New Technologies: Products from Phaidon Design Classics Volume Three

$50.00 NZD

Category: Design | Reading Level: very good

A 'design classic' is an industrially manufactured object with timeless aesthetic value. It serves as a standard of its kind and, despite the year in which it was designed, is still up to date. The collection presented in these three volumes has been put together by a group of experts following the abov e criteria. The objects are presented chronologically, beginning with an elegant pair of Chinese bonsai scissors from the early 1800s, still in production today, and ending with Jasper Morrison's recent 'brunch set', which is destined to become a 'classic'. Glancing through the volumes, the reader will gain an understanding not only of the history of design, but a history of taste and culture. The book is an extraordinary journey through the objects that have shaped our society, from the first attempts to combine function and beauty in the nineteenth century, through the machine aesthetics of the thirties, the advent of plastic and other new materials in the fifties and sixties, up to the 'classics'-to-be of the last ten years. The book includes not only classic objects created by great and internationally renowned designers, such as Breuer, Le Corbusier, Dreyfuss, Eames, Yanagi and Castiglioni, to name but a few, but also anonymously designed pieces, such as the clothes peg, the deck chair, the corkscrew and the chopstick, which, in spite of lacking a specific designer, have achieved such perfection in design and functionality that they have eliminated the possibility of improvement. From the paper clip, to the Alvar Aalto Savoy vase, to the Jaguar E Type, all of the objects featured in the book fill our desks, cupboards, kitchens, purses, dreams and pockets. Each product is presented on two, four or six pages and accompanied by a text, written by one of over fifty experts in the field of design. The texts provide a historical context, with key information about the development of the design, and an explanation as to why that particular design is important an ...Show more

Contemporary Painting In New Zealand by Michael Dunn

$65.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: very good

Peter Paul Rubens - Man and Artist by Christopher White

$45.00 NZD

Category: Artists | Reading Level: very good

Michelangelo, A Biography by George Bull

$12.00 NZD

Category: Artists | Reading Level: very good

Movements in Art since 1945 by Edward Lucie-Smith

$14.00 NZD

Category: History & Theory | Series: World of Art Ser. | Reading Level: very good

This classic account of the history of the visual arts from the end of World War II to the new millennium has now been completely rewritten, revised, expanded, and updated.

A Short Guide to Writing About Art by Sylvan Barnet

$12.00 NZD

Category: History & Theory | Reading Level: very good

The Prado by Isabel Del Rio-Sukan; Alfonso E. Perez Sanchez

$15.00 NZD

Category: Art | Reading Level: very good

Nowhere else can one find so many works by El Greco, Velázquez, Zurbarán, Murillo and Goya. The works

Idea - A Concept in Art Theory by Erwin Panofsky

$12.00 NZD

Category: History & Theory | Series: Icon Editions Ser. | Reading Level: very good

Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death by Millard Meiss

$12.00 NZD

Category: History & Theory | Reading Level: very good

It's the final Pony Club Secrets adventure for Issie and Storm—can they become the youngest team to win the triple Grand Slam ever? Issie exceeded her wildest riding dreams winning at the Lexington Kentucky four-star trials, but could there be even bigger prizes on the horizon? Her foal, Nightstorm, ha s grown up to be an incredible sporthorse—powerful, fast, and eager to win, so it's time to put their riding skills to the ultimate test and see if they can complete the hat-trick and win at Badminton and Burghley too. Young horse-lovers will not want to miss the explosive finale to the Pony Club Secrets series! ...Show more

High Renaissance Art in St. Peter's and the Vatican - An Interpretive Guide by George L. Hersey

$12.00 NZD

Category: History & Theory | Reading Level: very good

Michelangelo, Raphael, Bramante-together these artists created some of the most glorious treasures of the Vatican, viewed daily by thousands of tourists. But how many visitors understand the way these artworks reflect the passions, dreams, and struggles of the popes who commissioned them? For anyone mak ing an artistic pilgrimage to the High Renaissance splendors of the Vatican, George L. Hersey's book is the ideal guide. Before starting the tour of individual works, Hersey describes how the treacherously shifting political and religious alliances of sixteenth-century Italy, France, and Spain played themselves out in the Eternal City. He offers vivid accounts of the lives and personalities of four popes, each a great patron of art and architecture: Julius II, Leo X, Clement VII, and Paul III. He also tells of the complicated rebuilding and expanding of St. Peter's, a project in which Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo all took part. Having set the historical scene, Hersey then explores the Vatican's magnificent Renaissance art and architecture. In separate chapters, organized spatially, he leads the reader through the Cortile del Belvedere and Vatican Museums, with their impressive holdings of statuary and paintings; the richly decorated Stanze and Logge of Raphael; and Michelangelo's Last Judgment and newly cleaned Sistine Chapel ceiling. A fascinating final chapter entitled "The Tragedy of the Tomb" recounts the vicissitudes of Michelangelo's projected funeral monument to Julius II. Hersey is never content to simply identify the subject of a painting or sculpture. He gives us the story behind the works, telling us what their particular themes signified at the time for the artist, the papacy, and the Church. He also indicates how the art was received by contemporaries and viewed by later generations. Generously illustrated and complete with a useful chronology, High Renaissance Art in St. Peter's and the Vatican is a valuable reference for any traveler to Rome or lover of Italian art who has yearned for a single-volume work more informative and stimulating than ordinary guidebooks. At the same time, Hersey's many anecdotes and intriguing comparisons with works outside the Vatican will provide new insights even for specialists. ...Show more

The Shock of the New - Art and the Century of Change by Robert Hughes

$45.00 NZD

Category: History & Theory | Reading Level: very good

This work has been universally hailed as the best, the most readable and the most provocative account of modern art ever written. The author demonstrates how modernism sought to describe the experience of the 20th century and that for many key art movements this was a practical task of vital importance. ...Show more

500 Handmade Books by ed

$25.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Series: 500 Series | Reading Level: very good

Interest in bookbinding and the related arts has exploded in the past decade, inspiring artists to explore the unlimited possibilities of the form. This title showcases a beautiful range from the intricacies of an exotic Ethiopian binding with a show-stopping open spine to others that resemble mysteriou s puzzle boxes. The sublimely talented contributors include Jeanne Germani who displays her own handmade papers, made from such varied materials as recycled denim, thistle and other plant matter, Chris Bivin whose codex-style volume features curious, tiny, found objects and Laura Wait presents a piece with handsome raised-cord binding connecting a pair of stained-cedar covers with abstract aluminum letterforms attached. This new and provocative on-the-page gallery, richly illustrated with hundreds of breathtaking photographs, will appeal to a large and discerning audience. ...Show more