An Artist In Her Own Right

Set in France during the Napoleonic period, this is the story of painter Augustine Dufresne (1789-1842) the wife and widow of artist Antione-Jean Gros, painter of Jaffa. An Artist in Her Own Right explores the journey from Augustine's childhood during the French Revolution, through her artistic training and marriage during the Napoleonic era, and looks at the triumphs and challenges she faced in her life and art during the turbulent years that followed. The novel views this intensely masculine time through a woman's eyes. As little is known about Augustine’s life, this is a fictional biography based on the author's extensive research into the art and artists of the 18th and 19th centuries.

A richly illustrated monograph on the life and work of Lee Krasner, one of the twentieth century's most inspiring women artists and a pioneer of abstract expressionism, now available in paperback.

"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times "Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue Over four million copies sold! Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors. A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.

Karuna Shaha (1921 1996) was one of the first women students to enrol in the Government College of Art and Crafts, Calcutta, and amongst the first women artists who persisted indeed, insisted on claiming professional space in her own right. She exhibited regularly, continuing with her drawing, sketching and painting right till the end of her life. She was a founder member of The Group, a collective of women artists. Shaha remains best known for her studies of the female nude, and art historian Tapati Guha-Thakurta's insightful analysis explains how 'the nude would become for her the prime symbol of artistic freedom and the shedding of inhibitions . . . [with] Karuna wresting this motif from the space of the European Academy and taking it home with her as her most prized and powerful inheritance . . . As it becomes the chosen theme of her art since the 60s, we also see the female nude being invested with an earthiness and energy that quietly subverts the prior history and aesthetics of the image . . . The bodies which inhabit her drawings and paintings through the 60s and 70s are deliberately divested of any sense of the idealistic or ethereal. They exude, instead, a sexuality that is defiant and disturbing. They make a point of not being seductive or beautiful . . . the artist wanting to capture through charcoal and ink or brush and paint the sheer materiality and corpulence of human flesh. And these bodies are always drawn from life based, it seems, not just on real models but also on persons intimately known clothed in an unusual feeling of empathy between the artist and the women who posed before her.' Dr Tapati Guha-Thakurta is an art historian and a Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. She is the author of The Making of a New Indian Art: Artists, Aesthetics and Nationalism in Bengal (Cambridge University Press, 1992). She has written widely on popular and modern art practices in India and is now completing a book on art institutions in colonial and post-colonial India.

A rich, penetrating memoir about the author's relationship with a flawed but influential figure—the painter Lucian Freud—and the satisfactions and struggles of a life lived through art. One of Britain's most important contemporary painters, Celia Paul has written a reflective, intimate memoir of her life as an artist. Self-Portrait tells the artist's story in her own words, drawn from early journal entries as well as memory, of her childhood in India and her days as a art student at London's Slade School of Fine Art; of her intense decades-long relationship with the older esteemed painter Lucian Freud and the birth of their son; of the challenges of motherhood, the unresolvable conflict between caring for a child and remaining commited to art; of the "invisible skeins between people," the profound familial connections Paul communicates through her paintings of her mother and sisters; and finally, of the mystical presence in her own solitary vision of the world around her. Self-Portrait is a powerful, liberating evocation of a life and of a life-long dedication to art.

After losing someone she loved, artist Candy Chang painted the side of an abandoned house in her New Orleans neighborhood with chalkboard paint and stenciled the sentence, "Before I die I want to _____." Within a day of the wall's completion, it was covered in colorful chalk dreams as neighbors stopped and reflected on their lives. Since then, more than four hundred Before I Die walls have been created by people all over the world. This beautiful hardcover book is an inspiring celebration of these walls and the stories behind them. Filled with hope, fear, humor, and heartbreak, Before I Die presents an intimate portrait of the dreams within our communities and a chance to ponder life's ultimate question.

By Erica E. Hirshler.

Focusing on feminism in Germany, Towards Emancipation examines some of the most influential women writers of the nineteenth century, from the late-Romantic writers, such as Bettina von Arnim and Johanna Schopenhauer, to writers who were active in the 1848 Revolution, such as Malwida von Meysenbug and Johanna Kinkel. The heart of the book is devoted to the leading proponents of emancipation, Hedwig Dohm, Helene Bohlau and the prolific Louise Otto-Peters, yet it also includes mainstream writers whose attitudes towards the movement range from lukewarm (the enormously popular Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and Gabriele Reuter) to downright hostile (Lou Andreas-Salome and Franziska zu Reventlow).