The Whole Picture

The Whole Picture
Author: Alice Procter
Publisher: Cassell
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-03-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1788402219

"Probing, jargon-free and written with the pace of a detective story... [Procter] dissects western museum culture with such forensic fury that it might be difficult for the reader ever to view those institutions in the same way again. " Financial Times 'A smart, accessible and brilliantly structured work that encourages readers to go beyond the grand architecture of cultural institutions and see the problematic colonial histories behind them.' - Sumaya Kassim Should museums be made to give back their marbles? Is it even possible to 'decolonize' our galleries? Must Rhodes fall? How to deal with the colonial history of art in museums and monuments in the public realm is a thorny issue that we are only just beginning to address. Alice Procter, creator of the Uncomfortable Art Tours, provides a manual for deconstructing everything you thought you knew about art history and tells the stories that have been left out of the canon. The book is divided into four chronological sections, named after four different kinds of art space: The Palace, The Classroom, The Memorial and The Playground. Each section tackles the fascinating, enlightening and often shocking stories of a selection of art pieces, including the propaganda painting the East India Company used to justify its rule in India; the tattooed Maori skulls collected as 'art objects' by Europeans; and works by contemporary artists who are taking on colonial history in their work and activism today. The Whole Picture is a much-needed provocation to look more critically at the accepted narratives about art, and rethink and disrupt the way we interact with the museums and galleries that display it.

Opposites Abstract

Opposites Abstract
Author: Mo Willems
Publisher:
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2021
Genre: English language
ISBN: 9781368070973

"An inquisitive opposites book featuring original abstract artwork"--

Spaceman of Bohemia

Spaceman of Bohemia
Author: Jaroslav Kalfar
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2017-03-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316273406

An intergalactic odyssey of love, ambition, and self-discovery. Orphaned as a boy, raised in the Czech countryside by his doting grandparents, Jakub Prochv°zka has risen from small-time scientist to become the country's first astronaut. When a dangerous solo mission to Venus offers him both the chance at heroism he's dreamt of, and a way to atone for his father's sins as a Communist informer, he ventures boldly into the vast unknown. But in so doing, he leaves behind his devoted wife, Lenka, whose love, he realizes too late, he has sacrificed on the altar of his ambitions. Alone in Deep Space, Jakub discovers a possibly imaginary giant alien spider, who becomes his unlikely companion. Over philosophical conversations about the nature of love, life and death, and the deliciousness of bacon, the pair form an intense and emotional bond. Will it be enough to see Jakub through a clash with secret Russian rivals and return him safely to Earth for a second chance with Lenka? Rich with warmth and suspense and surprise, Spaceman of Bohemia is an exuberant delight from start to finish. Very seldom has a novel this profound taken readers on a journey of such boundless entertainment and sheer fun. "A frenetically imaginative first effort, booming with vitality and originality . . . Kalfar's voice is distinct enough to leave tread marks."-Jennifer Senior, New York Times

Hum and Swish

Hum and Swish
Author: Matt Myers
Publisher: Holiday House
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2019-06-11
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0823442861

Celebrate creativity, introversion, summer sun-- and the beauty of a little peace and quiet! It's a glorious summer day at the shore, and all Jamie wants is to finish her art project in the sand. A little time to herself is all she needs. But everyone around keeps asking her pesky questions she doesn't know how to answer: what are you making? Aren't you clever? Jamie does her best to tune it all out and focus on her creation . . . until she finds a like-minded friend, who's as happy to work quietly as she is. Widely respected artist Matt Myers makes his debut as an author in this charming story about introversion, art, and the quiet joy of finding a kindred spirit. Creative, clever, and funny, Hum and Swish is a perfect summer read-aloud, with detailed, colorful artwork you'll love to pore over. A Bank Street Best Book of the Year

The Hours of Simon de Varie

The Hours of Simon de Varie
Author: James H. Marrow
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 274
Release: 1994
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780892362844

Leading French painters in the late medieval period executed miniatures for lavishly illuminated books of hours. In the mid-fifteenth century, Simon de Varie commissioned such a book. Completed in 1455, it included five priceless works by the most eminent French painter of the time, Jean Fouquet, as well as other striking paintings by two of his contemporaries. In the seventeenth century, Simon de Varie's book was divided into three sections and sold as separate volumes. Two of these volumes are today in the Royal Library in The Hague. The third volume--thought lost until 1984, when it surfaced in a private collection and was subsequently acquired by the Getty Museum--contains the first miniatures by Jean Fouquet to have been discovered in eighty years. This beautiful book will reproduce in color all of the miniatures and historiated initials in the original manuscript, along with selected text pages with secondary decoration. Comparative illustrations also accompany the two essays in the volume. Marrow's text addresses the role of books of hours in late medieval culture; the contents and form of de Varie's Hours; and the relationship of the miniatures by Fouquet to the rest of the artist's oeuvre. In a related essay, Francois Avril discusses the position of Simon de Varie and his family in mid-fifteenth-century France. The publication of The Hours of Simon de Varie adds to the Getty's impressive list of publications on illuminated manuscripts begun in 1990 and including the widely acclaimed facsimile Mira calligraphiae monumenta.

Lifeblood of the Parish

Lifeblood of the Parish
Author: Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2020-12-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1479872245

A New York City ethnography that explores men's unique approaches to Catholic devotion Every Saturday, and sometimes on weekday evenings, a group of men in old clothes can be found in the basement of the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Each year the parish hosts the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and San Paolino di Nola. Its crowning event is the Dance of the Giglio, where the men lift a seventy-foot tall, four-ton tower through the streets, bearing its weight on their shoulders. Drawing on six years of research, Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada reveals the making of this Italian American tower, as the men work year-round to prepare for the Feast. She argues that by paying attention to this behind-the-scenes activity, largely overlooked devotional practices shed new light on how men embody and enact their religiosity in sometimes unexpected ways. Lifeblood of the Parish evocatively and accessibly presents the sensory and material world of Catholicism in Brooklyn, where religion is raucous and playful. Maldonado-Estrada here offers a new lens through which to understand men’s religious practice, showing how men and boys become socialized into their tradition and express devotion through unexpected acts like painting, woodworking, fundraising, and sporting tattoos. These practices, though not usually considered religious, are central to the ways the men she studied embodied their Catholic identity and formed bonds to the church.