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Explore Home & Studio ↗A short book that asks you to look again. Berger considers how images, reproduction and context shape what we see, making it an inviting starting point for a curious art bookshelf.
Our editorial choice for creative minds. Selected by The Calmos.
Meet your next read ↗57 books to get lost in · Buying from Amazon UK
A short book that asks you to look again. Berger considers how images, reproduction and context shape what we see, making it an inviting starting point for a curious art bookshelf.
Take a closer look ↗A practical pocket companion for the messy business of being an artist: approaching galleries, building a professional practice and finding a route that feels like your own.
Take a closer look ↗James Payne takes familiar masterpieces out of the museum hush and into lively conversation. A welcoming place to start asking what makes a work of art matter.
Take a closer look ↗Look at the lettering of arcade games with Toshi Omagari. A playful reference for designers curious about how creative constraints can lead to distinctive typographic forms.
Take a closer look ↗David Sylvester’s conversations with Francis Bacon open a door into the painter’s working mind. For artists who want to hear how another maker talks through the problems of painting.
Take a closer look ↗Pull up a chair for conversations with David Hockney. Martin Gayford follows the artist’s thinking about pictures, looking and the pleasures of making art.
Take a closer look ↗A broad illustrated survey for readers who want to connect individual artworks with the bigger picture. Follow movements, contexts and ideas across the history of art.
Take a closer look ↗Explore Aboriginal art through Wally Caruana’s account of its forms and cultural contexts. A starting point for looking beyond a narrow Western art-history bookshelf.
Take a closer look ↗What happens when artistic practice meets digital technology? Christiane Paul maps the field, giving image-makers a way to think about art beyond the canvas.
Take a closer look ↗A wider frame for Australian art history, bringing a long Indigenous artistic heritage into view. Read it when you want to rethink where a national art story begins.
Take a closer look ↗Enter Antony Gormley’s drawing practice through images and contributions from several voices. A thought-provoking shelf companion for artists interested in the relationship between line, body and space.
Take a closer look ↗Look closely at Van Gogh’s work on paper. Christopher Lloyd explores the artist’s drawings, opening a route into his visual thinking through marks rather than only paintings.
Take a closer look ↗Meet Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists through their drawings. A useful change of pace for anyone who knows their paintings and wants to explore how they worked on paper.
Take a closer look ↗Deanna Petherbridge puts drawing at the centre of artistic thought. A substantial companion for readers interested in what a line can do, mean and make possible.
Take a closer look ↗Explore Hokusai’s energetic world of drawn observations. These collected sketches offer a visual feast for anyone fascinated by gesture, everyday life and the possibilities of a page.
Take a closer look ↗Discover the Pre-Raphaelites through work on paper. Colin Cruise offers a closer look at the drawing practices behind a movement often encountered through its finished paintings.
Take a closer look ↗Follow comics as a visual storytelling medium across cultures and changing formats. An invitation to think about panels, sequences and the meeting of words with images.
Take a closer look ↗Meet contemporary illustration through a survey of creative voices. A colourful browsing companion when you want to discover different approaches to image-making and expand your visual references.
Take a closer look ↗A portrait of Cézanne built around Joachim Gasquet’s recollections and conversations. Read it alongside the paintings to approach the artist through the words of someone who knew him.
Take a closer look ↗Barbara Ehrlich White looks beyond Renoir’s immediately recognisable paintings to explore the person and life behind them. For readers who like art history with a human centre.
Take a closer look ↗Go beyond the familiar sunlit paintings and examine Impressionism as a movement. Belinda Thomson offers context for the artists, their choices and the world they inhabited.
Take a closer look ↗Spend time with Lucian Freud’s art through this illustrated volume. A shelf choice for readers drawn to portraiture, the painted body and the intensity of looking.
Take a closer look ↗Susan Owens explores Constable through the rhythm of a year. A fresh way into a painter closely associated with landscape, observation and the changing natural world.
Take a closer look ↗Explore how Basquiat became a cultural icon. Doug Woodham provides a route into the artist’s story for readers curious about the connections between art, reputation and the wider world.
Take a closer look ↗Immerse yourself in the patterns and design language of William Morris. A visual companion for anyone collecting references for textiles, decoration or the relationship between art and everyday objects.
Take a closer look ↗Follow colour through the V&A’s design collections. Tim Travis offers a vivid source of ideas for readers interested in how colour shapes objects, environments and visual experience.
Take a closer look ↗An illustrated encounter with David Hockney’s work. Keep it nearby when you want to explore the artist’s images and the varied possibilities of a life spent making pictures.
Take a closer look ↗Explore Van Gogh through his portraits. Ralph Skea provides a focused route into a painter often associated with landscapes and flowers, with people and faces taking centre stage.
