Illustrated with stunning new photography, this catalogue details the J. Paul Getty Museum’s phenomenal holdings of ancient glass, spanning three millennia.

The J. Paul Getty Museum’s collection of ancient glass—astonishingly delicate, richly hued, and fancifully shaped—is among the most celebrated in the United States. Ranging from the Bronze Age to the medieval period (1500 BCE–1000 CE), the 584 objects included in this publication originated from a wide geographical area, including the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and central Europe.

This catalogue, written by acclaimed scholar Anastassios Antonaras, begins with a fascinating essay on the history of glassmaking—a highly technical art form that is still practiced similarly today—and continues with detailed and informative entries on the works. Each entry is accompanied by vivid photography. The book also includes a history of the collection, glossary of glassmaking terms, technical study, and full bibliography.

The free online edition of this open-access publication is available at getty.edu/publications/ancient-glass/ and includes 360-degree views and zoomable high-resolution photography. Also available are free PDF and EPUB downloads of the book, and JPG downloads of the main catalogue images.

A showcase of the Courtauld Gallery’s outstanding Parmigianino collection.

Accompanying an exhibition at London’s Courtauld Gallery, this stunning catalog presents works by the Renaissance artist Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, better known as Parmigianino (1503–1540).

Fundamentally a draftsman at heart, Parmigianino drew relentlessly during his relatively short life, and around a thousand of his drawings have survived. The Courtauld’s collection comprises twenty-four sheets. In preparation for the catalog, new photography and technical examinations have been carried out on all the works, revealing two new drawings that were previously unknown, hidden underneath their historic mounts. They have also helped to better identify connections between some of the drawings and the finished paintings for which they were conceived. This stunning illustrated catalog presents the whole Courtauld collection and sheds light on an artist who approached every technique with unprecedented freedom and produced innovative works that are still admired by artists and collectors today.

This fascinating volume explores an important fifteenth-century illustrated manuscript tradition that provides a revealing glimpse of how western Europeans conceptualized the world.

From the classical encyclopedias of Pliny to famous tales such as The Travels of Marco Polo, historical travel writing has had a lasting impact, despite the fact that it was based on a curious mixture of truth, legend, and outright superstition. One foundational medieval source that expands on the ancient idea of the “wonders of the world” is the fifteenth-century French Book of the Marvels of the World, an illustrated guide to the globe filled with oddities, curiosities, and wonders—tales of fantasy and reality intended for the medieval armchair traveler. The fifty-six locales featured in the manuscript are presented in a manner that suggests authority and objectivity but are rife with stereotypes and mischaracterizations, meant to simultaneously instill a sense of wonder and fear in readers.

In The Book of Marvels, the authors explore the tradition of encyclopedias and travel writing, examining the various sources for geographic knowledge in the Middle Ages. They look closely at the manuscript copies of the French text and its complex images, delving into their origins, style, content, and meaning. Ultimately, this volume seeks to unpack how medieval white Christian Europeans saw their world and how the fear of difference—so pervasive in society today—is part of a long tradition stretching back millennia.

This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from June 11 to September 1, 2024, and at the Morgan Library & Museum from January 24 to May 25, 2025.

This is volume 95 issue 1 of Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, in print since 1919, is devoted to new research on works in the museum’s permanent collection. Articles by DIA curators and outside specialists cover all aspects of the collection: African, Oceanic, and Indigenous American art; African American art; American art; Asian art; European art; art of the Islamic world; and modern and contemporary art; as well as prints, drawings, and photographs. Issues may contain a variety of individual articles on select works of different periods, styles, and artists, or be dedicated to a single theme or area of the collection, such as ancient art, portraits, or photography.

This is volume 96 issue 1 of Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, in print since 1919, is devoted to new research on works in the museum’s permanent collection. Articles by DIA curators and outside specialists cover all aspects of the collection: African, Oceanic, and Indigenous American art; African American art; American art; Asian art; European art; art of the Islamic world; and modern and contemporary art; as well as prints, drawings, and photographs. Issues may contain a variety of individual articles on select works of different periods, styles, and artists, or be dedicated to a single theme or area of the collection, such as ancient art, portraits, or photography.

This is volume 97 issue 1 of Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, in print since 1919, is devoted to new research on works in the museum’s permanent collection. Articles by DIA curators and outside specialists cover all aspects of the collection: African, Oceanic, and Indigenous American art; African American art; American art; Asian art; European art; art of the Islamic world; and modern and contemporary art; as well as prints, drawings, and photographs. Issues may contain a variety of individual articles on select works of different periods, styles, and artists, or be dedicated to a single theme or area of the collection, such as ancient art, portraits, or photography.

This is volume 98 issue 1 of Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, in print since 1919, is devoted to new research on works in the museum’s permanent collection. Articles by DIA curators and outside specialists cover all aspects of the collection: African, Oceanic, and Indigenous American art; African American art; American art; Asian art; European art; art of the Islamic world; and modern and contemporary art; as well as prints, drawings, and photographs. Issues may contain a variety of individual articles on select works of different periods, styles, and artists, or be dedicated to a single theme or area of the collection, such as ancient art, portraits, or photography.

This is volume 99 issue 1 of Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, in print since 1919, is devoted to new research on works in the museum’s permanent collection. Articles by DIA curators and outside specialists cover all aspects of the collection: African, Oceanic, and Indigenous American art; African American art; American art; Asian art; European art; art of the Islamic world; and modern and contemporary art; as well as prints, drawings, and photographs. Issues may contain a variety of individual articles on select works of different periods, styles, and artists, or be dedicated to a single theme or area of the collection, such as ancient art, portraits, or photography.

A reframing of collections management in museums worldwide.

Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice redefines collections management as a political, critical, and social project, contradicting its misperception as a set of fixed procedures and universal practices. Highlighting national museums and community-led heritage work worldwide, this book explores the complexities of numbering, digitization, and description alongside the realities of climate change, global pandemics, and natural disasters. The contributors draw on their local experiences to emphasize the varying practices, ethics, and workplace pragmatics defining this work.

When Rutgers professor Amber N. Wiley began teaching her African American Art class in 2018, she and her students made a shocking discovery. While the university’s Zimmerli Art Museum had over seventy thousand artworks in its collection, only one of the pieces on display was by a Black American woman. The students, who came from a variety of majors and reflected the ethnic diversity of New Jersey itself, agreed something needed to be done to correct this imbalance. And so begins the story of the groundbreaking exhibition: Collective Yearning.

In this book, Wiley tells the story of how she and her student curators took a deep dive into the Zimmerli’s holdings to recover, catalog, and display its art by Black women. Along the way, contributors discuss the ethics of curation, the history of African American expressive traditions, and the institutional biases that erase or marginalize Black female perspectives. Richly illustrated with pieces from the exhibition, including little-seen work by such visionaries as Faith Ringgold, Renée Stout, and Kara Walker, Collective Yearning makes a powerful statement on the importance of showcasing Black women artists. 

The first comprehensive catalogue of the Getty Museum’s significant collection of French Rococo ébénisterie furniture.

This catalogue focuses on French ébénisterie furniture in the Rococo style dating from 1735 to 1760. These splendid objects directly reflect the tastes of the Museum’s founder, J. Paul Getty, who started collecting in this area in 1938 and continued until his death in 1976.
 
The Museum’s collection is particularly rich in examples created by the most talented cabinet masters then active in Paris, including Bernard van Risenburgh II (after 1696–ca. 1766), Jacques Dubois (1694–1763), and Jean-François Oeben (1721–1763). Working for members of the French royal family and aristocracy, these craftsmen excelled at producing veneered and marquetried pieces of furniture (tables, cabinets, and chests of drawers) fashionable for their lavish surfaces, refined gilt-bronze mounts, and elaborate design. These objects were renowned throughout Europe at a time when Paris was considered the capital of good taste.
 
The entry on each work comprises both a curatorial section, with description and commentary, and a conservation report, with construction diagrams. An introduction by Anne-Lise Desmas traces the collection’s acquisition history, and two technical essays by Arlen Heginbotham present methodologies and findings on the analysis of gilt-bronze mounts and lacquer.

The free online edition of this open-access publication is available at www.getty.edu/publications/rococo/ and includes zoomable, high-resolution photography. Also available are free PDF, EPUB, and Kindle/MOBI downloads of the book, and JPG downloads of the main catalogue images.

Vividly illustrated, this is the first comprehensive catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s celebrated collection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French silver.
 
The collection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French silver at the J. Paul Getty Museum is of exceptional quality and state of preservation. Each piece is remarkable for its beauty, inventive form, skillful execution, illustrious provenance, and the renown of its maker. This volume is the first complete study of these exquisite objects, with more than 250 color photographs bringing into focus extraordinary details such as minuscule makers’ marks, inscriptions, and heraldic armorials.
 
The publication details the formation of the Museum’s collection of French silver, several pieces of which were selected by J. Paul Getty himself, and discusses the regulations of the historic Parisian guild of gold- and silversmiths that set quality controls and consumer protections. Comprehensive entries catalogue a total of thirty-three pieces with descriptions, provenance, exhibition history, and technical information. The related commentaries shed light on the function of these objects and the roles they played in the daily lives of their prosperous owners. The book also includes maker biographies and a full bibliography.
 
The free online edition of this open-access publication is available at getty.edu/publications/french-silver/ and includes 360-degree views and zoomable high-resolution photography. Also available are free PDF and EPUB downloads of the book, and JPG downloads of the main catalogue images.

The Getty Research Journal is an open-access publication presenting peer-reviewed articles on the visual arts of all cultures, regions, and time periods. The journal will be published through Getty’s Quire software beginning with this issue and made available free of charge in Web, PDF, and e-book formats. Topics relate to Getty collections, initiatives, and broad research interests. The journal welcomes a diversity of perspectives and methodological approaches, and seeks to include work that expands narratives on global cultures.

