This beautiful and extensively illustrated catalogue presents in-depth case studies of twenty-four rare and remarkable Late Medieval panel paintings, many from the German-speaking regions of Europe, but also from Spain, France and the Southern Netherlands. These works – often fragments of larger altarpieces designed for liturgical performance and communal or private devotion – can be monumental and dramatic or small and intimate, but all on close examination prove to be rich in meaning – even in cases where the painters remain anonymous, and the precise contexts of their creation have become obscured or fragmented. The collected essays will encompass a broad spectrum of artistic styles, techniques, and interests, including in some instances the works’ original frames, and the attendant meanings they give to the imagery housed within. The group will also be augmented by a rare and important small-scale tapestry altarpiece with close links to panel painting. The inclusion of such a piece, one of the many newly resurfaced works to be included in the catalogue, will offer an innovative approach to the scholarship of Medieval paintings, and enrich our understanding of the cross-pollination of ideas between mediums and the role played by painters in tapestry production at the turn of the sixteenth century.The book, a follow-up to Susie Nash’s important 2011 catalogue, considers the physical history, original form, condition and technique of the assembled works, using wood analysis and dendrochronology, paint samples, infra-red, x-rays and macro photography to document the materials and methods involved in their making and the alterations and transformations they have undergone with time. This new information is combined with close readings of their imagery and its presentation to explore issues of meaning, creative process, patronal intervention and artistic intention, leading in many cases to new reconstructions, attributions, dates and iconographic readings.The text is extensively illustrated with a series of images of all of the works, along with technical photographs and comparative material.

A collaboration between the Firtash Foundation of the Ukraine and Saatchi Gallery, UK/ RAINE presents an overview of emerging artists from both countries, chosen by a panel of eminent international experts. Including some of the most imaginative new talent from the UK and Ukraine's contemporary art scenes. The selected 30 young artists reveal shared concerns and challenges despite the very different socio-political and artistic environments in which they work.

They've traded punches in knockdown brawls, crashed biplanes through barns, and raced to the rescue in fast cars. They add suspense and drama to the story, portraying the swimmer stalked by the menacing shark, the heroine dangling twenty feet below a soaring hot air balloon, or the woman leaping nine feet over a wall to escape a dog attack. Only an expert can make such feats of daring look easy, and stuntwomen with the skills to perform -- and survive -- great moments of action in movies have been hitting their mark in Hollywood since the beginning of film. Here, Mollie Gregory presents the first history of stuntwomen in the film industry from the silent era to the twenty-first century. In the early years of motion pictures, women were highly involved in all aspects of film production, but they were marginalized as movies became popular, and more important, profitable. Capable stuntwomen were replaced by men in wigs, and very few worked between the 1930s and 1960s. As late as the 1990s, men wore wigs and women's clothes to double as actresses, and were even "painted down" for some performances, while men and women of color were regularly denied stunt work.For decades, stuntwomen have faced institutional discrimination, unequal pay, and sexual harassment even as they jumped from speeding trains and raced horse-drawn carriages away from burning buildings. Featuring sixty-five interviews, Stuntwomen showcases the absorbing stories and uncommon courage of women who make their living planning and performing action-packed sequences that keep viewers' hearts racing.

Known for his visual style as well as for his experimentation in virtually every genre of narrative cinema, award-winning director Sidney J. Furie also has the distinction of having made Canada's first ever feature-length fictional film in English, A Dangerous Age (1957). With a body of work that includes The Ipcress File (1965), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), and The Entity (1982), he has collaborated with major stars such as Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Robert Redford, and Michael Caine, and his films have inspired some of Hollywood's most celebrated directors, including Stanley Kubrick and Quentin Tarantino. In this first biography of the prolific filmmaker, author Daniel Kremer offers a comprehensive look at the director's unique career. Furie pioneered techniques such as improvisation in large-scale film productions, and sometimes shot his films in sequence to develop the characters from the ground up and improve the performers' in-the-moment spontaneity. Not only has Stanley Kubrick acknowledged that Furie's The Boys in Company C (1978) informed and influenced Full Metal Jacket (1987), but Martin Scorsese has said that he considers The Entity to be one of the scariest horror films of all time. However, Furie was often later criticized for accepting lowbrow work, and as a result, little serious study has been devoted to the director.Meticulously researched and enhanced by Kremer's close relationship with the filmmaker, this definitive biography captures the highs and lows of an exceptional but underexamined career, taking readers behind the scenes with a director who was often ahead of his time.

