Art

ENGLISH

Opera Wars - Inside The World Of Opera And The Battles For Its Future

by Caitlin Vincent

~~26,49€~~ 23,84€ 10% OFF

 Blunt, irreverent, and at times wittily subversive, Opera Wars spotlights opera's colorful and sometimes warring personalities, increasingly fierce controversies over content, and the battles being waged for its economic future.Drawing on interviews with dozens of opera insidersas well as her own experience as an award-winning librettist, trained vocalist, opera company director, and arts commentatorCaitlin Vincent deftly unravels clichs and presumptions, exposing such debates as how much fidelity is owed to long-dead opera composers whose plots often stir racial and gender sensitivities, whether there's any cure for typecasting that leaves talented performers out of work and other performers chained to the same roles, and what explains the bizarre kowtowing of opera companies to the demands of traditionalist patrons. Vincent never shrinks from depicting the industry's top-to-bottom messiness and its stubborn resistance to change. Yet, like a lover who can't quite break away, she always comes back to her veneration for the artform and in these pages stirringly evokes those moments on stage that can be counted on to make ardent fans of the most skeptical.
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Dua Lipa: The Unauthorized Biography

by Sullivan

~~11,04€~~ 9,94€ 10% OFF

 Get ready to break the rules and uncover a side of Dua Lipa you''ve never heard of. It''s time to levitate into the real world of one of the most beloved pop phenomenons to date. From humble beginnings in London to ruling the global pop scene, how did she rise so meteorically to fame? With unparalleled talent and unapologetic boldness, Dua Lipa has become an icon for a generation."DUA LIPA: The Unauthorized Biography" explores the depths of her character and the whirlwind of her career to uncover what has shaped one of the most influential voices in modern music.Caroline Sullivan is a New York-born music journalist who has written for the Guardian, The Times, Time Out and many other prominent publications. Starting her career with Melody Maker, Sullivan became the Guardian''s Chief Rock Critic. Throughout her career, she has interviewed some of the biggest names in music, including Lady Gaga, Radiohead and Adele.
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Catland - Feline Enchantment And The Making Of The Modern World

by Kathryn Hughes

~~16,55€~~ 14,90€ 10% OFF

 *Shortlisted for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize*A Times and Sunday Times Book of the YearA Wall Street Journal Book of the YearA Spectator Book of the YearA Times Literary Supplement Book of the YearA New Yorker Book of the YearSome called it a craze. To others it was a cult. Join prize-winning historian Kathryn Hughes to discover how Britain fell in love with cats and ushered in a new era.''Smart, gorgeously written cultural history’ TLS‘Delightful’ Guardian‘Excellent’ Spectator‘Joyous cultural history’ The Times‘He invented a whole cat world’ declared H. G. Wells of Louis Wain, the Edwardian artist whose anthropomorphic kittens made him a household name. His drawings were irresistible but Catland was more than the creation of one eccentric imagination. It was an attitude - a way of being in society while discreetly refusing to follow its rules.As cat capitalism boomed in the spectacular Edwardian age, prized animals changed hands for hundreds of pounds and a new industry sprung up to cater for their every need. Cats were no longer basement-dwelling pest-controllers, but stylish cultural subversives, more likely to flaunt a magnificent ruff and a pedigree from Persia. Wherever you found old conventions breaking down, there was a cat at the centre of the storm.Whether they were flying aeroplanes, sipping champagne or arguing about politics, Wain’s feline cast offered a sly take on the restless and risky culture of the post-Victorian world. No-one experienced these uncertainties more acutely than Wain himself, confined to a mental asylum while creating his most iconic work. Catland is a fascinating and fabulous unravelling of our obsession with cats, and the man dedicated to chronicling them.‘Through humour, elegance and sheer knowledge, Hughes builds something remarkable’ Literary Review‘If a Louis Wain cat were reading this book, he would raise his topper in tribute’ The Times‘Catland is a tour de force of (cat) history: sleek, elegant and razor-sharp when needed’ History Today‘Excellent … Hughes reveals a fascinating, forgotten aspect of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain: how the British fell in love with felines’ Daily Mail‘An entertaining and often surprising cultural history … typically delivered in an inviting spirit of delight’ New Yorker
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Dress Diary Of Mrs Anne Sykes - Secrets From A Victorian Woman’S Wardrobe

