this disallusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.

This European masterpiece from the Nobel prizewinner explores the lure and degeneracy of ideas in an introverted community on the eve of World War I. Hans Castorp is 'a perfectly ordinary, if engaging young man' when he goes to visit his cousin in an exclusive sanatorium in the Swiss Alps. What should have been a three week trip turns into a seven year stay. Hans falls in love and becomes intoxicated with the ideas he hears at the clinic - ideas which will strain and crack apart in a world on the verge of the First World War.

The precious collection of paintings has established the Hermitage's reputation as one of the most important museums in the world, but the architectural ensemble on the banks of the Neva is also a masterpiece of world architecture. This magical triad of important paintings, treasures from around the world, and architecture attracts an ever-growing stream of visitors each year to St. Petersburg, a city full of wonders shaped by its rich history.

Designs of the time: The most famous art school of modernity. In a fleeting fourteen year period, sandwiched between two world wars, Germany's Bauhaus school of art and design changed the face of modernity. With utopian ideals for the future, the school developed a pioneering fusion of fine art, craftsmanship, and technology to be applied across painting, sculpture, design, architecture, film, photography, textiles, ceramics, theatre, and installation. As much an intense personal community as a publicly minded collective, the Bauhaus was first founded by Walter Gropius (1883–1969), and counted Josef and Anni Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer,Gunta Stölzl, Marianne Brandt and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe among its members. Between its three successive locations in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, the school fostered charistmatic and creative exchange between teachers and students, all varied in their artistic styles and preferences, but united in their idealism and their interest in a “total" work of art across different practices and media. This book celebrates the adventurous innovation of the Bauhaus movement, both as a trailblazer in the development of modernism, and as a paradigm of art education, where an all-encompassing freedom of creative expression and cutting-edge ideas led to functional and beautiful creations.

Matthew Parris's Parting Shots is a treasure trove of wit, venom and serious analysis. Up till 2006 a British Ambassador leaving his post was encouraged to write what was known as a valedictory despatch, to be circulated to a small number of influential people in government. This was the parting shot, an opportunity to offer a personal and frank view of the host country, the manners and morals of its people, their institutions, the state of their cooking and their drains. But it was also a chance to let rip at the Foreign Office itself and to look back on a career spent in the service of a sometimes ungrateful nation. Combining gems from the archives with more recent despatches obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Parting Shots sheds light on Britain's place in the world, revealing the curious cocktail of privilege and privation that makes up the life of an ambassador.

In June 1925, twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg, suffering from hay fever, had retreated to the treeless, wind-battered island of Helgoland in the North Sea in order to think. Walking all night, by dawn he had wrestled with an idea that would transform the whole of science and our very conception of the world. In Helgoland Carlo Rovelli tells the story of the birth of quantum physics and its bright young founders who were to become some of the most famous Nobel winners in science. It is a celebration of youthful rebellion and intellectual revolution. An invitation to a magical place. Here Rovelli illuminates competing interpretations of this science and offers his own original view, describing the world we touch as a fabric woven by relations. Where we, as every other thing around us, exist in our interactions with one another, in a never-ending game of mirrors. A dazzling work from a celebrated scientist and master storyteller, Helgoland transports us to dizzying heights, reminding us of the many pleasures of the life of the mind.

The beloved star of Friends takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this candid, funny, and revelatory memoir that delivers a powerful message of hope and persistence. 'Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.' So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who travelled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more. In an extraordinary story that only he could tell - and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it - Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he's found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humour, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fuelled it despite seemingly having it all. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening - as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.

Edward Bellamys prophetic novel about a young Boston man who is mysteriously transported from the 19th to the 21st century--from a world of war and want to a world of peace and plenty. The year is 2000. The place: Utopian America. The hero: anyone who has ever longed for escape to a better life... Translated into more than twenty languages, and the most widely read novel of its time, Looking Backward is more than a brilliant visionarys view of the future. It is a blueprint of the "perfect society," a guidebook that stimulated some of the greatest thinkers of our age. Today--in the very era it attempted to visualize--it is even more compelling than ever. With an Introduction by Walter James Miller And an Afterword by Eliot Fintushel

Edward Bellamys prophetic novel about a young Boston man who is mysteriously transported from the 19th to the 21st century--from a world of war and want to a world of peace and plenty. The year is 2000. The place: Utopian America. The hero: anyone who has ever longed for escape to a better life... Translated into more than twenty languages, and the most widely read novel of its time, Looking Backward is more than a brilliant visionarys view of the future. It is a blueprint of the "perfect society," a guidebook that stimulated some of the greatest thinkers of our age. Today--in the very era it attempted to visualize--it is even more compelling than ever. With an Introduction by Walter James Miller And an Afterword by Eliot Fintushel