Art, Architecture & Photography > art history

An all-new, jewel-like, reader-friendly format gives new life to this relaunch of an international best-seller. Leonardo da Vinci artist, inventor, and prototypical Renaissance man is a perennial source of fascination because of his astonishing intellect and boundless curiosity about the natural and man-made world. During his... read more

The Art Museum is the finest art collection ever assembled between two covers. This revolutionary and unprecedented virtual art museum in a book, features 1,000 oversized pages of over 2,700 works of art. It is the most comprehensive and visually spectacular history of world art ever published. Ten years in the making, thi... read more

This landmark book on New Zealand artists and their work was first published in 1971, extended to 1990 by art historian Michael Dunn and now again to 2010 by art historian, writer and lecturer Edward Hanfling. The original text by Gil Docking, former director of the Auckland City Art Gallery, covers the period from Europe... read more

A never-before-seen presentation of art and architecture from the Renaissance era, in elegant, informative, and engaging three-dimensional form. Accompanied by stunning art and ingenious pop engineering, Renaissance Art Pop-Up Book presents the talent and imagination of some of the most influential artists in history. Ranging... read more

Finalist in the General Non-Fiction category. The Invention of New Zealand is an important study of nationalism in twentieth-century New Zealand art. From the 1930s onwards, artists, writers and critics such as Toss Woollaston, Allen Curnow, Colin McCahon, Rita Angus, A R D Fairburn, Doris Lusk and Monte Holcroft deployed ... read more

Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower is an eminently giftable tribute to the greatest sight in the City of Light. A gorgeous re-creation of Henri Rivi re's original 1902 volume offers a stunning view of turn-of-the-century Paris. Sometimes looming in the foreground, sometimes a tiny detail on the horizon, the tower is always ... read more

The Canterbury Society of Arts domin-ated the cultural life of Canterbury for nearly a century, and played a vital role in the development of New Zealand art. Whereas art societies are often assumed to be conservative and reactionary institutions that failed to nurture the work of younger or more radical artists, this fascina... read more

I Spy NZ art features works from the Chartwell Collection, and was written by Hanna Scott and Julia Waite with Rob Gardiner, Sue Gardiner, Caroline McBride and Christa Napier-Roberston.
"I Spy NZ Art matches works by 26 artists to the letters of the alphabet to create New Zealand’s first art-based ABC book. &lsquo... read more

For a long time, Roman art was somewhat overshadowed by the art of ancient Greece. It was only in about 1900 that a search began for ancient Roman art and architecture. The foundations of Roman imagery were laid in the early days of the Empire under Emperor Augustus. The imperial court and the imperial family were role models... read more

The mind of the Renaissance artist differs from our modern mind in its habit of encoding meanings into symbols - everything from beehives to centaurs. Often these meanings drew upon a traditional symbolic repertoire available to Renaissance man but now largely disused. However, sometimes a more esoteric meaning was encoded ... read more

This attractive series reveals the V&A's spectacular and extensive pattern collections. Each title in the series includes a free CD of high resolution images. Liberty & Co. charts the development of a legendary company through its textile designs, from its beginnings in the Aesthetic movement, through Art Nouveau and into the... read more

Peter Campbell was the resident designer and art critic for the London Review of Books. He worked for the magazine from its first appearance in 1979 and wrote more than 300 pieces, mainly about art but also about such things as escalators, weeds, bicycles, bridges and hearts. Each fortnight from 1996 onwards, Peter created a ... read more

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Part of a new series of beautiful gift art books, 100 Art Deco Fashion Masterpieces highlights 100 artworks from fashion illustrators of the era that was characterized by the allure of modernity, progression, women's liberation, luxury - leading to the short hemlines and androgyny of the Flapper, the outdoorsy Sporty girl and... read more

This beautifully illustrated book is a celebration of Art Deco's expression through the graphic arts and illustration. Divided into three sections - the movement, its fashion and advertising - the reader gains great insight into the artists and innovators that helped popularize the Art Deco movement, such as Georges Barbier, ... read more

This title offer an illustrated account of classical Greek buildings, sculptures and paintings, that are shown in 200 glorious photographs and drawings. It includes an authoritative exploration of ancient Greek civilization, architecture and style, sculpture, painting and mosaics. It provides a spectacular visual study of ico... read more

Arranged into ten topics that are approached through a key question and answer format, art advisors Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner offer an accessible yet unrivalled insider's view into the often opaque world of collecting art, drawing from their extensive experience in working with collectors and institutions of cont... read more

The extraordinary history of Ancient Egyptian civilization - from its earliest origins to the creation of its greatest monument - from specialist John Romer. This exceptional book draws on a lifetime of research and thought to recreate the previously untold story of how a civilization which began with handfuls of semi-itinera... read more

The work of potter, artist, craftsperson, railway enthusiast and iconoclast Barry Brickell. Potter extraordinaire, conservationist, railway enthusiast and iconoclast Barry Brickell is one of New Zealand’s most important ceramicists. His exuberant and elemental, warts-and-all pots and sculptures pulse with a humour and ... read more

features over 80 illustrations of characters and scenes from three seminal Steampunk novels: Homonculus (Berkley Publishing Group, 1986) by James Blaylock, Infernal Devices (St. Martins Press, 1987) by K.W. Jeter, and Anubis Gates (Berkley Publishing Group, 1983) by Tim Powers. All three authors were students at Cal State Ful... read more