by Kate Strasdin

12,89€ + 10% CARD

 Brought to you by Penguin. The hidden fabric of a Victorian woman''s life - from family and friends to industry and Empire - told through her unique textile scrapbook. In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of her life and times. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes. Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album''s pages. Piece by piece, she charts Anne''s journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life: pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions and the terrible human cost of Britain''s cotton industry. This is life writing that celebrates ordinary people: the hidden figures, the participants in everyday life. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear. ''An extraordinarily rich record of middle-class Victorian life.. [a] fascinating book'' Guardian ''Irresistable'' The Times ''The story of a singular woman... Kate Strasdin''s forensic detective work has finally let Mrs Sykes - and her book - speak again'' JUDITH FLANDERS ©2023 Kate Strasdin (P)2023 Penguin Audio
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Full Spectrum - How The Science Of Color Made Us Modern

by Adam Rogers

22,03€ + 10% CARD

 "Informative and entertaining...Rogers is a seasoned raconteur, unreeling an eons-spanning tale with skill." —Wall Street Journal A lively account of our age-old quest for brighter colors, which changed the way we see the world, from the best-selling author of Proof: The Science of Booze From kelly green to millennial pink, our world is graced with a richness of colors. But our human-made colors haven’t always matched nature’s kaleidoscopic array. To reach those brightest heights required millennia of remarkable innovation and a fascinating exchange of ideas between science and craft that’s allowed for the most luminous manifestations of our built and adorned world. In Full Spectrum, Rogers takes us on that globe-trotting journey, tracing an arc from the earliest humans to our digitized, synthesized present and future. We meet our ancestors mashing charcoal in caves, Silk Road merchants competing for the best ceramics, and textile artists cracking the centuries-old mystery of how colors mix, before shooting to the modern era for high-stakes corporate espionage and the digital revolution that’s rewriting the rules of color forever. In prose as vibrant as its subject, Rogers opens the door to Oz, sharing the liveliest events of an expansive human quest—to make a brighter, more beautiful world—and along the way, proving why he’s "one of the best science writers around."* *National Geographic
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Mary Portas On Style

by Mary Portas

8,28€ + 10% CARD

 Mary, Queen of Shops star and style doyenne Mary Portas explores what style means to us and the way we live today. Looking at the worlds of fashion, design, architecture and interiors, she discovers how they reveal the desires, passions and beliefs not just of individuals, but of society. She considers British design with Tom Dixon, winner of the London Design Medal 2019; discusses the future of fashion with distinguished trends forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort; and talks activism, sustainability and eco-innovation with Carry Somers, Phoebe English and Cyrill Gutsch. Jay Blades of The Repair Shop gives us some insight into restoring furniture; Fashion Revolution founder Orsola de Castro reveals how looking after your clothes can be a radical act; and author Kassia St Clair explains how technology influence the colours we see, the clothes we buy and our home decoration choices. Plus, Mary examines how the pandemic has impacted the way we dress, shop and live as she looks at home offices and high streets, and asks if the habits we''ve adopted will last beyond lockdown. And there''s fun with fashion correspondent Miss Jason, of Jason''s Closet fame, as he visits cities across the UK to find out what people are wearing and buying. A fabulous celebration of all things sartorial and aesthetic, this smart, sassy series will enlighten and delight - and make you think about your own relationship with style. Presented by Mary Portas Fashion correspondent: Miss Jason Produced by Ekene Akalawu and Jessica Treen, With: Tom Dixon, Carry Somers, Deyan Sudjic, Mateo Kries, Lidewij Edelkoort, Ben Derbyshire, Jessica Mairs, Phoebe English, Charlotte Fiell, Zheng Qu, Cyrill Gutsch, Sarah Mower, Susie Lau, Lizzie Ostrom, Jay Blades, Brad Callahan, Ruth Wassermann, Sonia Solicari, Jane Shepherdson, Tahlia Gray, Anki Josefsson, Orsola de Castro, Michelle Ogundehin, Ben Francis, Kassia St Clair, Christopher Kane and Tammy Kane First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 17 September 2019-23 February 2021 Copyright © 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
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Judgment Of Paris - The Revolutionary Decade That Gave The World Impressionism

by Ross King

36,42€ + 10% CARD

 While the Civil War raged in America, another very different revolution was beginning to take shape across the Atlantic, in the studios of Paris: The artists who would make Impressionism the most popular art form in history were showing their first paintings amidst scorn and derision from the French artistic establishment. Indeed, no artistic movement has ever been, at its inception, quite so controversial. The drama of its birth, played out on canvas, would at times resemble a battlefield; and, as Ross King reveals, Impressionism would reorder both history and culture as it resonated around the world. The Judgment of Paris chronicles the dramatic decade between two famous exhibitions—the scandalous Salon des Refuses in 1863 and the first Impressionist showing in 1874—set against the rise and dramatic fall of Napoleon III and the Second Empire after the Franco-Prussian War. A tale of many artists, it revolves around the lives of two, described as "the two poles of art"—Ernest Meissonier, the most famous and successful painter of the 19th century, hailed for his precision and devotion to history; and Edouard Manet, reviled in his time, who nonetheless heralded the most radical change in the history of art since the Renaissance. Out of the fascinating story of their parallel lives, illuminated by their legendary supporters and critics—Zola, Delacroix, Courbet, Baudelaire, Whistler, Monet, Hugo, Degas, and many more—Ross King shows that their contest was not just about Art, it was about competing visions of a rapidly changing world. With a novelist''s skill and the insight of an historian, King recalls a seminal period when Paris was the artistic center of the world, and a revolutionary movement had the power to electrify and divide a nation.
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Breakfast With Lucian

by Geordie Greig

9,20€ + 10% CARD

 For ten years Geordie Greig was among a very small group of friends who regularly met Lucian Freud for breakfast at Clarke's restaurant on Kensington Church Street. Over tea and the morning papers, Freud would recount stories of his past and discuss art. It was, in effect, Freud's private salon. In this kaleidoscopic memoir, Greig remembers Freud's stories: of death threats; escaping from Nazi Germany; falling out with his brother Clement; loathing his mother; painting David Hockney; sleeping with horses; escaping the Krays; painting the Queen; his controversial role as a father; and why Velazquez was the greatest painter. It is revelatory about his art, his lovers, his children, his enemies and his love of gambling. Freud dared never to do dull, speaking candidly of dancing with Garbo as well as painting Kate Moss naked.Those closest to him, after decades of silence and secrecy, have spoken frankly about what life was like living, loving or sitting for the greatest figurative portraitist of the twentieth century. Partly based on hours of taped conversations with the artist and his circle, and drawing on interviews with those who knew Freud intimately - including many girlfriends, models, dealers and bookmakers - Breakfast with Lucian is an intimate portrait of the artist as a young and old man. It is a uniquely fascinating, personal and authoritative account of one of the greatest British painters of this century and the last, and a profile of a man who makes everyone else's life seem less lived.
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Heroin Diaries: Ten Year Anniversary Edition - A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star

by Nikki Sixx

29,80€ + 10% CARD

 In honor of the ten-year anniversary of The Heroin Diaries, Nikki Sixx’s definitive and bestselling memoir on drug addiction is reissued with exclusive new content. This shocking, gripping, and at times darkly hilarious memoir explores Nikki’s yearlong war with a vicious heroin addiction. Now more than ever, with opioid addiction ravaging our country and rising by twenty percent in the past year alone, Nikki’s story of both his descent into drug-addled decay and subsequent recovery and transition into a rehabilitation advocate are now more relevant than ever. When Mötley Crüe was at the height of its fame, there wasn’t any drug Nikki Sixx wouldn’t do. He spent days—sometimes alone, sometimes with other addicts, friends, and lovers—in a coke- and heroin-fueled daze. The highs were high, and Nikki''s journal entries reveal some euphoria and joy. But the lows were lower, often ending with Nikki in his closet, surrounded by drug paraphernalia and wrapped in paranoid delusions. Here, Nikki shares the diary entries—some poetic, some scatterbrained, some bizarre—of those dark times. Joining him are Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Slash, Rick Nielsen, Bob Rock, and a host of ex-managers, ex-lovers, and more. Brutally honest, utterly riveting, and surprisingly moving, The Heroin Diaries follows Nikki during the year he plunged to rock bottom—and his courageous decision to pick himself up and start living again.
ENGLISH

Judgment Of Paris - The Revolutionary Decade That Gave The World Impressionism

by Ross King

22,07€ + 10% CARD

 While the Civil War raged in America, another very different revolution was beginning to take shape across the Atlantic, in the studios of Paris: The artists who would make Impressionism the most popular art form in history were showing their first paintings amidst scorn and derision from the French artistic establishment. Indeed, no artistic movement has ever been, at its inception, quite so controversial. The drama of its birth, played out on canvas, would at times resemble a battlefield; and, as Ross King reveals, Impressionism would reorder both history and culture as it resonated around the world. The Judgment of Paris chronicles the dramatic decade between two famous exhibitions—the scandalous Salon des Refuses in 1863 and the first Impressionist showing in 1874—set against the rise and dramatic fall of Napoleon III and the Second Empire after the Franco-Prussian War. A tale of many artists, it revolves around the lives of two, described as "the two poles of art"—Ernest Meissonier, the most famous and successful painter of the 19th century, hailed for his precision and devotion to history; and Edouard Manet, reviled in his time, who nonetheless heralded the most radical change in the history of art since the Renaissance. Out of the fascinating story of their parallel lives, illuminated by their legendary supporters and critics—Zola, Delacroix, Courbet, Baudelaire, Whistler, Monet, Hugo, Degas, and many more—Ross King shows that their contest was not just about Art, it was about competing visions of a rapidly changing world. With a novelist''s skill and the insight of an historian, King recalls a seminal period when Paris was the artistic center of the world, and a revolutionary movement had the power to electrify and divide a nation.
ENGLISH

