In today’s art world, many artists are using portraiture to explore complex issues of identity. The Portrait Now brings together more than eighty portraits from internationally acclaimed artists to demonstrate the accomplishment and inventiveness of this art form. Recent works by John Currin, Sally Mann, Catherine Opie, Chuck Close, Lucian Freud, Thomas Ruff, Wolfgang Tillmans, Vik Muniz, Thomas Struth, and many others reveal developments in painting, sculpture, video art, photography, self-portraiture, and caricature. Challenging the boundaries of figurative art, these works often go beyond likeness, break free of traditional media, and respond to complicated political, religious, and social issues. With beautiful color images of and in-depth discussions on each work, the book also includes an insightful introductory essay that places portraiture within a historical context and examines how this art form––as well as the purpose it serves––has evolved. The Portrait Now is an indispensable reference book for anyone interested in contemporary art.

The Portrait Now

Arts & Photography

Howgate, Sarah

Nairne, Sandy

Photography & Video

Yale University Press

David Hockney (b. 1937) is one of the most significant artists exploring and pushing the boundaries of figurative art today. Hockney has been engaged with portraiture since his teenage years, when he painted Portrait of My Father (1955), and his self-portraits and depictions of family, lovers, and friends represent an intimate visual diary of the artist’s life. This beautifully illustrated book examines Hockney’s portraits in all mediapainting, drawing, photography, and printsand has been produced in close collaboration with the artist. Featured subjects include members of Hockney’s family and private circle, as well as portraits of such artists and cultural figures as Lucian Freud, Francesco Clemente, R. B. Kitaj, Helmet Newton, Lawrence Weschler, and W. H. Auden. The authors reveal how Hockney’s creative development and concerns about representation can be traced through his portrait work:from his battle with naturalism to his experimentation with and later rejection of photography, and from his recent camera lucida drawings to his return to painting from life. Featuring more than 250 works from the past fifty years, David Hockney Portraits illustrates not only the fascinating range of Hockney’s creative practice but also the unique and cyclical nature of his artistic concerns.

David Hockney Portraits

Shapiro, Barbara Stern

History & Criticism

"For me, the paint is the person."—Lucian Freud Portraits were central to the work of Lucian Freud (1922–2011). Working only from life, the artist claimed, "I could never put anything into a picture that wasn't actually there in front of me." This major retrospective catalogue surveys Freud's portraits across the seven decades of his career. Featuring the finest portraits from public and private collections around the world, the book explores the stylistic development and remarkable technical virtuosity of an artist regarded as one of the most innovative figurative painters the medium has known.
Freud's chosen subjects were often his intimates—family members, friends, and artistic colleagues such as Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Leigh Bowery, and David Hockney. Freud was private man who rarely gave interviews, and his thoughts on the complex relationship between artist and sitter and the challenges of painting nudes and self-portraits are published here for the first time, documented in a series of interviews with Michael Auping, conducted between May 2009 and January 2011. An illustrated chronology of the artist's life provides fascinating insights into Freud's background as a grandson of Sigmund Freud, and his unorthodox artistic education.
An essential book for every personal art library, this lavishly illustrated volume celebrates the work and career of an artist who overturned traditional portraiture and offered a new approach to figurative art.

Lucian Freud Portraits

A unique exploration of self-portraits by two artists born nearly a century apart
This beautifully illustrated book draws together for the first time the work of French artist Claude Cahun (1894–1954) and British contemporary artist Gillian Wearing (b. 1963). Although they were born almost a century apart, their work shares similar themes―gender, identity, masquerade, and performance.
 In 2015, Sarah Howgate traveled with Wearing to the island of Jersey, in the English Channel, where Cahun lived and worked until her death, and where her archive is housed. In examining Cahun's photographs, Wearing was struck by the remarkable parallels with her own explorations of the self-image through photography. Cahun was a contemporary of André Breton and Man Ray, but her work was rarely exhibited during her lifetime. Wearing, who has exhibited extensively and is a recipient of Britain’s prestigious Turner Prize, was no stranger to Cahun’s work when she made the trip to Jersey―her 2012 self-portrait, Me as Cahun holding a mask of my face, is a reconstruction of Cahun’s iconic Self-portrait, made in 1927. In this book, Howgate examines the work of both artists, investigating how their cultural, historical, political, and personal contexts have affected their interpretations of similar themes.
 This book features stunning reproductions of more than ninety key works, presented thematically by artistic evolution, performance, masquerade, and memento mori, among others. Also included are new works by Wearing, a revealing interview with her by Howgate, and an illuminating essay on Cahun by writer and curator Dawn Ades.
Published in association with the National Portrait Gallery, London

Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the Mask, Another Mask

Princeton University Press

National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery Publications

Lucian Freud Portraits surveys his portraits and figure paintings from across his long career. Drawing together the finest portraits from public and private collections around the world, the book explores Freud's stylistic development and technical virtuosity. A series of previously unpublished interviews conducted by Michael Auping between May 2009 and January 2011 reveals the artists thoughts on the complex relationship between artist and sitter, the particular challenges of painting nudes and self-portraits, and his views on other painters he admired. Freud's psychological portraits are often imbued with a mood of alienation. A private man, the artists close relationship with his sitters was played out behind the closed door of the studio. Frequently there is the sense of an emotionally charged drama unfolding, but his subjects remain elusive. Sitters represented in the book include family members, particularly his mother, Lucie, and artists such as Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon and David Hockney. In the early 1990s Freud produced a series of monumental paintings of the performance artist Leigh Bowery and Bowery's friend Sue Tilley, the benefits supervisor, examples of which are reproduced in this book.

Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun Behind a mask, another mask /anglais

NATIONAL PORTRA

Accompanying one of the most anticipated exhibitions of the past few years, this catalogue captures the grand scale and vibrant color of Hockney’s work of the twenty-first century. In the past decade, having returned to England after years on the California coast, David Hockney has focused his attention on both landscapes and portraits, all the while maintaining his fascination with digital technology. The resulting work is a fanfare of color and light, ranging in dimension from billboard- to letter-size, and is the basis for a thrilling new exhibition that promises to become one of the most popular in recent memory. This lush and impeccably produced catalogue features over 100 full-color works of art from museum collections and Hockney’s private studio, including such major new works as The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate Wood, The Bigger Message, and Bigger Yosemite. It also includes multiple-image galleries (spread over gatefolds) of some of his iPad drawings and self-portraits, plus film stills from the artist’s “Cubist” movies. Hockney’s own insight into this latest chapter of his career is found across the book’s pages and is accompanied by thoughtful commentary by renowned critic Lawrence Weschler and art historian Sarah Howgate.

David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition

Weschler, Lawrence

Benefield, Richard

HOCKNEY, DAVID

Prestel USA

Now available in a new edition, this lavishly illustrated book captures the grand scale and vibrant color of David Hockney's work of the 21st century. In the past decade, having returned to England after years on the California coast, David Hockney has focused his attention on landscapes and portraits, as well as still lifes, all the while maintaining his fascination with digital technology. The resulting work is an extravagance of color and light, ranging in dimension from billboard- to letter-size. This lush and impeccably produced book features more than 200 full-color works of art from museum collections and Hockney’s private studio, including such major recent works as The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate Wood and Bigger Yosemite. It also includes illustrations of some of his iPad drawings and self-portraits, along with film stills from the artist’s "Cubist" movies. Hockney’s own insight into this latest chapter of his career is found in his illuminating essay on perspective and is accompanied by thoughtful commentaries by renowned critic Lawrence Weschler and art historian Sarah Howgate.

Individual Artists

Prestel

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Books by Howgate, Sarah

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Howgate, Sarah. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Portrait Now

David Hockney Portraits

Lucian Freud Portraits

Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the Mask, Another Mask

Lucian Freud Portraits

David Hockney Portraits

Lucian Freud Portraits

Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun Behind a mask, another mask /anglais

David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition

David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition