McCahon Country by Justin Paton

$75.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

'My painting tells you where I am at any given time, where I am living and the direction I am pointing in.' Colin McCahon McCahon (1919-1987) is widely recognised as an outstanding figure in twentieth century art whose ground-breaking work over four decades changed the way we see this country, while en gaging intensely with questions of faith, mortality, belonging and the power of art. In this landmark new book, published in association with Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki on the 100th anniversary of McCahon's birth, celebrated writer and curator Justin Paton takes readers on a journey through the landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand, as the artist loved and painted it. From Otago to Canterbury, Takaka to Taranaki, Muriwai to Northland and many more places in between, Paton brings his curator's eye to a selection of nearly 200 of McCahon's paintings and drawings, including iconic and beloved works and others never before published, presented in fifteen themed sections offering fresh perspectives on McCahon's abiding concerns. In elegant, responsive and deeply compelling prose, the author traces McCahon's travels through New Zealand, charts his remarkable development as a painter and thinker, explores his deepening engagement with Maori culture and environmental issues, and reveals his vision of the land as a source of light, peace and spiritual sustenance. A book to introduce new viewers to McCahon's vision and to enlarge the view for those who know the work well, McCahon Countryilluminates the beauty, spiritual urgency and enduring power of McCahon's artworks. Above all, it shows the reader how McCahon's paintings get us looking at the world we live in with new eyes. 'McCahon is not only New Zealand's most significant or important artist. He is our most soulful artist, our most searching. He asks the most of art and the world it renders. One hundred years since his birth, he still wants to know what we should believe in and where we belong.' Justin Paton ...Show more

Galleries of Maoriland: Artists, Collectors and the Mãori World, 1880-1910 by Roger Blackley

$75.00 NZD

Category: Maori Books | Reading Level: near fine

Galleries of Maoriland introduces us to the many ways in which European colonists to New Zealand (called Pakeha by the indigenous Maori) discovered, created, propagated and romanticised the Maori world at the turn of the century summed up in a popular nickname describing New Zealand; Maoriland. It could be seen in the paintings of Lindauer and Goldie; among artists, patrons, collectors and audiences; inside the Polynesian Society and the Dominion Museum; among stolen artefacts and fantastical accounts of the Maori past. The culture of Maoriland was a colonists creation. But Galleries of Maoriland shows that Maori were not merely passive victims: they too had a stake in this process of romanticisation. What, this book asks, were some of the Maori purposes that were served by curio displays, portrait collections, and the wider ethnological culture? Why did the idealisation of an ancient Maori world, which obsessed ethnological inquirers and artists alike, appeal also to Maori? Who precisely were the Maori participants in this culture, and what were their motives? Galleries of Maoriland looks at Maori prehistory in European art; the enthusiasm of settlers and Maori for portraiture and recreations of ancient life; the trade in Maori curios; and the international exhibition of this colonial culture. By illuminating New Zealand's artistic and ethnographic economy at the turn of the twentieth century, this book provides a new understanding of our art and our culture. ...Show more

Joseph Banks' Florilegium: Botanical Treasures from Cook's First Voyage by David Mabberley; Mel Gooding; Joe Studholme; Anon

$135.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

Joseph Banks accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage around the world from 1768 to 1771. A gifted and wealthy young naturalist, Banks collected exotic flora from Madeira, Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, the Society Islands, New Zealand, Australia, and Java, bringing back over 1,300 species that had never been seen or studied by Europeans. Upon his return, Banks commissioned more than 700 engravings between 1772 and 1784. Known collectively as Banks' Florilegium, they are some of the most precise and exquisite examples of botanical illustration ever created. The Florilegium was never published in Banks' lifetime, and it was not until 1990 that a complete set in color was issued in a boxed edition (limited to 100 copies) under the direction of the British Museum. The present selection is from these prints, directed by botanist David Mabberley, who has provided expert commentaries, with additional texts by art historian Mel Gooding, setting the works in context as a perfect conjunction of nature, science, and art. An afterword by Joe Studholme describes the history of the modern printing. ...Show more

Garage Project: The Art of Beer by Gillespie Garage Project; Ruffell Pete; Jos

$39.99 NZD

Category: Fine Art

Garage Project- The Art of Beer is a one-of-a-kind book celebrating the art, the creativity and - of course - the craft of the world's most experimental brewery, New Zealand's own Garage Project. Since its earliest days in Wellington's Aro Valley, Garage Project has collaborated with some of Aotearoa's most talented graphic designers, painters, game designers, tattoo artists (and more) to create literally hundreds of unique artworks for its cans and bottles. Many have become iconic, much-loved and even collectible items in their own right. Today, Garage Project's colourful and ever-changing beer labels are as well-known as its unique and popular brews - and over 100 of them are collected in this book. Here are original sketches and finished art for the beers you love to love, from Pils'n'Thrills to Aro Noir to BEER beer, with insights into the creative process and talented people who made them - and the stories and inspiration behind the brewery and the beers, all as told in entertaining style by the co-founders themselves. Drink in the thinking, the process and the inspiration behind Garage Project with this beautifully designed gift book. ...Show more

One Year Drawn: Through The Eyes of an Architect by Pete Bossley

$55.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

A Year spent travelling as a young architect tuaght Pete Bossley how to 'read' a building and instilled in him a life-long love of drawing. In One Year Drawn he shares this voyage of discovery - and the places and people he encounters along the way. Now one of New Zealand's most respected architects, Pe te writes of a European odyssey that saw him visit and sketch many of the world's great buildings. The reader joins him as he travels from London to Italy, onwards to Greece and Turkey, and north to visit the works of the great Scandanavian architects. Too poor to afford film for his camera, he resorts to buying a hotchpotch of sketchbooks in which to record his observations and thoughts. Part travelogue, part memoir, this unique book will appeal to lovers of architecture and art, and anyone who enjoys an intelligent and at times humorous read. ...Show more

Human Canvas by Insight Editions ((various roles)); Art Wolfe

$85.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

Human Canvas combines Wolfe's world-famous photography with his exquisite painting to create a groundbreaking collection of body art.   What does it mean to be human? In Human Canvas, Art Wolfe uses his exceptional photography and his background in fine-art painting to transform skin into an abst ract landscape. Inspired by the body-painting traditions of indigenous peoples Wolfe has photographed worldwide, and particularly those in Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea, Wolfe set out to present his own take on this art form and explore concepts of universal beauty. Through the use of lines, patterns, textures, and unusual points of view, Wolfe abstracts the human form and creates a unique and captivating look of the human body as art. The result is an energized expression of both artistic mastery and cultural impact.   Over his expansive career, Wolfe has traveled to every continent. He has ventured from 19,000-foot heights on Mount Everest to the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, 410 feet below sea level, as well as deep into sacred lands on the Tibetan Plateau, the Indian subcontinent, and the desert Southwest. He has visited indigenous tribes deep in the Amazon rainforest, high in the Baliem Valley in Western New Guinea, and in Ethiopia's arid Omo River valley. Each new group of people he connected with showed him that, despite our cultural differences, inside we're all just human. Through this fearless effort by a photographer uniquely qualified by study and life experiences in the cultural and artistic worlds, Wolfe manages to universalize the concept of human beyond race, gender, politics, or any other differentiating feature. ...Show more

The Artist's Garden: How Gardens Inspired Our Greatest Painters by Jackie Bennett

$55.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

The Artist's Garden will feature up to 20 gardens that have inspired and been home to some of the greatest painters of history. These gardens not only supplied the inspiration for creative works but also illuminate the professional motivation and private life of the artists themselves - from Cezanne's h ouse in the south of France to Childe Hassam at Celia Thaxter's garden off the coast off Maine. Flowers and gardens have often been the first choice for artists looking for a subject. A garden close to the artist's studio is not only convenient for daily material and ideas, but also has the advantage of changing through the seasons and over time. Claude Monet's Giverny was the catalyst for hundreds of great paintings (by Monet and other artists), each one different from the one before. Sometimes a whole village becomes the focus for a colony of artists as at Gerberoy in Picardy and Skagen on the northernmost tip of Denmark. This book is about the real homes and gardens that inspired these great artists - gardens that can still be visited today. The relationship between artist and garden is a complex one. A few artists, including Pierre Bonnard and his neighbour Monet were keen gardeners, as much in love with their plants as their work, while for others like Sorolla in Madrid, his courtyard home was both a sanctuary and a source of ideas. ...Show more

Colin McCahon: There is Only One Direction: Vol. 1 1919-1959 by Peter Simpson

$75.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art | Reading Level: very good

100 years after the birth of New Zealands leading artist, Peter Simpson has produced the first major book on McCahon in years.

We Are Artists - Women Who Made Their Mark on the World by Kari Herbert

$35.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

We Are Artists celebrates the life and work of 15 female artists from around the globe and the distinctive mark they made on the art world and beyond. Presented as a collection of engaging biographical narratives, We Are Artists reveals how each artist's unique approach and perspective provided the art world and society at large with a new way of seeing things. It places the spotlight on women painters, sculptors, printmakers, illustrators, designers and craftswomen, who all too often are left out of history and art history books for children. Through their personal stories, readers will come to know the circles and art movements each artist worked in, and the influence they exerted on both the art world and society as a whole. Following in the wake of the Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls phenomenon, We Are Artists is aimed at inspiring young readers and aspiring artists, no matter what their gender, to find their own unique way of making a contribution to the world. ...Show more

Mouse on a Tricycle

$39.99 NZD

Category: Fine Art

Great Women Artists by Phaidon Editors

$90.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

Five centuries of fascinating female creativity presented in more than 400 compelling artworks and one comprehensive volume. The most extensive fully illustrated book of women artists ever published, Great Women Artists reflects an era where art made by women is more prominent than ever. In museums, ga lleries, and the art market, previously overlooked female artists, past and present, are now gaining recognition and value. Featuring more than 400 artists from more than 50 countries and spanning 500 years of creativity, each artist is represented here by a key artwork and short text. This essential volume reveals a parallel yet equally engaging history of art for an age that champions a greater diversity of voices. "Real changes are upon us, and today one can reel off the names of a number of first-rate women artists. Nevertheless, women are just getting started."--The New Yorker ...Show more

Story of Painting: The How Art Was Made by DK

$48.00 NZD

Category: Fine Art

A fascinating new history of art, this gloriously illustrated book reveals how materials, techniques, and ideas have evolved over the centuries, inspiring artists and giving them the means to create their most celebrated works. Covering a comprehensive array of topics, from the first pigments and fresc os to linear perspective in Renaissance paintings, the influence of photography, Impressionism, and the birth of modern art, The Story of Painting follows each step in the evolution of painting over the last 25,000 years, from the first cave paintings to the abstract works of the last 150 years. Packed with lavish colour reproductions of paintings and photographs of artists at work and the materials they used, it also focuses on key paintings from each period to analyse the techniques and secrets of the great masters in detail. Immerse yourself in the pages of this beautiful book and find yourself dazzled by new colours; marvel at the magic of perspective; wonder at glowing depictions of fabric and flesh; understand cubism; and embrace abstraction. It will transform your understanding and enjoyment of paintings forever. ...Show more