Series: Art Essentials

An essential guide to how the power of art has been harnessed to effect political change across the modern world, from the struggle for universal suffrage to Black Lives Matter. Here is a well-researched, concise guide to protest art, exploring what happens when artists join forces with radical political movements to foster change. The works and movements discussed emerged at...

New in the Art Essentials series, an introductory guide to the art of looking at and engaging with photography. Everything counts in a good photograph, even down to the smallest details. This introductory guide is structured to help you develop new and more in-depth ways of looking at images, whether as a viewer or practitioner - or just out snapping...

With its bold colours, flashy imagery, and ironic spirit, Pop Art trespasses the traditional boundaries separating high from low culture. Pop Art by Flavia Frigeri introduces us to a movement that focuses on everyday objects, from its beginnings in the post-war consumerism of America and Britain to its fascinating rise on a global scale in the 1960s. The work of...

Surrealism was launched as a literary and artistic movement by French poet André Breton in 1924, and by the time of his death in 1966, it had become one of the most popular art movements of the 20th century. Its very name has entered everyday usage as a synonym for the bizarre. Taking the reader on a narrative journey through...

Iconography, the study of symbols—be they animals, artefacts, plants, shapes or gestures—is an essential element of art history. This guide unravels over fifty of the most common and intriguing visual symbols from across the globe from 2300 BCE to the present day. While symbols cross dialects and national boundaries, their meanings can vary and are often culturally specific. The snake,...

A plain speaking, jargon-free account of contemporary art that identifies key themes and approaches, providing the reader with a clear understanding of the contexts in which art is being made today. Since the 1960s, contemporary art has overturned the accepted historical categorizations of what constitutes art, who creates it, and how it is represented and validated. This guide brings the...

In a brand-new approach, this book presents photography in all its principal forms of experience, to portray the unique characteristics of this accessible and universally appealing medium. Arranged chronologically, legendary photographs are discussed alongside photobooks that represent a significant contribution towards photography, as well as important exhibitions that marked a shift in outlook, values, and approach. In art history, particular...

This lively introduction tells the ever-evolving story of abstract art, tracing its history from the early 1900s right up to the present day. Emerging out of western movements such as Cubism and Expressionism, abstract art quickly became a global phenomenon, changing the face of modern and contemporary art. Stephanie Straine weaves accounts of well-known pioneers with fascinating insights into lesser-known...

Jessica Lack introduces fifty pioneering modern and contemporary art movements born out of political engagement, decolonisation, marginalisation, or conflict. These movements have aimed to revitalise society by challenging the status quo. While not as well known as Pop Art, Dada, and Futurism, these associations of artists—such as the Saqqakhaneh artists of Iran, the Stridentists of Mexico, Jikken Kobo of Japan,...

For more than 2,000 years, the art of Greece and Rome has lain at the heart of western civilisation. Greek and Roman Art by Susan Woodford recaptures the excitement of the artists who first created it. It traces the daring innovations of those who, defying traditional wisdom, explored new ideas. It describes the valiant struggles of sculptors and painters to...

It is often forgotten just how provocative Impressionist canvases seemed when they were first exhibited in 1874. The advocates of the new style rejected the established principles of art prevalent at that time in France. Impressionism traces Impressionism's origins to its spread to America and Australia. Ralph Skea shows how Impressionist artists transformed everyday subject matter. Daringly using colour and...

Street Art is a phenomenon and subcultural movement that reaches from the darkest urban backstreets to the most glamorous international art fairs. Simon Armstrong examines how it evolved from its origins in the 1970s New York graffiti scene to embrace many new materials, styles and techniques along the way, tracing how this marginal art form graduated into art galleries and...

The History of Western Art by Janetta Rebold Benton is a concise, reader-friendly illustrated survey of Western art and architecture from prehistory to the present day. Acknowledging how architecture, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts reflect the culture and society of their time, this latest addition to the Art Essentials series invites the reader to experience and appreciate the entirety...

Manifesting in a broad range of media, from massive land and environmental works and extensive sculpture parks to giant public murals, destination art demands to be found and met in its own space and on its own terms. Some works require a committed pilgrimage to find—in deserts, forests, and quarries; on farmland and in mountains; in ghost towns and nature...

Modern Art takes the reader through individual movements from Impressionism to Conceptual Art, situating these within five broader chronological themes. Starting with Impressionism in 1860, Dempsey proceeds through the essentials of Modernism, the post-war New Disorder and beyond. The material is arranged with great care to lead the reader through over seventy essential topics of modern art in a practical...

The History of African Art by Suzanne Preston Blier offers a concise, accessible, and up-to-date overview of the arts of Africa from prehistoric times to the present day. This indispensable introductory guide explores the art of the African continent from its early origins over 150,000 years ago to the contemporary age. It is set in the context of post-colonial debates,...

The visual arts enrich our lives in many ways, bringing innovative ideas and the pleasures of beauty and emotion, but they can also confound. How to Understand Art sets out to enhance the viewer's experience by breaking down the elements of art and sculpture to provide a firm basis for simple enjoyment as well as further investigation. With 100 visual...

Looking at Pictures can be a delightful, exciting or moving experience, but some pictures—often the most rewarding—require some explanation before they can be fully understood. Delving into the origins, designs and themes of over 100 pictures from different periods and places, this book illuminates the art of looking at—and talking about—pictures. Woodford shows how you can read a picture by...

'This book refreshed my perspective ... I was galvanised and reassured. Guided, taught and counselled. We make cool stuff. We always have. I'm full of thanks for it' Kae Tempest 'The most beautiful way to know ourselves better is to pick up and flick through the pages of this insightful collection of superb queer artists' Russell Tovey 'A cavalcade of...

Focusing on fifty diverse women artists, from Lavinia Fontana and Artemisia Gentileschi through Judy Chicago, Ana Mendieta and the Guerrilla Girls to Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman and Louise Bourgeois, this book equips the reader with a general understanding of the history of art by women, as well as an appreciation of its most outstanding figures. Traditionally, women have been among...

Self-portraiture shows no sign of losing its ability to capture the public imagination. Given our current proclivity to snap and share 'selfies' in seconds, it is unsurprising to find a renewed interest in the genre among general audiences and students. Self-portraits have the power to illuminate a range of universal concerns, from identity, purpose and authenticity, to frailty, futility and...

Key Moments in Art describes fifty pivotal moments—some famous, others unfamiliar—from the Renaissance to the present day. Vivid, colourful vignettes capture the excitement of their times: when Michelangelo's David or Marcel Duchamp's Fountain were unveiled for the first time; when chance meetings have spurred artists to create compelling new styles, such as Impressionism or Pop Art; or when exhibitions have...