Abstract Pissarro investigates the abstract element in the paintings of Camille Pissarro and discovers that he invented many techniques used by abstract artists today

PISSARRO'S PLACES tells his story in a fresh and different way-exploring the places he painted and his "sensations" as he translated them into brushstrokes on his canvas. In his landscapes, you almost feel the sun and the wind in the trees. In his city paintings, you sense the hustle and bustle of traffic. This was his genius. Rather than settling for the familiar, Pissarro courageously put himself into new situations in pursuit of different and exciting motifs. With PISSARRO'S PLACES, you see those places through his eyes. All the paintings featured in the book are located in public museums and are accessible to the public. Ann Saul has traveled to all the places Pissarro painted (except Venezuela) during her 20 years of research. A professional writer, Ann was formerly a Guide at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a Docent at Terra Foundation Museum of American Art (Chicago, no longer open), and a Volunteer at the Art Institute of Chicago. She writes a blog about Pissarro at artbookannex.com. PISSARRO'S PLACES includes: Foreword by Joachim Pissarro, great grandson of Camille Pissarro 35 color reproductions of Pissarro's paintings Pissarro family photographs 46 color photographs of Pissarro's sites today 29 historic French postcards

Abstract painting and abstraction can be a daunting and frustrating genre of art. How should you approach a surface? How can you use colour effectively? How can you make better, more expressive paintings? This inspiring book answers these questions and many more. By looking at his own work, Emyr Williams covers the practical issues of abstract art before explaining techniques to develop your own personal style and approach. He emphasizes the relationship of colour to surface and the importance of seeking a profound connection with your art. The book will help you to learn about the difference between abstract and abstraction and see how an artist has developed expressive art in many different ways. Superbly illustrated with 167 colour images.

"Examines the problematic serial nature of ... [Pissarro's] urban works"--Foreword.

Camille Pissarro was the dean of the impressionist painters, not only because of his age--he was two years older than Manet, but also by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warmhearted personality.

Martha Ward tracks the development and reception of neo-impressionism, revealing how the artists and critics of the French art world of the 1880s and 1890s created painting's first modern vanguard movement. Paying particular attention to the participation of Camille Pissarro, the only older artist to join the otherwise youthful movement, Ward sets the neo-impressionists' individual achievements in the context of a generational struggle to redefine the purposes of painting. She describes the conditions of display, distribution, and interpretation that the neo-impressionists challenged, and explains how these artists sought to circulate their own work outside of the prevailing system. Paintings, Ward argues, often anticipate and respond to their own conditions of display and use, and in the case of the neo-impressionists, the artists' relations to market forces and exhibition spaces had a decisive impact on their art. Ward details the changes in art dealing, and chronicles how these and new freedoms for the press made artistic vanguardism possible while at the same time affecting the content of painting. She also provides a nuanced account of the neo-impressionists' engagements with anarchism, and traces the gradual undermining of any strong correlation between artistic allegiance and political direction in the art world of the 1890s. Throughout, there are sensitive discussions of such artists as Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, as well as Pissarro. Yet the touchstone of the book is Pissarro's intricate relationship to the various factions of the Paris art world.

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, June 26-Sept. 12, 2005, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oct. 20, 2005-Jan. 16, 2006, and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Feb. 27-May 28, 2006.