Bonfire Of The Vanderbilts - A Novel

by Jones Gerald Everett Jones

17,46€ + 10% CARD

 In 1892 Paris, Julius Stewart painted The Baptism, a Vanderbilt family scene that contains an embarrassing secret. In the present day, art historian Grace Atwood becomes obsessed with the painting and its hidden clues for reasons that have more to do with her personal ghosts. Either her doting husband is trying to make her think she's crazy, or she really is in the early stages of dementia.
ENGLISH

What Are You Looking At? - 150 Years Of Modern Art In The Blink Of An Eye

by Will Gompertz

11,04€ + 10% CARD

 Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of What Are You Looking At? by Will Gompertz, read by Roy McMilllan. What is modern art? Why do we either love it or loathe it? And why is it worth so much damn money? Join Will Gompertz on a dazzling tour that will change the way you look at modern art forever. From Monet's water lilies to Van Gogh's sunflowers, from Warhol's soup cans to Hirst's pickled shark, hear the stories behind the masterpieces, meet the artists as they really were, and discover the real point of modern art. You will learn: not all conceptual art is bollocks; Picasso is king (but Cezanne is better); Pollock is no drip; Dali painted with his moustache; a urinal changed the course of art, why your 5-year-old really couldn't do it. Refreshing, irreverent and always straightforward, What Are You Looking At? asks all the basic questions that you were too afraid to ask. Your next gallery trip is going to be a little less intimidating and a lot more interesting.
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In Montmartre - Picasso, Matisse And Modernism In Paris, 1900-1910

by Sue Roe

11,04€ + 10% CARD

 Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of In Montmartre by Sue Roe, read by Emma Bering. The real revolution in the arts first took place not, as is commonly supposed, in the 1920s to the accompaniment of the Charleston, black jazz and mint juleps, but more quietly and intimately, in the shadow of the windmills - artificial and real - and in the cafés and cabarets of Montmartre during the first decade of the century. The cross-fertilization of painting, writing, music and dance produced a panorama of activity characterized by the early works of Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and Modigliani, the appearance of the Ballet Russe and the salons of Gertrude Stein. In In Montmartre, Sue Roe vividly brings to life the bohemian world of art in Paris between 1900-1910.
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Turner - The Extraordinary Life And Momentous Times Of J. M. W. Turner

by Franny Moyle

9,20€ + 10% CARD

 Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Turner by Franny Moyle, read by John Sackville. The extraordinary life of J. M. W Turner, one of Britain''s most admired, misunderstood and celebrated artists J. M. W. Turner is Britain''s most famous landscape painter. Yet beyond his artistic achievements, little is known of the man himself and the events of his life: the tragic committal of his mother to a lunatic asylum, the personal sacrifices he made to effect his stratospheric rise, and the bizarre double life he chose to lead in the last years of his life. A near-mythical figure in his own lifetime, Franny Moyle tells the story of the man who was considered visionary at best and ludicrous at worst. A resolute adventurer, he found new ways of revealing Britain to the British, astounding his audience with his invention and intelligence. Set against the backdrop of the finest homes in Britain, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, this is an astonishing portrait of one of the most important figures in Western art and a vivid evocation of Britain and Europe in flux. Set against this spectacular and ultimately controversial career, Moyle also excavates the private Turner. Psychologically wounded as a child, by a family torn apart by death and mental illness, she suggests a man who could not embrace relationships fully until the very end of his life. Only then did he succumb to his love for the widowed Sophia Booth, concealing this all too human aspect of his life behind an assumed identity. She mines the poignancy of his final years, when, with his health ailing, Turner sought solace in a secret private life that had eluded him before and that he knew would scandalise the new generation of Victorians.
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This Is Gonna Hurt - Music, Photography, And Life Through The Distorted Lens Of Nikki Sixx

by Nikki Sixx

11,04€ + 10% CARD

 This is Gonna Hurt is music, photography, and life through the distorted lens of Nikki Sixx, bassist for heavy metal rock band Mötley Crüe’s and the New York Times bestselling author of The Heroin Diaries. A combination of powerful prose and dramatic photographs, This is Gonna Hurt is an arresting, deeply personal look through the eyes of a real rock star at a stark, post-addiction world.

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/ Styles and Influences