Τέχνη

Frank Bros was at the forefront of modern furniture sales in the United States during the middle of the twentieth century, serving as the primary retailer for some of the most recognisable names in mid-century design including Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, Van Keppel Green and Bruno Matthsson, amongst many others. As the interior designers for over half of the Case Study Houses, Frank Bros helped define a branch of modernism unique to Southern California.

This unique publication documents the history of a store that changed the way Americans responded to their domestic environment. Using pioneering methodologies and practices such as in-house exhibitions, eye-catching graphic design and a specialised sales force, Frank Bros not only promoted a re-envisioned post-war lifestyle, but also educated the public on the precepts of good design.

Covering the entire history of the store, as well as its lasting legacy, Frank Bros: The Store That Modernized Modern comprises archival material, ephemera, essays and interviews providing a rich complexion of the influence that one store in Long Beach had across an entire country.

Published in partnership with University Art Museum.

 

In Cork Dork, Bianca Bosker trained her insatiable curiosity, journalist's knack for infiltrating exclusive circles and eye for unforgettable characters on the wine world as she trained to become a sommelier. Now she brings her whip-smart yet accessible sensibility along for a ride through another subculture of elite obsessives. In Get the Picture, Bosker plunges deep inside the world of art and the people who live for it: gallerists, collectors, curators and, of course, artists themselves - the kind who work multiple jobs and let their paintings sleep soundly in the studio while they wake up covered in cat pee on a friend's couch. As she stretches canvases until her fingers blister, talks her way into A-list parties full of billionaire collectors, has her face sat on by a nearly naked performance artist and forces herself to stare at a single sculpture for an hour straight while working as a museum security guard, she discovers not only the inner workings of the art-canonization machine but also a more expansive way of living. Encompassing everything from colour theory to evolutionary biology, and from ancient cave paintings to Instagram as it attempts to discern art's role in our culture, our economy and our hearts, Get the Picture is a rollicking adventure that will change the way you see forever.

Jessica Lack introduces fifty pioneering modern and contemporary art movements born out of political engagement, decolonization, marginalization or conflict. These movements have aimed to revitalize 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 or America's AfriCobra - have empowered and given voice to their members.

Global Art brings unfamiliar material to life by exploring the unique historical context for each art movement, key cultural events and interconnections, and the key protagonists in the movement's evolution.

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are the only early Greek heroic epics to have survived the transition to writing, even though extant evidence indicates that they emerged from a thriving oral culture. Among the missing are the songs of Boeotian Thebes. Homer's Thebes examines moments in the Iliad and Odyssey where Theban characters and thematic engagements come to the fore. Rather than sifting through these appearances to reconstruct lost poems, Elton Barker and Joel Christensen argue that the Homeric poems borrow heroes from Thebes to address key ideas-about politics, time, and genre-that set out the unique superiority of these texts in performance. By using evidence from Hesiod and fragmentary sources attributed to Theban tradition, Barker and Christensen explore Homer's appropriation of Theban motifs of strife and distribution to promote his tale of the sack of Troy and the returns home. As Homer's Thebes shows, this Theban material sheds light on the exceptionality of the Homeric epics through the notions of poetic rivalry and Panhellenism. Furthermore, by emphasizing a nonhierarchical model of "reading" the epics derived from oral-formulaic poetics, this book contributes to recent debates about allusion, neoanalysis, and intertextuality.

