Art & Architecture

A bold reorientation of art history that bridges the divide between fine art and material culture through an examination of objects and their uses

A beautifully illustrated examination of the women artists whose inspired search for artistic integrity and equality influenced Expressionist avant-garde culture

A revisionist reading of modern art that examines how artworks are captured as property to legitimize power

How California’s counterculture of the 1960s to 1980s profoundly shaped—and was shaped by—West Coast artists

A richly illustrated exploration of Mina Loy’s art and writings

A vivid historical imagining of life in the early United States

“One of the richest books ever to come my way.”—Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Shipping News

The extraordinary life story of the celebrated artist and writer, as told through four decades of intimate letters to her beloved mother

A new retrospective of the work of trailblazing artist Barbara Chase-Riboud

From the acclaimed author of Blue, a beautifully illustrated history of the color white in visual culture, from antiquity to today

A richly illustrated history of self-taught artists and how they changed American art

An illuminating look at a fundamental yet understudied aspect of Italian Renaissance painting

A new examination of the history of ceramic art, spanning ancient to modern times, emphasizing its traditions, materials, and methods of making

A revelatory history of the first artist collective in the United States and its effort to reshape nineteenth-century art, culture, and politics

A major new biography of legendary art collector and philanthropist Isabella Stewart Gardner

A richly illustrated look at how travel influenced the work of renowned contemporary artist Betye Saar

A revealing and beautifully illustrated critical edition of Gardner’s collaged travel albums

A uniquely personal biographical account of Louchheim’s life and work that takes readers inside the rarified world of architecture media

Leading art historians, architects, designers, artists, and urbanists share new perspectives on this visionary architect’s material legacy

One of the nation’s foremost urban historians traces the history of cooperative housing in New York City from the 1920s through the 1970s

An acclaimed history of Harlem’s journey from urban crisis to urban renaissance

A revealing collection of quotations from world-renowned artist Damien Hirst

An essential, inspiring collection of quotations about creativity, social justice, and more from musician, producer, artist, and designer Pharrell Williams

A revealing look at U.S. imperialism through the lens of visual culture and portraiture

A rich exploration of American artworks that reframes them within current debates on race, gender, the environment, and more

A panoramic history of the antiquarians whose discoveries transformed Renaissance culture and gave rise to new forms of art and knowledge

Why human nature is an aesthetic phenomenon—and why we need art and philosophy to understand ourselves

A trailblazing look at the historical emergence of a global field in contemporary art and the diverse ways artists become valued worldwide

The first comprehensive consideration of Life magazine’s groundbreaking and influential contribution to the history of photography

A rich vein of the artist’s mature work, depicting the foundations of landscape and place

A groundbreaking ecocritical exploration of American art that examines the complex and evolving relationship between art and the environment

A diverse set of contributions to the expanding field of ecocritical studies

An overview of Chinese culture, particularly visions of life and the afterlife, told through feast imagery from three historically transformative dynasties

Restoring a gifted art photographer to his place in the American canon and, in the process, reshaping and expanding our understanding of early 20th-century American photography

The Berlin Painter was the name given by British classicist and art historian Sir John Beazley to an otherwise anonymous Athenian red-figure vase-painter. The artist’s long career extended from about 505 B.C. well into the 460s, and...

Princeton’s Great Persian Book of Kings presents the first comprehensive examination of a beautifully decorated yet relatively unknown manuscript of the Shahnama (Book of Kings), created in 1589–90 in the flourishing cultural center...

An innovative study of Goya's unprecedented elaboration of the critical function of the work of art

A timely study, erudite and exciting, about the ordinary—and oftentimes unseen—lives of memorials

In this groundbreaking work, Ariella Azoulay thoroughly revises our understanding of the ethical status of photography. It must, she insists, be understood in its inseparability from the many catastrophes of recent history. She argues...

From an acclaimed historian, a mesmerizing account of how medieval European Christians envisioned the paradoxical nature of holy objects

From a leading art historian, a provocative exploration of the intersection of art, politics, and history in 1960s Italy

European narratives of the Atlantic New World tell stories of people and things: strange flora, wondrous animals, and sun-drenched populations for Europeans to mythologize or exploit. Yet between 1500 and 1700 one region upended all of...

Albrecht Dürer’s master engraving, Melencolia I, has stood for centuries as a pictorial summa of knowledge about melancholia and an allegory of the limits of earthbound arts and sciences. Zealously interpreted since the nineteenth...

In this widely anticipated book, two leading contemporary art historians present a stunning reconsideration of the problem of time in the Renaissance. With intellectual brilliance, Alexander Nagel and Christopher S. Wood reexamine the...

In this groundbreaking book, Andrei Pop presents a lucid reassessment of those writers and artists in the late nineteenth century whose work merits the adjective “symbolist.” For Pop, this term denotes an art that is self-conscious...

The first English translation of one of the earliest and most brilliant art-historical surveys, from one of the greatest modern art historians

An examination of how modern art was impacted by the concept of prehistory and the prehistoric

Essays on media systems and contemporary art by a leading theorist of modern visual culture

How climate influenced the design strategies of modernist architects

A captivating historical look at the cultural and artistic significance of shells in early modern Europe

A fascinating history of marginalized identities in the medieval world

How an eighteenth-century engraving of a slave ship became a cultural icon of Black resistance, identity, and remembrance

A novel interpretation of architecture, ugliness, and the social consequences of aesthetic judgment

A new interpretation of the development of artistic modernity in eighteenth-century France

An urban history of modern Britain, and how the built environment shaped the nation’s politics

An in-depth history of the Stalinist skyscraper

A history of the extraordinary society that has touched all aspects of British life

How West African gold and trade across the Sahara were central to the medieval world

An unforgettable journey into the forgotten history of medieval Africa

The first study of album-making in the Ottoman empire during the seventeenth century, demonstrating the period’s experimentation, eclecticism, and global outlook

Objects of Translation offers a nuanced approach to the entanglements of medieval elites in the regions that today comprise Afghanistan, Pakistan, and north India. The book--which ranges in time from the early eighth to the early...

The first English translation of the earliest book-length biography of an African woman

Two classic illustrated anthologies, now combined in one convenient volume

A compelling look at the Fatimid caliphate's robust culture of documentation

A major new history of how African nations, starting in the 1960s, sought to reclaim the art looted by Western colonial powers

Featuring never-before-seen drawings by the renowned contemporary artist, a beautiful facsimile edition that reveals the working process of an extraordinary creative mind

An exploration of the personal and artistic connections between two icons of twentieth-century art

A richly illustrated celebration of the paintings of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama

The first publication of the unknown poetry of a major twentieth-century sculptor

An important examination of how artists have grappled with anti-Black violence and its representations from the late nineteenth century to the present

A fascinating look at Keith Haring’s New York City subway artwork from the 1980s

The enduring influence of naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt on American art, culture, and politics

How the Vietnam War changed American art

The first major work to examine Joseph Cornell's relationship to American modernism

A richly illustrated history of women’s suffrage in the United States that highlights underrecognized activists

How Venetian glass influenced American artists and patrons during the late nineteenth century

A meditation on how environmental change and the passage of time transform the meaning of site-specific art

A richly illustrated exploration of Hannah Wilke’s provocative art and trailblazing feminism

How leading American artists reflected on the fate of humanity in the nuclear era through monumental sculpture

A new look at the interrelationship of architecture and sculpture during one of the richest periods of American modern design

The first investigation of how race and gender shaped the presentation and marketing of Modernist decor in postwar America

A major new look at the work of one of America’s foremost self-taught artists

A groundbreaking look at how Chicano graphic artists and their collaborators have used their work to imagine and sustain identities and political viewpoints during the past half century

An in-depth and beautifully illustrated look at one of the most revered works of antiquity, the Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon

How the interactions of non-elites influenced Athenian material culture and society

An illustrious scholar presents an elegant, concise, and generously illustrated exploration of Alexander the Great’s representations in art and literature through the ages

Greek Art and Aesthetics in the Fourth Century B.C. analyzes the broad character of art produced during this period, providing in-depth analysis of and commentary on many of its most notable examples of sculpture and painting. Taking...

From the bestselling author of 1177 B.C., a comprehensive history of archaeology—from its amateur beginnings to the cutting-edge science it is today

A riveting history of the city that led the West out of the ruins of the Roman Empire

A multifaceted exploration of the interplay between civic and military life in ancient Rome

How remarkable changes in ancient Greek pottery reveal the transformation of classical Greek culture

How did the statues of ancient Greece wind up dictating art history in the West? How did the material culture of the Greeks and Romans come to be seen as "classical" and as "art"? What does "classical art" mean across time and place? In...

A groundbreaking work of scholarship that sheds critical new light on the urban renewal of Paris under Napoleon III

An unprecedented history of Brooklyn, told through its places, buildings, and the people who made them, from the early seventeenth century to today

A hand-drawn guide to architectural styles throughout history

A fascinating account of the growing "Yes in My Backyard" urban movement

A bold reassessment of "smart cities" that reveals what is lost when we conceive of our urban spaces as computers

A new approach to late Ottoman visual culture and its place in the world

How socialist architects, planners, and contractors worked collectively to urbanize and develop the Global South during the Soviet era

The fascinating untold story of how Nazi architects and planners envisioned and began to build a model “Aryan” society in Norway during World War II

A definitive intellectual history of landscape urbanism

Available in a limited print run of 1,000 sets—the stunning nine-volume presentation of the incredible Buddhist caves at Dunhuang in northwestern China

A beautifully illustrated study of the caves at Dunhuang, exploring how this important Buddhist site has been visualized from its creation to today

A history of the reception of Chinese painting from the sixteenth century to the present

