A legendary painting by Rembrandt forms the centerpiece of this exploration of self-portraits by leading artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Published to commemorate an exhibition presented by Gagosian in partnership with English Heritage, this stunning volume centers on Rembrandt's masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665), from the collection of Kenwood House in London. The painting is considered to be Rembrandt's greatest late self-portrait and is accompanied here by examples of the genre from leading artists of the past one hundred years. These include works by Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucian Freud, and Pablo Picasso, as well as contemporary artists such as Georg Baselitz, Glenn Brown, Urs Fischer, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Giuseppe Penone, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, and Rudolf Stingel, among others. Also featured is a new work by Jenny Saville, created in response to Rembrandt's masterpiece. Full-color plates of the works, generous details, and installation views of the exhibition accompany an expansive essay by art historian David Freedberg that provides a close look at the self-portraits created by Rembrandt throughout his life and considers the role of the Dutch master as the precursor of all modern painting.

Using the artist's self-portraits as a starting point, the author explains how Rembrandt exemplifies the ability to confront life with passion, honesty, and an uncompromising acceptance of who we are.

An accessible biography of the celebrated early Netherlandish painter, now in paperback. In his lifetime the early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch was famous for his phantasmagoric images, and today his name is synonymous with the infernal. The creator of expansive tableaus of fantastic and hellish scenes—where any devil not dancing is too busy eating human souls—he has been as equally misunderstood by history as his paintings have. In this book, Nils Büttner draws on a wealth of historical documents—not to mention Bosch’s paintings—to offer a fresh and insightful look at one of history’s most peculiar artists on the five-hundredth anniversary of his death. Bosch’s paintings have elicited a number of responses over the centuries. Some have tried to explain them as alchemical symbolism, others as coded messages of a secret cult, and still others have tried to psychoanalyze them. Some have placed Bosch among the Adamites, others among the Cathars, and others among the Brethren of the Free Spirit, seeing in his paintings an occult life of free love, strange rituals, mysterious drugs, and witchcraft. As Büttner shows, Bosch was—if anything—a hardworking painter, commissioned by aristocrats and courtesans, as all painters of his time were. Analyzing his life and paintings against the backdrop of contemporary Dutch culture and society, Büttner offers one of the clearest biographical sketches to date alongside beautiful reproductions of some of Bosch’s most important work. The result is a smart but accessible introduction to a unique artist whose work transcends genre.

John Golding brings to his writing the sure eye and profound sensitivity of a practicing artist. Perhaps best known for his seminal history of Cubism, Golding has long been regarded as one of the most outstanding art historians and critics of our time. This volume brings together many of his most important essays, and its publication will be celebrated not only by his admirers, but by lovers of art and language everywhere. Visions of The Modern covers a vast range of twentieth-century art, from Matisse and Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, to aspects of postwar American art. Some essays have been out of print, while others have appeared in periodicals not easily accessible to the average reader. Taken together, they establish a sustained, deeply informed account of many of the grandest moments in the art of this century. A much admired painter, Golding's unique balance of eye and mind infuses his exceedingly literate criticism. Combining a meticulousness in matters of fact with a capacity to write in a lucid, jargon-free manner, he addresses equally the sophisticated art historian, the cultural historian, and the general reader. An appendix to the volume is in the form of a dialogue between Golding and the philosopher Richard Wollheim. It provides additional insights into the origins and aims of abstract art, as well as revealing the mind of an invigorating artist at work.

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Morgan Library & Museum, June 3-September 18, 2016.

Beautifully illustrated and vividly written, "Inner Vision" explores how different areas of the brain shape responses to visual arts. 84 color illustrations. 8 halftones. 30 line illustrations.

Presents and explores the seven known oil sketches of Christ on oak panels by Rembrandt, along with over 60 paintings, drawings and prints by him and his pupils.

White Shoes' is a collection of self-portraits taken in locations around New York that were central to the city's once pivotal - and now largely obscured and unacknowledged - involvement in the slave trade. Nona Faustine depicts herself at the sites of slave auctions, burial grounds, slave-owning farms, and the coastal locations where slave ships docked, posing nude apart from a pair of white high-heeled shoes. Documenting herself in places where history becomes tangible, Faustine acts as a conduit or receptor, in solidarity with people whose names and memories have been lost but are embedded in the land. Through quiet but defiant self-representation, Faustine responds to a history of depiction of Black people that is shaped by subjugation, phrenology, and pseudo-science. Her complex large-format images refer and respond to a range of sources including daguerrotypes of slaves and photographs commissioned by naturalists, while her nudity - expressive of fearless self-possession as well as vulnerability - subverts the legacy of Black and female nudes in Western art. Running throughout the images, the talismanic white shoes that give the series its name suggest the many adaptations to dominant White culture that were and are still demanded of people of colour. At once historical and speculative, White Shoes confronts the relationship between the visible and invisible, between what is displayed and what is kept from view. Includes newly commissioned texts by Pamela Sneed, Jessica Lanay, Jonathan Michael Square and Seph Rodney, together with an interview of the artist by Jessica Lanay

This stimulating book argues that great art can function as a "secular parable"--that is, like the parables of Jesus, art can lead viewers to reflect on the reality and presence of God in the world. T. J. Gorringe examines representative secular paintings of the most significant types (mythological themes, genre painting, portraiture, landscape, still life, abstract art), showing how each type can point toward God, whether by envisaging an alternative future, creating aesthetic delight, or teaching us to see things differently. His provocative study challenges the notion that art since the 15th century has become increasingly secularized. Gorringe gives careful consideration to each work's historical background and artistic context, as well as to art historical and critical appraisals. With an ecumenical approach, he then provides an insightful argument for how each piece can be read theologically. Although readers may sometimes disagree with his theological stance or his interpretation of specific works, his engaging commentary provokes reflection and challenges deeper questioning and awareness.