New to the catalogue

(Photo credit: Royal Academy of Arts)

The Royal Academy of Arts presents the first major exhibition of new landscape works by David Hockney RA.

Born in Bradford in 1937, David Hockney attended Bradford School of Art before studying at the Royal College of Art from 1959 to 1962. Hockney’s stellar reputation was established while he was still a student; his work was featured in the exhibition Young Contemporaries, which heralded the birth of British Pop Art.

He visited Los Angeles in the early 1960s and settled there soon after. He is closely associated with southern California and has produced a large body of work there over many decades.

For the last decade Hockney has been based in Yorkshire, where he has returned to painting in the open air, observing with honesty and intensity the scenery remembered from school holidays spent working in East Yorkshire.

This major study of his work redefines him as an important painter of the English countryside, presenting his recent landscapes for the first time. Featuring vivid paintings inspired by the East Yorkshire landscape, these large-scale works have been created especially for the galleries at the Royal Academy of Arts and are shown alongside related drawings and film.

These works convey the drama and splendour of nature and the pathos of our relationship with it, an age-old subject treated by Hockney with a modern and spirited eye.

The exhibition also reveals how Hockney has embraced new technology, including his early use of the Polaroid, his innovative use of the colour photocopier, and more recently his iPhone and iPad. It includes a display of his iPad drawings and a series of new films produced using 18 cameras, which are displayed on multiple screens and provide a spellbinding visual journey.

David Hockney : A Bigger Picture is a fully illustrated catalogue containing a number of essays, including an introduction by Marco Livingstone, exploring the artist’s engagement with landscape painting in the context of Hockney’s illustrious career.

Writers as notable as Margaret Drabble, Tim Barringer, Martin Gayford, Xavier Salomon and David Hockney himself address the artist’s place in the landscape tradition, his recent video works and his delight in new technologies.

Illustrated with paintings, charcoal drawings, iPad drawings and video stills, many of which have never been seen before, this landmark publication confirms David Hockney as one of the greatest artists of his generation.

You can find further details of David Hockney: a bigger picture on our catalogue.

(Photo credit: Nests / Sharon Beals. Chronicle Books, c2012)

As spring nears in the UK, we can look forward to watching the annual spectacle of birds pairing up and creating nests in which to raise their young. With so many nests built out of our sight, it is a rare treat to be able to see, close up, these intricate structures for ourselves. In ‘Nests : fifty nests and the birds that built them’, Sharon Beals allows us to do just this and gives us a fascinating insight into the lives of the birds who created them.

Beals has drawn on the collections of the California Academy of Sciences, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California and the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. Her work allows us to look in detail at 50 nests from around the world. These vary from the silky plant fibres and spider-webs of the Cuban Emerald Hummingbird to the sticks and leaves of the Greater Roadrunner.  Information on the creator of the nest and a detailed illustration accompanies each photograph.

As well as allowing us an insight into the variety of nests and the skills involved in making them – the work comes with a serious warning. As a result of environmental change, the birds responsible for building these nests are, in many cases, in decline. Beals warns us, changes in the way we live are required urgently, if we are to continue to enjoy the beauty of nests and their builders.

You can find further details of Nests : fifty nests and the birds that built them on our catalogue.

(Photo credit: Thames & Hudson Publishers)

Reproduced from the largest collection of its kind, War Posters gives us a unique insight into life during conflict in the last century.  It boasts over 300 illustrations, each supplemented with explanatory text.

Coverage is given to war posters displayed in:

• Europe
• United Kingdom
• United States of America
• Russia
• Commonwealth Countries

This allows us to compare and contrast the different methods of propaganda used by the varying sides in 20th Century conflicts.

Studying the posters also gives an insight into the social history of the time from the role of women to government controls on everyday life.

Moving from iconic designs suchs as “Your Country Needs You” to the modern anti-war campaigns, Aulich charts the fascinating development of poster design over the last century.

You can find further details of War posters : weapons of mass communication on our catalogue.

(Photo credit: Hol Art Books)

Why do people get bored and tired in art museums and why does that matter? That is the question Amy Whitaker investigates in this humorous collection of essays.

She writes about the phenomenon of “museum legs” or as she describes it that feeling of having visited an art museum and leaving more exhausted than after a harrowing soccer match.  Does this make us uncultured with no stamina or is it something beyond us? 

Whitaker discusses why is it important for people to visit museums and what the museums themselves should be doing to encourage visitors.

Further details of Museum legs can be found on our catalogue.

Moireau’s watercolours perfectly capture the light and ambience of Paris. Carl Norac has provided the accompanying prose inspired by the paintings. Writings such as “Dear neighbour” and “Song of a roof-walker” capture the moment and transport you there.

The artist has had many adventures discovering these views, even pretending to live in apartment blocks to gain access.  Lesser known areas feature as well as familiar land-marks. Moireau has ensured that we are given a fresh perspective on all of them.

You can find details of Rooftops of Paris on our catalogue.

(Phot credit: Yale University Press)

The British Transport system may not immediately strike you as a pioneer of great art work but “Art for all : British posters for transport” could just make you reconsider.

This beautifully illustrated book features marketing posters displayed by the London underground and bus system from 1908 to the 1970s. It also contains works used in the campaigns of the main British rail lines at this time.

The book examines the posters from a variety of perspectives exploring printing techniques, methods of display and also how these art works give us an understanding of national and civic identity in Britain.

Interestingly, there is also a chapter exploring gender equality in poster design. This examines the high proportion of women employed for this purpose by the underground, which was unusual for this time.

If you wish see the actual posters themselves you might be interested to know that an exhibition of the same title is taking place at the Yale Center of British Art (New Haven, Connecticut) and runs from 27th May – 15th August.

You can find details of Art for all on our catalogue