The Chester Beatty Library’s 16th-century Ruzbihan Qur’an—produced in the city of Shiraz in southwest Iran—is one of the finest Islamic manuscripts known. In terms of both materials and workmanship, it is exquisite: lapis lazuli and gold, the two most expensive pigments available, are used on every page, while the rendering of the decoration is exceptionally fine. This is the most detailed and comprehensive study of any Islamic manuscript—and it is well worthy of such scrutiny. Praised in a 16th-century account as one of the finest calligraphers of his time, Ruzbihan Muhammad al-Tab‘i al-Shirazi would have produced numerous Qur’ans during the course of his career, but only five signed by him have survived. Much of the study of this, surely his finest manuscript, is focussed on understanding the processes and procedures involved in the production of the manuscript and thus on gaining an insight into the problems faced by Ruzbihan and the other artists and how they resolved them. Certain surprising and never-before-seen techniques of production and ‘tricks-of-the trade’ have been uncovered. A large portion of the information presented is the result of very close examination, under high magnification, of the manuscript’s 445 folios (890 pages). Many of the reproductions included are of minute details of the decoration that are difficult, or even impossible, to see with the unaided eye. The book follows the order in which work on the manuscript would have progressed, beginning with an examination of Ruzbihan’s calligraphy, the various scripts he used to copy the text and the problems he faced, such as the spacing of the text and his errors and omissions. Additions, such as marginal notations, recitation marks and decorative devices indicating the divisions of the text, all of which guide the reciter in his reading of the Qur’an, are also considered. Although the manuscript’s renown has traditionally rested with the name of its calligrapher, it is equally the quality, extent, diversity and complexity of its superb decorative programme—the work of a team of highly skilled, yet anonymous artists and artisans—that sets the manuscript apart from most other 16th-century Persian Qur’ans. Fittingly, therefore, the bulk of the study focuses on this aspect of the manuscript. Major aspects of the illumination, such as its lavish beginning, middle and end illuminations, are examined as well as more minor elements such as the ‘rays’ that emerge from the frontis- and finispiece; even the tiniest of details are revealed, such as what are, in the book, termed ‘squiggles and eyes’, hidden amongst the illuminations and a challenge to find for the even the most eagle-eyed viewer. However, while many of the secrets of the production of the manuscript were revealed, many mysteries remain. Chief among these is the startling change in aesthetic evident in the illuminations of the final ten openings of the manuscript. Why such as change was undertaken—and then halted—is not known. As was increasingly revealed as study of the manuscript progressed—and as the reader of the book will quickly come to realise—Chester Beatty’s Ruzbihan Qur’an is an intriguing and very special manuscript.

Frits Lugt (1884–1970) had a passion for miniatures that began early on in his life. Hedemonstrated it in the small but ardent Le portrait-miniature of 1917, the year in which hebought the first portrait miniature for his collection. Since then it has been constantlyenriched, and now numbers more than 100 works by artists from Great Britain, the LowCountries, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Switzerland, covering the period fromthe sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Thanks to the expertise of specialist Karen Schaffers-Bodenhausen, who has studiedthe growing collection in recent years with great dedication and patience, we now havethis first catalogue of the portrait miniatures in the Frits Lugt Collection, FondationCustodia, Paris.In addition to a foreword by director Ger Luijten, the first volume containsdetailed descriptions and exhaustive analyses of the portraits, their attributions, andidentifications of the sitters. The author also examines the techniques employedand sets out to establish a date for each portrait. The volume closes with a table ofconcordance, a detailed index of proper names and a comprehensive bibliography.Comparative illustrations are incorporated in the descriptions. The second volume hascolour plates of all the works in the collection, almost all of them full size, and concludeswith reproductions of the backs of the miniatures if they provide additional supportinginformation.

In 2018 the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts will celebrate its 40th anniversary. Opened in 1978, the building was both Sir Norman Foster’s first public commission and a new paradigm in museum design. The Sainsbury Centre forms part of one of the last, great phases of modernism, combining structural integrity and precision engineering with a radical approach to the integration of services. The publication will be released to coincide with the opening of Superstructures: The New Architecture 1960-1990, a major exhibition that will situate the Sainsbury Centre within its historical context and will explore architecture’s fascination with new technology, lightweight structures, building techniques and engineering solutions that emerged in the post-war decades, eventually redefining the spaces of culture, work, travel and living. Contents of the book include essays by Jane Pavitt and Abraham Thomas, curators of the show, and an interview to Sir Norman Foster conducted by Jonathan Glancey. An extensive photo essay will feature a range of unpublished photographs of the building under construction.

