Jonathan Langley's life took a devastating turn when he lost his eyesight to a rare illness. Once a successful painter and printmaker, Jonathan now lives in complete darkness, rarely leaving his apartment and angry at the world. When he encounters his precocious 11-year-old neighbor, Lupe, the two form an unlikely friendship. Her cheerful presence shatters his hardened exterior, revealing a gentle man struck by tragedy. Lupe leads him to a fresh perspective by showing him the power of kindness, compassion, and love. Based on the celebrated teachings of Louise Hay, Painting the Future explores the power of positive thinking in healing past struggles and learning to live a joyful, heart-centered life.

"Olja Ivanjicki is one of Serbia's most important and best-loved contemporary artists. Producing work since the 1950s, she first came to prominence in her native country as the sole female member of Mediala, a group of painters, writers and architects that made a significant impact on the public and cultural life of Belgrade in the late fifties and early sixties. Recipient of a Ford Foundation scholarship in 1962, Ivanjicki left Serbia to live and work, albeit briefly, in the United States, where she was brought into contact with Pop Art. This was to have a lasting influence on her work." "Ivanjicki's paintings are distinguished by the way they combine figures and symbols from diverse cultures and civilizations - past, present and future - to form imaginative montages that evoke the spirit of an age in almost cinematic terms. Renaissance madonnas, military leaders, idealized human types, famous scientists, great artists and major politicians all exist simultaneously in the world of her art. However, Ivanjicki is much more than just a painter. She is also a sculptor, poet, newspaper columnist, costume designer and architect. Into all these media she infuses the unique power of her character and artistic skill." "Olja Ivanjicki: Painting the Future, written in the main part by the artist herself and supplemented with an introduction by writer and critic Sue Hubbard, investigates all aspects of her work over the course of her long and distinguished career, and by doing so brings her work to the wider international audience it richly deserves." --Book Jacket.

A groundbreaking study of visionary artist Hilma af Klint. When Swedish artist Hilma af Klint died in 1944 at the age of 81, she left behind more than a thousand paintings and works on paper that she kept largely private during her lifetime. Believing the world was not yet ready for her art, she stipulated that it should remain unseen for another 20 years. But only in recent decades has the public had a chance to reckon with af Klint's radically abstract painting practice - one which predates the work of Vasily Kandinsky and other artists widely considered trailblazers of modernist abstraction. Accompanying the first major survey exhibition of the artist's work in the United States, Hilma af Klint represents her groundbreaking painting series while expanding recent scholarship to present the fullest picture yet of the artist's life and work. Essays explore the social, intellectual, and artistic milieu of af Klint's 1906 break with figuration and her subsequent development, placing her in the context of Swedish modernism and folk art traditions, contemporary scientific discoveries, and spiritualist and occult movements. A roundtable discussion among contemporary artists, scholars, and curators considers af Klint's sources and relevance to art in the 21st century. The volume also delves into her unrealized plans for a spiral-shaped temple in which to display her art - a wish that finds a fortuitous answer in the Guggenheim Museum's rotunda, the site of the forthcoming exhibition.

In the first chapter on the German military’s unlikely function as an incubator of modernist art and in the second chapter on Adolf Hitler’s advocacy for “eugenic” figurative representation embodying nostalgia for lost Aryan racial perfection and the aspiration for the future perfection of the German Volk, Maertz conclusively proves that the Nazi attack on modernism was inconsistent. In further chapters, on the appropriation of Christian iconography in constructing symbols of a Nazi racial utopia and on Baldur von Schirach’s heretical patronage of modernist art as the supreme Nazi Party authority in Vienna, Maertz reveals that sponsorship of modernist artists continued until the collapse of the regime. Also based on previously unexamined evidence, including 10,000 works of art and documents confiscated by the U.S. Army, Maertz’s final chapter reconstructs the anarchic denazification and rehabilitation of German artists during the Allied occupation, which had unforeseen consequences for the postwar art world.

