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Ali Banisadr's first major monograph delves into the Iranian painter's influences and practice. Preeminent Iranian-American artist Ali Banisadr's canvases depict a complex swirl of action and abstracted figuration across a stagelike picture plane. Varied histories inform these paintings, ranging from the artist's synesthesia, to Persian miniatures, to the multi-figure works of Brueghel and Bosch, and the gestural imaginations of Willem de Kooning and Max Ernst. Born in Tehran in 1976, Ali Bani...

As art critic for The New Republic , Jed Perl is renowned for combining a passion for art and a skepticism about the current art establishment with an ability to write about art in the context of our larger culture. In this collection of essays, including two written especially for this book, he delivers a brilliant mixture of first-rate art criticism and politically informed insight into the true workings of the American art world.Perl offers incisive analysis into the marketing mentality that...

This first-of-its-kind compendium unites perspectives from artists, scholars, arts educators, policymakers and activists to investigate the complex system of values surrounding artistic-educational endeavors. Addressing a range of artistic domains, ranging from music and dance, to visual arts and storytelling, contributors offer an exploration and criticism of the conventions that govern our interactions with these practices. Artistic Citizenship focuses the responsibilities, and functions of am...

The art of the snuff bottle has its origins in the introduction of tobacco snuff to the Imperial Court of the Manchus (Qing Dynasty 1642-1911). Powdered snuff was regarded as having medicinal qualities and with Court patronage, rapidly grew in popularity. Ornate snuff bottles were created by Chinese craftsmen from a bewildering array of materials: porcelain, enamel, metal, wood, jadeite, ivory and glass, using techniques only known in China at the time. Snuff boxes are elaborately decorated, inv...

When Louis XVI was guillotined on January 21, 1793, vast networks of production that had provided splendor and sophistication to the royal court were severed. Although the king's royal possessions-from drapery and tableware to clocks and furniture suites-were scattered and destroyed, many of the artists who made them found ways to survive. This book explores the fabrication, circulation, and survival of French luxury after the death of the king. Spanning the final years of the ancien regime fro...

This lavish coffee-table book highlights 500 of the best posters produced by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during America's 1930s and 1940s. The WPA employed hundreds of out-of-work artists to raise awareness about public issues and civic life in the United States. These posters provide a snapshot of life (and graphic design) during the Great Depression and offer timeless messages about the merits of hard work, good parenting, a clean house, and healthy personal hygiene. "Posters for t...

A timely exploration of artists whose work addresses the subject of conspiracy and media manipulation in modern culture Shaped by events such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iran-Contra affair, and 9/11, conspiracy theories have flourished and influenced our collective worldview. This provocative book examines how artists from the 1960s to the present explore both the covert operations of power and the mutual suspicion between governments and their citize...

No longer represented only by Hollywood and the commercial fashion industry, Los Angeles in recent years has received international media attention as one of the world's new art centers. From the appearance of local artists in major European exhibitions to widely reported multimillion-dollar museum endowments, Los Angeles has entered the world cultural stage. Art and the City: Civic Imagination and Cultural Authority in Los Angeles places this celebrated arrival in the richer context of art cont...

This book examines, through an interdisciplinary lens, the relationship between political dissent and processes of designing. In the past twenty years, theorists of social movements have noted a diversity of visual and performative manifestations taking place in protest, while the fields of design, broadly defined, have been characterized by a growing interest in activism. The book’s premise stems from the recognition that material engagement and artifacts have the capacity to articulate politi...