Land girls of two world wars depicted by the nation's artists.

The Women's Land Army: A Portrait

Clarke, Gill

Arts & Photography

Sansom

Witty, whimsical, thought-provoking and meant seriously despite their light-hearted tone, here are 50 poems highlighting the threat humankind poses to the future of the planet.

Green Poems for a Blue Planet

Literature & Fiction

Kiszko, Martin

Poetry

Published to coincide with the tenth anniversary of Frost's death, this first full-length biography traces his life from a working-class upbringing in the Midlands, the struggle of his early years in St Ives, his time at the Camberwell School of Art and his move from early representational work to the abstraction that became his creative hallmark. The narrative examines the simple things that often inspired Frost's work - street signs and fishing boats and the colors of the landscape, from a desert in America to snowy moors in Yorkshire. His many friendships with, among others, artists Peter Lanyon, Bryan Wynter and Ben Nicholson, along with the poet WS Graham, are all included. Although Frost's work became highly sought after and is to be found in major collections around the world, economic hardship was a constant creative threat. Roger Bristow shows how Frost moved first to St Ives then to London and back again, and elsewhere in Britain and abroad, taking up academic posts to provide for his family. He finally settled in Newlyn in 1974, where he worked fastidiously until the end of his life, producing a range of paintings, prints, ceramics, sculpture and designs for jewelry.

Terry Frost: A Painter's Life

Bristow, Roger

History & Criticism

In a groundbreaking analysis, Silvano Levy unravels the hidden structures of Magritte's paintings. Decoding Magritte puts forward the theory that aphasia, the injury-induced inability to produce and comprehend language, is the elusive key to an underlying artistic mechanism. Magritte had often hinted that there was a covert rationale behind his production, but never gave explanations. Drawing on his conversations with the artist's widow and key members of the Belgian surrealist group, Silvano Levy deciphers Magritte's oeuvre in a meticulous study that rests on linguistics and structuralist theory. This investigation first probes Magritte's early career within the avant-garde, Cubism and Dada, and then systematically sets out the artist s pictorial deconstruction of the pictorial schema. The inclusion of previously unavailable source material in the form of photographs and substantial interviews with Georgette Magritte, Louis Scutenaire, Irène Hamoir, Marcel Mariën and George Melly provides valuable primary resources, as well as shedding additional light on the 'Magritte code'. Contents: Acknowledgements; To Decode or not to Decode; Rebel in the Making 1919-1924; Rebel Artist; Pure Art and Abstraction; Vile Paintings; Dada; Cubism; The Spark; The Rebellion 1924-1930; Unlocking the Code; Crumbling Space; Shattering Anatomy; Elastic Form; Fragmentation; Pictorial Primaries; Vague Things; Pictorial Negation; Beyond Representation; Decoding; Interviews by Silvano Levy; Georgette Magritte; Louis Scutenaire &amp; Irène Hamoir; Marcel Mariën, first interview; Marcel Mariën, second interview; George Melly; René Magritte, letter to Pierre-Louis Flouquet; Illustrations; Bibliography; Index.

Decoding Magritte

Levy, Silvano

Michael Lyons (born 1943) gained recognition in the 1960s when included in exhibitions such as the ICA's Young Contemporaries and Manchester Whitworth's Northern Young Contemporaries. By the mid-1970s he was one of the finest steel sculptors of his generation, whose potent architectural forms commanded attention in their relation to landscape. Heights of David (1976 1977), at London's Serpentine Gallery, Manchester's Whitworth and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, confirmed and embodied this.Lyons' sculpture ranges from steel construction, rooted in the tradition of Picasso, GonzÃ¡lez and David Smith, to organic bronzes modeled on an intimate or monumental scale; although abstract, it draws on aspects of nature, cosmology, myth and ancient cultures. A visit to China in 1993 profoundly influenced the development of Lyons' work, through teaching and making sculpture in Hangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and many other cities. Residencies in Mexico, Canada, Germany, USA, Turkey and Cyprus have resulted in numerous large-scale sculptures produced in relation to these countries' cultures and sculptural traditions.Lyons' drawings and sculpture are represented in the collections of the Arts Council England, Henry Moore Institute, Yale Center for British Art and galleries throughout Britain and abroad. Lyons was a founder member of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, a Trustee of the Ironbridge Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture and Vice President of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. Through his teaching he has contributed significantly to sculptural practice in the UK and in China.The Sculpture of Michael Lyons maps the themes and techniques of his work against a broader context of the commissioning, production and exhibiting of sculpture in the twentieth century. It further addresses his practice of working abroad, particularly in China and Latin America. Judith LeGrove's text is complemented by over 70 photographs from the artist's archive, a selection of source documents (artist's statements and critical responses), a fully illustrated catalog of over 500 sculptures produced between 1961 and 2012, and a detailed chronology and bibliography.

