Without a doubt, Katsushika Hokusai is the most famous Japanese artist since the middle of the nineteenth century whose art is known to the Western world. Reflecting the artistic expression of an isolated civilisation, the works of Hokusai - one of the first Japanese artists to emerge in Europe - greatly influenced the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, such as Vincent van Gogh. Considered during his life as a living Ukiyo-e master, Hokusai...

One of the most celebrated painters of his day, John Singer Sargent defines for many the style, optimism and opulence of turn-of-the-century America. Among his renowned portraits, "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" stands alongside "Madame X" and "Lady Agnew of Lochnaw" as one of Sargent's immortal images. This painting depicts four young sisters in the spacious foyer of the family's Paris apartment, strangely dispersed across the murky tones and...

Hieronymus Bosch was painting frightening, yet vaguely likable monsters long before computer games were ever invented, often including a touch of humour. His works are assertive statements about the mental illness that befalls any man who abandons the teachings of Christ. With a life that spanned from 1450 to 1516, Bosch experienced the drama of the highly charged Renaissance and its wars of religion. Medieval tradition and values were crumbling,...

With its fanlike evergreen fronds, soft trunk, and strong root system, the palmetto is a wind-adapted palm that can bend with strong sea breezes without breaking or being uprooted. Emblematic of survival against opposition, the palmetto tree has captured the imaginations of South Carolinians for generations, appearing on the state seal since the American Revolution and on the state flag since 1861. The palmetto was named South Carolina's official...

Using minimal tools and a simple technique of bending, interweaving, and fastening together sticks, artist Patrick Dougherty creates works of art inseparable with nature and the landscape. With a dazzling variety of forms seamlessly intertwined with their context, his sculptures evoke fantastical images of nests, cocoons, cones, castles, and beehives. Over the last twenty-five years, Dougherty has built more than two hundred works throughout the United...

A working painter for over 50 years, and owner and director of the internationally renowned Salander-O'Reilly Galleries in New York City, where he was responsible for presenting over 600 museum quality exhibitions of art to the public, Salander is in a unique position to have a deep insight of all aspects of art and its making. This is an extremely personal book, and it is evident that Salander is both passionate and knowledgeable about his subject....

In 2009, Roy Huteson Stewart set out on an expedition into unknown realms to chronicle the life and times, of the so-called "wickedest man in the world". His artwork for what would become the graphic novel, Aleister Crowley: Wandering the Waste is now, collected in its truest, rawest form. Here are the pencils, inks, and collages depicting all the glorious filth and splendor of a life lived at the extreme limits of human knowledge and sanity. Truly...

Rex Ray celebrates life, work, and legacy of iconic San Francisco fine artist Rex Ray (1956—2015). This comprehensive volume features more than 100 of his works on canvas, wood, and paper-including never-before-seen pieces courtesy of the Rex Ray estate. His playful painted-paper-collages and organic, abstract forms have earned him comparisons to artists like Paul Klee and Henri Matisse. • Essays by celebrated writer Rebecca Solnit, art critic...

When artist Tom Curry first moved to Maine, his house overlooked a small, uninhabited island in Eggemoggin Reach. One day, while rowing across to the island, his boyhood fear of water came crashing in on him. So he decided to explore his fear head-on, and began painting the island "as a way to delve into my own darkness and seek a way back to the surface." That series of paintings, capturing the island in all lights, weathers, and moods, forms the...

The incarnation of the myth of a cursed artist, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) is a legend who became a reference for modern art. An Expressionist during the Post-Impressionist movement, his art was misunderstood during his lifetime. In Holland, he partook in the Dutch realist painting movement by studying peasant characters. Anxious and depressed, Vincent van Gogh produced more than 2000 artworks, yet sold only one in his lifetime. A self-made artist,...