Book reviews and extracts

I've always loved Heath Robinson's cartoons - those ridiculously complex machinery with their elaborate pulley systems, belching steam boilers, pipes and levers.  I am not alone. The satirical artist has a special place in the British consciousness. Indeed his name was included in...

Visual arts blogger and art historian, Nigel Ip reviews the catalogue from the Legion of Honor in San Francisco show, Truth and Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelites and the Old Masters - a book that speaks truth, oozes beauty and deserves be on everyone’s bookshelf....

Visual arts blogger and art historian, Nigel Ip reviews the catalogue from Getty publications, Andrea Del Sarto: The Renaissance Workshop in Action - a book which allows him to appreciate and savour Del Sarto's creative vision and drawing genius. Andrea del Sarto: The...

Flies are everywhere. They're in our homes, beneath of the streets of our cities, and even in the frozen depths of lakes. There are some 17 million flies for each and every one of us on the planet and some 24...

Art historian and author Jean Marie Carey PhD reviews the Natural History Museum's Birds: The Art of Ornithology and discovers that it is both an informative scientific exploration and a love sonnet to the birds of the air, sea, and land.  ****...

America's Cool Modernism: O'Keeffe to Hopper, the companion book to a show at the Ashmolean Museum, tells the fascinating story of how American artists responded to the great changes of the interwar years. The Twenties announced themselves confidently, with tall,...

Pasta for Nightingales is the translation of a 17th-century Italian ornithological study. Beautifully produced, sensitively translated and full of fascinating nuggets, this is a truly exquisite book. Originally written in 1622 by the Italian ornithologist, Giovanni Olina, this handsome hardback features some...

This fascinating exhibition catalogue accompanying the British LIbrary 2018 show tells the story of James Cook's three major voyages across the globe through the Library's rich Captain Cook collection.   The book is organised chronologically and features thoughtful and well-written essays that are...

I am always impressed by the imaginative ways that museums showcase their collections through their publication. Take the British Museum. They have some 30,000 objects in their collections that relate to Japan ranging from samurai swords, kimonos to woodblock prints....

To mark the opening of the exhibition, the Gurlitt Status Report: Nazi Art Theft and Its Consequences at the Kunstmuseum Bern, art historian and founder of germanmodernism.org, Jean Marie Carey PhD reviews two recent catalogues exploring the Gurlitt acquisition by the...

Non-stop imagery from conflict zones surrounds us. It seems that every day, we are bombarded with shaky phone videos and grainy snaps of conflicts and their aftermath from our television and from social media. And yet it is the photograph that has the deepest bite, searing images...

Art historian, Nigel Ip has reviewed the National Gallery's exhibition catalogue accompanying their Autumn exhibition, Reflections: Van Eyck and the Pre-Raphaelites. Read his thoughts on the book below

Art historian Nigel Ip reviews The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt - the companion book to the National Portrait Gallery's 2017 exhibition.

Art and culture blogger Victoria Sadler has reviewed the Tate's Frank Auerbach exhibition catalogue and is impressed by the glorious images of his work. Watch her vlog below. And to buy a copy of the book...

'That Continuous Thing makes the case to the uninitiated for the expansion of the ceramic field beyond what we think we know about pottery. A varied selection of essays ensure that this book goes beyond the oft-cited points of reference, reaching...

Like us, art blogger Victoria Sadler - Arts & Culture is on a mission to open up great exhibitions to new audiences. In this excellent vlog, Victoria talks about how exhibition catalogues are a brilliant way to get a feel for the...

'the perfect present for children who spend supper time making palm trees out of bananas and piling their vegetables into wobbly tower block'

We review and are charmed by MoMA's children's book, Young Frank Architect.

 

In our latest blogpost, art historian, Jean Marie Carey reviews the 'innovatively presented and well-researched' exhibition catalogue, Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim. Edited and introduced by Megan Fontanella with chapters by Vivien Greene, Jeffrey Weiss, Susan Thompson, Tracey Bashkoff, Lauren Hinkson, and...

History buff, Alec Stephen reviews The Somme - A Visual History and finds the book with its rich illustrations and moving first person accounts gives him a vivid idea of what the battle was really like.

'Just as Rauschenberg’s own output was immense, so too is the exhibition catalogue. Through exploring the various confluences and tributaries that exist within his work, here we see Rauschenberg’s breadth outside of the oft quoted snippets of his oeuvre. This...

Never Built New York explores the future that never was with its collection of architectural proposals for New York that never saw the light of day. Packed with charcoal sketches, architectural models and computer-generated images of failed schemes from the past...