Radicalism and Music offers a convincing argument for music's transformational impact on the radicalization, reinforcement, and motivational techniques of violent political activists. It makes a case for the careful examination of music's roles in radical cultures, roles that have serious impacts, as evidenced by the actions of the Frankfurt Airport shooter Arid Uka, Sikh Temple murderer Wade Page, white supremacist Matthew Hale, and animal-rights activist Walter Bond, among others. Such cases bring up difficult questions about how those involved in radical groups can be stirred to feel or act under the influence of music. Radicalism and Music is based on interviews, email correspondence, concerts, and videos. As a "sound strategy," music is exploited to its fullest potential as a tool for recruiting and retaining members by members of al-Qa'ida, the Hammerskin Nation, Christian Identity, Kids in Ministry International, Earth First!, and Vegan Straight Edge. But, as the book points out, the coercive use of music is not isolated to radical cultures, but in political propaganda, sporting events, and popular music as well. Ultimately, Radicalism and Music shows how music affects us through our emotions, and how it triggers violence and enables hateful ideology.

Over the last two decades, discoveries made in the field of cognitive neuroscience have begun to permeate humanities and social sciences. This special issue of Cinéma & Cie focuses on major conceptual and epistemological arguments arising from the dialogue between audiovisual studies and neurosciences. In the context of this intersection, Neurofilmology is an interdisciplinary research program that arises at the encounter between two models of viewer: the viewer-as-mind (deriving from a cognitive/ analytical approach) and the viewer-as-body (typical of the phenomenological/continental approach). Accordingly, Neurofilmology focuses on the viewer-as-organism, by investigating with both empirical and speculative epistemological tools the subject of audiovisual experience, postulated as embodied, embedded, enacted, extended, emerging, affective, and relational.

First published to accompany the exhibition at Piano Nobile, John Armstrong: Paintings 1938-1958; An Enchanted Distance is a fully illustrated catalogue re-establishing John Armstrong A.R.A. as a pre-eminent Surrealist. Propelled to the forefront of British Modernism as a member of Unit One, Armstrong later rejected the confinement of artistic groups yet was at the heart of inter-war and post-war British art. Consistently producing prophetic, dreamlike paintings of emotional and political insight, Armstrong’s works speak of the universal through his own individual language. The most significant exhibition of Armstrong's works in over thirty years, the catalogue focuses on two decades of immense productivity, creativity and innovation.

The greatest treasure of the City of London has been, until now, the least known. The unique Crystal Sceptre of c.1420 - seen only at the inauguration of the Lord Mayor and at coronations, and never photographed before - is here presented with as much as is known of its history, its materials and their origins and its first recorded outing, to the coronation of Catherine of Valois, the wife of King Henry V, in 1421 at Westminster Abbey. Timed to coinicide with the first ever public exhibition of the Crystal Sceptre, which opens on the occasion of the 600-year anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, this new book will present the Sceptre and over 80 of the finest and most historic pieces in the plate collection at Mansion House - the home, office and centre of entertainment for the Lord Mayor of the City of London. The regalia includes several famous items, notably the 16th-century gold and enamel Chain of Esses, the great Mace of 1735-36 and the Pearl Sword of the 1570s, carried by the Lord Mayor before the Sovereign on visits to the City. The silver-gilt and silver, used constantly during the year, includes pieces by some of the greatest names of English silversmithing - Paul de Lamerie and Paul Storr, for example - but also rare ones by more modern masters - Latino Movio and Omar Ramsden - including masterpieces previously completely unknown to silver historians. An inscription on a silver-gilt cup presented to the Lord Mayor in 1741 records that the intention of the gift was to increas - the Honour and Grandeur - of the City of London. It is just one piece of a vast, eclectic and exceptional collection of plate, which is constantly in use at the Guildhall and Mansion House today to uphold that honour and in the grandest way possible - a rare survival of medieval practices of display. The quality and quantity of the 19th- and 20th-century pieces in particular is extraordinary. This volume is the third in the series on the treasures of Mansion House, following The Harold Samuel Collection of Dutch and Flemish Paintings (2012) and Magnificent Marble Statutes: A Guide to the Sculpture at the Mansion House (2013). Intended to introduce to a broad audience the plate collection - as well as the history of the Lord Mayors, the City guilds and Mansion House itself, and the formation of the collection, it will also be of interest to specialists in silver, who will discover many masterpieces of style and technique.

