Edward Lucie-Smith is een vooraanstaand Engels dichter en kunstcriticus, erkend voor zijn uitgebreide bijdragen aan de kunstwereld. Zijn productieve oeuvre duikt voornamelijk in kunstgeschiedenis, biografieën en poëzie, en toont een diepgaand begrip van artistieke processen. Lucie-Smith heeft ook gefungeerd als curator van kunsttentoonstellingen en als radio-omroeper, wat zijn brede culturele betrokkenheid aantoont. Zijn schrijven wordt gewaardeerd om zijn inzichtelijke perspectief en zijn vermogen om complexe artistieke onderwerpen toegankelijk te maken voor een breder publiek.
Presents some of the most engaging life stories, eventful, intimate and poignant. This book evokes the lives of great personalities, from Picasso and Duchamp to Joseph Beuys and Louise Bourgeois, guiding the reader through the maze of different styles and movements.
There is surprisingly little, and certainly nothing comprehensive, written about the contemporary Russian scene now. What appear in the West are mostly reports about so-called 'dissidents', not about what is happening in this vast culture, taken as a whole. Too often, these reports seem to be primarily inspired by a desire to demonstrate Western cultural and political superiority. The aim of Russian Art in the New Millennium is not to support any one cause, but to look at the situation as it now exists objectively and to give as wide and truthful a view as possible. Russian art during the period under review - the last two decades - has been evolving rapidly and in many directions. Hence there are sections on digital art, landscape paintings, graffiti, religious art and others. Furthermore, in addition to the continuing influence of the traditional centres for art - Moscow and St Petersburg - a number of provincial Russian cities have developed distinctive art worlds of their own. Russian Art in the New Millennium attempts to discover this terra incognita and to encompass this extremely various, but also intensely national art scene in Russia in one volume.