- History & Criticism (519)
Bestsellers
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The Unseen Truth
- When Race Changed Sight in America
- By: Sarah Lewis
- Narrated by: Sarah Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The award-winning art historian and founder of the Vision & Justice project uncovers a pivotal era in the story of race in the United States when Americans came to ignore the truth about the false foundations of the nation’s racial regime.
By: Sarah Lewis
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Paris in Ruins
- Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
- By: Sebastian Smee
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Incisive and absorbing, Paris in Ruins captures the shifting passions and politics of the art world, revealing how the siege and the chaos of the Commune had a profound impact on modern art, and how artistic genius can emerge from darkness and catastrophe.
By: Sebastian Smee
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All That Glitters
- A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art
- By: Orlando Whitfield
- Narrated by: Orlando Whitfield
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
All That Glitters is a dazzling insider’s account of the contemporary art world and the stunning rise and fall of the charismatic American art dealer Inigo Philbrick, as seen through the eyes of his friend and fellow dealer.
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Gripping
- By Anonymous User on 09-01-24
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On Photography
- By: Susan Sontag
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
First published in 1973, this is a study of the force of photographic images, which are continually inserted between experience and reality....
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I'm Glad I Bought, Despite Some Negative Reviews
- By DEF on 10-18-13
By: Susan Sontag
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Minor Feelings
- An Asian American Reckoning
- By: Cathy Park Hong
- Narrated by: Cathy Park Hong
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative....
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Essential
- By Realness on 03-04-20
By: Cathy Park Hong
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Color
- A Natural History of the Palette
- By: Victoria Finlay
- Narrated by: Victoria Finlay
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this vivid and captivating journey through the colors of an artist’s palette, Victoria Finlay takes us on an enthralling adventure around the world and through the ages, illuminating how the colors we choose to value have determined the history of culture itself....
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A scrumptious, colorful adventure. Must read
- By Esio Trot on 07-26-23
By: Victoria Finlay
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The Unseen Truth
- When Race Changed Sight in America
- By: Sarah Lewis
- Narrated by: Sarah Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The award-winning art historian and founder of the Vision & Justice project uncovers a pivotal era in the story of race in the United States when Americans came to ignore the truth about the false foundations of the nation’s racial regime.
By: Sarah Lewis
-
Paris in Ruins
- Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
- By: Sebastian Smee
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Incisive and absorbing, Paris in Ruins captures the shifting passions and politics of the art world, revealing how the siege and the chaos of the Commune had a profound impact on modern art, and how artistic genius can emerge from darkness and catastrophe.
By: Sebastian Smee
-
All That Glitters
- A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art
- By: Orlando Whitfield
- Narrated by: Orlando Whitfield
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All That Glitters is a dazzling insider’s account of the contemporary art world and the stunning rise and fall of the charismatic American art dealer Inigo Philbrick, as seen through the eyes of his friend and fellow dealer.
-
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Gripping
- By Anonymous User on 09-01-24
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On Photography
- By: Susan Sontag
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1973, this is a study of the force of photographic images, which are continually inserted between experience and reality....
-
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I'm Glad I Bought, Despite Some Negative Reviews
- By DEF on 10-18-13
By: Susan Sontag
-
Minor Feelings
- An Asian American Reckoning
- By: Cathy Park Hong
- Narrated by: Cathy Park Hong
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative....
-
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Essential
- By Realness on 03-04-20
By: Cathy Park Hong
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Color
- A Natural History of the Palette
- By: Victoria Finlay
- Narrated by: Victoria Finlay
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this vivid and captivating journey through the colors of an artist’s palette, Victoria Finlay takes us on an enthralling adventure around the world and through the ages, illuminating how the colors we choose to value have determined the history of culture itself....
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A scrumptious, colorful adventure. Must read
- By Esio Trot on 07-26-23
By: Victoria Finlay
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Diamond Is Fragile
- By: Rustem Valayev
- Narrated by: Virginia Ferguson
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Diamond Is Fragile was one of my favorite books from my late grandfather's library. Much to my surprise (and dismay) it was only published once in the former Soviet Union approximately 50 years ago and (to the best of my knowledge) has never been published abroad....
