Moving from meetings with artists to the creation of the first public museums in the 18th century, recounting the practice of inspirational figures such as Diaghilev, skipping between exhibitions, continents and centuries, the author argues that curation is far from a static practice.

A kaleidoscopic journey tracing the methods and means of visual communication from the cave paintings of the earliest humans to the ?photograph' of a black hole in deep space.

Since the beginning of our time as humans, we have never stopped making images and inventing channels for visual communication. From the cave dweller creating paintings on a wall at the dawn of civilized time to Instagram influencers today, technology may keep changing, but our need to reach one another, to m...

The ultimate death compendium, featuring the world’s most extraordinary artistic and ethnographic objects concerned with mortality, together with text by expert contributors.

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.

David Hockney reflects upon life and art as he journeys through lockdown in rural Normandy.

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.

A new, significantly revised edition of Julian Bell’s 1999 book, taking a fresh, focused look at the situation of painting in contemporary culture.

Explores specific categories of materials glass and ceramic, altered naturals, high-performance composites, digitally fabricated metals and polymer films applied to an extensive range of projects, from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision to the Ordos Art and City Museum in Mongolia.