This issue features essays on a fragmentary Kufic Qurʼan of Early Abbasid style produced in Central Iran; cuttings from a twelfth-century Bible written in southeastern France for a Carthusian monastery in the orbit of the Grande Chartreuse; French archaeologist Jane Dieulafoy’s nineteenth-century documentation of Ilkhanid monuments, particularly the Emamzadeh Yahya, one of Iran’s most plundered tombs; the wartime encounter between Polish painters stationed in Baghdad and Iraqi artists during the British military reoccupation of Iraq in 1941–45; and the integration of photography and poetry in East German samizdat artists’ books of the 1980s. Shorter texts include a notice on a large folding panorama of the city of Salvador in the state of Bahia, taken around 1880 by Brazilian photographer Rodolpho Lindemann.

The free online edition of this open-access publication is at www.getty.edu/publications/grj/19/ and includes zoomable illustrations. Free PDF and EPUB downloads of the book are also available.

The Getty Research Journal presents peer-reviewed articles on the visual arts of all cultures, regions, and time periods. Topics often relate to Getty collections, initiatives, and broad research interests. The journal welcomes a diversity of perspectives and methodological approaches, and seeks to include work that expands narratives on global culture.

This issue features essays on the remembering and remaking of Second Empire table centerpieces by French fine metalworking firm Christofle et Cie during the Third Republic; satirical photomontages by Soviet artist trio Brigade KGK in 1934 for an illustrated edition of Joseph Stalin’s speech; a forgotten but important example of New Deal–era painting by little-known US American artist Bennett Buck mistakenly attributed to Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco; poet David Antin’s turn to talking in the 1970s as oral art criticism; the marketing of a limited-edition portfolio published in 1976 by dealer Harry Lunn featuring prints by Gerd Sander of photographer Lisette Model’s work from the 1930s and ’40s; and the material culture and interpretive program at Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site in Philadelphia shaping the public conversation about justice in the criminal legal system. Shorter texts include a notice on a sketchbook shared between French artist Rosa Bonheur and her father and teacher, Raymond Bonheur, during the 1840s and ’50s. This issue also includes a conversation between scholar Laura G. Gutiérrez and visual artist Felipe Baeza about art making, migration, legibility, and belonging in the context of his project, Unruly Forms.

The free online edition of this open-access publication is available at www.getty.edu/publications/getty-research-journal/20/. Also available are free PDF and EPUB downloads of the book.

The Getty Research Journal presents peer-reviewed articles on the visual arts of all cultures, regions, and time periods. Topics often relate to Getty collections, initiatives, and broad research interests. The journal welcomes a diversity of perspectives and methodological approaches, and seeks to include work that expands narratives on global culture.

This issue features essays on a technical examination of a peacock fresco fragment formerly thought to be an ancient Roman artifact; a necrology of French Jesuit artist Jean-Denis Attiret, court painter to the Qianlong emperor in China; the afterlives of bronze zodiac animal head sculptures from the looted Qing-era Yuanmingyuan; the commissioning of a sepulchral monument in Santiago, Chile, for the late archbishop at the end of the nineteenth century; the effect of non finito in the early twentieth-century work of Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler; a series of performances in laundromats across Los Angeles in 1977 by the feminist art collective Mother Art; and photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe's book from 1986 narrating the history of Black women photographers.

Shorter texts include notices on the placement and subsequent censorship of the two riflemen in David Alfaro Siqueiros’s Los Angeles mural América tropical of 1932, and material traces of performance in the archive of Simone Forti that offer glimpses of the interdisciplinary artist's activities between 1970 and 1972.

The issue also includes a conversation between the curators of the exhibition Lumen: The Art and Science of Light, held at the Getty Museum in 2024.

The free online edition of this open-access publication is available at getty.edu/publications/getty-research-journal/21/ and includes zoomable illustrations. Also available are free PDF and EPUB downloads of the book.

This richly illustrated volume paints a complex portrait of Caillebotte, masculinity, and identity in late nineteenth-century France.

More than any other French Impressionist, painter Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894) observed and depicted the many men in his life, including his brothers and friends, employees, and the workers and bourgeois in his Parisian neighborhood. Male subjects feature prominently in some of his best-known works, such as The Floor Scrapers, Man at His Bath, Young Man at His Window, Boating Party, and Paris Street, Rainy Day. The originality of his paintings of men is fully explored for the first time in this catalogue, published to accompany a major international exhibition co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Musée d’Orsay, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Alongside paintings, drawings, and photographs, as well as an appendix featuring maps and new biographical research that sheds light on Caillebotte’s social network, this volume includes historically grounded thematic essays by curators and leading scholars. By exploring the complex and varied facets of Caillebotte’s identity—as son, brother, soldier, bachelor, amateur, sportsman, and so on—these essays pose questions of identity, leaving space for ambiguous and fluid expressions of gender and masculinity—for both Caillebotte and the larger late nineteenth-century French world.

This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the Musée d’Orsay from October 8, 2024, to January 19, 2025, J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from March 25 to May 25, 2025, and The Art Institute of Chicago from June 29 to October 5, 2025.

