Here's a series of quick, savvy, entertaining books on artists and pop culture at a popular price. It's for readers who want easy access to information and who are turned off by art-world jargon.With cutting-edge tone and text, these innovative, richly illustrated, compact books (6 x 6 gift size) are targeted at busy people who've heard of these much-discussed artists -- and who know that many people, for some reason, think these artists are important -- but honestly don't get what the big fuss is all about.Abrams produces fine illustrated books with such major art institutions as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Louvre.

Published to accompany the exhibition Jackson Pollock held the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 1 November 1998 to 2 February 1999.

The perfect introduction to the life and work of Jackson Pollock.

The life and work of Jackson Pollock.

With the consolidation of the European Union and the opening of the Channel Tunnel, how can Britain develop a central place in Europe and ensure its future prosperity? Britain on the Edge of Europedescribes Britain's post-war involvement with the continent amd assesses the country's chances of enjoying the benefits of the projected European boom. Analysing the economic and political effects of Britain's edge-location, the author challenges orthodox notions of distance, cost and competitiveness and assumptions about the likely regional impact on Britain. At a time when British expectations of Europe are very much in the balance, Britain on the Edge of Europeputs the country's trade position into perspective.

One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, GQ, Billboard, JazzTimes In jazz parlance, “playing changes” refers to an improviser’s resourceful path through a chord progression. In this definitive guide to the jazz of our time, leading critic Nate Chinen boldly expands on that idea, taking us through the key changes, concepts, events, and people that have shaped jazz since the turn of the century—from Wayne Shorter and Henry Threadgill to Kamasi Washington and Esperanza Spalding; from the phrase “America’s classical music” to an explosion of new ideas and approaches; from claims of jazz’s demise to the living, breathing scene that exerts influence on mass culture, hip-hop, and R&B. Grounded in authority and brimming with style, packed with essential album lists and listening recommendations, Playing Changes takes the measure of this exhilarating moment—and the shimmering possibilities to come.

Mark Rothko (1903-1970) is generally considered the preeminent artist of the group of painters who reinvented American art and became known as the Abstract Expressionists. Yet despite his success he suffered from intense anxiety and depression, and eventually took his own life. 60 illustrations.

Pollock's Modernism provides a new interpretation of the art of Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), one that is based on a phenomenological investigation of the pictorial effects of particular paintings. Focusing on major works that span the artist's career - including Mural (1943), Cathedral (1947), Number 1A, 1948, One: Number 31, 1950, and Portrait and a Dream (1953) - Michael Schreyach argues that Pollock's achievement is best understood by attending to how, technically and formally, he instituted certain modes of pictorial address and structures of beholding in his paintings. From this perspective, Pollock is shown to be an artist who transformed the means by which the phenomenological interdependence of sensation and cognition in our embodied experience could be represented. Offering a provocative counter-argument to dominant accounts of Pollock's work, this book advances bold claims about Pollock's intentions as they are expressed in his art, and illuminates what constituted the artist's unique form of modernism at mid-century.

John Berger, one of the world's most celebrated storytellers and writers on art, tells a personal history of art from the prehistoric paintings of the Chauvet caves to 21st century conceptual artists. Berger presents entirely new ways of thinking about artists both canonized and obscure, from Rembrandt to Henry Moore, Jackson Pollock to Picasso. Throughout, Berger maintains the essential connection between politics, art and the wider study of culture. The result is an illuminating walk through many centuries of visual culture, from one of the contemporary world's most incisive critical voices.