"An inquisitive opposites book featuring original abstract artwork"--

An astounding new feat of storytelling from Brian Selznick, the award-winning creator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck. A ship. A garden. A library. A key. In Kaleidoscope, the incomparable Brian Selznick presents the story of two people bound to each other through time and space, memory and dreams. At the center of their relationship is a mystery about the nature of grief and love which will look different to each reader. Kaleidoscope...

""What is abstract art good for? What's the use--for us as individuals, or for any society--of pictures of nothing, of paintings and sculptures or prints or drawings that do not seem to show anything except themselves?" In this invigorating account of abstract art since Jackson Pollock, eminent art historian Kirk Varnedoe, the former chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, asks these and other questions as he frankly confronts...

"'Abstraction' in its many forms has been a dominant presence in art for the best part of a century. Yet despite being the subject of countless exhibitions and a central focus of critical debate and of art historical investigation, abstract art continues to perplex many viewers." "In a new approach to the subject, Mel Gooding rejects the widely accepted notion that the story of abstraction can be traced as a succession of stylistic trends each set...

"Abstraction has made a surprising comeback in twenty-first century art - often now manifested in previously unrecognizable forms. Not only formal abstraction but also the economic abstraction of global market and media operations are critically investigated by a new generation. Other artists have explored the notion of social abstraction, expressed in strategies of withdrawal. Echoing its avant-garde origins, abstraction has once again been enlisted...

From the Foreword: Abstract art has always existed, but until this century it never knew of its existence. It has become philosophies and styles, and, as such terms imply, both reflects and is in itself a way of life. The environment that the modern world chooses to accept from behind the lens of a telescope or microscope or Leica or shutter on a Hollywood lot has been found to resemble the images of modern art. But the fact that these pictures are...

Pepe Karmel reconsiders the history of abstraction from a global perspective and demonstrates that abstraction is embedded in the real world. He surveys artists from across the globe, examining their work from the point of view of content rather than form. Previous writers have approached the history of abstraction as a series of movements solving a series of formal problems. In contrast, Karmel focuses on the subject matter of abstract art, showing...

A comprehensive survey of abstract art up to the early 1960's with many lesser-known artists.