Artist Architect

Giotto di Bondone è ritenuto il padre della pittura moderna. Egli segna una svolta nel panorama artistico italiano, costringendo tutti i suoi successori, da Masaccio a Michelangelo, a studiare le sue opere per comprenderne la modernità. La vita di Giotto affonda le sue radici nella leggenda: l'apprendistato presso Cimabue, il mistero della Basilica di Assisi, il cerchio perfetto eseguito con un unico tratto della mano. Nonostante le poche notizie certe, ciò che contraddistingue la personalità di Giotto è la capacità di vedere quello che i suoi contemporanei non erano ancora in grado di percepire: un nuovo modo di raffigurare lo spazio.

"Je sens en moi une trame douce, vibrante, un battement d'ailes tremblant au repos, retenant son souffle. Quand je serai vraiment capable de peindre, je peindrai ça." Lorsqu'elle écrivit ces mots, Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) n'était pas encore une artiste, mais une jeune femme aspirant à le devenir. Bien consciente des limites qui l'entravaient encore, mais résolue à ne pas céder sur son dessein (...). C'est cette obsession de la vérité qui a frappé Marie Darrieussecq la première fois qu'elle s'est trouvée face à un tableau de l'artiste allemande.

Unverfälscht temperamentvoll präsentiert Marcel Reich-Ranicki Aufsätze und Kritiken zu den großen amerikanischen Schriftstellern, z. B. Hemingway, Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike und Philip Roth aber auch zu bedeutenden Autorinnen wie Joyce Carol Oates. Wie kein anderer Literaturkritiker bleibt er dabei der unbefangene Leser - immer auf der Suche nach Qualität...

Many of the first artists in the West were assigned to exploration and geological parties, working as archivists and obedient to demands of cold accuracy. However, a few were driven by an imaginative mix of real events and fantastical visions to whet the appetite of Eastern consumers and preserve their own nostalgia on canvas. Among the most prominent artists depicting the "old" West was Charles Marion Russell, a prolific painter, sculptor, writer, and storyteller based in the heart of the Montana country.

Somewhere within the iconic images, carefully made personae, star-studded milieu, million-dollar price tags and famous quotes lies the real Andy Warhol. But who was he? With Andy Warhol, Robert Shore unfolds the multi-dimensional Warhol, dissecting his existence as undisputed art-world hotshot, recreating the amazing circle that surrounded him, and tracing his path to stardom back through his early career and his awkward and unusual youth.

Frida Kahlo, Mexand painter and tragic heroine: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best.

L`autore dei bestseller Steve Jobs, Einstein e Benjamin Franklin ritorna con un`accattivante biografia di Leonardo da Vinci, considerato uno degli individui di talento più diversificato che abbia mai vissuto. Come descrive Walter Isaacson, il genio di Leonardo era del tipo che possiamo capire e prendere lezioni da.

Este ensayo le hace un seguimiento al artista Goya, un trayecto que se centra en algunas de sus obras, agregando el trasfondo de las mismas y aspectos puntuales de su vida. Eugenio D'ors nos llevará de la mano a lo largo del viaje, brindándonos su pensar y su sentir sobre cada una de las obras presentadas en este título, además de inmiscuirnos en la vida del artista. Sin una directriz establecida más que la vida de Goya, se puede disfrutar en su totalidad sin importar si has presenciado o no sus obras, asimismo puede sumergirte y servirte de guía al momento de querer contemplarlas en persona.

In thirteen fascinating chapters, Charlotte Van den Broeck goes in search of buildings that were fatal to their architects-architects who either killed themselves or are rumored to have done so. They range across time and space from a church with a twisted spire in seventeenth-century France to a theater that collapsed mid-performance in 1920s Washington, DC, and an eerily sinking swimming pool in the author's hometown.

Gustav Mahler, star conductor and legendary composer: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best.

Twenty-first-century scientist Matt Miller has become a wealthy businessman and politician with a beautiful wife and family. Yet, despite his every effort, Matt’s world is crumbling around him.

Picasso’s work is famous. His art is intricate, yet bizarre. His personal life was filled with struggles, and his children weren’t any better off, creating substance abuse and suicidal headlines. Despite the dysfunctionality in his personal and family life, his artwork reflected something new and fresh. And in a variety of paintings, an underlying rebel message against totalitarian regimes. Having lived through many horrors of the Spanish war, as well as other 20th-century conflicts, the painter showed both style and morale in his works, and left a legacy studied by the masses.

Peter Paul Rubens, painting genius of the 16th century: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

El muralismo mexicano cambió para siempre la manera de experimentar el arte público, y no solo en Latinoamérica, sino alrededor del mundo. Diego Rivera emerge como uno de los pintores más descollantes de aquel movimiento artístico. Alimentado de las tradiciones aztecas y de las vanguardias de su tiempo, Rivera plasmó su arte en obras fulgurantes como “El mercado de Tlatelolco” y “Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central”.

Les jeunes Patti Smith et Robert Mapplethorpe se rencontrent par hasard à New York à la fin des années 1960. "Just Kids", roman d'initiation bohème, retrace les débuts de ces enfants terribles, jusqu'au moment où la chanteuse enregistre son premier album, "Horses", et voit décoller sa carrière. Cette épopée mythique, histoire d'amour et d'amitié, qui s'ouvre et s'achève avec la mort du photographe, immortalise les instants incandescents d'une période décisive dans ces deux vies d'artistes et dans l'histoire de la musique américaine.

Brothers Barry and Tommy Moser were born of the same parents in Chattanooga, Tennessee, slept in the same bedroom, went to the same school, and were both poisoned by their family's deep racism and anti-Semitism. But as they grew older, their perspectives and their paths grew further and further apart. Barry left Chattanooga for New England and a life in the arts; Tommy stayed put and became a mortgage banker.

In this brilliantly listenable autobiography, one of India’s greatest writers shows us the roots of everything he has written. He begins with a dream and a gentle haunting before taking us to an idyllic childhood in Jamnagar by the Arabian Sea and New Delhi in the early 1940s - where he found material for his first short story. A search for companionship and security, undercut by a fierce independence and a tendency for risk-taking, would inform every choice he made for the rest of his life.

Art dealer Stan Lauryssens made millions in modern art, but he sold only one name: Salvador Dalí. The surrealist painter's work was a hot commodity for the newly rich, investors, and businessmen looking to launder their black-market cash. Lauryssens didn't mind looking the other way; he just hoped the buyers would look the other way as well.

For over 40 years Cracked was the best-selling humor magazine in the world...if you don't count Mad! A remarkable and amusing retrospective by author Mark Arnold, recounting the secret origins of the magazine, covering its history with former and future Mad and Marvel Comics contributors John Severin, Jack Davis, Don Martin, Bill Elder, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Al Jaffee, along with Cracked veterans Bill Ward, Don Orehek, George Gladir.

Jane Jacobs is universally recognized as one of the most important figures in American urbanism, and The Death and Life of Great American Cities one of the most important books on cities. However, because of her David-versus-Goliath battles with "power broker" Robert Moses and the urban-renewal establishment, Jacobs has received more attention for being an activist than a thinker, despite having written a list of influential books on cities, economies, and other subjects.