Thinking Out of Sight

Thinking Out of Sight
Author: Jacques Derrida
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2021-04-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 022659002X

Jacques Derrida remains a leading voice of philosophy, his works still resonating today—and for more than three decades, one of the main sites of Derridean deconstruction has been the arts. Collecting nineteen texts spanning from 1979 to 2004, Thinking out of Sight brings to light Derrida’s most inventive ideas about the making of visual artworks. The book is divided into three sections. The first demonstrates Derrida’s preoccupation with visibility, image, and space. The second contains interviews and collaborations with artists on topics ranging from the politics of color to the components of painting. Finally, the book delves into Derrida’s writings on photography, video, cinema, and theater, ending with a text published just before his death about his complex relationship to his own image. With many texts appearing for the first time in English, Thinking out of Sight helps us better understand the critique of representation and visibility throughout Derrida’s work, and, most importantly, to assess the significance of his insights about art and its commentary.

The House of Fragile Things

The House of Fragile Things
Author: James McAuley
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2021-03-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300252544

A powerful history of Jewish art collectors in France, and how an embrace of art and beauty was met with hatred and destruction In the dramatic years between 1870 and the end of World War II, a number of prominent French Jews—pillars of an embattled community—invested their fortunes in France’s cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country’s army, and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps. In this rich, evocative account, James McAuley explores the central role that art and material culture played in the assimilation and identity of French Jews in the fin-de-siècle. Weaving together narratives of various figures, some familiar from the works of Marcel Proust and the diaries of Jules and Edmond Goncourt—the Camondos, the Rothschilds, the Ephrussis, the Cahens d'Anvers—McAuley shows how Jewish art collectors contended with a powerful strain of anti-Semitism: they were often accused of “invading” France’s cultural patrimony. The collections these families left behind—many ultimately donated to the French state—were their response, tragic attempts to celebrate a nation that later betrayed them.

François Boucher and the Art of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century France

François Boucher and the Art of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century France
Author: Jessica Priebe
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2021-11-30
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1000470385

While earlier studies have focused predominantly on artist François Boucher’s artistic style and identity, this book presents the first full-length interdisciplinary study of Boucher’s prolific collection of around 13,500 objects including paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, porcelain, shells, minerals, and other imported curios. It discusses the types of objects he collected, the networks through which he acquired them, and their spectacular display in his custom-designed studio at the Louvre, where he lived and worked for nearly two decades. This book explores the role his collection played in the development of his art, his studio, his friendships, and the burgeoning market for luxury goods in mid-eighteenth-century France. In doing so, it sheds new light on the relationship between Boucher’s artistic and collecting practices, which attracted both praise and criticism from period observers. The book will appeal to scholars working in art history, museum studies, and French history.

My Good Life in France

My Good Life in France
Author: Janine Marsh
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2017-05-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1782437339

Ten years ago, Janine Marsh decided to leave her corporate life behind to fix up a run-down barn in northern France. This is the true story of her rollercoaster ride.

The Right Wing in France

The Right Wing in France
Author: René Rémond
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2016-11-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1512806072

The Gaullist regime in France has aroused much interest in the nature of French politics. This stimulating analysis of the conservative faction in France, revised by the author to include the government of General de Gaulle, should be of interest not only to students of that country's history and politics but also to general readers who would understand France's political tradition and where de Gaulle fits into it. This work is translated from the second and revised edition of La Droite en France: de le Première Restauration á la Ve République, published in Paris in 1963.

A Kingdom of Images

A Kingdom of Images
Author: Peter Fuhring
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2015-06-18
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1606064509

Once considered the golden age of French printmaking, Louis XIV’s reign saw Paris become a powerhouse of print production. During this time, the king aimed to make fine and decorative arts into signs of French taste and skill and, by extension, into markers of his imperialist glory. Prints were ideal for achieving these goals; reproducible and transportable, they fueled the sophisticated propaganda machine circulating images of Louis as both a man of war and a man of culture. This richly illustrated catalogue features more than one hundred prints from the Getty Research Institute and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, whose print collection Louis XIV established in 1667. An esteemed international group of contributors investigates the ways that cultural policies affected printmaking; explains what constitutes a print; describes how one became a printmaker; studies how prints were collected; and considers their reception in the ensuing centuries. A Kingdom of Images is published to coincide with an exhibition on view at the Getty Research Institute from June 18 through September 6, 2015, and at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris from November 2, 2015, through January 31, 2016.

The French Riviera in the 1920's

The French Riviera in the 1920's
Author: Xavier Girard
Publisher: Editions Assouline
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2014-07-16
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781614282563

The French Riviera of the 1920s and early '30s was a haven for artists and writers from the far reaches of the world. This book revitalizes the now-legendary tale of personalities such as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Picasso, Picabia, Cocteau, and Gerald and Sara Murphy as they are caught between a desire for creation, the quest for happiness, and the looming darkness of World War II. Extraordinary images taken from personal archives reanimate the lifestyles and artwork of some of the most influential artists of the twentiety century.

Dust & Grooves

Dust & Grooves
Author: Eilon Paz
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Total Pages: 577
Release: 2015-09-15
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1607748703

A photographic look into the world of vinyl record collectors—including Questlove—in the most intimate of environments—their record rooms. Compelling photographic essays from photographer Eilon Paz are paired with in-depth and insightful interviews to illustrate what motivates these collectors to keep digging for more records. The reader gets an up close and personal look at a variety of well-known vinyl champions, including Gilles Peterson and King Britt, as well as a glimpse into the collections of known and unknown DJs, producers, record dealers, and everyday enthusiasts. Driven by his love for vinyl records, Paz takes us on a five-year journey unearthing the very soul of the vinyl community.

The McCarthy Collection

The McCarthy Collection
Author: Peter Kidd
Publisher: Ad Ilissum
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2019
Genre: Illumination of books and manuscripts, Central European
ISBN: 9781912168132

This substantial catalogue is the second of a two-volume set exploring a remarkable collection of leaves and miniatures from medieval manuscripts. Richly detailed with plentiful illustrations, this notable contribution to medieval scholarship covers a period from c. 1100 to the late 15th century.