While the importance of color to the Venetian pictorial tradition has been almost endlessly observed and discoursed upon, never before has this critical topic received so wide-ranging, perceptive, and original a synthesis. Methodically, but with a sometimes uncanny visual sensitivity, Hills (Warwick Univ., England) reconstructs the range and nuance of the Venetian palette as it manifests itself in the specific materials employed in the city's architectural and urban fabric, mosaics, minor arts, textiles, and painting. The evolving and expanding range of coloristic decisions and innovations that culminate in the masterpieces of Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian are savored within the unique effects of Venice's ambiance. Adeptly integrated with the author's always perceptive analyses is a fascinating array of contemporary documents that lay the foundation for the understanding, reading, and appreciation of color as a social phenomenon.

The Venetian Colour

Arts & Photography

Hills, Paul

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

This wide-ranging book elucidates the symbolism of veils and highlights the power of drapery in Italian art from Giotto to Titian. In the cities of the Renaissance, display of luxury dress was a marker of status. Florentines decked out their palaces and streets with textiles for public rituals. But cloths are also the stuff of fantasy: throughout the book, the author moves from the material to the metaphorical. Curtains and veils, swaddling and shrouds, evoke associations with birth and death. The central chapters address the sculpture of Ghiberti and Donatello, focusing on how they deployed drapery to dramatic effect. In the final chapters the focus shifts to the paintings of Bellini, Lotto, and Titian, where drapery both clothes the figures and composes the picture. In the work of Titian, the veiled presence of the body is absorbed within the materials of oil-paint on canvas: medium and subject become one.

Veiled Presence: Body and Drapery from Giotto to Titian

This book offers a concise and highly readable account of the visual art of David Jones (1895-1974). It challenges the simplistic view of Jones as an outsider or an eccentric, exploring his work instead in relation to the wider cultural and intellectual climate of his times. The authors focus on works of outstanding quality, including engravings from the 1920s, watercolours from 1926-32 and the most significant of Jones's later mythological drawings as well as his studies of trees and chalices and his unique painted inscriptions. Analysis of Jones's technical virtuosity in diverse media enlarges our understanding of his highly original visual language and the symbolism that sustains it. The book also explores the relation of Jones's art to his Christian faith and his understanding of place and history. Copiously illustrated, The Art of David Jones not only offers fresh insight into the career of a multi-talented British artist, but also adds to our understanding of the art and cultural history of Britain from the First World War through to the 1960s.

The Art of David Jones: Vision and Memory

Bankes, Ariane

Lund Humphries

Artist Simon Lewty is known for his large scale and intensely detailed works where the layering of text and image serve to create a dream-like reality. Narrative is rarely followed through to conclusion, yet we are compelled to immerse ourselves in Lewty’s rich representation of body and landscape. Visually reminiscent of Ancient documents and comparable to maps, Lewty’s text-based works explore forgotten worlds of light and darkness, offering a reflective sense of history and exploring the inevitability of the passing of time. The writers whose words have been selected to accompany this comprehensive survey of Lewty’s work provide an in-depth study of the artist, shedding light on his key ideas and working method. The book opens with a foreword from Ian Hunt and features contributions from experts in a variety of disciplines, including Stuart Morgan, Paul Hills, Peter Larkin, Cathy Courtney and Susan Michie, as well as texts from Lewty himself, discussing memories from his childhood, through to more recent reflections on his life and art. Lewty's work has been exhibited widely and is included in collections at the Arts Council of Great Britain, Victoria and Albert Museum, to Miami Beach, USA, where he is represented in the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry. Published to coincide with a major exhibition at Art First, The Self as a Stranger is the first comprehensive collection of this highly original artist's work from over the past 50 years, and examines the enduring importance of Simon Lewty’s contribution to contemporary fine art.

The Self as a Stranger: Simon Lewty

Larkin, Peter

Morgan, Stuart

Michie, Susan

Hunt, Ian

Courtney, Cathy

Black Dog Publishing

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Books by Hills, Paul