The Unfinished Portrait


Book Description

As John Mannering's wife paints a portrait of a celebrated beauty, Lady Deirdre Vandemeyer, she begins to doubt the authenticity of her subject. Then she is stabbed and Mannering (aka 'The Baron') goes undercover as a personal assistant to try and get to the bottom of the mystery. What he discovers sets the mind reeling and as always keeps the reader enthralled to the very last moment.




The Unfinished Painting


Book Description

Travelling through the history of art from the 15th to the 20th century, this book is a survey of works of art by Old and Modern Masters including Van Eyck, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Rubens, David, Manet, Cézanne, Matisse and Mondrian that have remained deliberately or unintentionally unfinished, and that are usually marginalized in traditional art history. They remain incomplete for various reasons: illness or death of the artist; political turmoil forcing him to flee; disagreements with the commissioner or dissatisfaction with the artistic result. However, from the 16th century onwards, artists started to use the non finito as a tool of expression. Unfinished pictures therefore gained a certain reputation in the romantic era, when they were thought to offer the spectator a glimpse of artistic genius. In the 20th century, these paintings were discovered by cubists, expressionists and abstract painters who were fascinated by their rough and incoherent appearance, often unaware of their history.




The Black Panthers


Book Description

"Brilliant, painful, enlightening, tearful, tragic, sad, and funny, this photo-essay book is at its core about healing, and about the social justice work that still needs to be done in the era of hip-hop, Black Lives Matter, and the historic presidency of Barack Obama." -- Kevin Powell, author of The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey into Manhood "A brilliantly conceived volume. Bryan Shih and Yohuru Williams demonstrate why the Panthers' story-its lessons and failures-even fifty years after its founding remains key to understanding national and international struggles for freedom and justice today." -- Cheryl Finley, professor and director of visual studies, Cornell University Even fifty years after it was founded, the Black Panther Party remains one of the most misunderstood political organizations of the twentieth century. But beyond the labels of "extremist" and "violent" that have marked the party, and beyond charismatic leaders like Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver, were the ordinary men and women who made up the Panther rank and file. In The Black Panthers, photojournalist Bryan Shih and historian Yohuru Williams offer a reappraisal of the party's history and legacy. Through stunning portraits and interviews with surviving Panthers, as well as illuminating essays by leading scholars, The Black Panthers reveals party members' grit and battle scars-and the undying love for the people that kept them going.




Unfinished


Book Description

This groundbreaking book explores the evolving concept of unfinishedness as essential to understanding art movements from the Renaissance to the present day. Unfinished features more than 200 works, created in a variety of media, by artists ranging from Leonardo, Titian, Rembrandt, Turner, and Cézanne to Picasso, Warhol, Twombly, Freud, Richter, and Nauman. What unites these works, across centuries and media, is that each one displays some aspect of being unfinished. Essays and case studies by major contemporary scholars address this key concept from the perspective of both the creator and the viewer, probing the impact that this long artistic trajectory—which can be traced back to the first century—has had on modern and contemporary art. The book investigates the degrees to which instances of incompleteness were accidental or intentional experimental or conceptual. Also included are illuminating interviews with contemporary artists, including Tuymans, Celmins, and Marden, and parallel considerations of the unfinished in literature and film. The result is a multidisciplinary approach and thought-provoking analysis that provide valuable insight into the making, meaning, and critical reception of the unfinished in art.




The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone: A Novel


Book Description

For fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Girl, Interrupted, and A.S. King, National Book Award-finalist Adele Griffin tells the fully illustrated story of a brilliant young artist, her mysterious death, and the fandom that won't let her go. From the moment she stepped foot in NYC, Addison Stone’s subversive street art made her someone to watch, and her violent drowning left her fans and critics craving to know more. I conducted interviews with those who knew her best—including close friends, family, teachers, mentors, art dealers, boyfriends, and critics—and retraced the tumultuous path of Addison's life. I hope I can shed new light on what really happened the night of July 28. —Adele Griffin




Wasps' Nest


Book Description

The famous Belgian detective visits an old friend in a remote area. John Harrison asks the reason for this surprise visit and Poirot confesses that he is investigating a murder that has not yet been committed. A series of clues will put Poirot on alert and he will do everything possible to prevent the planned crime from taking place.




Pentimento


Book Description

In this widely praised follow-up to her National Book Award-winning first volume of memoirs, An Unfinished Woman, the legendary playwright Lillian Hellman looks back at some of the people who, wittingly or unwittingly, exerted profound influence on her development as a woman and a writer. The portraits include Hellman's recollection of a lifelong friendship that began in childhood, reminiscences that formed the basis of the Academy Award-winning film Julia.




Unfinished Portrait: Beyond the Painting


Book Description

Asteria Verano is a fresh graduate of fine arts. Frustrated at work with all the loads as a freelancer, she decided to accept the invitation of her friend to the exhibit in their estate, not to mention her friend was so persistent for her to come. The trip would have been great since she admired the famous painter, however, acquiring flu on her travel made her head spin throughout the tour, it got worse when the same night, her friends played a lame prank on her that made her paint an unfinished portrait, that is rumored to be cursed aside from it’s disrespectful, it transported her to another period and place. Suddenly, she was on a plaza in broad daylight, unfamiliar faces eyeing her like she’s doing something wrong, people calling her a different name, a man claiming her his fiancé, and meeting the painter who did not finish the painting, however, he told her he never lifts a brush, as a matter of fact, he’s a doctor, nothing more, nothing less. Asteria was not only stuck in the past but she was also bound in an identity that has a bad reputation, a wedding to be prepared, another stranger appeared inside her bedroom calling her “Mi Alma” and questions she had a hard time seeking to find the answers to, starting with three: why is she here? How will she return? and Why is the unfinished portrait cursed?




The Dark Flood Rises


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017: ‘masterly’ GUARDIAN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: 'An absolute tour de force' Fran may be old but she's not going without a fight. So she dyes her hair, enjoys every glass of red wine, drives around the country for her job with a housing charity and lives in an insalubrious tower block that her loved ones disapprove of. And as each of them - her pampered ex Claude, old friend Jo, flamboyant son Christopher and earnest daughter Poppet - seeks happiness in their own way, what will the last reckoning be? Will they be waving or drowning when the end comes? By turns joyous and profound, darkly sardonic and moving, The Dark Flood Rises questions what makes a good life, and a good death. This triumphant, bravura novel takes in love, death, sun-drenched islands, poetry, Maria Callas, tidal waves, surprise endings - and new beginnings.




Portraits Unmasked


Book Description

The world's most famous portraits and the hidden stories behind their subjects are explored in this fascinating and highly entertaining book. 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.