The first English-language volume about Hippolyte Bayard, one of the inventors of photography who helped transform the burgeoning medium into an art form.

Hippolyte Bayard (1801–1887) is often characterized as an underdog in the early history of photography. From the outset, his contribution to the invention of the medium was eclipsed by others such as Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851) and William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877). However, Bayard had an undeniable role in the birth of photography and its subsequent evolution into a form of art. He was a pioneer in artistic style, innovator in terms of practice, and teacher of the next generation of photographers.

Alongside an exploration of Bayard’s decades-long career and lasting impact, this volume presents—for the first time in print—some of the earliest photographs in existence. An album containing nearly 200 images, 145 of those by or attributed to Bayard, is among the Getty Museum’s rarest and most treasured photographic holdings. Few prints have ever been seen in person due to the extreme light sensitivity of Bayard’s experimental processes, making this an essential reference for scholars and enthusiasts of the very beginning of photography.

This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from April 9 to July 7, 2024.

I Stand in My Place with My Own Day Here features essays by more than fifty renowned international writers who consider thirteen monumental works of art created for The New School between 1930 and the present. The nucleus of The New School's Art Collection, these commissions—ranking among the finest site-specific works in New York City—range from murals by José Clemente Orozco and Thomas Hart Benton to installations by Agnes Denes, Kara Walker, Alfredo Jaar, Glenn Ligon, Sol LeWitt, and Martin Puryear + Michael Van Valkenburgh, among others.

Providing a kaleidoscopic view into these works, this richly illustrated volume explores each installation through three to four essays written by critics, poets, and scholars from diverse fields including anthropology, mathematics, art history, media studies, and design. Their texts are complemented by three additional essays reflecting on each piece's art historical significance; the architectural contexts in which the works reside on the university's campus; and The New School's relationship to adventurous art practice. Also included is a roundtable discussion among leading arts educators and artists who reflect on the pedagogical potential of a campus-based contemporary art collection. The book's final section presents a history of each commissioned work, highlighted by archival images never before published.

Published by The New School. Distributed by Duke University Press.

Contributors. Saul Anton, Daniel A. Barber, Stefano Basilico, Carol Becker, Naomi Beckwith, Omar Berrada, Gregg Bordowitz, Tisa Bryant, Holland Cotter, Mónica de la Torre, Aruna D'Souza, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Julia L. Foulkes, Andrea Geyer, Kathleen Goncharov, Jennifer A. González, Michele Greet, Randall Griffey, Victoria Hattam, Pablo Helguera, Jamer Hunt, Anna Indych-López, Luis Jaramillo, Jeffrey Kastner, Robert Kirkbride, Lynda Klich, Carin Kuoni, Sarah E. Lawrence, Tan Lin, Lucy R. Lippard, Laura Y. Liu, Reinhold Martin, Shannon Mattern, Lydia Matthews, Maggie Nelson, Olu Oguibe, G. E. Patterson, Hugh Raffles, Claudia Rankine, Jasmine Rault, Heather Reyes, Frances Richard, Silvia Rocciolo, Carl Hancock Rux, Luc Sante, Mira Schor, Eric Stark, Radhika Subramaniam, Edward J. Sullivan, Roberto Tejada, Otto von Busch, Wendy S. Walters, Jennifer Wilson, Mabel O. Wilson

When the Bass Photo Company began its operations, Indiana had been a state for less than a hundred years, photography was less than seventy-five years old, and Indianapolis's centennial was more than a decade away. The capital city was growing rapidly. The Bass Photo Company photographed the local automobile industry, the rise of new office buildings, and activity along the commercial hub of Washington, Illinois, Meridian and Market streets. Included in the volume are 182 nostalgic images of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, leisure activities, individual portraits, street scenes, Monument Circle, a parade of returning World War I soldiers and more.

A powerful visual journey through twentieth-century Mexico, this bilingual volume showcases the iconic photography and creative community that shaped a national visual identity.

Presenting nearly 150 pictures made between 1920 and 2017, Instante/revelación highlights the work of thirteen renowned photographers who feature prominently in the history of the medium in Mexico, including Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Graciela Iturbide, and Pablo Ortiz Monasterio.

Through a dynamic selection of images, the publication explores some of the intertwined sociocultural forces that shape life and art in Mexico. Among the photographs are stunning presentations of landscapes, architecture, and flora and fauna from across the country; depictions of daily life; and portraits of esteemed Mexican artists and writers such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Octavio Paz. An illustrated essay examines the significant role photobooks and periodicals played in disseminating these images.

The photographers featured in this volume are linked by friendship, influence, and collaboration. Their works, when viewed together as a collective narrative, reveal the spirit of fruitful exchange that characterizes this exciting chapter in Mexico's photographic history.

This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from September 1, 2026, to January 3, 2027.

The first publication to feature the full collection of Iznik ceramics at the Benaki Museum in Athens.

