Painter of the loneliness of big-city people Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is considered the first important American painter in twentieth-century art. After decades of patient work, Hopper enjoyed a success and popularity that since the 1950s has continually grown.

In canvas after canvas he painted the loneliness of big-city people. Many of Hopper's pictures represent views of streets and roads, rooftops, and abandoned houses, depicted in a brilliant light that strangely belies the melancholy mood of the scenes.

Hopper's paintings are marked by striking juxtapositions of color, and by the clear contours with which the figures are demarcated from their surroundings. His extremely precise focus on the theme of modern men and women in the natural and man-made environment sometimes lends his pictures a mood of eerie disquiet. On the other hand, Hopper's renderings of rocky landscapes in warm brown hues, or his depictions of the seacoast, exude an unusual tranquillity that reveals another, more optimistic side of his character. About the Series:
Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:

• a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
• a concise biography
• approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

The samurai were celebrated warriors, but they were also deeply spiritual men whose religious beliefs sustained and inspired their forays into battle. In this entirely original work, Stephen Turnbull, a leading authority on Japanese history and author of more than 50 books, reveals the soul of the samurai in a thoughtful exploration of the religions and philosophies that motivated them. Drawing inspiration from all manners of belief systems – from Japan's mainstream religions of Shinto and Buddhism, to Confucianism, Christianity, and Folk Religion – the samurai were fascinating men who often valued their honor above their lives.
THE SAMURAI AND THE SACRED is strikingly illustrated with lavish Japanese prints and vibrant photographs. A provocative study, it includes chapters on martial arts, modern militarism, the cult of the sword, revenge, suicide, hara kiri and kamikaze pilots. THE SAMURAI AND THE SACRED is a compelling read that provides insight into Japanese culture, philosophy, and warfare.

Leven en werk van de Franse kunstschilder.

Inleidende informatie in woord en beeld over Charles Darwin (1809-1882) en zijn evolutietheorie.

Title was originally announced as a WBOOKS publication (9789040007828). 'In de schaduw van morgen' is de reconstructie van de spraakmakende tentoonstelling 'De bange jaren dertig' die in de beginjaren van de Koude Oorlog in het toenmalige Gemeentemuseum Arnhem (nu MMKA) werd gehouden. Bijzonder aan deze tentoonstelling was dat het wereldgebeuren van de jaren dertig als uitgangspunt werd genomen voor een exposé over een op dat moment - ten tijde van COBRA - omstreden stroming uit de Nederlandse kunstgeschiedenis. Het boek verschijnt ter gelegenheid van de reconstructie van de tentoonstelling in het Museum van Moderne Kunst Arnhem. Alle oorspronkelijk geselecteerde werken worden in In de schaduw van morgenafgebeeld en besproken, waaronder werk van Schuhmacher, Ket, Willink, Koch en de schilderijen die destijds niet in bruikleen konden worden verkregen. 0Exhibition: Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, The Netherlands (18.11.2012-17.2.2013).

In her expressionistic drawings and paintings of the last three decades, acclaimed South African artist Marlene Dumas has focused on the human figure, probing themes of love, desire, despair and confusion in order to slyly critique social and political attitudes toward women, children, people of color and others who have historically been victimized. From her evocative portraits, based on photographs of friends and family as well as figures culled from printed pornography, to her large-scale images highlighting charged relationships within groups, Dumas' work explores the contradictions behind the physical reality of the body, merging acute social commentary with personal experience and art-historical antecedent to create unsettling and ambiguous psychological statements.
Accompanying Dumas' first major mid-career survey in the U.S., with stops in three major American cities, (one yet to be announced) this substantial, fully-illustrated publication features a newly commissioned essay by renowned scholar Richard Shiff, placing the artist's work in relation to both American figurative painting since the 1980s and Abstract Expressionism. The book also includes curator Cornelia H. Butler's examination of Dumas' photographic sources and shorter texts by Lisa Gabrielle Mark and Matthew Monahan. Writings by the artist, as well as an extensive illustrated exhibition history and bibliography, complete this comprehensive examination of the work of one of the most thought-provoking artists working today.
Born in Capetown, South Africa, in 1953, Marlene Dumas has lived in Amsterdam since 1976. Over the last three decades she has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Europe and the U.S., including the Tate Gallery, London; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. In 1995 she represented The Netherlands at the 46th Venice Biennale.