One of the most admired artists of the twentieth century, Max Ernst was a proponent of Dada and founder of surrealism, known for his strange, evocative paintings and drawings. In Prehistoric Future, Ralph Ubl approaches Ernst like no one else has, using theories of the unconscious—surrealist automatism, Freudian psychoanalysis, the concept of history as trauma—to examine how Ernst’s construction of collage departs from other modern artists. Ubl shows that while Picasso, Braque, and Man Ray used scissors and glue to create collages, Ernst employed techniques he himself had forged—rubbing and scraping to bring images forth onto a sheet of paper or canvas to simulate how a screen image or memory comes into the mind’s view. In addition, Ernst scoured the past for obsolete scientific illustrations and odd advertisements to illustrate the rapidity with which time passes and to simulate the apprehension generated when rapid flows of knowledge turn living culture into artifact. Ultimately, Ubl reveals, Ernst was interested in the construction and phenomenology of both collective and individual modern history and memory. Shedding new light on Ernst’s working methods and the reasons that his pieces continue to imprint themselves in viewers’ memories, Prehistoric Future is an innovative work of critical writing on a key figure of surrealism.

Learn the Art of Gouache with Easy-to-Paint, Stunning Floral Designs Let your creativity bloom with this inspiring step-by-step guide to painting lush roses, delicate daisies, blossoming cacti and more. Gouache makes it easy to create rich, bright colors for an impressive impact in just a few strokes. This forgiving medium is great for beginners, as well as watercolor artists looking for a bold, new way to create stunning artwork that pops. Vidhi Khandelwal, founder of The Ink Bucket art and stationery brand, guides you each step of the way through simple techniques to recreate her signature florals. Use your new skills to begin a daily art habit, create stunning compositions to brighten up your home and add a personal touch to homemade cards and gifts. With a trove of traceable flower sketches right in the book, you can focus on your painting journey without worrying about how to draw every line. Along with the essential strokes, you’ll learn simple shading methods for realistic petals, and lovely layering techniques to add fullness and texture in each blossom. Bring your project to life with fun details like veined leaves and colorful backgrounds, and even venture into floral hand lettering. Whether you’re looking to boost your painting skills or enjoy a relaxing new hobby, this book provides a refreshing creative escape.

This is the perfect introduction to art history and the art world—rich with information and prolifically illustrated with reproductions of masterpieces from every era and from around the world. Extraordinarily compact yet richly written and extensively illustrated, this remarkable introduction to art traces the evolution of art movement by movement, throughout time and across the world. Filled with classic and iconic masterpieces as well as lesser-known marvels awaiting greater attention, it includes a thorough assessment of artists, movements, concepts, and key works. Among the distinctive features included are the timeline at the foot of each page positioning each work in time and place in relation to other masterpieces and artistic trends. Also included are boxed "focal points" exploring up-close unusual details in the work of art profiled; "artist profiles" allowing the reader to delve deeper into the life and work of key artists; and special in-depth features on related topics, such as how the cost of oil paint affected artistic choices in the Dutch Golden Age, tips on visiting a museum for the first time, or how to start an art collection. Each featured art work appears with detailed analysis explaining everything from signs and symbols in art to visual metaphors and technical innovations. Meant to be a book that can be read from beginning to end or browsed randomly, this will make a treasured gift as well as a wonderful self-indulgence.

In The Future of the Image, Jacques Rancire develops a fascinating new concept of the image in contemporary art, showing how art and politics have always been intrinsically intertwined. He argues that there is a stark political choice in art: it can either reinforce a radical democracy or create a new reactionary mysticism. For Rancire there is never a pure art: the aesthetic revolution must always embrace egalitarian ideals.

An exciting new global survey of largely unknown talent, selected by an international jury Painting is enjoying a remarkable creative renaissance in the twenty-first century, with many of the world’s leading artists now working in this most enduring and seductive of media. 100 Painters of Tomorrow is the culmination of a new project, initiated by curator Kurt Beers and Thames & Hudson, to find the 100 most exciting painters at work today. This major publication introduces and presents the work from a global cast of painters selected by an international panel featuring some of the most prominent names in contemporary art. The resulting volume offers an intelligent snapshot of the best new talent in painting from across the world, gathered through an open call for submissions that drew over 4,300 applications. Open to any artist using paint as their primary medium, the submissions guidelines specified no age limit, but each of the selected artists has gained professional recognition in the last five years through their education, gallery representation, or in the production of a significant body of work. In addition, more than 100 of the world’s leading art schools were directly invited to participate, nominating recent graduates to submit their applications. The book presents high-quality images of the rising stars’ work, along with essential biographic information and quotations from the artists.

Museums of contemporary art are expanding and in crisis. They attract ever-larger audiences, architects constantly redesign them, and the growing number of artists is producing more massively than ever; at the same time museum funds are dwindling in the economic crisis and an overheated art market. This text gathers together interviews with international artists, architects and curators of the contemporary art world.