Symbols in Art by Matthew Wilson - Published: Thames and Hudson Ltd - 17-09-2020 - 176 pages.
Art - Art Reference, History & Theory - 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, an object of fascination and mysticism in Aztec culture, usually represents sin in the west. Yinka Shonibare’s Last Supper (2013) plays on the grapevine’s historic associations to satiric and startling effect.
Matt Wilson explores symbolism’s subtle implications and overt and covert meanings, providing an indispensable tool for interpretation. A reference section includes suggestions for further reading and a glossary of art and historical terms.
Imagining England's Past: Inspiration, Enchantment, Obsession by Susan Owens - Published: Thames and Hudson Ltd - 2023-04-13 - 320 pages.
Imagining England’s Past takes a long look at the country’s invented histories, from the glamorous to the disturbing, from the eighth century to the present day.
England has long built its sense of self on visions of its past. What does it mean for medieval writers to summon King Arthur from the post-Roman fog; for William Morris to resurrect the skills of the medieval workshop and Julia Margaret Cameron to portray the Arthurian court with her Victorian camera; or for Yinka Shonibare in the final years of the twentieth century to visualize a Black Victorian dandy?
By exploring the imaginations of successive generations, this book reveals how diverse notions of the past have inspired literature, art, music, architecture and fashion. It shines a light on subjects from myths to mock-Tudor houses, Stonehenge to steampunk, and asks how – and why – the past continues so powerfully to shape the present. Not a history of England, but a history of those who have written, painted and dreamed it into being, Imagining England's Past offers a lively, erudite account of the making and manipulation of the days of old.
Praise for Imagining England's Past
'Susan Owens conjures our imagined past with such vivacity and lyricism that I can see the dawn mist rising over fabled fields and hear the tread of fictional histories on the worn stairs of yesteryear. Packed full of myths, stories, poems and paintings I found this book impossible to put down!'
Charlotte Mullins, broadcaster, art critic and author of A Little History of Art
Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years by Catrin Jones and Chris Stephens - Published: Thames and Hudson Ltd - 23-01-2020 - 176 pages.
Art - Artist Monographs - The first book to concentrate on the early ceramic work of ‘Transvestite Potter’, bestselling author, broadcaster and social commentator Grayson Perry.
Grayson Perry is now a household name as a result of his widely viewed television documentaries, numerous publications – including his critically acclaimed book about masculinity, The Descent of Man – and dazzling appearances dressed as his alter ego, Claire. However, Perry first came to public attention in 2003 when he won the Turner Prize, the first ceramicist to do so, and rapidly established a unique brand as ‘the transvestite potter’. Ceramics are still central to Perry’s work as an artist, and this book examines the plates, pots and statues from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s that laid the foundations of his career. It traces his artistic development, examining the iconography and meaning behind the work, as well as placing his art in the context not only of his own psychological make-up in the period before he underwent therapy but also of the various subcultures of the London art scene.
With essays by Grayson Perry, Andrew Wilson and Catrin Jones.
