A captivating new history of art told through the storied biographies of colors and pigments In this refreshing approach to the history of color, Kelly Grovier takes readers on an exciting search for the intriguing and unusual. In Grovier's telling, a color's connotations are never fixed but are endlessly evolving. Knowledge of a pigment and its history can unlock meaning in the works that feature it. Grovier employs the term "artymology" to suggest that color is a linguistic device, where pigments stand in for syllables in art's language. Color is the site of invigorating conflict--a battleground where past and present, influence and originality, and superstition and science merge into meanings that complicate and intensify our appreciation of a given work. How might it change our understanding of a well-known masterpiece like Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night to know that the intense yellow moon in that painting was sculpted from clumps of dehydrated urine from cows that were fed nothing but mango leaves? Or that the cobalt blue pigment in Van Gogh's sky shares a material bloodline with the glaze of Ming Dynasty porcelain? Consisting of ten chapters, each presenting a biography of a family of colors, this volume mines a rich vein of pigmentation from prehistoric cave painting to art of the present day. The book also includes beautifully designed features exploring important milestones in the history of color theory from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century.

The Art of Colour: The History of Art in 39 Pigments

Arts & Photography

Grovier, Kelly

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

The Art of Colour : The History of Art in 39 Pigments /anglais

Thames&Hudson

Few would dispute that Banksy is the most famous urban artist in the world today. That he is also a perceptive art historian might come as a surprise to many. Taken together, the myriad memorable works the street artist has created over the course of the past thirty years, constitute an audacious commentary on the history of image-making--a captivating critique waiting to be pieced together. Armed with little more than stencils, spray paint, and an anonymizing cloak of after-hours darkness, Banksy has forged an alluring identity for himself as an incorrigible prankster who doesn't embrace tradition, but shreds it. Consider Banksy and you think of grubby city walls far removed from elite galleries and privileged museums where art is conventionally shown. What actually illuminates Banksy's audacious murals, impromptu urban sculptures, and vandalized paintings, however, is a profound understanding of the story of art. Through the dark satirical lens of Banksy's mischievous reimagined masterpieces, art history is viewed anew and brought into unexpected focus. From his droll lampooning of the Lascaux cave paintings to reinventing Monet's enchanting water lily pond, a reboot of Géricault's tragic, gut-wrenching vision to Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring now instilled with street cred, everyone's genius is grist for his unmerciful mill. Far from being diminished in their significance, however, the works that Banksy ruthlessly parodies are ultimately refurbished by the ordeal. Banksy's iconoclastic works force us to rethink our affection for and appreciation of great works of art that define cultural history.

How Banksy Saved Art History

A unique insight into the life and art of Sean Scully, an internationally celebrated artist and creative practitioner at the height of his powers. Sean Scully's paintings of brushy stripes and blocks of sumptuous colour are critically acclaimed and widely admired. Less well known is what a gifted storyteller and profound commentator on the history of art he is. In this fascinating book, the record of countless hours of conversations with Scully's friend, the art critic Kelly Grovier, the painter reflects on his extraordinary journey - from homelessness on the streets of Dublin in the mid-1940s to his current position as one of the most important abstract artists working today. In these revealing conversations, Scully recalls with poignancy and wit his rough-and-tumble childhood in London (where his family moved when he was a toddler), his tenacity in the face of rejection from nearly every art school in England, and his rise to prominence in New York in the 1980s. Illustrated throughout with images that capture both the artist and his work, this volume explores Scully's relationship with past masters, from Rembrandt to Rothko, and delves deep into his eventual rejection in the late 1970s of minimalism - the dominant force in abstract art at the time. Punctuated throughout by passionately recounted stories of struggle and loss, perseverance and triumph, the portrait that emerges from these pages is at once intimate and surprising. The book reflects the scope of Scully's broad interests and opinions, with segments devoted not only to his attitudes towards the art world and his most significant works, but also culture, politics and philosophy. Scully communicates with a raw pugnacity that is every bit as hard-hitting as his big brushstrokes. With 146 illustrations in colour

On the Line: Conversations with Sean Scully

An extensive, accessible guide to the most groundbreaking and influential art from 1989 to the present The years since the collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 have seen the rise of a new freedom to define art―Who makes it? Where can it be found? What is its commercial value?―and, consequently, the reevaluation of art’s place in society. Kelly Grovier surveys the dynamic developments in art practice worldwide since 1989, focusing on artists whose fresh visual vocabulary and innovation reflect these past turbulent decades. The book’s ten chapters examine the key themes in contemporary art―portraiture in the age of face transplants and facial recognition software, political activism, science, and religion, to name a few―by artists including Jeff Koons, Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst, George Condo, Marlene Dumas, Sean Scully, Cindy Sherman, Banksy, Ai Weiwei, Antony Gormley, Christo and Jean-Claude, Jenny Holzer, Chuck Close, and Cornelia Parker. A chapter-length timeline at the end of the book traces the evolution of art from 1989 to today by closely examining one key artwork from each year. Illustrated with the work of over 200 key artists, Art Since 1989 is a lucid and engaging look at what may prove to be one of the more tempestuous eras in human history, if not the history of art. 254 illustrations

Art Since 1989 (World of Art)

