Without a doubt, Katsushika Hokusai is the most famous Japanese artist since the middle of the nineteenth century whose art is known to the Western world. Reflecting the artistic expression of an isolated civilization, the works of Hokusai - one of the first Japanese artists to emerge in Europe - greatly influenced the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, such as Vincent van Gogh. Considered during his life as a living Ukiyo-e master, Hokusai...

Rembrandt is completely mysterious in his spirit, his character, his life, his work and his method of painting. What we can divine of his essential nature comes through his painting and the trivial or tragic incidents of his unfortunate life; his penchant for ostentatious living forced him to declare bankruptcy. His misfortunes are not entirely explicable, and his oeuvre reflects disturbing notions and contradictory impulses emerging from the depths...

Confessions of a Young Man (1888) is a memoir by George Moore. Originally written in French, it is a record of his life in Paris as a young man with money and dreams to spare. Controversial for its depictions of bohemianism and pointed critique of Victorian morality, Confessions of a Young Man has been recognized as an invaluable portrait of nineteenth century Paris and the geniuses who struggled to reshape art in their image. Degas. Renoir. Monet....

"Who gets to leave a legacy? 1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn't. By 1998 Anita's name has been all but forgotten--certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by progeny of film producers, C-Suite executives, and international art-dealers, most of whom float through...

"I am armed with madness for a long voyage," states British born, prolific painter, sculptor, writer and visionary Leonora Carrington. Perhaps the last surviving artist of the original Surrealist artist movement, as well as the famously former lover of Max Ernst, Carrington's life and work is arguably not "surreal" at all, nor is it classifiable in any sense of the word. Indebted to Surrealism, Carrington is nonetheless possessed of unique personal...

"A rich, spellbinding new novel from the author of The Lake House - the story of a love affair and a mysterious murder that cast their shadows across generations, set in England from the 1860's until the present day. My real name, no one remembers. The truth about that summer, no one else knows. In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor on the banks of the Upper...

In "A Friend or Two," Elizabeth, an East Coast heiress, takes a job as a waitress; and in "No Competition," Shayne Reynolds pursues local artist Carrie Lockett for more than her art.

In 2003 Chris Ofili created the spectacular installation within reach for the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Combining a cycle of paintings depicting lovers in a Paradise-like garden with a shimmering glass dome, Ofili plunged visitors into disorienting spaces of dense colour and enveloping light. Shot in London, Germany and Venice, this film relates the creation of within reach. Chris Ofili's reflections on the process are complemented...

"In this unflinching, deeply personal book that expands on her instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do With the Art of Monstrous Men?" Claire Dederer asks: Can we love the work of Hemingway, Polanski, Naipaul, Miles Davis, or Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the...

"Louise Wykoff is arguably the most recognizable woman living in Minnesota, known for her presence in over one hundred paintings by the late and brilliant Randolph McInnis. Louise, known better as "That Wykoff Woman," was just a young apprentice when her intimate representation and the fact of the McInnis's marriage caused rumors to fly--and Louise to hide away for decades. All of McInnis's paintings are in museums or known private collections, until...