Book Books that shaped the history of art From Gombrich and Greenberg to Alpers and Krauss - Thames & Hudson

Which books shaped the history of art as it developed in the 20th century? This pioneering book serves as an invaluable roadmap of the field by reassessing the impact of several key works in art history. Each of the sixteen distinctive chapters, focusing on one title, is written by a leading art historian, curator, or one of the promising contemporary scholars. By combining these intergenerational contributions, the book presents a diverse and invaluable overview of art history, narrated through its groundbreaking texts. The sixteen books include: Nikolaus Pevsner's gospel of modernism, Pioneers of the Modern Movement, Alfred Barr's legendary monograph on Matisse, E.H. Gombrich's Art and Illusion, Clement Greenberg's Art and Culture, which had a seismic impact when published in 1961, and Rosalind Krauss's The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths, which introduced structuralist and poststructuralist thinking into art historical research. Initiated and prepared under the auspices of The Burlington Magazine, each chapter—featuring writers including John Elderfield, Boris Groys, Susie Nash, and Richard Verdi—analyzes one important book, presenting its premises and arguments, mapping the intellectual development of its author, discussing its position in the field of art history, and examining its significance in the context of both its initial reception and legacy.

John-Paul Stonard's introduction explores how art history has been shaped by these outstanding contributions, as well as by the dialogues and ruptures between them. The supplementary documentation summarizes the achievements of each art historian and provides a detailed publication history of their texts along with suggestions for further reading. Additionally, over 50 illustrations include rarely seen portraits of the writers and covers and spreads from the original editions of each publication.

Reviving debates and questioning the very status of art history itself, Books That Shaped Art History is a concise and brilliant study of this discipline and an invaluable resource for students, teachers, bibliophiles, and anyone interested in visual culture and its histories.

The Thames & Hudson brand was founded in 1949 by Walter and Eva Neurath. Their greatest passion and mission was to create a "museum without walls" and to make the world of art and the research of leading scholars accessible to a wide audience. To reflect international perspectives, the company name combined the rivers flowing through London and New York, represented in its logo by two dolphins symbolizing friendship and intelligence, one facing east, the other west, suggesting a connection between the Old World and the New.

Today, still an independent, family-owned company, Thames & Hudson is one of the world's leading publishers of illustrated books with over 2000 titles in print. It publishes high-quality books in all areas of visual creativity: the arts (fine, applied, decorative, performing), architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and music, as well as archaeology, history, and popular culture. The list of children's books is also expanding. Based in London with a sister company in New York and subsidiaries in Melbourne, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In Paris, another subsidiary, Interart, distributes English-language books in France.

History of Thames & Hudson

Walter Neurath was born in Vienna in 1903. In 1938, he left his hometown—where he ran an art gallery and published illustrated books—for London. Initially, he worked as a production director at Adprint, a company founded by Viennese émigré Wolfgang Foges. Neurath and Foges developed the pioneering concept of what is today called book packaging (or co-edition publishing), where book ideas are developed, commissioned, produced, and sold to publishers operating in different markets and languages to create large print runs, thereby reducing unit production costs. Neurath's concept was the first of many innovations he introduced to the publishing world through Thames & Hudson.

Desiring to continue packaging {collector's books|books} in the second edition and recognizing the need to amortize the high production costs of illustrated books, Neurath established his own publishing house, with offices in London and New York in the autumn of 1949. Eva Neurath, who arrived in London from Berlin in 1939, was a co-founder.

Of the ten titles that were published on the first Thames & Hudson list in 1950, English Cathedrals, with photographs by Martin Hürlimann, was the first and most successful. A testament to the strong belief of the {brand|company} from the very beginning in the longevity of books, it remained in print until 1971. The first year of publication also saw "Out of My Later Years" by Albert Einstein, an early indicator of the program's breadth. With the gradual and successful expansion of the list, which grew from ten titles in 1950 to 144 in 1955, the company moved its offices to High Holborn and in 1956 relocated to a Georgian townhouse at 30 Bloomsbury Street, near Bedford Square, then the epicenter of book publishing in London. The publishing house remained at this address, eventually expanding to five houses, until 1999, when it returned to High Holborn.

In 1958, Thames and Hudson launched one of its most famous series, World of Art, which became the foundation of a very diverse list. Characterized by their pocket size and black spines, the series expanded in just seven years to include 49 titles. Nearly 60 years later, the series featured over 300 titles, of which, according to Christopher Frayling, "there are 'paint-splattered copies' in every art school in the country."

Other important series that added depth and prestige to the list include Ancient People and Places, edited by Glyn Daniel, which since the 1950s has contributed to pioneering interest in archaeology, both in book form and on television. Over 34 titles were published in the series over 34 years. The large-format series Great Civilizations, published in 1961, included contributions from such esteemed scholars as Alan Bullock, Asa Briggs, Hugh Trevor-Roper, A. J. P. Taylor, and John Julius Norwich.
After building one of the most important publishing houses in Europe in less than two decades, Walter Neurath died in 1967 at the age of 63. Sculptor Henry Moore wrote that "his death was a loss to our cultural life." Sir Herbert Read noted that Neurath "more than any other person was responsible for the revolution in publishing art books" and was "one of those rare entrepreneurs who successfully combined business acumen with idealism." Eva Neurath became chairwoman. Walter's son, Thomas, who joined the company with his sister Constance in 1961, became managing director; Constance later served as art director for several decades. Both Thomas and Constance remain on the board of Thames & Hudson, as do Thomas's daughters, Johanna and Susanna.
From producing the first commercial edition of The Book of Kells to the triumphant publication of the six-volume Vincent van Gogh - Letters, from such technical innovations as "French folds" to the controversial documentation of graffiti art in Subway Art, Thames and Hudson has always been at the forefront, both culturally and in production techniques.

The year 2016 opened an extraordinary new chapter for the company, announcing a publishing partnership with two of the world's most important museums: the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The world of art and scholarship thus remains at the heart of Thames & Hudson's publishing program, which remains true to its core principle: providing a "museum without walls."
Today, Thames & Hudson is a recognizable international brand, a symbol of English publishing. In their wide range, they have thousands of original book titles. Many of these are luxury collector's books.