Showing titles in Artists, Architects & Photographers

Self-Portrait reveals a life truly lived through art. In this intimate short smemoir, Celia Paul moves effortlessly through time in words and images, folding in her past and present selves. From her move to the Slade School of Fine Art at 16, through a profound and intense affair with the older and better-known artist Lucian Freud, to the practises of her present-day studio, she meticulously assembles the surprising, beautiful, haunting scenes of a life. Paul brings to her prose the same qualities that she brings to her art.

An intimate memoir portraying a life spent trying to describe the indescribable—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist of The Hours and Day. Go ahead. Try using language to slit the skin of mortality to see what’s on the other side. At the age of three, Michael Cunningham began obsessively...

The definitive biography of Edward Gorey, the eccentric master of macabre nonsense. ’A genius book about a bookish genius’ Daniel Handler, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events From The Gashlycrumb Tinies to The Doubtful Guest, Edward Gorey's wickedly funny and deliciously sinister little...

Modern Man is a penetrating psychological portrait of a true genius and constant self-inventor, as well as a sweeping tale filled with exotic locales, sex and celebrity (he was a lover of Josephine Baker), and high-stakes projects. In Flint's telling, Corbusier isn't just the grandfather of modern architecture but a man who sought to remake the world according to his vision, dispelling the Victorian style and replacing it with something never seen before.

Founder and lead guitarist of Queen, Brian May talks to Maggie Lee about his expertise in 3D photography, alongside his love of science and music. Recorded on location Brian shares what matters to him in life, how Queen became one of the world’s leading rock bands and how he creates his unforgettable sound on the Red Special, the guitar he built over 45 years ago.

Long-time art critic Richard Dorment reveals the corruption and lies of the art world and its mystifying authentication process. Late one afternoon in the winter of 2003 art critic Richard Dorment answered a telephone call from a stranger. The caller was Joe Simon, an American film producer and...

A heart-rending memoir of love, loss and the unique relationship twins share. More than thirty years ago, David Loftus’s cherished identical twin, John, passed away. Ever since, a day hasn’t passed without David feeling the loss. In 1987, after recovering from a brain tumour, John contracted...

Unlike most artists, Van Gogh developed very slowly, beginning with work as an art dealer that exposed him to many great works. He undertook this work for several years, after which he spent time as a missionary for the Dutch Reformed Church. Thereafter, he drifted for several years before returning home to his parents’ house, where he took up painting, largely self-taught with books on anatomy and painting. His great works all date from the later years of his life.

Now a docuseries from Ken Burns on PBS! The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and...

The influence of the comic book has never been greater, from movies to streaming and beyond, but the journey comics took from little-regarded kids' magazines to literary prize-winning books and global franchises turned on a highly unusual group of writers and artists. Few would have expected a small gathering of British comic book fans and creators in the early 'seventies to be a global cultural pivot-point, but this was the start of a disparate movement of punks, dropouts, and disaffected youths who reinvented a medium and became the imaginative heart of a global success story.

The Hockneys is a never before seen insight into the lives of the family by youngest brother John, from growing up in the Second World War in Bradford through to their diverse lives across three continents. With a rare and spirited look into the lives of an ordinary family with extraordinary stories, we begin to understand the creative freedom that led to their successful careers and the launchpad for an artist’s work that has inspired and continues to inspire generations across the world. 

From Life tells the story of the greatest portrait photographer of the Victorian age, Julia Margaret Cameron. Born in Calcutta in 1815, she married and settled down to the life of a typical Victorian colonial matron; but, beneath this conventional exterior, she was increasingly interested in photography. After moving to England, Cameron acquired her first camera in 1863, ultimately emerging as the leading portrait photographer of the Victorian art world.

In 1972, at the age of 21, John Callahan was involved in a car crash that severed his spine and made him a quadriplegic. A heavy drinker since the age of 12, the accident could have been the beginning of a downward spiral. Instead, it sparked a personal transformation. After extensive physical therapy, he was eventually able to grasp a pen in his right hand and make rudimentary drawings. By 1978, Callahan had sworn off drinking for good and begun to draw cartoons. Over the next three decades, Callahan would become one of the nation's most beloved cartoonists.

The definitive, fascinating, all-reaching biography of Dr. Seuss Dr. Seuss is a classic American icon. Whimsical and wonderful, his work has defined our childhoods and the childhoods of our own children. The silly, simple rhymes are a bottomless well of magic, his illustrations timeless...

Discover the extraordinary life of Frida Kahlo, one of the most iconic and influential artists of the 20th century. This captivating biography explores her turbulent childhood, her battle with lifelong pain after a devastating accident, and her rise as a trailblazing painter whose deeply personal self-portraits redefined art and identity. From her passionate relationship with Diego Rivera to her fearless political activism, Frida’s story is one of resilience, creativity, and unyielding individuality.

A vivid collection of trademark classic Tyrus stories, from his personal and professional life, that offer unfiltered insights into the heart of the nation while holding leaders accountable and celebrating the diverse experiences that define the American spirit. In his third captivating...

Picasso has often been called the greatest artist of this century. This biography defines his greatness: his accomplishment and versatility as a painter, sculptor, graphic artist, ceramicist, and designer. Most of the innovations in 20th century art are associated not only with his work but with the legend he built of himself as the quintessential modern artist.

With unprecedented access to newly discovered sources, Donna M. Lucey illuminates the lives of four extraordinary women painted by the iconic high-society portraitist John Singer Sargent. With uncanny clairvoyance, Sargent's portraits hint at the mysteries, passions, and tragedies that unfolded in his subjects' lives.

Sex, Surrealism, Dali and Me was first published in 2000 and was a top-10 best-seller a year later. It tells the biographies of two remarkable men. Salvador Dali, one of the 20th century's greatest painters, and his long-term muse - the Colombian dancer Carlos Lozano. Dali was famously a voyeur, and in this extraordinary audiobook, we are witnesses to the bizarre sexual fantasies he lived out among celebrities, aristocrats, enemies, and the plain crazy.

Fictional drama about the meeting between Nadia Boulanger and Astor Piazzola that changed both the history of tango and the life of the musician. The famous author of Adios Nonino, Libertango, and Oblivion abandoned when young the tango and the bandoneon to learn and compose classical music. The meeting with the famous French music teacher Nadia Boulanger helped Piazzola to retrieve his musical roots and to revolutionize the Argentine tango with new techniques.