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De Chirico

Greek-born Italian painter Giorgio De Chirico (1888-1978) was hugely influential in the early years of the Surrealist movement. His paintings during the teens in Paris, where he moved in 1911, caused such a stir that such important figures as Picasso and Paul Eluard immediately praised them.

Dali

Salvador Dalí - A genius with a right to indulge in whatever lunacy popped into his head

Picasso called Dalí "an outboard motor that's always running." Dalí thought himself a genius with a right to indulge in whatever lunacy popped into his head.

Gustave Courbet

"I maintain," stated Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), "that painting is clearly a concrete art whose existence lies only in the representation of real and existing objects...." Courbet, who influenced and advised the fledgling Impressionists, was an outstanding representative of a naturalistic realism that highlights the contradictions and inequities in society. Revolutionary were Courbet`s style, with dark hues and heavy brushstrokes, and choice of subject—depictions the life of plain people treated in an unsentimental, down to earth manner.

Conceptual Art

Brilliant concepts

This guide to conceptual art traces the issues and concerns of the first generation of artists involved in the foundation of the movement, with an essay exploring the historical basis of conceptual art, its relationship to the dominant aesthetics of the 1960s, namely the modernist theory of Clement Greenberg and his disciples, and the influence of conceptual art on today`s art and cultural climate.

Artists featured:

Chagall

The Belarusian painter Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is widely regarded as epitomizing the "painter as poet". The worldwide admiration he commanded remains unparalleled by any artist of the century.

Cezanne

Cézanne's quest for "a harmony parallel to Nature"

He was the founding father of modern art, the grand master who pointed painting forward on its way from Impressionism to the 20th century: Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). In Paris, but above all in Provence, Cézanne quested tirelessly for "a harmony parallel to Nature"—discovering it in still lifes of apples, in bathers, or in the renowned landscapes of his beloved Montagne Sainte-Victoire. This book discusses this extraordinary artist's major works and his theories of painting and color.

Caravaggio

Notorious bad boy of Italian Baroque painting, Caravaggio (1571-1610) is finally getting the recognition he deserves. Though his name may be familiar to all of us, his work has been habitually detested and forced into obscurity. Not only was his theatrical realism unfashionable in his time, but his sacrilegious subject matter and use of lower class models were violently scorned.

Calder

When the final tally of key movers in the plastic arts of this century is compiled, there is no doubt that maestro of movement Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the man who put the swing into sculpture, will be near numero uno. Calder took it off the plinth, gave it to the wind, and left us kinetic playgrounds of the spirit. He operated at the point where Modernity and nature fused, developing an environmental art that changed the medium forever.

Bruegel - The Complete Paintings

At a time when artists were still primarily occupied with religious or mythological subject matter, the great Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-1569) turned his eye on the everyday.

Most of Bruegel's 45 surviving works, which are all reproduced in this book, record the facts of 16th century life in rural or small town communities. In this title in the Basic Art Series, Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen outline the Bruegel's account of his society and times, and the relevance that account has for us today.

Brücke

The "Brücke" (established in Dresden in 1905) is, together with the Blauer Reiter in Munich, the most important movement in German expressionism. Meaning “bridge” in German, “Brücke” refers to Nietzsche’s belief that humanity has the potential to make a bridge to a perfect future; more concretely, the movement formed a bridge between neo-romantic and expressionist painting. This book covers the work of founding members Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl, as well as works by their friends, such as Emil Nolde and Otto Mueller.