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Portraiture is one of the oldest and most studied genres of art. While most scholars will look at a painting’s composition, style, and themes, often questions remain unanswered–who were these people and why were they painted? This entertaining book reveals the identities and lives of some of the most famous characters that populate art history–from the Renaissance to the 21st century. Readers will learn how the fifteen-year-old subject of da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine nearly destroyed a marriage; that van Dyck’s depiction of Prudence in wild clothes is actually one of the most controversial aristocrats of the seventeenth century; and that Francis Bacon’s character George Dyer was a man he met in a Soho nightclub. These and other stories behind works by Picasso, Klimt, Rubens, Warhol, and dozens of other artists show how portraiture remains one of the most enthralling genres. Based on art scholarship and conveyed in an accessible tone, these fascinating tales of power, lust, intrigue, jealousy, vengeance, and romance will help readers understand masterpieces of art history in an entirely new light.

There has been much scaremongering about the ‘death of the book’, and how, as words find new ways and means of transmission, young people might gradually begin to shun writing. In the digital age, text becomes information, and information strives to become free. But what value can text hold in the sphere of visual art? How is such text different from poetry? Can the poetic itself be visual art, or is text in this context consigned to the realms of gimmick and catchphrase? Looking at the work of a broad range of artists including Bruce Nauman, Julien Breton, Jeremy Deller, Takashi Murakami, Tracey Emin, Christian Boltanski and many more, The Word is Art examines each of these questions, contending above all that in the digital and online age, words have become more important than ever. With the advent of texting and social media, many predicted the debasement of language, and some have pointed to evidence of this in our so-called ‘post-truth’ culture. Artist Michael Petry demonstrates that, on the contrary, words remain critical, powerful and central to art practice.

The first book to focus on the new trend in graffiti and street art: permanent murals on a gigantic scale

Once upon a time, illegal graffiti and street art were modest in scale, hastily created in hours or even minutes and destroyed just as quickly by authorities, vandals, or the weather. Now, however, architects, urban planners, and development companies have begun to support the creation of large murals, allowing street artists and graffiti artists to make carefully planned, more permanent works, sometimes covering entire buildings, and adding a whole new visual dimension to the world’s cities.

For this spectacular volume, Claudia Walde, whose own recent 1,800-square-foot, brilliantly colored mural on the Alte Messe, Leipzig, was created in just one grueling week of work, has selected more than 200 of the best XXL mural works from around the world and profiled thirty artists who pioneered this trend. Working in dangerous conditions, hundreds of yards above the ground, yet always keenly aware of the viewer’s perspective from street level, these new street muralists are as fearless and technically skilled as they are brilliant and creative.

With exclusive commentary from the practitioners as well as detailed information about their planning, methods, challenges, and inspirations, Mural XXL also includes a map identifying exciting murals around the world. 275 color illustrations