The Benaki Museum of Islamic Art in Athens has a substantial collection of Iznik ceramics, intricate works created in the city of Iznik in Asia Minor that are decorated with vibrant colors and designs. Although well known to many who visit the museum, this collection—which includes tableware, tiles, and sherds—has never before been published in its entirety.
 
Archaeologist, scholar, and curator John Carswell first began studying and cataloging these objects in the 1980s. This project has since been revived and guided to fruition by the curator of the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art, Mina Moraitou, who has also contributed a chapter on the Museum’s founder Antonis Benakis and the formation of its Iznik collection. The catalog brings together these admired and sought-after ceramics, featuring over three hundred illustrations of pieces from the Museum’s collection.
 

Representing four centuries of collecting and a thousand years of Jewish history, this book brings together Hebrew manuscripts and rare books from the Bodleian Library and Oxford colleges. Highlights of the extraordinary collections include a fragment of Maimonides’ autograph draft of the Mishneh Torah, the earliest dated fragment of the Talmud, exquisitely illuminated manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, stunning festival prayer books, and one of the oldest surviving Jewish seals in England. Lavishly illustrated essays by experts in the field bring these outstanding works to life, exploring the personalities and diverse motivations of their original collectors.
 
Saved for posterity by religious scholarship, intellectual rivalry, and political ambition, these extraordinary collections also detail the consumption and circulation of knowledge across the centuries, forming a social and cultural history of objects moved across borders from person to person. Together, they offer a fascinating journey through Jewish intellectual and social history.

The Merton library is rightly known for its antiquity, its beautiful medieval and early modern architecture and fittings, and its remarkable collection of manuscripts and rare books. However, a nineteenth-century plan to tear the medieval library down and replace it was only narrowly prevented. This brief history of Europe’s oldest surviving academic library begins with its origins in the thirteenth century, when a new type of community of scholars was first being set up, and follows through to the present day and its multiple functions as a working college library, a unique resource for researchers, and a delight for curious visitors.

​Drawing on the remarkable wealth of documentation in the college’s archives, this is the first history of the library to explore collections, buildings, readers, and staff across more than seven hundred years. The story is told in part through stunning color images that depict not only exceptional treasures but also the library furnishings and decorations, and which show manuscripts, books, bindings, and artifacts of different periods in their changing contexts. Featuring a historical timeline and a floor plan of the college, this book will be of interest to historians, alumni, and tourists alike.

This is volume 48 issue 1 of Metropolitan Museum Journal. Founded in 1968, the Metropolitan Museum Journal is a blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually that features original research on the history, interpretation, conservation, and scientific examination of works of art in the Museum’s collection. Its scope encompasses the diversity of artistic practice from antiquity to the present day. The Journal encourages contributions offering critical and innovative approaches that will further our understanding of works of art.

This is volume 52 issue 1 of Metropolitan Museum Journal. Founded in 1968, the Metropolitan Museum Journal is a blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually that features original research on the history, interpretation, conservation, and scientific examination of works of art in the Museum’s collection. Its scope encompasses the diversity of artistic practice from antiquity to the present day. The Journal encourages contributions offering critical and innovative approaches that will further our understanding of works of art.

This is volume 53 issue 1 of Metropolitan Museum Journal. Founded in 1968, the Metropolitan Museum Journal is a blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually that features original research on the history, interpretation, conservation, and scientific examination of works of art in the Museum’s collection. Its scope encompasses the diversity of artistic practice from antiquity to the present day. The Journal encourages contributions offering critical and innovative approaches that will further our understanding of works of art.

This is volume 56 issue 1 of Metropolitan Museum Journal. Founded in 1968, the Metropolitan Museum Journal is a blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually that features original research on the history, interpretation, conservation, and scientific examination of works of art in the Museum’s collection. Its scope encompasses the diversity of artistic practice from antiquity to the present day. The Journal encourages contributions offering critical and innovative approaches that will further our understanding of works of art.

This is volume 57 issue 1 of Metropolitan Museum Journal. Founded in 1968, the Metropolitan Museum Journal is a blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually that features original research on the history, interpretation, conservation, and scientific examination of works of art in the Museum’s collection. Its scope encompasses the diversity of artistic practice from antiquity to the present day. The Journal encourages contributions offering critical and innovative approaches that will further our understanding of works of art.

This is volume 58 issue 1 of Metropolitan Museum Journal. Founded in 1968, the Metropolitan Museum Journal is a blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually that features original research on the history, interpretation, conservation, and scientific examination of works of art in the Museum’s collection. Its scope encompasses the diversity of artistic practice from antiquity to the present day. The Journal encourages contributions offering critical and innovative approaches that will further our understanding of works of art.

This is volume 59 issue 1 of Metropolitan Museum Journal. Founded in 1968, the Metropolitan Museum Journal is a blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually that features original research on the history, interpretation, conservation, and scientific examination of works of art in the Museum’s collection. Its scope encompasses the diversity of artistic practice from antiquity to the present day. The Journal encourages contributions offering critical and innovative approaches that will further our understanding of works of art.