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This is a must listen for any fans of history, gems, the obscure knowledge of the world
- By Mary Karowski on 04-07-21
By: Rustem Valayev
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Art Is Life
- Icons and Iconoclasts, Visionaries and Vigilantes, and Flashes of Hope in the Night
- By: Jerry Saltz
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Since the 1990s he has been an indispensable cultural voice: Witty and provocative, he has attracted contemporary listeners to fine art....
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WRONG for audio program
- By Karen Lehrer on 11-07-22
By: Jerry Saltz
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The Story of Art Without Men
- By: Katy Hessel
- Narrated by: Katy Hessel
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Have your sense of art history overturned and your eyes opened to many artforms often ignored or dismissed. From the Cornish coast to Manhattan, Nigeria to Japan, this is the history of art as it's never been told before....
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a necessary text for our time
- By Cierra on 05-22-23
By: Katy Hessel
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Ninth Street Women
- Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
- By: Mary Gabriel
- Narrated by: Lisa Stathoplos
- Length: 40 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this "gratifying, generous, and lush" true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times)....
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Painful pronunciation issues!
- By Curious Artist Librarian on 05-20-19
By: Mary Gabriel
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The Secret Lives of Color
- By: Kassia St. Clair
- Narrated by: Kassia St. Clair
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them....
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More about pigments than social history
- By Jason Toon on 12-13-20
By: Kassia St. Clair
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The Rise
- Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery
- By: Sarah Lewis
- Narrated by: Sarah Lewis
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is one of the enduring enigmas of the human experience: many of our most iconic, creative endeavors are not achievements but conversions, corrections after failed attempts....
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Inspiring and artful
- By james kenly on 06-13-16
By: Sarah Lewis
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Picasso's War
- How Modern Art Came to America
- By: Hugh Eakin
- Narrated by: Mack Sanderson
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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....
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Better Books on Picasso Available
- By john burke on 08-17-22
By: Hugh Eakin
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Rembrandt Is in the Wind
- Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith
- By: Russ Ramsey, Makoto Fujimura
- Narrated by: Zach Hoffman, John Behrens
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Rembrandt Is in the Wind is an invitation to discover some of the world's most celebrated artists and works and how each of them illuminates something about God, people, and the purpose of life....
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Creating Beauty as Our Lifework
- By Anonymous User on 07-02-22
By: Russ Ramsey, and others
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A History of the World in 100 Objects
- The Landmark BBC Radio 4 Series
- By: Neil MacGregor
- Narrated by: Neil MacGregor
- Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 2010, the BBC and the British Museum embarked on an ambitious project: to tell the story of 2,000,000 years of human history using 100 objects selected from the museum's vast and renowned collection....
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Warning: not audio reading of the book
- By Anonymous on 08-07-21
By: Neil MacGregor
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Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 of 2
- By: Plutarch
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 41 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Plutarchs's (46-120 A.D.) epic chronicle of the lives of great Grecians and Romans....
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TABLE of CONTENTS here:
- By Amazon Customer on 02-24-16
By: Plutarch
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Art of Work
- A Proven Way to Find Your Purpose
- By: Clark Steven
- Narrated by: Tanvir Karim
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What exactly is a work of art? Within the context of this guided trip inside the artist's psyche, Author traces the development of transcendent books, paintings, jokes, movies, songs, and other forms of artistic expression.
By: Clark Steven
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The Monuments Men
- Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
- By: Robert M. Edsel, Bret Witter
- Narrated by: Jeremy Davidson
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe.....
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Interesting listen
- By Laurie on 12-22-09
By: Robert M. Edsel, and others
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Dear Theo
- The Autobiography of Vincent van Gogh
- By: Irving Stone, Jean Stone
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 21 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Each night, when the hours of painting and drawing were over, Vincent van Gogh put pen to paper and poured out his heart through letters to his beloved brother Theo, his confidant and companion....
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Worst narrator ever!
- By Aawendel on 03-28-14
By: Irving Stone, and others
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Hilma af Klint
- A Biography
- By: Julia Voss, Anne Posten - translator
- Narrated by: Doria Bramante
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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....
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Ruined by narration
- By Adeliese Baumann on 11-23-23
By: Julia Voss, and others
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Leonardo and the Last Supper
- By: Ross King
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Early in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began work in Milan on what would become one of history's most influential and beloved works of art - The Last Supper....
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Informative yet creative
- By Isabellabasil on 05-27-15
By: Ross King
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The Slip
- The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever
- By: Prudence Peiffer
- Narrated by: Melissa Redmond
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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.
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The narrator mis-pronounces everones name
- By Stephanie Laffont on 12-26-23
By: Prudence Peiffer
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The Lives of Lucian Freud
- Fame, 1968-2011
- By: William Feaver
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Lucian Freud (1922-2011) is one of the most influential figurative painters of the 20th century. His paintings are in every major museum and many private collections here and abroad....
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Perfect
- By Travis Carl on 05-29-21
By: William Feaver
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Rogues' Gallery
- The Rise (And Occasional Fall) of Art Dealers, the Hidden Players in the History of Art
- By: Philip Hook
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Here for the first time is the history of art dealers, those extraordinary men and women who, over centuries built their profession on a singular skill....
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Superb art history you never learned in college!
- By Rosemary Wells on 05-05-19
By: Philip Hook
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Georgia O'Keeffe
- A Life
- By: Roxana Robinson
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 29 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Roxana Robinson’s definitive biography of O’Keeffe was first published in 1989, it received rave reviews and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year....
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Delightful
- By Cody on 06-02-24
By: Roxana Robinson
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Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts
- By: Christopher de Hamel
- Narrated by: Christopher de Hamel
- Length: 17 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Coming face to face with an important illuminated manuscript in the original is rather like meeting a very famous person....
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I've been waiting a long time for a book like this
- By Robert on 04-15-18
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Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light, 100 Art Writings 1988-2018
- By: Peter Schjeldahl, Jarrett Earnest - introduction
- Narrated by: Peter Schjeldahl
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hot Cold Heavy Light collects 100 writings that taken together form a group portrait of many of the world’s most significant and interesting artists. From Pablo Picasso to Cindy Sherman, Old Masters to contemporary masters, paintings to comix, and saints to charlatans....
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needs pictures
- By Petra Juarez on 02-19-20
By: Peter Schjeldahl, and others
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A Degree in a Book: Art History
- Everything You Need to Know to Master the Subject
- By: John Finlay
- Narrated by: Ruth Ollman
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Spanning from the classical sculpture of Ancient Rome to contemporary performance art, this guide provides a rich overview of art history, covering many topics explored in a history of art degrees....
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Better for Beginners
- By Bonnie Mommy on 03-12-24
By: John Finlay
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Vermeer's Hat
- The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World
- By: Timothy Brook
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A Vermeer painting shows a military officer in a Dutch sitting room, talking to a laughing girl....
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A wonderful book
- By Acteon on 07-09-14
By: Timothy Brook
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Last Light
- How Six Great Artists Made Old Age a Time of Triumph
- By: Richard Lacayo
- Narrated by: Mack Sanderson
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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....
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An art history course in one slim book
- By LC on 02-19-23
By: Richard Lacayo
New releases
-
The Unseen Truth
- When Race Changed Sight in America
- By: Sarah Lewis
- Narrated by: Sarah Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a masterpiece of historical detective work, Sarah Lewis exposes one of the most damaging lies in American history. There was a time when Americans were confronted with the fictions shoring up the nation’s racial regime and learned to disregard them. The true significance of this hidden history has gone unseen—until now. Groundbreaking and profoundly resonant, The Unseen Truth shows how visual tactics have long secured our regime of racial hierarchy in spite of its false foundations—and offers a way to begin to dismantle it.
By: Sarah Lewis
-
Paris in Ruins
- Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
- By: Sebastian Smee
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, famously dubbed the "Terrible Year" by Victor Hugo, Paris and its people were besieged, starved, and forced into surrender by Germans-then imperiled again as radical republicans established a breakaway Commune, ultimately crushed by the French Army after bloody street battles and the burning of central Paris.
By: Sebastian Smee
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The Lie Behind The Scream
- By: L. A. Braun
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Edvard Munch's The Scream, an inspiration for the world's most celebrated memes, had hidden a ghostly secret! In fact, several images of rebus pictograms linked to physics were being deliberately embedded in The Scream. Our books are picture-based so the audiobook should ONLY be an add-on. The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive overview on a few different secrets that pertain to The Scream. Munch had concealed clues to math and physics. That premise seems impossible. But it is true. Secrets were being purposefully concealed in the artworks. We'll present ample evidence to back ...