Overzicht van het latere werk van de vermaarde beeldend kunstenaar Constant (1920-2005), die o.a. lid is geweest van de Cobra-groep.

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Balthus’s lifelong curiosity with the ambiguities and dark side of childhood resulted in his best-known and most iconic works. In these pictures, Balthus (1908-2001) mingles intuition into his young sitters’ psyches with overt erotic desire and forbidding austerity, making them among the most powerful depictions of childhood and adolescence ever committed to canvas. Often included in these scenes are enigmatic cats, possible stand-ins for the artist himself.

Balthus: Cats and Girls is the first book devoted to this subject, focusing on the early decades of the artist’s career from the mid-1930s to the 1950s. Drawing on extensive knowledge of the artist’s life and work, as well as on interviews with Balthus and the models themselves, Sabine Rewald explores the origins and permutations of Balthus’s obsessions with adolescents and felines. She addresses the crucial influence of such key figures as poet Rainer Maria Rilke, his mother’s lover, who acted as Balthus’s surrogate father, but also includes the previously unknown voices of the girl models: their recollections and comments provide a unique perspective on some of the best known and most controversial paintings of the 20th century.

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Conjecture about what the great philosophers would say about current social issues.

De arts-hoogleraar Schroeder van der Kolk stond aan de basis van de psychiatrie in Nederland. Deze biografie van een hervormer met een grote reputatie werpt tegelijk een nieuw licht op de geschiedenis van de geestelijke gezondheidszorg. Mede dankzij de Utrechtse hoogleraar geneeskunde J.L.C. Schroeder van der Kolk (1797-1862) kreeg de psychiatrie in de negentiende eeuw vorm als nieuwe sociale en wetenschappelijke institutie. Het geijkte beeld is dat de Nederlandse psychiatrie, net als andere wetenschappen, achterbleef bij de grote hervormings-bewegingen in Europa. Dit boek over Schroeder van der Kolk laat zien dat nieuwe ideeën over de zorg voor krankzinnigen en moderne Franse opvattingen over de geneeskunde hier juist al vroeg ingang vonden.

Beschrijvingen van reizen en interviews met F. Springer, Tip Marugg, Boeli van Leeuwen, Jacob Vredenbregt en de zoon van Willem Walraven.

Raadgevingen voor het op de juiste manier opvoeden van een huiskat.

Jean Rhys (1890-1979) had a long life of great difficulty. So inept was she in its management that her authority as the writer of five beautifully shaped and controlled novels appears mysterious: how could someone so bad at living be so good at writing about it? This title answers this question.

Columns en artikelen over de Verenigde Staten.

Authentiek verslag van de val van het duizendjarige rijk door een jongeman die in 1944 in de Noordoospolder bij een razzia gepakt was en op transport naar Duisland was gesteld

De afgelopen jaren hebben de media herhaaldelijk bericht over cocaïne in vissersdorpen. Wordt hier inderdaad vaker drugs gebruikt of is de commotie een typisch voorbeeld van morele paniek, waarbij iets kleins wordt opgeblazen en buitenproportionele sociale reacties teweegbrengt? Dergelijke vragen nodigen volgens Dirk Korf uit tot een kritische beschouwing van politiecijfers en tot een analyse van ontwikkelingen in criminaliteitsbeleid en in de samenleving. Hij stelt in zijn oratie dat de teloorgang van tradities in maritieme gemeenschappen symbool staat voor ingrijpende veranderingen op het platteland. Politie en justitie zijn meer en meer hun stempel gaan drukken op het Nederlandse drugsbeleid. Daarbij hebben zij veel burgers aan hun zijde. Tegelijkertijd eisen burgers meer individuele vrijheden, waaronder ruimte voor roeservaringen.