This is volume 60 issue 1 of Metropolitan Museum Journal. Founded in 1968, the Metropolitan Museum Journal is a blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually that features original research on the history, interpretation, conservation, and scientific examination of works of art in the Museum’s collection. Its scope encompasses the diversity of artistic practice from antiquity to the present day. The Journal encourages contributions offering critical and innovative approaches that will further our understanding of works of art.

The first detailed account of Alfred Morrison, the enigmatic Victorian collector and patron of the arts. 

Although his fame has faded with time, Alfred Morrison was one of the most influential and avid collectors and patrons of the arts in Victorian England. Morrison was an obsessive and comprehensive collector, using his extravagant wealth to accumulate old master paintings, autograph manuscripts, coins and medals, imperial Chinese porcelain, and other treasures, and his commissions were equally eclectic. Millionaire Shopping includes contributions by contemporary museum curators, scholars, and dealers in painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, with each chapter dedicated to a particular aspect of Morrison’s collecting and patronage. Extensive illustrations, including many never-before-seen images from private archives, help bring his impressive artistic footprint to life.  

This visually striking book provides an introduction to the mysterious and dreamlike work of the artist Odilon Redon.

Enigmatic and haunting, the work of the French Symbolist Odilon Redon (1840–1916) intrigues and entrances all who encounter it. During the first half of his career, Redon created dramatically monochromatic charcoal drawings and lithographs, dreamily dark images that plumbed the depths of his wild imagination. Eventually, however, he also turned to pastels, adopting a bold colorful palette in fantastical explorations of the natural world.

Featuring more than seventy illustrations, this publication offers an overview of Redon's career. The informative, accessible essays examine his disparate influences from the worlds of religion, mythology, literature, and music, and demonstrate why Redon’s mysterious work is an important precursor to Surrealism.

This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from July 14 to October 18, 2026.

Alaska preserves and exhibits its own culture and history in the Andrew P. Kashevaroff Building in Juneau, the home of the State Library, Archives, and Museum. With this catalog and guide, the meaning of the museum exhibits gains new depth. Our Story in Many Voices orients visitors to the museum, explains the objects, and explores the changing history and interpretation of Alaska’s story in the many voices of its telling.
 
Charles Wohlforth provides three major text sections—an introduction to Alaska, a summary of the museum exhibits, and a history of the exhibit development process—before the catalog of art and artifacts. Richly illustrated and presenting perspectives from Native and non-Native peoples, the book enhances visits to the museum and helps visitors recall and process their experiences, as well as broaden their general understanding of the state.
 
There is no single history of Alaska. Understanding the place and its peoples can be achieved only by viewing the multiple, complex, and even contradictory ways different people and groups perceive Alaska. Rather than present an official view of the state, Our Story in Many Voices contains independent and critical perspectives that use the extraordinary resources of the museum to consider Alaska’s most challenging cultural issues, reaching toward understanding and reconciliation.
 
 

This volume looks at the techniques and materials that artists have utilized since the Renaissance to create spectacular light effects in drawings.

The treatment of light and shadow is one of the building blocks of drawing. From techniques such as highlights and reserves, to material selection and the creation of translucent tracing paper, to the use of light as a medium for viewing artworks, artists for hundreds of years have found innovative and dazzling ways to create light on a sheet of paper.

This publication examines the central relationship between paper and light in the world of drawings in western European art from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. Focusing on drawings from the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, as well as works from the British Museum, Musée du Louvre, and others, and featuring masterful works by such artists as Parmigianino, Leonardo da Vinci, Nicolas Poussin, Odilon Redon, Edgar Degas, and Georges Seurat, Paper and Light will entice readers to look longer and more closely at drawings, deriving an even deeper appreciation for the skill and labor that went into them.

This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from October 15, 2024, to January 19, 2025.

Poetries – Politics: A Celebration of Language, Art, and Learning celebrates the best of innovative humanities pedagogy and creative graphic design. Designed and implemented during a time of political divisiveness, the Poetries – Politics project created a space of inviting, multilingual walls on the Rutgers campus, celebrating diversity, community, and cross-cultural exchange. This book, like the original project, provides a platform for the incredible generative power of student-led work. Essays feature the perspectives of three students and professors originally involved in the project, reflecting on their learning and exploring the works they selected for the original exhibition. The essays lead to a beautifully illustrated catalogue of the original student designs.

Reproduced in full color and with the accompanying poems in both their original language and a translation, this catalogue commemorates the incredible creative spirit of the project and provides a new way of contemplating these great poetic works.

Copiously illustrated, Queer Lens explores the transformative role of photography in LGBTQ+ communities from the nineteenth century to the present day.