The Sculpture of Michael Lyons

LeGrove, Judith

Individual Artists

Vigorous, stimulating, humorous, contemplative, intellectual, imaginative, innovative, Patrick Reyntiens is still producing magnificent stained glass in his late eighties. Britain's foremost stained glass designer is especially known for his glass at Liverpool's Roman Catholic Cathedral and his work at Coventry Cathedral in collaboration with John Piper.This scholarly, beautifully illustrated book, designed and written by Libby Horner, catalogs not only all Reyntiens' ninety-eight commissions over the past 60 or so years (including the famous Piper/Reyntiens collaborations) but also over six hundred autonomous panels. The range of work, from traditional to abstract to figurative, and the range of subject matter from religious themes to Ovid's Metamorphoses to commedia dell'arte is truly inspiring and guaranteed to captivate even the most skeptical.The book includes a preface by Sir Roy Strong, an introduction by Frances Spalding and an after word by the artist himself, a glossary of terms, notes on recurring themes and symbolism, a tabulated biography and an extensive bibliography.

Patrick Reyntiens: Catalogue of Stained Glass

Horner, Libby

Place

Jackson, Kurt

Constant Within the Change: Gary Wragg: Five Decades of Paintings: A Comprehensive Catalogue surveys the work of abstract painter Gary Wragg. Trained at Camberwell School of Art and the Slade, Wragg announced himself in the mid-seventies with two dramatic exhibitions at London's Acme Gallery. Since then he has exhibited widely and internationally and has work in public collections including the Arts Council Collection, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and the Pompidou, Paris. Texts by Hilary Spurling, Terence Maloon, Matthew Collings, Sam Cornish, Stefanie Sachsenmaier and Wragg himself explore various aspects of his art - including his relation to American Abstract Expressionism and friendship with painters Jack Tworkov and Willem de Kooning; and his practice of Tai-Chi, of which he is one of Europe's leading experts. In two volumes Constant Within the Change includes over five hundred full-color images, and comes with access to an online catalogue of Wragg's work.

Constant Within Change: Gary Wragg: Five Decades of Painting: A Comprehensive Catalogue

Cornish, Sam

Concocting a cheerful indifference to extremes of heat and hunger, tropical fever, shipwreck, disappointment or sudden death: the Victorian plant hunter is an almost mythical figure. Now, in Blue Orchid, Big Tree, two best-selling authors explore the dangerous world of William and Thomas Lobb, English brothers born in obscurity who became our greatest plant hunters, and whose precious legacy lives on in our landscape and in our parks and gardens. William Lobb (1809-1864) collected in South America and western North America and Thomas Lobb (1817-1894) traveled through south-east Asia and India. Together they put in a total of almost 30 years traveling and collecting, often in barely explored regions. Their travels and adventures are full of drama, trial and tribulation. The Blue Orchid (Vanda coerulea) was collected in the Khasia hills of India from under the nose of Kew collector, Joseph Hooker, who regarded Thomas Lobb as a mere "garden boy" until he beat him home with this beautiful and valuable addition to the orchid world. William Lobb discovered the "Big Tree" or Wellingtonia (Sequoiadendrn giganteum) on the Pacific coast of California and rushed home with sacks of seeds which made the Veitch nursery huge profits. Contents:1 Childhood in Cornwall; 2 A Plant Nursery in Devon; 3 The Far Side of the World: William in South America 1840-1844; 4 The Other Side of the World: Thomas in south-east Asia 1843-1847; 5 Business in the Glasshouses; 6 Patagonian Treasure: William in Chile and Peru 1845-1848; 7 Blue Orchid: Thomas in India and south-east Asia 1848-1853; 8 Big Tree: William in Pacific north-west America 1849-1853; 9 The Royal Exotic; 10 Last Orders: Thomas in Java and Borneo 1854-1857. William in California 1853-; 11 Journey's End Thomas in Burma, Borneo & Philippines. 1858-1860; 12 Growing Lobb Plants Today; Bibliography.

Blue Orchid and Big Tree: Plant Hunters William and Thomas Lobb and the Victorian Mania for the Exotic

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Musgrave, Toby

Shephard, Sue

Gardening & Landscape Design

Hans Schwarz (1922-2003), painter, sculptor, illustrator and author was born in Vienna and died in Greenwich, London. He was reticent about his early years and the influences on his life and art. He rarely spoke about his life experiences: as a child of Jewish heritage in pre-war Vienna; being sent to safety in England on the Kindertransport; as an interned "enemy alien" on the Isle of Man; the support and encouragement given to study art by the Cadbury family; his experience in the post-war artistic milieu; his political and social views; and most importantly his vision as an artist. Contents:Foreword; Acknowledgements; Life; A load of guilt ; Austria : early years to 1939; Bournville , Birmingham: 1939 40; Internment: 1940 41; Vienna: 1939 42; Birmingham: 1941 53; Wimbledon, London and Spain: 1953 57; Hampstead , London: 1957 64; Stogursey, Somerset: 1964 70; Greenwich , London: 1970 2003; Hans Schwarz, the man; Notes; Exhibitions and collections; Work; Index .

Hans Schwarz

Upton, Paul

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