This volume comprises published papers from the Ninth International Insular Art Conference held in Durham in 2022. It brings together the latest scholarship on early medieval (AD 400–1100) art in Britain, Ireland and beyond. Perspectives taken include classical art historical analysis of form, style and design, but also a close attention to the materials used and the complex process of production and artisan skill required to create these objects. This volume focuses on manuscripts, metalwork and other media, with research on stone sculpture appearing in Volume 2.

This volume comprises published papers from the Ninth International Insular Art Conference held in Durham in 2022. It brings together the latest scholarship on early medieval (AD 400–1100) art in Britain, Ireland and beyond. Perspectives taken include classical art historical analysis of form, style and design, but also a close attention to the materials used and the complex process of production and artisan skill required to create these objects. This volume focuses on stone sculpture and carving, with research on manuscripts, metalwork and other media appearing in Volume 1.

The Arts & Crafts movement began as a backlash against industrialism and the prevailing stylistic ideals in mid-19th century Britain. The basic ideas of its followers, including the art critic John Ruskin and the artist William Morris, developed into a global movement, spreading through craft colonies and influencing professionals in several fields, from design and architecture to ornamentation and cultivation. The movement reached Sweden a few decades later and expressed itself as a romanticization of the simple life, tied to the home. One of the leading figures of the movement in Sweden is Carl Larsson, whose colorful paintings are known for depicting the simplicity of everyday life.In this book, twelve authors focus on the home environments, art schools, museums and other organizations where the ideals and visions were created, interpreted and developed. We get to read about the movement's continued relevance for our time; not only as a beloved pattern treasure that inspires and forms the basis of new styles, but also our relationship to creation, sustainability thinking and lifestyle.

During the latter part of the nineteenth century, so-called esoteric movements became increasingly popular in cultural and intellectual circles in Europe, not least in Sweden. Secret teachings, rituals and practices in alchemy, astrology, occultism and theosophy were predominant, with a belief in correspondences in the cosmos, living nature and transmutations.But esotericism goes back much further in time in Swedish history. Although such esoteric ideas were long considered heresy by the Church and thus driven underground, they have had a significant impact on Swedish culture. In this anthology, we bring together some of Sweden’s foremost experts on the subject to explore the history of esotericism in Sweden and how its rituals, practices and traditions came to influence writers and artists such as August Strindberg, Selma Lagerlöf, Viktor Rydberg, Hilma af Klint, Tyra Kleen and Carl Milles.

This richly illustrated and superbly designed book explores its author’s life and work against the backdrop of 40 years of transformation and conflict across the Arabian Gulf and Islamic world. A doctor-turned-artist, Ahmed Mater has continually confronted his traditional context. Here he explores Arab and Islamic society in an era of globalization and social upheaval to uncover the unofficial histories that have shaped the present. Mapping his life and work on a historical timeline, the book offers an unprecedented insight into changes forged by and in the Kingdom, and its significance in world religion, culture, and geopolitics. Celebrating 20 years of Mater’s art-making, organizing, and activism, this book is not only a mid-career survey of an essential artist, it is an urgent prognosis of a society in dramatic transition.

Imagine walking among and learning about 130 ancient cities in 25 countries across the world: from the Mediterranean to the Middle East, from Asia to the Americas. Some are world heritage sites, accessible to tens of thousands of visitors each year, and some are remote and seldom seen. But each ancient city from the distant past conveys a special place in the history of human civilization, and each presents its own story and sense of place. In Unforgotten: Ancient Cities from a Distant Past, William Frej presents 200 duotone photographs of these ancient cities that are simply unforgettable, capturing as they do their allure, their beauty, their spirit and resonating sense of space. Anne Frej, in her elegant introduction, sets the table for the personal journey that awaits every reader—a journey into deep history and magical architecture and geographical splendor that speaks to us today. And Michael E. Smith, a noted scholar and author, writes about the lessons to be learned from these ancient cities, including his insights into the various urban traditions behind the building of the cities and why their histories remain poignant.As readers explore the ruins and remnants of these amazing ancient cities, a sense of awe and wonder is ever-present. Yet so is the knowledge that human civilization and life on Earth, no matter how grand, is tenuous and fragile. Even as these places reached their apogee and influence in the distant past, there are reasons why these places were abandoned and replaced. So let your curiosity wander as you turn each page, for you will see in words and pictures why they should not be forgotten.