Το 1985 η Ευρώπη ήταν ακόμη χωρισμένη στα δύο. Δύο αντίπαλα, εχθρικά στρατόπεδα, και ανάμεσά τους το αδιαπέραστο σύνορο, το Τείχος. Ήμουν τότε ένας νεαρός παθιασμένος με την Κεντρική Ευρώπη, έβλεπα τι συνέβαινε εκεί και ειδικά η απομόνωση, ο "εγκλεισμός" των Ανατολικοευρωπαίων, ήταν κάτι που με συγκλόνιζε. Είχα λοιπόν την ιδέα να ταξιδέψω σε όλες τις ευρωπαϊκές χώρες και να φωτογραφίσω τους ανθρώπους και από τις δύο πλευρές του Τείχους και να τους παρουσιάσω μαζί σε ένα βιβλίο, σαν μια ενιαία Ευρώπη, χωρίς σύνορα και τείχη. Αφελές και μεγαλεπήβολο σχέδιο, όπως όλα τα νεανικά σχέδια. Με το όνειρό μου αυτό ταξίδευα για πέντε χρόνια στις περισσότερες από τις χώρες της τότε Ευρώπης, σε δεκαεπτά χώρες, από την Πορτογαλία μέχρι την Πολωνία, πάντα μόνος, με ένα σαραβαλάκι -το ελληνικότατο Pony, για όποιον το θυμάται-, κοιμόμουν μέσα σε αυτό, στα πάρκινγκ των αυτοκινητοδρόμων και στις ερημιές. Και η μεγάλη μου χαρά ήταν να σταματάω σε κάθε πόλη και να περπατώ με τις ώρες στους δρόμους της παρατηρώντας τους ανθρώπους. Δεν με ενδιέφεραν τα αξιοθέατα, τα κτήρια, τα μουσεία, μόνο τα ανθρώπινα πρόσωπα έβλεπα. Είδα όλο το Ανατολικό Μπλοκ, είδα την εξαθλίωση στη Ρουμανία, την καταπίεση και τον φόβο στα μάτια των ανθρώπων στην Ανατολική Γερμανία και την Τσεχοσλοβακία. Και μια κάπως καλύτερη ζωή στην Ουγγαρία και την Πολωνία. Και ταυτόχρονα επισκεπτόμουν και τις δυτικές χώρες και φωτογράφιζα και εκεί τους ανθρώπους με τον ίδιο ακριβώς τρόπο. Η Δύση δεν ήταν παράδεισος για μένα, έβλεπα κι εκεί τα ίδια πρόσωπα σχεδόν, μοναχικούς ανθρώπους, φτωχούς, ηλικιωμένους. Κατάλαβα πολύ γρήγορα ότι δεν έκανα φωτορεπορτάζ αλλά κάτι άλλο.

Born into a large, musical, and bohemian family in London, the British artist John Craxton (1922-2009) has been described as a Neo-Romantic, but he called himself a "kind of Arcadian". His early art was influenced by Blake, Palmer, Miro, and Picasso. After achieving a dream of moving to Greece, his work evolved as a personal response to Byzantine mosaics, El Greco, and the art of Greek life.

This book tells his adventurous story for the first time. At turns exciting, funny, and poignant, the saga is enlivened by Craxton's ebullient pictures. Ian Collins expands our understanding of the artist greatly-including an in-depth exploration of the storied, complicated friendship between Craxton and Lucian Freud, drawing on letters and memories that Craxton wanted to remain private until after his death.

Spanning a rich variety of works from the 1940s to the 2000s, this book celebrates the life and work of the British artist John Craxton (1922–2009). It charts the development of Craxton’s work from the poetic, melancholy images created in wartime Britain to the vibrant paintings and drawings produced in his adopted homeland of Greece. The book revisits the artist’s early life and looks at the influence of British Romantic art and the landscape of England and Wales on his work, while also exploring themes around LGBTQ+ identity, his relationship to significant modern British and international artists, and the historical context of mid-century Britain and Greece.
 
Featuring short essays and texts from contributors including Sir David Attenborough, Ian Collins, Simon Martin, Miriam O'Connor Perks, David Mellor, Edmund White, Hilary Spurling, and Tacita Dean―covering subjects across Craxton’s career, including book illustration, landscape, ballet design, ceramics, and tapestry―this lively account showcases the diverse artistic output of this key figure in British art history.

When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, I had very serious doubts about whether I wanted to cover it.
A week later -and while everyone was waiting to see the Russian army take Kiev- I realised that this is the first war in Europe and the first war in the 21st century without any ideological bias - that is, it is clearly geopolitical.
When history is written, people's stories are lost. The big agencies and TV networks focus on the war zones, the shelters, the stream of refugees - the "hot" news. The big picture that one sees in a crisis, a disaster, a war is likely generic, perhaps even stereotypical - and it certainly does not delve into people's lives.
I wanted to approach people's stories and how they reconstruct the big picture. I'm interested in understanding how war has turned their lives upside down, how they think, what they want, what they fear; to illuminate their collective and individual trauma.
Having worked several times in war zones in the past, I've always had a special appreciation for those people who remain in their homes during the bombings.
I went to the east side and the west side of the Dnieper, to five different apartment buildings representing three different historical periods: the tsarist, the socialist and the period of independence.
I met people from all social groups and classes. One introduced me to the other and for 15 days we lived together (the third and fourth week of the war, during the bombing of Kiev).
I did not just watch as an observer who arrives, takes pictures and leaves. The shots were taken inside these people's homes during the overnight curfew and air-raid sirens. They shared their food, their home and their thoughts with me.
This is their voice. (From the publisher)