Take a closer look ↗Spend time with Cy Twombly’s paintings and their expansive marks. A visual starting point for readers curious about gesture, scale and the expressive possibilities of painted surfaces.
Take a closer look ↗Josef Koudelka’s photographs document the Soviet invasion of Prague. A powerful shelf choice for readers exploring how photographic witness connects personal experience with political history.
Take a closer look ↗Explore Chris Killip’s photographs of northern England. An invitation to look at communities, working lives and places through a photographer’s sustained attention.
Take a closer look ↗Nathalie Herschdorfer considers photography’s history and its effects on how we see. A broad perspective for readers who want to connect image-making with the medium’s wider story.
Take a closer look ↗Rethink photography through collaboration rather than the lone photographer. This multi-author volume examines how relationships between people shape the images and histories we encounter.
Take a closer look ↗David Campany offers a route into Walker Evans’s work. For readers interested in documentary photography and the careful attention a camera can bring to people, places and everyday detail.
Take a closer look ↗Explore street photography through images from Magnum. A browsing companion for anyone interested in public life, unexpected encounters and the visual energy of everyday surroundings.
Take a closer look ↗Discover Lee Miller’s wartime photography through a volume edited by Anthony Penrose. A starting point for exploring an image-maker’s experience of conflict and photographic reporting.
Take a closer look ↗Explore Black presence in photographic archives through a multi-voice volume. A valuable shelf choice for readers interested in whose lives are represented, remembered and made visible.
Take a closer look ↗Laurent Jullier offers an introduction to looking at photographs. Read it when you want to slow down, ask better questions and develop a more attentive relationship with images.
Take a closer look ↗A practical companion for portrait photographers from Cian Oba-Smith and Max Ferguson. Explore the decisions and approaches involved in making photographs with people at their centre.
Take a closer look ↗Explore a selection from Saul Leiter’s photographic archive. For readers drawn to the ways colour, layers and everyday surroundings can become the material of an image.
Take a closer look ↗Flavia Frigeri introduces Pop Art and its visual world. A compact starting point for readers curious about the conversation between art, everyday imagery and popular culture.
Take a closer look ↗Explore art history through the books that helped form its debates. Richard Shone and John-Paul Stonard guide readers towards influential ideas and the writers behind them.
Take a closer look ↗Marina Warner looks at the stories, symbols and associations within art. A thoughtful companion when you want to explore how images carry layers of meaning.
Take a closer look ↗Explore a decade of Vincent Van Duysen’s architectural work. A visual reference for readers interested in the relationships between buildings, interiors and the experience of space.
Take a closer look ↗Avi Friedman explores prefabricated housing. For design-minded readers interested in how construction approaches influence homes, daily life and the possibilities of residential architecture.
Take a closer look ↗Discover an earlier period of Vincent Van Duysen’s work. A useful architectural browsing companion for readers interested in the continuity between buildings, interiors and materials.
Take a closer look ↗Michael Webb explores the homes architects create for themselves. Follow the relationship between personal choices and professional ideas through places designed for everyday living.
Take a closer look ↗Frank Whitford introduces the Bauhaus and its place in art and design. A starting point for understanding a school whose ideas continue to shape the environments around us.
Take a closer look ↗Browse Nordic residential architecture with Dominic Bradbury. A visual shelf choice for readers interested in homes, landscape and the ways contemporary designers approach living space.
Take a closer look ↗Explore Neville Brody’s graphic language through a multi-voice volume. A source of visual thinking for designers drawn to typography, communication and the boundaries between disciplines.
Take a closer look ↗Naomi Pollock explores Japanese design after 1945. A visual route into objects, materials and the relationship between craft traditions and changing approaches to everyday design.
Take a closer look ↗Print Club London shares a studio-focused guide to screenprinting. A hands-on shelf choice for makers who want to explore a technique that brings image, colour and process together.
Take a closer look ↗Chris Campe and Ulrike Rausch guide readers into type design. A practical companion for designers ready to move from choosing lettering to exploring how it can be made.
Take a closer look ↗Stefan Riekeles explores the architectural worlds behind anime. A visual feast for readers interested in the meeting of built environments, imagined places and animation.
Take a closer look ↗Eric Broug explores the geometry behind Islamic patterns. A visual reference for makers who want to understand how structure, repetition and intricate design can work together.
Take a closer look ↗Victor Papanek asks designers to think about responsibility and real needs. A thought-provoking shelf companion for anyone considering what design does and whom it should serve.
Take a closer look ↗Kate Wilson brings drawing and painting techniques into one practical volume. An inviting starting point for makers who want to try different approaches and keep building a visual practice.
Take a closer look ↗Curious about the bestsellers? Explore the current art charts in your country. Our own shelves are editorial selections; live rankings belong to the booksellers.
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