Bold and engaging predictions of which artists and artworks from the past two decades will endure through their power to question, provoke, and inspire Just as Picasso’s Guernica or Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa survive as powerful cultural documents of their time, there will be works from our own era that will endure for generations to come. Kelly Grovier curates a compelling list of one hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, performances, and video pieces that have made the greatest impact from 1989 to the present. The global cast includes Marina Abramovic , Matthew Barney, Christian Boltanski, Louise Bourgeois, Maurizio Cattelan, Marlene Dumas, Olafur Eliasson, Andreas Gursky, Cristina Iglesias, On Kawara, Jeff Koons, Ernesto Neto, Gerhard Richter, Pipilotti Rist, Kara Walker, and Ai Weiwei. Many of the pieces reflect the cultural upheavals of recent times, from the collapse of the Berlin Wall to the blossoming of the Arab Spring. A daring yet convincing analysis of which artworks best capture the zeitgeist of our time, Grovier’s list also provides a much-needed map through the landscape of contemporary art. Illustrations of key works are supplemented by comparative images, and short texts offer a biography of each artwork, tracing its inception and impact, and offering a view not only into the imagination of the artist but into the age in which we live. 391 illustrations, 366 in color

100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age

An exciting new critical voice explores what it is that makes great art great through an illuminating analysis of the world’s artistic masterpieces.
From a carved mammoth tusk (ca. 40,000 BCE) to Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights (1505–1510) to Duchamp’s Fountain (1917), a remarkable lexicon of astonishing imagery has imprinted itself onto the cultural consciousness of the past 40,000 years.
Author Kelly Grovier devotes himself to illuminating these and more than fifty other seminal works in this radical new history of art. Stepping away from biography, style, and the chronology of “isms” that preoccupies most of art history, A New Way of Seeing invites a new interaction with art, one in which we learn from the artworks and not just about them. Grovier identifies that part of the artwork that bridges the divide between art and life and elevates its value beyond the visual to the vital. This book challenges the sensibility that conceives of artists as brands and the works they create as nothing more than material commodities to hoard, hide, and flip for profit.
Lavishly illustrated with many of the most breathtaking and enduring artworks ever created, Kelly Grovier casts fresh light on these famous works by daring to isolate a single, and often overlooked, detail responsible for its greatness and power to move. 200 color illustrations

New Way of Seeing: The History of Art in 57 Works

"From his phrasing of its title to his choices of artists and the works by them, if nothing else will get people arguing over the art of their time, Grovier’s book will." ―San Francisco Chronicle Just as Picasso’s Guernica or Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa survive as powerful cultural documents of their time, certain artworks from our own era will endure for generations to come. Kelly Grovier curates a compelling list of one hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, performances, and video pieces that have made the greatest impact from 1989 to the present. The global cast of artists includes Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Christian Boltanski, Louise Bourgeois, Maurizio Cattelan, Marlene Dumas, Olafur Eliasson, Andreas Gursky, Cristina Iglesias, On Kawara, Jeff Koons, Ernesto Neto, Gerhard Richter, Pipilotti Rist, Kara Walker, and Ai Weiwei. Many of the pieces reflect the cultural upheavals of recent times, from the collapse of the Berlin Wall to the blossoming of the Arab Spring. A daring yet convincing analysis of which artworks best capture the zeitgeist of our time, Grovier’s list also provides a much-needed map through the landscape of contemporary art. Illustrations of key works are supplemented by comparative images by different artists, sometimes in different periods, while short texts offer a biography of each artwork, tracing its inception and impact, and offering a view not only into the imagination of the artist but into the age in which we live. 242 illustrations, 223 in color

An exciting new critical voice explores what makes art great through an illuminating analysis of the world’s artistic masterpieces, now in paperback. 
From a carved mammoth tusk (c. 40,000 BCE) to Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights (1505–1510) to Duchamp’s Fountain (1917), a remarkable lexicon of astonishing imagery has imprinted itself onto the cultural consciousness of the past forty thousand years. 
Author Kelly Grovier devotes himself to illuminating these and more than fifty other seminal works in this radical new history of art. Stepping away from biography, style, and the chronology of “isms” that preoccupies most of art history, A New Way of Seeing invites interaction with art, learning from the artworks and not just about them. Grovier identifies that part of the artwork that bridges the divide between art and life and elevates its value beyond the visual to the vital. This book challenges the sensibility that conceives of artists as brands and the works they create as nothing more than material commodities to hoard, hide, and flip for profit. 
Lavishly illustrated with many of the most breathtaking and enduring artworks ever created, Grovier casts fresh light on these famous works by daring to isolate a single, often overlooked detail responsible for its greatness and power to move. 200 color illustrations

A New Way of Seeing: The History of Art in 57 Works

The Gaol

Reference

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

Isis Large Print

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Grovier, Kelly. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Grovier, Kelly

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Grovier, Kelly. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Art of Colour: The History of Art in 39 Pigments

The Art of Colour : The History of Art in 39 Pigments /anglais

How Banksy Saved Art History

On the Line: Conversations with Sean Scully

Art Since 1989 (World of Art)

100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age

New Way of Seeing: The History of Art in 57 Works

100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age

A New Way of Seeing: The History of Art in 57 Works

The Gaol