A new addition to the University of Pittsburgh Press award winning Culture Politics & the Built Environment series

Louis de Wet (1930–2018) was an artistphilosopher born in South Africa. Over the course of his life, he created a significant body of meticulously crafted drawings and paintings, using the techniques of the Old Masters to express a contemporary world. This publication, authored by his wife Gabrielle Drake, brings together de Wet’s full catalogue of works with detailed biographical information and recollections from those who knew and worked with him. In 1983, along with his wife, de Wet bought Wenlock Abbey in Shropshire, part of an eleventhcentury priory that was the daughter house of the great Burgundian abbey of Cluny. Considering the house to be his destiny, de Wet served it faithfully, restoring and refurbishing it over the course of thirtyfive years. Wenlock Abbey helped develop de Wet’s artistic vision, substantiating his belief that the best from the past should inform, but not inhibit the future. He enhanced the fabric of the abbey with his own artworks, including a complete scheme of frescoed images of Old and New Testament figures in the chapel, as well as designs for the carved capitals of the oak screen he had inserted there. These capitals are a geographical biography, each carving showing a place of significance in de Wet’s life.This book takes the capitals as its guide, and is organised around the places de Wet lived in during the course of his life: Africa, London, Paris and Wenlock Abbey. Each section starts with pictures of the relevant capital, and includes a biographical overview written by Gabrielle Drake and reproductions of de Wet’s drawings and paintings from that period. There are also facsimiles of his Parisian sketchbook and his fastidiously compiled paint colour book.In additional text contributions, local architectural historian Vivien Bellamy details her personal recollections of de Wet and his extraordinary vision for the house; the architect Andrew Arrol outlines his renovation work on the property; and Christophe Voros, the Director of the Fédération des Sites Clunisiens, recalls his first meeting with de Wet and Gabrielle in 2000, as well as their long collaboration together.Louis de Wet (1930–2018) was born in South Africa and studied at the Beaux Arts and La Grande Chaumière, Paris, before taking British citizenship and settling in London. He remained there for thirty years, drawing, painting, studying and developing his ideas in his studio while travelling extensively around Europe and showing his work in various exhibitions. In 1983, along with his wife, de Wet bought Wenlock Abbey in Shropshire, which he faithfully restored until his death in 2018. It is now home to the Louis de Wet Foundation, which was established to preserve the abbey and offer cultural opportunities.

At a time when division, polarization, and antagonisms pervade the United States, here is hope for the future. Landscapes of Hope shows how people from all walks of life and backgrounds can come together, talk and work out details, compromise, and do something special for generations to come: safeguarding 900,000 acres of spectacular wild country in Utah.Perched on the western edge of the Colorado Plateau, the Greater San Rafael Swell spans 8,000 square miles in south-central Utah and showcases a rich tapestry of landscapes. Its colorful geological strata span 350 million years of Earth’s history and contain a remarkably well-preserved fossil record from times when primitive marine species first emerged, to the era of dinosaurs and the appearance of large mammals. The region’s arid climate and isolation have also worked together to preserve cultural artifacts left by Indigenous peoples who occupied the area for more than ten millennia.As the treasures of the Greater San Rafael Swell became widely known during the 1960s, conservationists undertook campaigns to designate large tracts of public lands in the region as wilderness, where “the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Initially, some residents of Emery County, located at the heart of the Greater Swell, strongly opposed these efforts, concerned that wilderness designations could limit ranching and mining, undermine residents' livelihoods, and sever their cultural ties to the lands.At first, reconciling these opposing views seemed impossible, but, starting in the late 1990s, Emery County leaders and residents engaged a wide spectrum of stakeholders in discussions spanning more than two decades. In 2019, their efforts to find common ground culminated in the passage of the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act. This comprehensive federal legislation designated substantial portions of public lands for multiple uses, while creating twenty-five new wilderness and other protected areas, safeguarding nearly 900,000 acres.Landscapes of Hope celebrates the commitment of those who take rightful pride in their legacy and who forged the legislation, conserving landscapes of extraordinary beauty and profound cultural importance. The fruits of their endeavors are portrayed in photographs and stories that showcase the sublime grandeur of the areas now protected in perpetuity.

This portrait of Santa Isabel in over 600 pictures shows an island transformed by its colonial history yet maintaining a confident and distinctive identity within Solomon Islands and the Pacific Island region.Santa Isabel is one of the largest islands that make up the island nation of Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific. Politically it is now one of nine provinces, each with its own variation of a shared history. In a country divided among many Christian denominations, Isabel is distinctive for its early acceptance of the Anglican Church, which united most of the island and its six language groups by the 1920s and then shaped its history up to the present.This book traces Santa Isabel history through a selection of the many hundreds of pictures of the island made first by Europeans and increasingly by its own people. These begin with the drawings and paintings of voyagers from the late 18th century, gradually succeeded by photos from the 1860s onwards showing the arrival of missionaries, traders and warships. From the 1900s there are photos made by the Europeans who established plantations on Isabel and colonial officers asserting British colonial authority. However, the pictorial record is dominated by photos from the Anglican Melanesian Mission. The Second World War, portrayed mainly by military photos, was followed closely by economic and political developments leading up to Solomon Islands independence in 1978 – developments portrayed in both church and government photos. Photos of more recent social, ceremonial and political activities show the unique combination of church, chiefs and local government in Isabel life. A renewed interest in local culture in the 21st century is revealed through photos of festivals and cultural research by both visiting and local researchers as Isabel people explore the possibilities of tourism, resource extraction and environmental conservation.

