McCahon Country by Justin Paton

$75.00 NZD

Category: NZ Art and Artists

'My painting tells you where I am at any given time, where I am living and the direction I am pointing in.' - Colin McCahon. McCahon (1919-1987) is widely recognised as an outstanding figure in twentieth century art whose ground-breaking work over four decades changed the way we see this country, while engaging intensely with questions of faith, mortality, belonging and the power of art. In this landmark new book, published in association with Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki on the 100th anniversary of McCahon's birth, celebrated writer and curator Justin Paton takes readers on a journey through the landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand, as the artist loved and painted it. From Otago to Canterbury, Takaka to Taranaki, Muriwai to Northland and many more places in between, Paton brings his curator's eye to a selection of nearly 200 of McCahon's paintings and drawings, including iconic and beloved works and others never before published, presented in fifteen themed sections offering fresh perspectives on McCahon's abiding concerns. In elegant, responsive and deeply compelling prose, the author traces McCahon's travels through New Zealand, charts his remarkable development as a painter and thinker, explores his deepening engagement with Maori culture and environmental issues, and reveals his vision of the land as a source of light, peace and spiritual sustenance. A book to introduce new viewers to McCahon's vision and to enlarge the view for those who know the work well, McCahon Countryilluminates the beauty, spiritual urgency and enduring power of McCahon's artworks. Above all, it shows the reader how McCahon's paintings get us looking at the world we live in with new eyes. 'McCahon is not only New Zealand's most significant or important artist. He is our most soulful artist, our most searching. He asks the most of art and the world it renders. One hundred years since his birth, he still wants to know what we should believe in and where we belong.' - Justin Paton ...Show more

Ralph Hotere- The Dark is Light Enough: A Biographical Portrait by Vincent O'Sullivan

$45.00 NZD

Category: NZ Biographies

Vincent O'Sullivan's compelling, nuanced portrait of the great New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere brings the man and his art to life. Ralph Hotere (Te Aupouri and Te Rarawa; 1931-2013) was one of Aotearoa's most significant modern artists. Hotere invited the poet, novelist and biographer Vincent O'Sullivan to write his life story in 2005. Now, this book - the result of years of research and many conversations with Hotere and his fellow artists, collaborators, friends and family - provides a nuanced, compelling portrait of Hotere: the man, and the artist. ...Show more

Ralph Hotere by Stephen Stratford

$95.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

Featuring reproduction of 250 paintings, and 9 photos of Ralph Hotere by Marti Friedlander.

The Art Museum by Phaidon Editors

$250.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

The Art Museum is the finest art collection ever assembled between two covers. This revolutionary and unprecedented virtual art museum in a book, features 1,000 oversized pages of over 2,700 works of art. It is the most comprehensive and visually spectacular history of world art ever published. Ten year s in the making, this unique book was created with a global team of specialists in all fields of art, including museum curators and educators, who have collected together important works as they might be displayed in the ideal museum for the art lover. Unrestricted by the constraints of physical space, this luxurious book is organized by innovative color-coded "galleries," "rooms, "corridors" and "special exhibitions" which display hundreds of paintings, sculptures, frescos, photographs, tapestries, friezes, installations, performances, videos, woodblock prints, folding screens, ceramics and manuscripts that tell the history of world art. This is the only museum to house Leonardo's Mona Lisa, a collection of Rembrandt's finest self portraits, Velazquez's Las Meninas and Picasso's Guernica, as well as ceramics from China, Hokusai's woodblock prints, gold artefacts from Peru, and works by Jackson Pollock in one place. With intelligent in-depth text throughout, explanatory labels for each artwork, a comprehensive glossary and detailed location maps, The Art Museum, is accessible for everyone from casual art fans to experts in the field. ...Show more

New York is... by Metropolitan Museum of Art

$33.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

What is New York in the eyes of artists? This engaging book from the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers myriad answers to that question, pairing selected works in the museum's collection with simple, concise observations. The Flatiron Building is shape; the Empire State Building is line. Washington Squar e Park is joyous; Times Square is spectacle. Among the enduring images are paintings by Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Winslow Homer, Jacob Lawrence and Charles Demuth; photographs by Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott, Alfred Stieglitz, Garry Winogrand and Cindy Sherman and drawings, lithograph and posters. Some of the words and images speak to our experiences of the city while others relate to a point of view expressed by the artist. All are simple reflections that encourage readers to observe, to think and to develop their own definitions of this endlessly fascinating metropolis. ...Show more

Art at Te Papa by William McAloon

$99.99 NZD

Category: Fine Art

Art at Te Papa reveals and illuminates New Zealand's vast national art collection. Reproductions of more than 400 individual artworks, personally selected by curators, are accompanied by brief essays giving expert and engaging commentary on each work. This book spans the entire collection, from the crea m of its early European prints holdings to its most exciting contemporary acquisitions. Here are international artworks by Rembrandt van Rijn, Albrechet Durer, Marcel Duchamp, Barbara Hepworth, Natalie Gontchorova and Robert Mapplethorpe, alongside masterpieces from some of New Zealand's most significant and best-loved artists - Charles Goldie, Rita Angus, Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon, Frances Hodgkins, Bill Hammond, Shane Cotton and Yvonne Todd - as well as little-known artworks that will surprise and inform readers. From the iconic to the unknown, from printmaking to post-object art, the history of the national art collection is part of the story of Aotearoa New Zealand itself - its landscapes, its people and its developing national identity. The first to tell that story, Art at Te Papa is a significant resource and a genuine treasure for all New Zealanders and lovers of art. ...Show more

