Tibetan yoga is the hidden treasure at the heart of the Tibetan Tantric Buddhist tradition: a spiritual and physical practice in pursuit of an expanded experience of the human body and its energetic and cognitive potential. Ian A. Baker progressively introduces the core principles and practices of Tibetan yoga in this pioneering overview. In addition to meditations, visualizations and practices for the breath and body, these include elements rather less familiar to yoga initiates in the West, including sexual yoga; dream yoga or lucid dreaming; and yoga practices enhanced by psychoactive plant or mineral substances. Such techniques facilitate the individual’s journey towards transcendence of the human self and suffering, and ultimately to Buddhist enlightenment. Baker draws on contemporary scientific research and contemplative and humanitarian traditions to enable the reader to understand these practices. Tibetan Yoga includes contemporary ethnographic photography and works of Himalayan art that have never been published before, as well as illustrations of yogic practice and theory from historical books of instruction. It will appeal to students and practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as anyone interested in mind–body medicine, Tantric art and the ethnography and cultural traditions of the Himalayas.

Publishing the results of the most recent annual World Press Photo Contest, this exceptional book contains the very best press photographs from the year 2018 – pictures submitted by photojournalists, picture agencies, newspapers and magazines throughout the world. Selected from thousands of images, these prizewinning photos capture the most powerful, moving and sometimes disturbing images of the year.

The body remains a battleground. Politicized, conceptualized and increasingly shared, our often-paradoxical relationship with the human form is nothing new, but finds itself heightened in the digitised, virtualised era of the ‘post-industrial’ body. No longer a tool but a work-in-progress, our bodily expectations bound from fantasy to reality, beauty to tyranny, art to commerce and curiosity to obsession, leaving us dreaming of other bodies and alternate lives. Surveying a range of over 360 photographic re-presentations from the worlds of art, fashion, scientific and vernacular photography – including the work of Nobuyoshi Araki, Bettina Rheims, Lauren Greenfield, Viviane Sassen, Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Daido Moriyama, Sally Mann, Pieter Hugo, Juergen Teller, and Daniel Sannwald – Body explores what our imaging of the human form, and the ways in which those images have been used and shared, might reflect of our relationship to the body. Supporting the broad range of photography is an essay by the psychologist Professor David Sander, Ph.D., discussing the neurological representation of our own bodies.

The art of the past can seem very far away, obscured both by time and by knotty academic theory. Foregrounding the experience of the contemporary viewer, Look Again shows how this need not be the case. From the spectacular theatrics of Bosch to the harmonious simplicity of Cézanne, Ossian Ward tackles some of history’s greatest art in all its dynamism, horror and beauty. Ward’s simple, ten-step programme acts as an aid to looking, breaking down the often obscure strategies of the Old Masters into intuitive categories – from Art as Honesty to Art as Vision. Look Again’s novel approach is influenced by John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, but is here updated for the art world of the 21st century. Key to this book is an emphasis on ways not simply of looking at Old Masters, but also of experiencing them. Just as contemporary art should be judged by how it moves us, cajoles us and envelops us, so too can the great paintings of the world be seen as immersive, captivating, even participatory experiences. Ward does not deny the specific complexities and barriers associated with looking at art from other eras. Instead he offers readers a new formula to help illuminate this kind of art. His method not only provides the viewer with the tools to interpret a work of art, but also assumes that we hold some of this knowledge within ourselves already. In other words, everyone can share the enriching experience of Old Master paintings.

In this age of low-cost flights and easy travel, how do you avoid the crowds and find the hidden gems? Expert globe trotter and travel photographer Herbert Ypma guides you through an alternative map of Italy to reveal those hard-to-find places that still hold something special. The experiences and tips that he maps out across the length and breadth of Italy fall into four key categories. ‘Staying in Character’ features thirty-five places to stay, from the grand to the eccentric, all embodying the soul and character of their setting – whether it’s sleeping next to a sloshing canal in Venice, dozing under the plume of Etna’s active volcano or experiencing monastic silence over dinner in Umbria. ‘Eclectic Experiences’ surveys twenty stand-out experiences, from jumping off the cliffs near Otranto to swimming the walls of Dionysius in Ortigia, and from exploring the forgotten farmland of Sicily’s interior to finding the best gelati in Rome. ‘Legend for Lunch’ points you in the direction of the most authentic places to eat, and ‘Convincing Context’ surveys twenty experiences enhanced by nuggets of history. Together they amount to a new map of authentic Italian experiences, and the ultimate answer to the question, ‘What will I do when I get there?’