A richly illustrated history of textiles in the Mughal Empire

A look at the painting traditions of northwestern India in the eighteenth century, and what they reveal about the political and artistic changes of the era

The first book to put the sacred and sensuous bronze statues from India’s Chola dynasty in social context

An illustrated guide to one of the most enduring masterworks of world literature

An unprecedented survey of the origins and evolution of Chinese architecture, from the last millennia BCE to today

A sweeping look at Chinese art across the millennia that upends traditional perspectives and offers new pathways for art history

How the urban spectator became the archetypal modern viewer and a central subject in late nineteenth-century French art

The first comprehensive account of how and why architects learned to communicate through color

An enticing history of food and drink in Western art and culture

How the nature illustrations of a Renaissance polymath reflect his turbulent age

The legendary splendor of Genoese baroque art

An illuminating reassessment of the architect whose innovative drawings of ruins shaped the enduring image of ancient Rome

A comprehensive survey of the work of this most influential Florentine artist and teacher

The formation and career of the first major woman artist of the Renaissance

How social upheavals after the collapse of the French Empire shaped the lives and work of artists in early nineteenth-century Europe

How artists created an aesthetic of “positive barbarism” in a world devastated by World War II, the Holocaust, and the atomic bomb

Leonardo's enduring fascination with water—from its artistic representation to aquatic inventions and hydraulic engineering

How an ingenious printmaking technique became a cross-cultural phenomenon in Enlightenment Europe

The first English translation of Erwin Panofsky's long-lost work on Michelangelo

The first major history of the bravura movement in European painting

A vivid account of Dutch seventeenth-century art and material culture against the backdrop of the geopolitics of the early modern world

The first major English-language biography of Francisco Goya y Lucientes, who ushered in the modern era

Why Piranesi’s greatest works weren’t his famous prints but rather the books for which he made them

The untold story of Michelangelo’s final decades—and his transformation into the master architect of St. Peter’s Basilica

The classic book on the art and history of weaving—now expanded and in full color

A gorgeous expanded edition of Werner's Nomenclature of Colours, a landmark reference book on color and its origins in nature

From the bestselling author of SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, the fascinating story of how images of Roman autocrats have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power for more than 2,000 years

A compelling take on Pop art from esteemed critic Hal Foster

A pathbreaking history of art that uses digital research and economic tools to reveal enduring inequities in the formation of the art historical canon

A richly illustrated history of the Gothic across a wide range of media, including architecture, literature, and film

How the notorious author of The 120 Days of Sodom inspired the surrealists and other avant-garde artists, writers, and filmmakers

An authoritative, richly illustrated history of six centuries of global protest art

A groundbreaking examination of the “double” in modern and contemporary art

How an eighteenth-century engraving of a slave ship became a cultural icon of Black resistance, identity, and remembrance

How science changed the way artists understand reality

An authoritative history of art history from its medieval origins to its modern predicaments

A beautifully illustrated visual and cultural history of the color blue throughout the ages

The story of the color black in art, fashion, and culture—from the beginning of history to the twenty-first century

In this beautiful and richly illustrated book, the acclaimed author of Blue and Black presents a fascinating and revealing history of the color green in European societies from prehistoric times to today. Examining the evolving place of...

A beautifully illustrated visual and cultural history of the color red throughout the ages

From the acclaimed author of Blue, a beautifully illustrated history of yellow from antiquity to the present

A captivating history of London as told through objects recovered from the muddy banks of the Thames and the lives of the people who owned them

An authoritative history of art history from its medieval origins to its modern predicaments

A magisterial study of celebrated photographer Walker Evans

A stunning portrait of the nocturnal moths of Central and South America by famed American photographer Emmet Gowin

A photographic study of the land that served as the main testing site for American nuclear devices for four decades

A powerful photographic survey of the impact of irrigation systems on the landscape of the United States

A unique exploration of self-portraits by two artists born nearly a century apart

A personal reassessment of Lewis Hine's iconic, haunting photos of child workers in the early twentieth century

The first history of indigenous photography in the Middle East

How Lewis Carroll's photographs of children gave visual form to evolving ideas about childhood in the Victorian era

A photographic exploration of mathematicians’ chalkboards

A powerful portrait of the greatest humanitarian emergency of our time, from the director of Human Flow

An artist’s uniquely personal journey across America

From a devoted reader and lifelong bookseller, an eloquent and charming reflection on the singular importance of bookstores

A panoramic narrative that places ancient Africa on the stage of world history

How redesigning your syllabus can transform your teaching, your classroom, and the way your students learn

"This is the book on porcelain we have been waiting for. . . . A remarkable achievement."—Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes
A sweeping cultural and economic history of porcelain, from the eighteenth century to the present

A beautifully illustrated exploration of Edward Lear's little-known career as a natural-history artist—now in a new expanded paperback edition

A step-by-step guide to crafting a compelling scholarly book proposal—and seeing your book through to successful publication

An essential guide to cultivating joy in your professional and personal writing