Many voices today call for a profound rethinking of European identity. If we wish to answer their call, however, it is necessary to start with a reconsideration of the notion of boundaries, particularly as they are at work in the Mediterranean region. The knowledge and cultural values of the Mediterranean may be the driving force able to overcome the impasse from which Europe seems unable to free itself. This volume focuses on the opportunity to employ Mediterranean knowledge and cultural values as a stimulus for the review of European policies, in the interest of creating a solid bridge between different cultural legacies and over the daunting challenges of our shared future. This means being able to stay – simul – outside and inside the borders, within and beyond the “un”- limit; looking for an image of Europe which finally stops thinking about the Mediterranean as its internal vulnus, as its lesion and contamination. This volume suggests how it is possible to think both inside and outside of borders, combining the ‘foreign’ forces of promiscuity, exchange, latency, expectancy and hope, with a ‘domestic’ circulation of thought and knowledge, in the interest of a defense of all cultures and of an egalitarian recognition of the right to dignity.

ACE Report 41, The Cemetery of Meir Vol. IV: Tombs of Senbi I and Wekhhotep I, by N. Kanawati and L. Evans, is now available. The volume is devoted to the Middle Kingdom tombs of B1 and B2, which belonged to local ruler Senbi I and his son and successor Wekhhotep I. Presenting a full description of both tombs and illustrated with extensive colour plates and line drawings, Report 41 contains a wealth of information about the art and funeral practices of Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty.

Alan Sorrell’s archaeological reconstruction drawings and paintings remain some of the best, most accurate and most accomplished paintings of their genre that continue to inform our understanding and appreciation of historic buildings and monuments in Europe, the Near East and throughout the UK. His famously stormy and smoky townscapes, especially those of Roman Britain, were based on meticulous attention to detail borne of detailed research in collaboration with archaeologists such as Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Sir Cyril Fox and Sir Barry Cunliffe, who excavated and recorded his subjects of interest. Many of his reconstructions were commissioned to accompany visitor information and guidebooks at historic sites and monuments where they continue to be displayed. But archaeological subjects were not his only interest. His output was prodigious: he painted murals, portraits, imaginative and romantic scenes and was an accomplished war artist, serving in the RAF in World War II. In this affectionate but objective account, Sorrell’s children, both also artists, present a brief pictorial biography followed by more detailed descriptions of the genesis, research and production of illustrations that demonstrate the artist’s integrity and vision, based largely on family archives and illustrated throughout with Sorrell’s own works. So influential were Sorrell’s images of Roman towns such as London, Colchester, Wroxeter, St Albans and Bath, buildings such as the Heathrow temple and the forts of Hadrian’s Wall, that he became known as the man who invented Roman Britain.

Three texts by two Italian Renaissance painters – Leonardo da Vinci and Gian Paolo Lomazzo – and a compendium of the 53 standard pigments commonly found on artists' palettes for painting in oil on panel and on canvas as outlined by the writer, Raffaello Borghini, make up this 16th century collection of pigments. Leonardo's studio advice on the use of colours for capturing light and dark picks up this theme from Italian 15th century and classical painting and lays the foundation for this practice as it would develop in European painting. The plates are of works by Titian found in the National Gallery in London, whose pigments have been identified and matched to the paintings.

The sources of pigments used in European painting are found in classical antiquity, 1st. century B.C. to 1st century A.D. The over 40 pigments in use were described by Vitruvius, Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides, complemented by 3rd

The Art of Asger Jorn is the first major work about one of Denmark's most important painters, Asger Jorn (1914-1973). It is not a typical biography depicting the outline of his life. Rather, the book sheds light on Jorn's artistic production: Who he was inspired by, which artistic movements he was in contact with, and - not least - what his paintings depict. This is also the focus of The Art of Asger Jorn in which Lars Morell, a Danish historian of ideas, analyzes Jorn's paintings. The author concludes that Jorn's paintings do not depict anything specific. Indeed, it is as if Jorn seized them in the midst of transformation, where the subject is turning into a new subject. Morell finds that the paradoxes and transformations characteristic of the works were influenced by the ever-changing nature of Jorn's own life. Asger Jorn was born in Denmark, but spent the majority of his artistic life abroad with workshops in both Paris and the Italian city of Albissola, famous for its skilled ceramic artisans. While abroad he discovered his great connection to the Nordic culture, and through his work with ceramics, he gained the necessary experience to liberate the colours of his paintings. While first and foremost a painter, he refined this artform by interacting with a variety of other art forms. The Art of Asger Jorn is thus not just a book about a single artist's work, but also a book about the mindset of modern art.