Edvard Munch (1863–1944) is best known today as a painter, but his reputation was in fact established through his prints, which were central to his creative process. His printmaking was experimental and innovative, and he continually revisited the subjects of his paintings in striking prints, in which he evoked a wide range of emotion and mood through the use of varied techniques. Munch’s early life in the industrial town of Kristiania (renamed Oslo in 1925) was marked by sickness and poverty. His first works centred on the expression of deep emotional experiences, specifically the deaths of his mother and teenage sister, as well as passionate yet unhappy love affairs of which his deeply religious father disapproved. Encouraged by his encounters with a Bohemian society of artists, writers and poets, he developed a visual landscape that was a radical deviation from the slick society portraits and grand Scandinavian landscapes then so much in vogue. His efforts attracted considerable attention and much criticism, and he practised with little financial success as a painter for ten years before he started to gain his reputation as a profoundly innovative printmaker.

Hockney — Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature presents unique insights into the influences of two world-renowned artists. Nature has been a substantial theme for both David Hockney and Vincent van Gogh, one that draws their work together—Hockney’s Yorkshire landscapes are especially reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows and The Harvest—and now, for the first time, art lovers can study their pieces side by side. Presenting paintings, iPad drawings, and sketchbook reproductions, and including work both old and new, this book examines the ways in which both artists use formal elements to create their particular view of the world. An exclusive interview with Hockney and an essay by writer and art critic Hans den Hartog Jager provide a rich analysis of Van Gogh’s influence on Hockney.

Architect and designer Michael Embacher’s unique collection of more than 250 bicycles, the only one of its kind, was lovingly collected over many years and exhibited around the world. This new compact edition of Cyclepedia offers an expanded selection of Embacher’s finest, most unusual and most coveted pieces, despite the fact that the collection is no longer intact. With a foreword by design guru Paul Smith and a history of bicycle design by Michael Zappe and Martin Strubreiter, this homage to the beauty of two wheels is a celebration of the fastest, lightest, most innovative – and most inventive – bicycles designed over the past century. This stunning, carefully curated selection features some of the rarest, most beautiful and most sought-after bicycles from around the world, including classic racing bikes from the Tour de France, high-tech machines that employ the latest advances in materials science, and eccentric bikes designed for unusual uses. With a redesigned layout that makes the most of Bernhard Angerer’s colourful photography, this edition features ten new bicycles from Embacher’s collection, including designs from Alex Singer, Alan, Textima and Puch.

In The Spectacle of Illusion, professional magician-turned experimental psychologist Dr. Matthew L. Tompkins investigates the arts of deception as practiced and popularized by mesmerists, magicians and psychics since the early 18th century. Organized thematically within a broadly chronological trajectory, this compelling book explores how illusions perpetuated by magicians and fraudulent mystics can not only deceive our senses but also teach us about the inner workings of our minds. Indeed, modern scientists are increasingly turning to magic tricks to develop new techniques to examine human perception, memory and belief.

How do writers and citizens in the different countries of the world view their own past? What key events and influences shaped those perspectives? And how accurate are the views of foreign commentators? Here, leading writers and scholars from twenty-eight countries give thoughtful, engaging accounts of their own nation's history. Their diverse and wide-ranging narratives offer a unique lens through which to view the modern world.

Following the success of the bestselling Histories of Nations, Peter Furtado brings us 366 telling quotations that offer a window on the past, tying every day in the year to a momentous occasion and bringing it to life with eyewitness accounts and a chronicler’s flair. Here are Joan of Arc and Julius Caesar, Galileo and Gandhi, JFK and MLK in their element: battles and treaties, revolutions and discoveries, the joyful ad the grief-stricken. Every day brings a new voice and fresh revelations, while Peter Furtado expertly places events in context to make this both an addictive anthology and a dazzling panorama of world history.

Did you know that the Egyptians created the first synthetic color and used it to create the famous blue crown of Queen Nefertiti? Or that the noblest purple comes from a predatory sea snail? In the Roman Empire, hundreds of thousands of snails had to be sacrificed to produce a single ounce of dye. Throughout history, pigments have been made from deadly metals, poisonous minerals, urine, cow dung, and even crushed insects. From grinding down beetles and burning animal bones to alchemy and pure luck, Chromatopia reveals the origin stories behind over fifty of history’s most vivid color pigments. Featuring informative and detailed color histories, a section on working with monochromatic color, and “recipes” for paint-making, Chromatopia provides color enthusiasts with an eclectic story of how synthetic colors came to be. Red lead, for example, was invented by the ancient Greeks by roasting white lead, and it became the dominant red in medieval painting. Spanning from the ancient world to modern leaps in technology, and vibrantly illustrated throughout, this book will add a little chroma to anyone’s understanding of the history of colors.

