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Gavin Plumley considered himself a distinctly urban being...until he met his rural husband, Alastair. Together, they bought Stepps House - a three-storey building in Pembridge, Herefordshire - on love at first sight. But then came the inevitable question from an insurance salesman: 'How old is it?' With ancient beams crossing the ceiling, the date they'd been given of 1800 seemed out by centuries. As Gavin traced Stepps House through various hands and eras, he saw the picture of a past emerge that resonates powerfully with our present. A hybrid work of domestic history and European art, of memoir and landscape, A Home for All Seasons is both grand in its sweep and intimate in its account of life on the edge of England.
In exhilarating, transformative prose, the poet Patrick Mackie reveals a musician in dialogue with culture at its most sweepingly progressive. Mozart is one of the most familiar and beloved icons of our culture, but how much do we really understand about his music, and what can it reveal to us about the great composer? Following Mozart from his youth in Salzburg to his early death, from his close and rivalrous relationship with his father to his romantic attachments, from his hugely successful operas to intimate compositions on the keyboard, Patrick Mackie leads the reader through the major and lesser-known moments of the composer’s life and brings alive the teeming, swiveling modernity of...
At the turn of the century, Sigmund Freud’s investigation of the mind represented a particular journey into mental illness, but it was not the only exploration of this ‘territory’ in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Sanatoriums were the new tourism destinations, psychiatrists were collecting art works produced by patients and writers were developing innovative literary techniques to convey a character’s interior life. This collection of essays uses the framework of journeys in order to highlight the diverse artistic, cultural and medical responses to a peculiarly Viennese anxiety about the madness of modern times. The travellers of these journeys vary from patients to doctors, artists to writers, architects to composers and royalty to tourists; in engaging with their histories, the contributors reveal the different ways in which madness was experienced and represented in ‘Vienna 1900’.
A rare case among history's great music contemporaries, Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and Richard Strauss (1864-1949) enjoyed a close friendship until Mahler's death in 1911. Unlike similar musical pairs (Bach and Handel, Haydn and Mozart, Schoenberg and Stravinsky), these two composers may have disagreed on the matters of musical taste and social comportment, but deeply respected one another's artistic talents, freely exchanging advice from the earliest days of professional apprenticeship through the security and aggravations of artistic fame. Using a wealth of documentary material, this book reconstructs the 24-year relationship between Mahler and Strauss through collage—"a meaning that aris...
This volume focusses on the rarely discussed reverse side of traditional, ‘given’ objects of studies, namely absence rather than presence (of text) and silence rather than sound. It does so from the bifocal and interdisciplinary perspective which is a hallmark of the book series Word and Music Studies. The twelve contributors to the main subject of this volume approach it from various systematic and historical angles and cover, among others, questions such as to what extent absence can become significant in the first place or iconic (silent) functions of musical scores, as well as discussions of fields ranging from baroque opera to John Cage’s 4’33’’. The volume is complemented by two contributions dedicated to further surveying the vast field of word and music studies. The essays collected here were originally presented at the Ninth International Conference on Word and Music Studies held at London University in August 2013 and organised by the International Association for Word and Music Studies. They are of relevance to scholars and students of literature, music and intermediality studies as well as to readers generally interested in phenomena of absence and silence.
Extraordinary reference book of over 80 famous painters, their lives, their loves and their iconic paintings. This art book includes insightful biographies of artists accompanied with remarkable reproductions of their famous artworks. Begin with the early Renaissance and follow art movements through the centuries to some of the most well-known artists alive today. A gorgeous exploration of the defining people of the art world including pioneers like Giotto and Jan van Eyck, the greats like Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, and the visionaries like Frida Kahlo and Hokusai. The large format art book is overflowing with information and pictures of your favorite classics. The full-page prints are e...
A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR The ten years leading up to the First World War were the most exciting, frenzied and revolutionary in the history of art. They were the crucible of Modernism, when Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism and Abstract Art all burst forth. Simultaneously the Old Master market boomed, and art itself was politically weaponised in advance of approaching war. What was the conventional art against which Modernism was rebelling? Why did avant-garde artists become so obsessed with themselves? What persuaded a few bold collectors to buy difficult modern art? And why did others pay so much money for Old Masters? Art expert Philip Hook brings to bear a unique perspective on the art of a unique and extreme decade.
The first-ever, comprehensive and authorized showcase of legendary fashion designer Bob Mackie’s fabulous life and work, featuring hundreds of photos and dozens of never-before-seen sketches from his personal collection. Cher, Carol Burnett, Bette Midler, P!nk, Tina Turner, Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Angela Lansbury, Diana Ross, Beyoncé, RuPaul, and Madonna...what do they all have in common? All have been dressed by Bob Mackie. For nearly six decades, the iconic and incomparable Bob Mackie has been designing stunning, unforgettable clothing. His unique, glamorous—sometimes hilarious—creations have appeared on Broadway stages, TV screens, runways, and red carpets worldwide. For his pio...
"Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) remains one of the most popular artists of the early 20th century. Published to accompany a major exhibition at Tate Liverpool, a highlight of that city's 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations and the first such show in the UK, Gustav Klimt explores the life and work of an intriguing figure at the heart of the cultural transformation of Vienna around 1900." "Central to the book is the first thorough examination of the relationship between Klimt's paintings and the work of his close friend the architect and designer Josef Hoffmann. Reaching beyond the two-dimensional arts, it hails the advent of an all-inclusive design culture that embraced interiors, furniture, cloth...