“An outstanding addition to the growing body of scholarship around queer imagery.”
—Jim Van Buskirk, The Bay Area Reporter
 
“A tour de force. . . . A profound collective story of creativity, joy and resistance.”
—Emma Jacob, Aesthetica Magazine
 
“Potent and inspiring. . . . An empowering photography retrospective that reflects American queer communities.”
—Aleena Ortiz, Foreword Reviews
 
“A deeply significant and beautifully produced volume."
—All About Photo.com
 
“Eye-catching."
—Matthew Wexler, Queerty.com

Photography’s power to capture a subject—representing reality, or a close approximation—has inherently been linked with the construction and practice of identity. Since the camera’s invention in 1839, and despite periods of severe homophobia, the photographic art form has been used by and for individuals belonging to dynamic LGBTQ+ communities, helping shape and affirm queer culture and identity across its many intersections.

Queer Lens explores this transformative force of photography, which has played a pivotal role in increasing queer visibility. Lively essays by scholars and artists explore myriad manifestations of queer culture, both celebrating complex interpretations of people and relationships and resisting rigid definitions. Featuring a rich selection of images—including portraits of queer individuals, visual records of queer kinship, and documentary photographs of early queer groups and protests—this volume investigates the medium’s profound role in illuminating the vibrant tapestry of LGBTQ+ communities.

This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from June 17 to September 28, 2025.

To celebrate the acquisition of the archive of distinguished artist Tom Phillips, the Bodleian Library asked the artist to assemble and design a series of books drawing on his themed collection of over 50,000 photographic postcards. These encompass the first half of the twentieth century, a period in which, thanks to the ever cheaper medium of photography, ordinary people could afford to own portraits of themselves. Each book in the series contains two hundred images chosen from a visually rich vein of social history. Their covers also feature thematically linked paintings, specially created for each title, from Phillips’s signature work, A Humument.

Readers, as its title suggests, shows people reading (or pretending to read) a wide variety of material, from the Bible to Film Fun, either in the photographer’s studio, in their own home, or on vacation on the beach. Each of these unique and visually stunning books give a rich glimpse of forgotten times and will be greatly valued by art and history lovers alike.

Collected articles on Iranian art from the Qajar dynasty.

The thirteen articles in this volume were originally given as presentations at the symposium of the same name organized in June 2018 by the Musée du Louvre and the Musée du Louvre-Lens in conjunction with the exhibition The Empire of Roses: Masterpieces of 19th Century Persian Art. The exhibition explored the art of Iran in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while the nation was under the rule of the Qajar dynasty. The symposium set out to present research on previously unknown and unpublished objects from this rich period of art history.
 
This volume, published with the Louvre Museum in France, is divided into four sections. The first, “Transitions and Transmissions,” is dedicated to the arts of painting, illumination, and lithography. The focus of the second section, entitled “The Image Revealed,” also considers works on paper, looking at new themes and techniques. “The Material World” examines the use of materials such as textiles, carpets, and armor. The articles in the final section discuss the history of two groups of artifacts acquired by their respective museums.
 

In almost thirty interviews, Donatien Grau probes some of the world’s most prominent thinkers and preeminent arts leaders on the past, present, and future of the encyclopedic museum.

Over the last two decades, the encyclopedic museum has been criticized and praised, constantly discussed, and often in the news. Encyclopedic museums are a phenomenon of Europe and the United States, and their locations and mostly Eurocentric collections have in more recent years drawn attention to what many see as bias. Debates on provenance in general, cultural origins, and restitutions of African heritage have exerted pressure on encyclopedic museums, and indeed on all manner of museums. Is there still a place for an institution dedicated to gathering, preserving, and showcasing all the world’s cultures?

Donatien Grau’s conversations with international arts officials, museum leaders, artists, architects, and journalists go beyond the history of the encyclopedic format and the last decades’ issues that have burdened existing institutions. Are encyclopedic museums still relevant? What can they contribute when the Internet now seems to offer the greater encyclopedia? How important is it for us to have in-person access to objects from all over the world that can directly articulate something to us about humanity? The fresh ideas and nuances of new voices on the core principles important to museums in Dakar, Abu Dhabi, and Mumbai complement some of the world’s arts leaders from European and American institutions—resulting in some revealing and unexpected answers. Every interviewee offers differing views, making for exciting, stimulating reading.

Includes interviews with George Abungu, National Museums of Kenya; Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York University; Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University; Hamady Bocoum, Musée des Civilisationes Noires, Dakar; Irina Bokova, UNESCO; Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University; Thomas Campbell, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; James Cuno, J. Paul Getty Trust; Philippe de Montebello, New York University; Bachir Souleymane Diagne, Columbia University; Kaywin Feldman, National Gallery of Art; Marc Fumaroli, Collège de France; Massimiliano Gioni, New Museum; Michael Govan, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Camille Henrot, artist; Max Hollein, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Henri Loyrette, Musée du Louvre; Jean Nouvel, architect; Zaki Nusseibeh, United Arab Emirates; Mikhail Piotrovsky, State Hermitage Museum; Grayson Perry, artist; Krzysztof Pomian, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales; Mari Carmen Ramírez, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Fiammetta Rocco, The Economist; Sabyasachi Mukherjee, CSMVS Mumbai; Bénédicte Savoy; Collège de France; Kavita Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Amit Sood, Google Arts & Culture.