Great Paintings by Dorling Kindersley

$50.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

The world's greatest masterpieces explored and explained. "Great Paintings" takes you on your own personal gallery tour of over 60 of the world's best-loved paintings. From works by Botticelli and Raphael to Salvador Dali and Frida Kahlo, the book covers the paintings that have shaken the art world acro ss centuries and across continents. The story behind each painting is told, unlocking hidden meanings and symbols and over 700 photographs bring the pictures to life helping you understand the key features, composition and techniques that have made these paintings stand out. Plus, biographies of the artists provide the background to each art work helping you paint your own picture of the historical and social context behind each masterpiece. "Great Paintings" is a beautiful guide to the paintings that have changed the world, both familiar and new. It really is like having a gallery of all the great paintings at your fingertips. ...Show more

240 Two Hundred and Forty Years of New Zealand Painting by Gil Docking; Michael Dunn; Edward Hanfling

$50.00 NZD

$100.00 (50% off)

Category: Fine Art

This landmark book on New Zealand artists and their work was first published in 1971, extended to 1990 by art historian Michael Dunn and now again to 2010 by art historian, writer and lecturer Edward Hanfling. The original text by Gil Docking, former director of the Auckland City Art Gallery, covers the period from European discovery up until 1969, and is presented in its completely original form, making for a fascinating look at what was being thought and written about New Zealand paintings thirty-something years ago. Michael Dunn's narrative takes over to complete the picture through the 1970s and 1980s, and then Edward Hanfling looks at New Zealand painting and its evolution over the last twenty years, when many painters saw their medium as a vehicle for addressing issues or generating a range of meanings, rather than dealing with visual or formal concerns. In total, this new edition features more than 200 paintings. This book is an ideal introduction to the development of New Zealand painting from its very beginning, and also the development of critical thinking about the work of New Zealand artists over the last 40 years. Detailed bibliography and index makes this an ideal book for students. ...Show more

Octavio Ocampo: Metamorphic Art by Octavio Ocampo

$110.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

A beautiful collection of the "metamorphic" art of one one of Mexico's most prolific artists Octavio Ocampo works primarily in the metamorphic style, using a technique of superimposing and juxtaposing realistic and figurative details within the images that he creates. Ocampo is known for his sometimes w ryly sardonic, sometimes evocative paintings in which detailed images are intricately woven together to create larger images--the optical illusions fading back and stepping forward as the viewer studies the pieces, notices the details, and finally recognizes the large-scale intention. ...Show more

The Power of Art by Simon Schama

$60.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

'Great art has dreadful manners...' Simon Schama observes at the start of his epic exploration of the power, and whole point, of art. 'The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are polite things, visions that soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merc iless and wily, the greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your sense of reality...' With the same disarming force, "Power of Art" jolts us far from the comfort zone of the hushed art gallery, as Schama closes in on intense make-or-break turning points in the lives of eight great artists who, under extreme stress, created something unprecedented, altering the course of art for ever. The embattled heroes - Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko - faced crisis with steadfast defiance. The masterpieces they created challenged convention, shattered complacency, shifted awareness and changed the way we look at the world. With powerfully vivid story-telling, Schama explores the dynamic personalities of the artists and the spirit of the times they lived through, capturing the flamboyant theatre of bourgeois life in Amsterdam, the passion and paranoia of Revolutionary Paris, and the carnage and pathos of civil-war Spain. Most compelling of all, "Power of Art" traces the extraordinary evolution of eight world-class works of art. Created in a bolt of illumination, such works 'tell us something about how the world is, how it is to be inside our skins, that no more prosaic source of wisdom can deliver. And when they do that they answer, irrefutably and majestically, the nagging question of every reluctant art-conscript...' OK, OK, but what's art really for?' ...Show more

The Artists: 21 Practitioners in New Zealand Contemporary Art: c. 2013-2015 by Jane Apperley et al

$50.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

The Artists: 21 Practitioners in New Zealand Contemporary Art c. 2013-2015 provides a unique insight into the richness and diversity of New Zealand contemporary art through the work of emerging and established artists represented by a single gallery. Essays have been contributed by 21 of New Zealand's l eading art writers, historians, and curators, each offering their own distinctive insights. This diversity of viewpoints creates an absorbing survey of current critical discourse to read alongside portfolios of the artists' work. Featuring over 100 full-colour images of sculpture, video, photography, installation and painting, this book is an enlightening and entertaining snapshot of New Zealand art at this moment in time. The Artists:- Andrew Barns-Graham, Brit Bunkley, Kevin Capon, Josephine Cachemaille, Candi Dentice, Ben Foster, Liam Gerrard, Young Sun Han, Ray Haydon, Linda Holloway, Alan Ibell, Cruz Jimenez, Simon Kaan, Wendy Kawabata, Clare Kim, Damien Kurth, John Oxborough, PJ Paterson, Martin Selman, Tracey Walker & Jane Zusters. ...Show more

Bodleian Library Treasures by David Vaisey

$71.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

Since its foundation in 1602, the Bodleian Library has acquired manuscripts, printed books, maps, music and ephemera in all languages, from all ages and from all corners of the globe. From this huge collection David Vaisey, former Bodley's Librarian and Keeper of the University Archives, has selected ov er one hundred treasures that have a story to tell. Many of these treasures are well-loved around the world and include Jane Austen's manuscript for 'The Watsons', Shelley's notebooks, a map of Narnia illustrated by C.S. Lewis and the original 'Wind in the Willows' manuscript. Others are known for their beauty and historical value, such as the thirteenth-century Douce Apocalypse, the Magna Carta and the Gutenberg Bible. Many items hold poignant stories, like the little book hand-written by the eleven-year-old girl who would later become Queen Elizabeth I, given as a New Year present in 1545 to the third of her stepmothers, Katherine Parr. Using a simple and accessible chronological structure, together with detailed illustrations, this bibliophile's delight showcases the beauty and knowledge contained within the Bodleian Library's renowned collections. ...Show more