Focusing on fifty diverse women artists, from Lavinia Fontana and Artemisia Gentileschi through Judy Chicago, Ana Mendieta and the Guerrilla Girls to Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman and Louise Bourgeois, this book equips the reader with a general understanding of the history of art by women, as well as an appreciation of its most outstanding figures. Traditionally women have been among art’s favoured objects of representation, while their contributions as art producers have been subordinated to those of men. This book documents women artists in context to offer readers an accessible but rich understanding of key female artists from the Baroque to the present day.

Surrealism was launched as a literary and artistic movement by French poet André Breton in 1924, and by the time of his death in 1966 had become one of the most popular art movements of the 20th century. Its very name has entered everyday usage as a synonym for bizarre. Taking the reader on a narrative journey through the history of Surrealism, this book is a digestible introduction to the movement’s key figures, their works and where to find them. Complete with a glossary of key terms and chronology, this addition to the Art Essentials series provides an indispensable resource for anyone interested in learning about this most influential of art phenomena.

In a world where artists place a premium on self-expression and innovation, obtuse intellectualism and outrage for outrage’s sake, this guide aims to decipher the bizarre and often intimidating phenomenon of ‘modern art’. Ranging across the widest variety of media, styles, subjects and intentions, Simon Morley offers seven different lenses through which to interpret twenty works of art, reflecting the impact of globalism and neuroscience. Without recourse to inflexible ‘readings’, he invites the reader to unlock the meanings of some of the world’s most intriguing and contested art.

Although the fact may be surprising to some, landscape painting is positively thriving in the 21st century – indeed, the genre has arguably never felt as vital as it does today. Landscape Painting Now is the first book of its kind to take a global view of its subject, featuring more than eighty outstanding contemporary artists – both established and emerging – whose ages span seven decades and who hail from twenty-five different countries.

Bauhaus Imaginista marks the centennial anniversary of this fascinating and popular school of art, which championed the idea of artists working together as a community. The Bauhaus reconnected art with everyday life and was active in the fields of architecture, performance, design, and visual art. Founded by Walter Gropius, its faculty included such luminaries as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Laészloé Moholy-Nagy, and Josef Albers. Placing emphasis on the international dissemination and reception of the Bauhaus, this book expresses the Bauhaus’ influence, philosophy, and history beyond Germany. Rethinking the school from an international perspective, it sets its entanglements against a century of geopolitical change, as many of its artists fled World War II Germany. Bauhaus Imaginista takes readers on a global visual tour of Bauhaus influence from art and design museums to campus galleries and art institutes in India, Japan, China, Russia, Brazil, Berlin, and the United States.

Bauhaus Goes West is the story of cultural and artistic exchange between Germany and the West over a period of seventy years. It presents a view of the influential Bauhaus school in relation to the wider modernist period, distinguishing between the received idea of the Bauhaus and the documented reality. Initially, the Bauhaus was seen as an educational experiment, only later was it recognized as a style and a movement. Working from meticulous research, Alan Powers reexamines speculations about the reception and understanding of individuals connected with the Bauhaus school and what they ultimately achieved. Looking in greater detail at the theory and practice of art, design, and architecture between the arts and crafts movement and modernism, this book challenges the assumption that the 1920s represented a void of reactionary conservatism. Bauhaus Goes West offers an opportunity to recover some of the overlooked aspects of avant-garde that ran parallel with the work of the Bauhaus, such as the film-making of Francis Brugui re and Len Lye, and the development of art instruction for children under Marion Richardson and the London County Council.

Lively and informative, The World Atlas of Tattoo is a superbly illustrated and compelling reference book that, through examining the meeting point between tattoo artists and their personal understanding of their environment, presents a well-informed and nuanced account of what has become a widespread art practice. Organized geographically, each section is introduced by a short historical overview of the types of tattooing traditionally practised in that area of the world, enabling the reader to trace historical threads in the careers of some of the profiled tattooers, as well as marvel at how other artists have managed to create novel forms of tattooing that transcend any previous context. The book also tracks the movement of styles from their indigenous settings to diasporic communities, where they have often been transformed into creative, multicultural, hybrid designs.

The ultimate visual encyclopaedia, Pattern Design features more than 1,500 images of the world’s most popular and influential patterns. Organized by theme from flora to geometric, from pictorial to psychedelic, this invaluable resource also includes in-depth features on the work of key designers from the rich history of pattern-making, including William Morris, Sonia Delaunay, Charles and Ray Eames, Lucienne Day and Orla Kiely. This inspiring sourcebook is an essential creative tool for design professionals, students and aficionados alike.