Watching the River Run, A Photographic Journey Down the Youghiogheny, is the perfect photographic companion to Palmer's classic Youghiogheny, Appalachian River

“Animation” implies that the image or figural object is alive, endowed with anima: a “soul”, “spirit” or “vital principle.” In the Middle Ages, holy or emphatically unholy imagery often possessed an ability to come to life, to act and do things, to move and gesticulate, to speak and exude. This “life” might be a result of natural or supernatural principles; it might be a work of magic, a work of mechanics or a miracle (a divine work). This book is about the different modes of animation that made medieval images perform their spectacular wonders of locomotion and physical transformation, ranging from mechanical machinery to magical conjuration and miraculous ensoulment. Talking and bleeding crucifixes are investigated alongside robot Redeemers, weeping Madonnas, automated devils and self-propelled statues – “statuas animatas” – that enacted their visible and audible animations in monasteries and churches, in historical technologies and treatises, in theurgical tales and demonologies. With its confessed reinvigoration of animism, this book will animate anyone with an interest in medieval art and art history, culture, ideas, religion, anthropology, philosophy and theology.

Barbara Hepworth: Strings is the first publication dedicated to the artist’s stringed sculptures, paintings and drawings. In 1939, Hepworth (1903–1975) made her first sculpture threaded with strings. For the rest of her career, she intermittently combined string with works made from plaster, wood, metal and stone. These were some of her most personally distinctive artistic achievements. Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the artist’s death, Barbara Hepworth: Strings provides for the first time a comprehensive thematic account of string in the artist’s work, exploring the different ways that she used it and the symbolism she invested it with.This publication includes a fully-illustrated catalogue of Piano Nobile’s accompanying exhibition. It features essays by some of the leading specialists on Hepworth’s work. The exhibition co-curator Michael Regan offers a personal response to the stringed sculptures and considers their affective quality. In his essay, Dr Stephen Feeke explores fresh perspectives and previously unpublished source materials relating to Hepworth and string. A further text by Eleanor Clayton, senior curator at The Hepworth Wakefield, gives a close reading of the most significant stringed works including the artist’s celebrated commission for John Lewis’s flagship store on Oxford Street. The book also includes a comprehensive, illustrated list of Hepworth’s stringed sculptures.

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) occupies a prominent place among European modern composers of the early twentieth century. He represents the generation of Richard Strauss, Ferruccio Busoni, Jean Sibelius and Gustav Mahler. His music is performed all over the world. With Carl Nielsen. A Cultural Biography, for the first time a thoroughly researched, all-encompassing biography of Nielsen is available for international readers. Carl Nielsen took part in the lively cultural circles in Copenhagen in the late nineteenth century at a time when Scandinavian authors were fashionable in all of Europe. He travelled extensively throughout his life – and kept a firm connection to his cultural heritage. As a cultural biography the book introduces to music and cultural life in the Danish capital of Copenhagen and to cultural activities among ordinary people into the farthest corner of the countryside.

Melchior Lorck (1526/27-1583?) is an extraordinary artist with an unusual career. Born in Flensburg on the border between Denmark and Germany, he grew up far from the artistic centers of his time. Supported by a travelling fund from the Danish king, he set out on an itinerary that would continue much longer and further than planned, leading him through Germany and Italy all the way to the Ottoman Empire, to Constantinople. Here, he laid the foundations of a life’s work that stands out to this day.This volume concludes the total survey of Lorck’s life and work, the remainder of which was published in 2009 in four volumes. The first presents Lorck's biography and all the known documents about him. The next three volumes catalogue his two most well-known outputs: The so-called “Turkish Publication” (vol. 2 & 3) and the Prospect of Constantinople (vol. 4). The present volume 5 surveys the rest of Lorck's manifold production – from his earliest to latest works, from Lutheran propaganda to projects for costume books, from designs for imperial entries to portraits of sultans and scholars, from emblematic images to cartography. The emerging image is as rich as it is fascinating.