Jeremy Lewison Libri

Accompanying a major exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, this book explores the life and work of renowned feminist artist Alice Neel, 1900-1948.

Karl Weskchke came to Enland as a German prisoner of war and has stayed here ever since. This book tells the story of Weschke's life, from his beginnings as a street child, his war experiences, the gradual humanising process he underwent in the POW camps, and his artistic development.

Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946) is one of the most important Finnish artist of the first half of the twentieth century. While her painterly oeuvre attracts a great deal of attention in Scandinavia, she is largely unknown abroad. This comprehensive monograph introduces the life and work of the painter with over 80 impressive works from all of her creative phases. The publication shows how despite her physical isolation, the artist remained in touch with her contemporaries through Illustrations from art and fashion magazines. Here, both the famous self-portraits and the picture Series ‘The Convalescent’, ‘The Seamstress’ and ‘The Death of Wilhelm von Schwerin’ play a crucial role, as do as numerous portraits of women and the less-well-known, extraordinary male nudes and history paintings.

Employing the likes of Kim Philby, Vita Sackville-West, Clive James and Patrick O'Donovan (who became famous for writing his report on Bobby Kennedy's funeral before it had taken place) he doubled the circulation and created a paper envied and admired.

Minimalist bodies, sensual forms The sensual, voluptuous shapes in the work of British sculptor Henry Moore (1889-1986) are the sign of his unmistakable signature style. Often depicting human or human-like forms—especially female—Moore`s sculptures, with their abstract style, brought a distinctive brand of Modernism to fine art. His cast bronze and carved marble sculptures grace the gardens and galleries of the world`s finest museums and have earned him a devoted following. Particularly beloved are his many mother-and-child compositions. About the Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series

Jackson Pollock was one of the most innovative painters of the 20th century. While Picasso and Braque's Cubism shattered the tradition of single, fixed-point perspective, and Matisse broke with the notion of naturalistic color, Pollock abandoned the tradition of easel painting and executed his paintings on the floor, some on a monumental scale. He developed a way of working in which he poured, dripped, or splashed the paint onto the canvas, allowing the pull of gravity to play a full part in the execution of the work. Walking around the painting, at times standing on it, Pollock became immersed in the act of painting. The source of his art, he claimed, was the unconscious. Pollock's radical approach to abstract painting was underscored, however by a residual interest in the future which, until recently has consistently been ignored in interpreting the celebrated dripped paintings. In examining the nature of Pollock's painting, Jeremy Lewison discusses Pollock's rivalry with Picasso, the impact of Jung, the meanings embedded within the works, the context in which they were seen, and the mythology which surrounds his persona. This is a wide-ranging and stimulating introduction to one of the most challenging and influential artists of the 20th century.

Alice Neel, Uptown' explores Neel's interest in the extraordinary diversity of twentieth century New York City and the people amongst whom she lived. The selected portraits include cultural and political figures admired by Neel, among them playwright, actor, and author Alice Childress; the sociologist Horace R. Cayton, Jr., whose 1945 Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City is among the key academic studies of the African American urban experience in the early twentieth century; the community activist and cultural advocate Mercedes Arroyo; and the academic Harold Cruse, known for known for his widely-published academic book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967) and for teaching at LeRoi Jones's Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School in Harlem. Other figures include neighbors and acquaintances, such as a ballet dancer; a young art student; a taxi driver; a traveling businessman; a local boy (Georgie Arce) who ran errands for Neel and who sat for her on several occasions; and other children and their families

J. M. William Turner (1775-1851), Claude Monet (1840-1926) und Cy Twombly (1928-2011) zählen zu den bedeutendsten Malern der letzten 150 Jahre. Sie galten jeweils als radikale Künstler, erweiterten die zu ihren Zeiten gültigen Grenzen der Malerei und waren zunächst umstritten. Der Band konzentriert sich auf das Spätwerk der Maler - Arbeiten von besonderer Leichtigkeit und Intensität, da die Ansprüche an Oberfläche und Vollendung sich mit der Gelassenheit des Alters wandeln. Die Künstler betrachten für sie zentrale Themen mit Abstand erneut, wobei ein klares Bewusstsein der eigenen Sterblichkeit ihr Schaffen durchzieht. Der Band stellt die Modernität von Turner und Monet in den Vordergrund und demonstriert gleichzeitig die starke Anziehungskraft, die klassizistische Tendenzen auf Twomblys Spätwerk ausüben. Betrachtet wird auch das keinesfalls Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts erloschene Interesse an der Romantik und am Erhabenen. Ausstellungen: Moderna Museet, Stockholm 8.10.2011-15.1.2012 Staatsgalerie Stuttgart 11.2.-28.5.2012 Tate, Liverpool 22.6.-28.10.2012