What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? How did Romans make sense of laughter? What role did it play in the world of the law courts, the imperial palace, or the spectacles of the arena? This book explores one of the most intriguing, but also trickiest, of historical subjects.

A succinct but thorough introduction to abstract art since 1900, revised and updated.

A concise account of the history of fashion and costume from prehistoric times through to today.

The Greek myths are so much part of our culture that we tend to forget how they entered it in the first place. Visual sources – vase paintings, engraved gems and sculpture in bronze and stone – often pre-date references to the myths in literature, or offer alternative, unfamiliar tellings. In some cases visual art provides our only evidence, as there is no surviving account in ancient Greek literature of such important stories as the Fall of Troy, or Theseus and the Minotaur.

T. H. Carpen...

The Books That Shaped Art History provides an invaluable roadmap of the field by reassessing the impact of the most important texts of art history published during the 20th century. Each of the sixteen incisive chapters, focusing on a single book, is written by a leading art historian, curator or one of the promising scholars of today. In bringing these cross-generational contributions together, the book presents a varied and invaluable overview of the history of art, told through its most en...

The Book of the Bird celebrates the bird in art with an elegant, international collection of paintings, illustrations and photographs, featuring all kinds of birds from the smallest tits and wrens to colourful exotics.

Interspersed though the illustrations are short texts giving background to the pictures and information on bird species. This is the perfect gift for all bird lovers.

100 Years of Fashion documents in pictures the most exciting and diverse period in fashion: from 1900 to today, covering high society, uniforms, sportswear, streetwear and couture. It will appeal to everyone with an interest in fashion as well as students.

The last hundred or so years bore witness to the transformation of women's fashion. The restrictive corsetry of the early twentieth century gave way to looser styles such as those made fashionable by French fashion designer Paul Poiret. As ...

How to transcend land grab economies, even by means of art? The reader REALTY moves from the safety of critique to the vulgarity of suggestions. The pandemic's effect on mobility presents a historic opportunity. Rarely has criticism of our extractive artworld logic of one-place-after-another been louder. REALTY is a long-term curatorial program by Tirdad Zolghadr (*1973), initially commissioned by the KW Institute for Contemporary Art. With the help of numerous artists and experts who contrib...