 
 

Dante Alighieri’s long poem The Divine Comedy has been one of the foundational texts of European literature for over 700 years. Yet many mysteries still remain about the symbolism of this richly layered literary work, which has been interpreted in many different ways over the centuries.
 
The Unexpected Dante brings together five leading scholars who offer fresh perspectives on the meanings and reception of The Divine Comedy. Some investigate Dante’s intentions by exploring the poem’s esoteric allusions to topics ranging from musical instruments to Roman law. Others examine the poem’s long afterlife and reception in the United States, with chapters showcasing new discoveries about Nicolaus de Laurentii’s 1481 edition of Commedia and the creative contemporary adaptations that have relocated Dante’s visions of heaven and hell to urban American settings. 
 
This study also includes a guide that showcases selected treasures from the extensive Dante collections at the Library of Congress, illustrating the depth and variety of The Divine Comedy’s global influence. The Unexpected Dante is thus a boon to both Dante scholars and aficionados of this literary masterpiece.

Published by Bucknell University Press in association with the Library of Congress. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

How do students develop a personal style from their instruction in a visual arts program? Women Artists on the Leading Edge explores this question as it describes the emergence of an important group of young women artists from an innovative post-war visual arts program at Douglass College.

The women who studied with avant-garde artists at Douglas were among the first students in the nation to be introduced to performance art, conceptual art, Fluxus, and Pop Art. These young artists were among the first to experience new approaches to artmaking that rejected the predominant style of the 1950s: Abstract Expressionism. The New Art espoused by faculty including Robert Watts, Allan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, Geoffrey Hendricks, and others advocated that art should be based on everyday life. The phrase “anything can be art” was frequently repeated in the creation of Happenings, multi-media installations, and video art. Experimental approaches to methods of creation using a remarkable range of materials were investigated by these young women. Interdisciplinary aspects of the Douglass curriculum became the basis for performances, videos, photography, and constructions. Sculpture was created using new technologies and industrial materials. The Douglass women artists included in this book were among the first to implement the message and direction of their instructors.

Ultimately, the artistic careers of these young women have reflected the successful interaction of students with a cutting-edge faculty. From this BA and MFA program in the Visual Arts emerged women such as Alice Aycock. Rita Myers, Joan Snyder, Mimi Smith, and Jackie Winsor, who went on to become lifelong innovators. Camaraderie was important among the Douglass art students, and many continue to be instructors within a close circle of associates from their college years. Even before the inception of the women’s art movement of the 1970s, these women students were encouraged to pursue professional careers, and to remain independent in their approach to making art. The message of the New Art was to relate one’s art production to life itself and to personal experiences. From these directions emerged a “proto-feminist” art of great originality identified with women’s issues. The legacy of these artists can be found in radical changes in art instruction since the 1950s, the promotion of non-hierarchical approaches to media, and acceptance of conceptual art as a viable art form.

In the beginning was basketry. Around the world, the intertwining of fibers by hand to form a container is a most ancient of crafts. It is older than pottery and metalwork, older than loom weaving.

Woven from the Center presents breathtaking basketry from some of the greatest weavers in the Southwest. Each sandal and mat fragment, each bowl and jar, every water bottle and whimsy is infused with layers of aesthetic, cultural, and historical meanings. This book offers stunning photos and descriptions of woven works from Tohono O’odham, Akimel O’odham, Hopi, Western Apache, Yavapai, Navajo, Pai, Paiute, New Mexico Pueblo, Eastern Apache, Seri, Yaqui, Mayo, and Tarahumara communities.

This richly illustrated volume stands on its own as a definitive look at basketry of the Greater Southwest, including northern Mexico. It also serves as a companion to the peerless collection of U.S. Southwest and Northwest Mexican Native American basketry curated at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson, Arizona. Comprehensive in its coverage, this work is based on decades of research on weavers, collectors, and donors. It includes ample illustrations of basket weavers, past and present, bringing to life the people behind these wonderful woven treasures.

The remarkable collection of the UK’s most prolific collector of postwar British studio pottery.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, “professional Yorkshireman” W. A. Ismay (1910–2001) amassed over 3,600 pieces by more than 500 potters. Surrounded by his family of pots, he lived in a tiny terraced house in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and left his collection and its associated archive to the city of York upon his death. This eclectic group of works contains objects created by many of the most significant potters working in the United Kingdom, including Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Bernard Leach, and Michael Cardew, as well as lesser-known makers. 

With new academic research into this little-studied collection and archive, Yorkshire Tea Ceremony explores Ismay’s journey as a collector and offers fresh perspectives on a marginalized area of British Modernism. Tracing the collection’s journey from private to public ownership illuminates issues surrounding the acquisition and reveals the transformative effect it has had on both curatorial practice and the ambition of regional public institutions. The W. A. Ismay Collection offers a well-documented example of the valuable contribution collectors can make to the British studio ceramics movement.

Published to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the collection’s move from private to public ownership, this volume accompanies an exhibition at York Art Gallery’s Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA).