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....

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....

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

In 1945, Edith Farnsworth asked the German architect Mies van der Rohe, already renowned for his avant-garde buildings, to design a weekend home for her outside of Chicago. Edith was a woman ahead of her time....

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

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....

Hailed by 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....

For just over a decade, from 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated former sail-making warehouses clustered at the lower tip of Manhattan became the quiet epicenter of the art world....

In Montparnasse begins on the eve of the First World War and ends with the 1936 unveiling of Dalí’s Lobster Telephone. As those extraordinary years unfolded, the Surrealists found ever more innovative ways of exploring the interior life....

The definitive biography of a fascinating and paradoxical figure, one of the most influential artists of his - or any - age....

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 In the stations, black matte sheets were pasted over outdated ads, and unsigned chalk drawings often popped up on these blank spaces....

A revealing and beautifully open memoir from pioneering industrial music artist, visual artist, and transgender icon Genesis P-Orridge....

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

Graham Boynton's Wild is the definitive biography of photographer Peter Beard, a larger-than-life icon who pushed the boundaries of art and scandalized international high society with his high-profile affairs....

A tender biography of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century is also an elegant exploration of artistic endurance, as told by a lifelong lover of Willa Cather’s work....

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....

A great American artist, John Singer Sargent is an abiding enigma. In The Grand Affair, scholar Paul Fisher explores the enigmas of fin de siecle sexuality and art, fashioning a biography that grants the man and his paintings new and intense life....

You have a unique destiny, an unquenchable dream inside you that’s waiting for you to take action. Maybe you are an artist. But chances are you’ve been told that you’ll starve on the streets if you pursue your art. That’s what Elli Milan was told, too....

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....

Their names are iconic: Eugene O’Neill, Willem de Kooning, Josef and Anni Albers, Emma Goldman, Mary McCarthy, Edward Hopper, Walter Gropius. Scorning the devastation industrialization had wrought, they gathered in the streets of Greenwich Village and on the beachfronts of Cape Cod....

Coco Chanel created the look of the modern woman and was the high priestess of couture. She believed in simplicity, and elegance, and freed women from the tyranny of fashion. She inspired women to take off their bone corsets and cut their hair....

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

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Richard Rhodes comes the first major biography of John James Audubon in forty years and the first to illuminate fully the private and family life of the master illustrator of the natural world....

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....

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.

Bernard Marks and Martha Alford met by chance. No real reason for it, just a series of fluky coincidences. The odds were long that they would hit it off. That wasn’t in the cards they’d been dealt at birth. “It’ll never last,” people whispered after they got engaged. “Poor probability of success” was the general consensus when they married. But Bernie and Martha ignored the naysayers. Gamblers in love, they rolled the dice.

Clarence Gilyard is a celebrated Hollywood actor known for his iconic roles in "Die Hard" and "Matlock." Hailing from Moses Lake, Washington, Clarence's journey to stardom is a tale of perseverance and passion. As an African-American actor, he has been a trailblazer for diversity and representation in the entertainment industry, breaking barriers and inspiring aspiring talents worldwide. Beyond his onscreen charisma, Clarence's linguistic talents, musical abilities, and philanthropic endeavors add depth to his captivating personality. Get yourself a duplicate of this book by TOGGLING the ...

Get ready to embark on a rollercoaster ride, with Grammy & Emmy-winning artist, songwriter, producer and author, Skip Martin. He is best known for his tenure as a lead singer and trumpeter for two legendary groups, Kool & the Gang and The Dazz Band. Skip Martin unveils his life's journey through a captivating audio adventure: 'Fables of a Paid Piper.' This collection of short stories takes you on a thrilling ride through life's twists and turns, revealing the moments that shaped him and his iconic career.

In the summer of 1925, Ernest Hemingway traveled to Pamplona for the infamous running of the bulls. He then channeled that trip’s drunken brawls, sexual rivalry, midnight betrayals, and midday hangovers into a novel that redefined modern literature. Lesley Blume tells the full story behind Hemingway’s legendary rise for the first time, revealing how he created his own image as the bull-fighting aficionado, hard-drinking literary genius, and expatriate bon vivant. In all its youth, lust, and rivalry, the Lost Generation is illuminated here as never before.

Ink, Paint and Bronze is an inspiring and informative book by the award-winning visual artist, Mike Major. Infused with a wealth of knowledge and experience spanning four decades, this book is for artists or art enthusiasts at any stage of their career.

Ayn Rand’s novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are classics of American literature, taught in schools nationwide. Her philosophy of Objectivism has ignited an intellectual movement across the globe. Forty years after her death, Rand’s cultural presence continues to grow. This book sheds light on some little-discussed yet interesting facets of Rand’s life and career. The essays collected here, presenting curated sidelights rather than a sustained narrative, are deeply sourced in the Ayn Rand Archives — the world’s most comprehensive repository of materials about Rand’s ...

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Richard Rhodes comes the first major biography of John James Audubon in forty years and the first to illuminate fully the private and family life of the master illustrator of the natural world.

The definitive, authorized, and first-ever biography of Terry Allen, the internationally acclaimed visual artist and iconoclastic songwriter who occupies an utterly unique position straddling the disparate, and usually distant, worlds of conceptual art and country music.