By: L. A. Braun
-
The Geography of the Imagination
- Forty Essays
- By: Guy Davenport, John Jeremiah Sullivan - introduction
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Forty essays on history, art, and literature to lift your mind and spirit. Guy Davenport serves as the listener's guide through history and literature, providing links between music and sculpture, modernist poets and classic philosophers, the past and present-pointing out the values and avenues of thought that have shaped our ideas and our thinking.
By: Guy Davenport, and others
-
Our Lady of the World's Fair
- Bringing Michelangelo's "Pieta" to Queens in 1964
- By: Ruth D. Nelson
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Driven by different motives, Robert Moses and Francis Cardinal Spellman had the same vision: to display Michelangelo's masterpiece, the Pietà, in the Vatican's pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City.
By: Ruth D. Nelson
-
Art as Information Ecology
- Artworks, Artworlds, and Complex Systems Aesthetics (Thought in the Act)
- By: Jason A. Hoelscher
- Narrated by: Bill Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Art as Information Ecology, Jason A. Hoelscher offers not only an information theory of art but an aesthetic theory of information. Applying close readings of the information theories of Claude Shannon and Gilbert Simondon to 1960s American art, Hoelscher proposes that art is information in its aesthetic or indeterminate mode—information oriented less toward answers and resolvability than toward questions, irresolvability, and sustained difference. In this way, art constitutes information that remains in formation---a difference that makes a difference that keeps on differencing.
-
The Unseen Truth
- When Race Changed Sight in America
- By: Sarah Lewis
- Narrated by: Sarah Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a masterpiece of historical detective work, Sarah Lewis exposes one of the most damaging lies in American history. There was a time when Americans were confronted with the fictions shoring up the nation’s racial regime and learned to disregard them. The true significance of this hidden history has gone unseen—until now. Groundbreaking and profoundly resonant, The Unseen Truth shows how visual tactics have long secured our regime of racial hierarchy in spite of its false foundations—and offers a way to begin to dismantle it.
By: Sarah Lewis
-
Paris in Ruins
- Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
- By: Sebastian Smee
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, famously dubbed the "Terrible Year" by Victor Hugo, Paris and its people were besieged, starved, and forced into surrender by Germans-then imperiled again as radical republicans established a breakaway Commune, ultimately crushed by the French Army after bloody street battles and the burning of central Paris.
By: Sebastian Smee
-
The Lie Behind The Scream
- By: L. A. Braun
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edvard Munch's The Scream, an inspiration for the world's most celebrated memes, had hidden a ghostly secret! In fact, several images of rebus pictograms linked to physics were being deliberately embedded in The Scream. Our books are picture-based so the audiobook should ONLY be an add-on. The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive overview on a few different secrets that pertain to The Scream. Munch had concealed clues to math and physics. That premise seems impossible. But it is true. Secrets were being purposefully concealed in the artworks. We'll present ample evidence to back ...
By: L. A. Braun
-
The Geography of the Imagination
- Forty Essays
- By: Guy Davenport, John Jeremiah Sullivan - introduction
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forty essays on history, art, and literature to lift your mind and spirit. Guy Davenport serves as the listener's guide through history and literature, providing links between music and sculpture, modernist poets and classic philosophers, the past and present-pointing out the values and avenues of thought that have shaped our ideas and our thinking.
By: Guy Davenport, and others
-
Our Lady of the World's Fair
- Bringing Michelangelo's "Pieta" to Queens in 1964
- By: Ruth D. Nelson
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Driven by different motives, Robert Moses and Francis Cardinal Spellman had the same vision: to display Michelangelo's masterpiece, the Pietà, in the Vatican's pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City.
By: Ruth D. Nelson
-
Art as Information Ecology
- Artworks, Artworlds, and Complex Systems Aesthetics (Thought in the Act)
- By: Jason A. Hoelscher
- Narrated by: Bill Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Art as Information Ecology, Jason A. Hoelscher offers not only an information theory of art but an aesthetic theory of information. Applying close readings of the information theories of Claude Shannon and Gilbert Simondon to 1960s American art, Hoelscher proposes that art is information in its aesthetic or indeterminate mode—information oriented less toward answers and resolvability than toward questions, irresolvability, and sustained difference. In this way, art constitutes information that remains in formation---a difference that makes a difference that keeps on differencing.