Eva and Konrad Seitz have put together over many years an outstanding collection of some of the most famous and important of all 18th century Pahari paintings, including miniatures commissioned by the Rajput rulers of the Punjab Hill states (1650-1850). This profusely illustrated book with meticulous research by J.P. Losty (curator emeritus British Library), designed by Misha Anikst and publishedby Francesca Galloway, London, gives the reader the opportunity to see the collection in its entirety. Pahari paintings have been the focus of Eva and Konrad Seitz’s collection since the couple first went to India in the late 1960s for Konrad to take up his position as a young diplomat at the German embassy in Delhi. They were drawn to Rajput paintings (Indian miniatures from the Hindu schools of North India and Rajasthan) which were then available in Delhi and Mumbai, and later in New York, as several princely collections were being dispersed. Eva and Konrad were part of a small group of pioneer collectors who recognised the importance of Rajput painting at a time when Mughal and Persian painting was far more sought after in the West. The Seitz collection lures you into the enchanted domain of the Hindu gods, their epics and the never-ending trials and tribulations of divine and erotic love. What attracted and intrigued Seitz to Rajput paintings in particular was their ability to induce in the viewer a kind of poetic trance – which he saw as distinct from a more Western tradition of descriptive realism. A Mystical Realm of Love is not only an opportunity to explore Pahari painting through one couple’s lifelong passion and dedication to the subject, but represents a major addition to the scholarship through Losty’s pioneering research. He attempts a new approach in documenting their role as parts of illustrated manuscripts of religious and poetic texts, and also puts forward a revised view of the development and chronology of Pahari painting.

The Nobile Index is a series of monographic publications of art sales prices achieved at auction, for a selection of leading 20th-century British artists - Walter Sickert, David Bomberg, L.S. Lowry, Stanley Spencer and Francis Bacon & Lucien Freud. They involve the collaboration of a commercial art dealership, Piano Nobile Works of Art and the University of Bristol's History of Art Department; bringing together academic and commercial expertise on the artists for the benefit of those with an interest in their work. They are funded by the generosity of a private benefactor. The studies are confined to analyses of auction art sales results from 1990 to the time of the study. Although largely from UK sales, data supplied by international salerooms are also included. Graphs and interpretations of these figures are analysed and significant trends and buying patterns revealed. It is envisaged that this data will be of growing value to private and corporate clients, museums and fine art funds. Accurate commercial appraisal has always played an important role in the consideration of new acquisitions throughout the history of art. No more so than today is this seen with the fluctuating, but ever more significant rise in value commanded by the best of many 20th-century artists' work.

Polish journalist Pawel Pieniazek was among the first journalists to enter the war-torn region of eastern Ukraine and Greetings from Novorossiya is his vivid firsthand account of the conflict. He was the first reporter to reach the scene when Russian troops in Ukraine accidentally shot down a civilian airliner, killing all 298 people aboard. Unlike Western journalists, his fluency in both Ukrainian and Russian granted him access and the ability to move among all sides in the conflict. With powerful color photos, telling interviews from the local population, and brilliant reportage, Pieniazek’s account documents these dramatic events as they transpired.This unique firsthand view of history in the making brings to life the tragedy of Ukraine for a Western audience. Historian Timothy Snyder provides wider context in his superb introduction and explores the significance of this ongoing conflict at the border of East and West.

Published to accompany the exhibition at Piano Nobile that concentrates on the years after the Second World War when Bomberg became an influential teacher at the Borough Polytechnic, the fully illustrated catalogue Bomberg / Marr: Spirits in the Mass will be the first examination of the personal and creative bonds uniting these two pioneers of modern British painting. Both artists endeavoured to strip the external world to its bare essentials. Often using powerful organic tonalities, Bomberg and Marr worked toward a vigorous expression of their subjects through an architectural and analytic, yet fraught and unstable formal construction. Alongside other much-admired students at the Borough Polytechnic such as Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff, Marr sought out what Bomberg described as 'the spirit in the mass': a sense of immanence, of intangible significance held in the painter's communion with the shifting solidity of the physical world. Presenting a discerning selection of major works, Bomberg / Marr: Spirits in the Mass will place Marr, for the first time, in his rightful place as not just a pupil of Bomberg's but a peer. Through these rarely exhibited landscapes, self-portraits, and still lifes from private collections and Marr's personal collection, this cayalogue aims to achieve a fuller appreciation of both artists.

