The seascapes of Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) made his name in Russia, his native country where he was a painter of the court of Nicholas I, yet his fame barely extended beyond these borders. Master of the Sublime, he made the ocean the principal subject of his work. Sometimes wild and raging, sometimes calm and peaceful, the life of the ocean is composed of as many allegories as the human condition. Like Turner, whom he knew and whose art he admired, he never painted outside in nature, nor did he make preliminary sketches; his paintings were the fruit of his exceptional memory. With more than 6,000 canvasses, Aivazovsky was one of the most prolific painters of his time.

The Pussy Riot protest, and the subsequent heavy handed treatment of the protestors, grabbed the headlines, but this was not an isolated instance of art being noticeably critical of the regime. As this book, based on extensive original research, shows, there has been gradually emerging over recent decades a significant counter-culture in the art world which satirises and ridicules the regime and the values it represents, at the same time putting forward, through art, alternative values. The book traces the development of art and protest in recent decades, discusses how art of this kind engages in political and social protest, and provides many illustrations as examples of art as protest. The book concludes by discussing how important art has been in facilitating new social values and in prompting political protests.

The Pussy Riot protest, and the subsequent heavy handed treatment of the protestors, grabbed the headlines, but this was not an isolated instance of art being noticeably critical of the regime. As this book, based on extensive original research, shows, there has been gradually emerging over recent decades a significant counter-culture in the art world which satirises and ridicules the regime and the values it represents, at the same time putting forward, through art, alternative values. The book traces the development of art and protest in recent decades, discusses how art of this kind engages in political and social protest, and provides many illustrations as examples of art as protest. The book concludes by discussing how important art has been in facilitating new social values and in prompting political protests.

Nesting one inside the other, wooden matryoshka dolls are a favorite toy in Russian homes and are collected by enthusiasts around the world. Illustrated throughout with color photographs, this volume tells the story of matryoshka production from the doll's first appearance in the toy making center of Sergiev Posad in 1899 through its contemporary interpretations by entrepreneurial artists. Each step in the manufacturing process from the cutting of logs through the final lacquering of the dolls is described in detail. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The largest surviving portion of the first major collection of Classical antiquities in Britain - the sculptures and inscriptions collected in the early 17th century by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel for his London house and garden - is in the Antiquities Department of the Ashmolean Museum. This handbook tracks their eventful history.

First published in 1912, Kandinsky's treatise on art lays the theoretical foundation for German Expressionism and for non-objective art in general. This new edition includes not only letters between Kandinsky and his translator, Michael Sadler, but also Kandinsky's unpublished prose poems from the time of the book's composition. With these additions, as well as the introduction by Adrian Glew, archivist at the Tate, this text is an important record of the modernist period. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contemporary Russian Photography is the subject of the FotoFest 2012 Biennial. The Biennial publication is an extensive representation of the evolution of creative photography in Russia from the Khrushchev period of the late 1950’s through the wild experimentalism of Perestroika and its aftermath in the 1990s to the work of young Russian photographers today. The presentation of Russian photography shows the remarkable breadth of the photographic arts in Russia over the past 56 years. The essays provide a re-examination of the history of creative photography in Russia after Stalinism. The Russian art works are part of a two-volume publication with essays and images representing the renowned Biennial’s major exhibitions. The publication contains over 300 color images, curatorial essays, artist and curator bios, with website information. The history of Russian creative photography since the late 1950s, its artists and art works are the subjects of essays by the leading Russian curators and independent art historians, Evgeny Berezner and Irina Tchmyreva, Ph.d. As Deputy Director General for photography and multi-media projects at the ROSIZO State Museum and Exhibition Center of the Russian Ministry of Culture, Mr. Berezner curated over 150 exhibitions of contemporary and classical Russian photography. Irina Tchmyreva is the senior researcher for photography at the Department of Russian Art of the 20th Century in the State Research Institute of Art History in The Russian Academy of Fine Arts. She has written widely on Russian photography.