Jia Zhangke Speaks Out is a collection of writings by China's most acclaimed film director, Jia Zhangke. The book, originally published in 2009 by Peking University Press, contains Jia's selections of his own writings on film. While he has given numerous film-specific interviews throughout the years, his own notes on cinema, on his own production, and on Chinese culture are unknown to non-Chinese readers. This collection gives access to the key scenes of his life, films, and meetings with other filmmakers, from Hou Hsiao-hsien to Martin Scorsese. From his point of view, we get an insightful and profoundly original take on China's film history, its ruptures and failings, as well as on the post-Tiananmen filmmaking industry, with its blockbusters on one side and indie films (like his) on the other.

The French Impressionist painters discovered new means for painting light – they used a “solar palette”, the pigments matched to the colours the eyes see. They are the colours of a ray of light. This little book reproduces palettes by 8 of the plein-air painters – Cézanne, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Seurat, Signac, and Van Gogh. It describes the pigments they used, and includes short excerpts by the scientists whose work was the foundation of the new painting – complementary colours, optical mixing, and the pigment-colour correspondences.

The British Museum citole is a unique example of medieval craftsmanship and is one of very few surviving instruments from the Middle Ages. This new publication includes selected papers from the first international symposium on the British Museum citole, held in November 2010 to highlight recent new research, conservation work and scientific findings related to the British Museum citole. Highly illustrated to reflect the visual richness of this beautiful instrument, The British Museum Citole: New Perspectives features a wide range of academic approaches to the subject, drawing together experts from the fields of history, art history, music, organology, conservation and science and performance practice.

Near the homes of photographers John Willis and Tom Young is a paper mill that sits in the otherwise pristine and picturesque climes of western Massachusetts. For Willis and Young, this site is one of both aesthetic and philosophical contradictions: despite its verdant locale, the mill—with its smokestacks and countless bales of discarded paper—brings to mind the dreariness of industrialization and the impermanence of life itself. But the factory is actually one where such litter is reborn as reusable paper. Willis and Young’s quadtone photographs transform this mill and the innumerable mounds of recyclable waste it processes daily into an indelible and evocative landscape. Recycled Realities is not a jeremiad foretelling the consequences of excessive waste, rampant pollution, or unbridled consumption but rather a profound meditation on the hidden connections and meanings that linger beneath the debris and detritus of everyday life. These unforgettable images of discarded paper from the printed world trace the processes of emergence, revelation, and redemption that make the cycle of life possible.

Anyone writing about a work of art needs to establish at the outset how much it has changed since it was first made. This simple, informative and pracrical book, full of fascinating and revelatory photography, will take the reader through both the techniques and media of art and the techniques and media of its investigation and restoration.

The Index of American Design was one of the most significant undertakings of the Federal Art Project -- the visual arts arm of the Works Progress Administration. Part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, this ambitious initiative set out to discover and document an authentic American style in everyday objects. The curators of the Index combed the country for art of the machine age -- from carved carousel horses to engraved powder horns to woven coverlets -- created by artisans for practical use. In their search for a true American artistic identity, they also sought furniture designed by regional craftsmen laboring in isolation from European traditions. Kentucky by Design offers the first comprehensive examination of the objects from the Bluegrass State featured in this historic venture. It showcases a wide array of offerings, including architecture, furniture, ceramics, musical instruments, textiles, clothing, and glass- and metalworks. The Federal Art Project played an important role in documenting and preserving the work of Shaker artists from the Pleasant Hill and South Union communities, and their creations are exhibited in this illuminating catalog. Beautifully illustrated with both the original watercolor depictions and contemporary, art-quality photographs of the works, this book is a lavish exploration of the Commonwealth's distinctive contribution to American culture and modern design.Features contributions from Jean M. Burks, Erika Doss, Jerrold Hirsch, Lauren Churilla, Larrie Currie, Michelle Ganz, Tommy Hines, Lee Kogan, Ron Pen, Janet Rae, Shelly Zegart, Mel Hankla, Philippe Chavance, Kate Hesseldenz, Madeleine Burnside, and Allan Weiss.