The Nobile Index is a series of monographic publications of art sales prices achieved at auction, for a selection of leading 20th-century British artists. They involve the collaboration of a commercial art dealership, Piano Nobile Works of Art and the University of Bristol's History of Art Department; bringing together academic and commercial expertise on the artists for the benefit of those with an interest in their work. They are funded by the generosity of a private benefactor. The studies are confined to analyses of auction art sales results from 1990 to the time of the study. Although largely from UK sales, data supplied by international salerooms are also included. Graphs and interpretations of these figures are analysed and significant trends and buying patterns revealed. It is envisaged that this data will be of growing value to private and corporate clients, museums and fine art funds. Accurate commercial appraisal has always played an important role in the consideration of new acquisitions throughout the history of art. No more so than today is this seen with the fluctuating, but ever more significant rise in value commanded by the best of many 20th-century artists' work. This publication of the Nobile Index Series, written by Sophie Hatchwell, academic at Bristol University, focuses on the sales history of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, two titans of modern art. Both controversial, revered, and celebrated in their lifetime, this publication will explore how their work has fared at auctions since 1990. Comparing the fortunes of both, Sophie Hatchwell examines how genres, media, significant sales and exhibitions, and their deaths have impacted upon the value of their work individually. The publication comes in two sections - an introduction, results and analysis, and a booklet insert of appendices. This edition on Bacon and Freud marks the fifth and final publication of the Nobile Index series. To celebrate its release, a commemorative edition comprising all five publications, on Sickert, Bomberg, Lowry, Spencer, and Bacon and Freud will be produced.

The Nobile Index is a series of monographic publications of art sales prices achieved at auction, for a selection of leading 20th-century British artists. They involve the collaboration of a commercial art dealership, Piano Nobile Works of Art and the University of Bristol's History of Art Department; bringing together academic and commercial expertise on the artists for the benefit of those with an interest in their work. They are funded by the generosity of a private benefactor. The studies are confined to analyses of auction art sales results from 1990 to the time of the study. Although largely from UK sales, data supplied by international salerooms are also included. Graphs and interpretations of these figures are analysed and significant trends and buying patterns revealed. It is envisaged that this data will be of growing value to private and corporate clients, museums and fine art funds. Accurate commercial appraisal has always played an important role in the consideration of new acquisitions throughout the history of art. No more so than today is this seen with the fluctuating, but ever more significant rise in value commanded by the best of many 20th-century artists' work.This publication of the Nobile Index Series, written by Sophie Hatchwell, academic at Bristol University, focuses on the sales history of Sir Stanley Spencer from 1990-2015. Stanley Spencer, arguably one of the greatest British artists of the twentieth-century, is also renowned for his chequered sales history and money struggles. This rigorous study into the prices his work now commands at auctions demonstrates the significance of major sales over the past twenty-five years and the increasing value the market place supon Spencer's paintings. Evaluating general market trends, genres and media amongst other factors, Sophie Hatchwell's investigation provides an invaluable source of information on Stanley Spencer as an artist and the legacy and future of his work within the art market. The publication comes in two sections - an introduction by renowned Spencer specialist Professor Paul Gough, results and analysis, and a booklet insert of appendices.

Described as an artist of “prodigious imagination and intelligence” by the New York Times, Jill Sigman makes art at the intersection of dance, visual art, and social practice. An artist’s book that explores the ability of art to engage and alter our reality, Ten Huts documents a series of site-specific huts hand built from found and repurposed materials, ranging from the mundane (e-waste and plastic bottles) to the bizarre (circus detritus, moose bones, dental molds, and mugwort), in landscapes as varied as industrial Brooklyn and the Norwegian Arctic. Each of the extraordinary huts in this book is a structure, a sculpture, and an emergency preparedness kit which raises questions about sustainability, shelter, real estate, and our future on this planet. An essay by the artist and and five short scholarly pieces provide multiple entrance points to the work and link issues surrounding choreography, waste, environment, and society. Includes essays by André Lepecki (performance studies), Matthew McLendon (art history), Elise Springer (philosophy), Eva Yaa Asantewaa (dance), and Thomas Hylland Eriksen (anthropology). Includes 473 color photographs.