Artists, Architects & Photographers

Leonardo da Vinci created the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and engineering....

A powerful memoir that reckons with mental health as well as the insidious ways men impact the lives of women.

A riveting story of how dueling ambitions and the power of prodigy made America the cultural center of the world—and Picasso the most famous artist alive—in the shadow of World War II....

Hailed by readers/listeners and critics across the country, this engrossing biography of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality, an artist whose sensual vibrancy came straight from her own experiences.

One of the most influential, admired, and innovative women of our time: Diane von Furstenberg shares stories about becoming the woman she wanted to be....

In The Last of His Kind, renowned adventure writer David Roberts gives readers a spellbinding history of mountain climbing in the twentieth century as told through the biography of Brad Washburn, legendary mountaineering pioneer and photographer....

As a brilliant art critic and historian, Laura Cumming has explored the importance of art in life and can give us a perspective on the time and place in which the artist worked....

All my life, I have been looking for a man who has discovered the universal law which lies back of the Sermon on the Mount, and who consciously uses that law with full awareness of its meaning and full obedience to its principles. Walter Russel Clark found this man....

Michelangelo, God's Architect is the first book to tell the full story of Michelangelo's final two decades, when the peerless artist refashioned himself into the master architect of St. Peter’s Basilica and other major buildings....

A wild and unexpected journey through culture, science, philosophy, and religion to better understand the mercurial genius of William Blake....

One of the nation’s top art critics shows how six great artists made old age a time of triumph by producing some of the greatest work of their long careers—and, in some cases, changing the course of art history....

El aclamado autor de los best sellers Steve Jobs y Einstein nos vuelve a cautivar con la vida del genio más creativo de la historia en esta fascinante biografía....

In the 1980s, the subways of New York City were covered with art. In the stations, black matte sheets were pasted over outdated ads, and unsigned chalk drawings often popped up on these blank spaces....

During his lifetime, Buckminster Fuller was hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of the twentieth century....

Renowned naturalist Kenn Kaufman examines the scientific discoveries of John James Audubon and his artistic and ornithologist peers to show how what they saw (and what they missed) reflects how we perceive and understand the natural world....

When Harry Met Pablo intertwines the biographies of Harry Truman and Pablo Picasso, the history of modern art, and twentieth-century American politics, but at its core, it is the story of two old men who meet for the first time and realize they have more in common than they ever imagined....

The Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was forty-four years old when she broke with the academic tradition in which she had been trained to produce a body of radical, abstract works the likes of which had never been seen before....

The world’s most renowned art forger reveals the secrets behind his decades of painting like the masters—exposing an art world that is far more corrupt than we ever knew while providing an art history lesson wrapped in sex, drugs, and Caravaggio....

Sex, Surrealism, Dali and Me was first published in 2000 and was a top-10 best-seller a year later. It tells the biographies of two remarkable men. Salvador Dali, one of the 20th century's greatest painters, and his long-term muse - the Colombian dancer Carlos Lozano....

After finishing his powerful memoir The Return, Hisham Matar, seeking solace and pleasure, traveled to Siena, Italy. Always finding comfort and clarity in great art, Matar immersed himself in eight significant works from the Sienese School of painting....

Perfect for old and new fans alike, Dancing on the Edge is an intimate and powerful story about the singular life of one of our most gifted storytellers, artists, and stars of the silver screen.

When Picasso became Picasso: the story of how an obscure young painter from Barcelona came to Paris and made himself into the most influential artist of the 20th century....

Cézanne, ennemi de tout compromis, entend traduire avant tout la vérité de sa perception...

Jane Rosenberg is America's pre-eminent courtroom sketch artist. For over forty years, she's been at the heart of the story, covering almost every major trial that has passed through the New York justice system....

Charles Schulz, the most widely syndicated and beloved cartoonist of all time, is also one of the most misunderstood figures in American culture....

Dustin Kiskaddon draws on his own apprenticeship with Matt, the owner of Oakland's Premium Tattoo, and takes us behind the scenes into the complex world of professional tattooers. We join people who must routinely manage a messy and carnal type of work. Blood and Lightning brings us through the tattoo shop, where the smell of sterilizing agents, the hum of machines, and the sound of music spill out onto the back patio.

Rose Boyt explores her complicated relationship with her beloved father, the renowned artist Lucian Freud, through the diary and other accounts of sitting for him, naked or otherwise. Enthralled by his genius, it was only after his death that she began to question the version of events she had come to accept. The shock of the truth is profound but what emerges is her love and compassion not just for herself as a vulnerable young woman, but for the man himself, who is shown in all his brilliant complexity.

The complicated life and legacy of John Trumbull, whose paintings portrayed both the struggle and the principles that distinguished America's founding moment.

Banksy, most secretive artist of our time: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

Jean-Michel Basquiat, American artist extraordinaire: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

A witty and beautifully written account of the lives of Gertrude Stein and her wife Alice B. Toklas and a fascinating look into early 20th century Paris and the development of modernist culture.

Joseph Beuys, German artist legend and political activist: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

Jackson Pollock, American painter and inventor of "Action painting": Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter and creator of the "Scream": Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

William Turner, English painter and inventor of the abstract: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

Francisco de Goya, Spanish painting genius of the 18th century: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

If you enjoyed The Wednesday Witch, you'll be fascinated to learn more about the life of its author. Complete with entries from Ruth Chew's diaries and never-before-seen sketches from her personal notebooks, this book gives you an insight to the author behind The Wednesday Witch.

Peter Paul Rubens, painting genius of the 16th century: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

Raging ambition. Towering egos. Competition under a veneer of courtesy. Heroic effort combined with plagiarism, theft, exaggeration, and fraud. This was the state of bird study in eastern North America during the early 1800s, as a handful of intrepid men raced to find the last few birds that were still unknown to science. The most famous name in the bird world was John James Audubon, who painted spectacular portraits of birds. But although his images were beautiful, creating art was not his main goal. Instead, he aimed to illustrate (and write about) as many different species as possible.

Cv/VAR no.100 publishes an interview with the American artist Jim Dine, recorded by cell phone from Wales to the artists Paris studio on May 11th, 2010. In this, he discusses his beginnings as an artist, his work with Claes Oldenburg and the Happenings, the Pinocchio series, 52 Books at Pace Gallery, New York, and the relationship of drawing to his graphic work.