The first Europeans to follow the explorers of the eighteenth century into the South Pacific were missionaries. They were sent by an Evangelical Christian organization called The London Missionary Society, whose aim was to bring the word of the Bible to all peoples – “to illume a dark and sinful world”. Their first target was Tahiti, an island of extravagant beauty, inhabited by a people of astonishing sophistication. The missionaries settled down, learned the language and stayed for decades. Although their aim was to Christianize the islanders and eradicate the traditional religion along with its pagan idols, they ended up recording a good deal about Polynesian culture and even saving a large number of the very idols they came 12,000 miles to destroy.Accompanying an exhibition at the University of London’s Brunei Gallery, this beautifully illustrated catalogue documents the London Missionary Society from its formation to its initial ‘success’ in Polynesia. The period covered spans roughly 1792 to 1825. Along with historical graphics and archive material – paintings, engravings, books, journals and correspondence of the missionaries – this publication shows some of the idols and artefacts that the missionaries brought back – feather gods and spirit images, necklaces, instruments and tools. In the words of missionary Rev. John Williams, it puts on view an historical “ocular demonstration” of The London Missionary Society. Most objects shown here have not been on public display since the nineteenth century.After the initial and very difficult spiritual conquest of Tahiti – the “night of toil” that took 15 years – the English missionaries turned the thorny job of Christianization over to Polynesian ‘teachers’, who, in the words of Rev. John Williams, knew how to clear away “the rubbish of idolatry & superstition far better than newly arrived or even Old Missionaries”. The best teacher of all was Papeiha, who was energetic, purposeful and a native speaker of Tahitian. His account of events while Christianizing Rarotonga – published here for the first time – is probably the most personal, immediate and detailed description of a conversion in the South Sea.Missionaries are roundly criticized for their unrelenting determination to alter traditional Polynesian religion and customs. In what they referred to as the “bloodless victory”, they largely succeeded. Yet in many ways Evangelicals were progressive. They were vehemently opposed to slavery, infanticide, human sacrifice and warfare. They brought writing, taught literacy, and printed books; in doing so they fi xed the Polynesian languages. They urged the elevation of women in Polynesian society. Unlike the American missionaries in Hawai’i, for example, their aim was to establish spiritual rather than territorial or economic dominion. However questionable the missionary endeavour, the writings and collections presented here show that the missionaries were also agents of cultural preservation.

Nathan Coley is a publication documenting a public art project in London byGlasgow-based contemporary artist Nathan Coley (b.1967). At a time when housing and the property market are at the centre of much social, political and economic debate, Coley's project is a pertinent and thought-provoking exploration of issues of housing,ownership, history and activism. In the mid-late 1960s, the Greater London Council moved local authority tenants out of their run-down terraced houses in the Freston Road area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and into newly built blocks of flats nearby. The council was planning to knock down the terraced houses and to regenerate the area, but the plans were beset by delays so the houses lay derelict for almost a decade. During the 1970s agroup of squatters began moving into the old houses – there were around 150 people living in 35 houses at one point towards the end of the decade.In late summer 2015, on the site where Frestonia once stood, the first phase of apartments designed byHaworth Tompkins Architects and built by the charitableorganisation The Peabody Trust was completed. With one third of the properties for sale, one third for rent, and one third under the management of the Housing Association, the complex, called The Silchester (More West) development, consists of 112 apartments. Nathan Coley was commissioned to make new artwork for the site. Based on the form of an apple tree – inspired by the history of the Bramley apple that gave its name to the Frestonia residents – Coley has not only made a striking steel and gold leaf rooftop sculpture, but also 112 small versions of the same sculpture that have been given to each of the residents as a house warming present. In doing so, Coley not only connects the new housing complex and its residents with its local history, but to wider discourses of modernism and sculpture, art and society, capitalism and alternative modes of living. The publication, which forms part of the artist's commissioned project, presents a variety of texts, images and documentation relating to the new housing development, to the history of the Bramley apple and to Frestonia – including a selection of archive photographs of Frestonia taken by former resident Tony Sleep.