The arts of Africa, Oceania, and Native America famously inspired twentieth-century modernist artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Max Ernst. Was this a cross-cultural discovery to be celebrated? Or just one more example of Western colonial appropriation?

What might a “decolonized” art history look like? Over the last half-century, scholarship emerged that gave the arts of Africa, Oceania, and Native America dedicated attention—though often in terms associated with tribal art connoisseurship, without acknowledgment of the colonial contexts of Indigenous art traditions or histories of appropriation and violence, and often stopped short of engaging with Indigenous visions or voices. “Decolonization” refers to an event, a liberation. In one sense, decolonization has happened: it was the moment of national independence for formerly colonized nations across Africa, Asia, and Oceania. But from another perspective, more prominent in current debate, decolonization is ongoing. What work does art do now, toward decolonization? And how can we, the audience, be active agents in redefining these histories?

Possessions, first published in 1999, offered a dynamic and genuinely cross-cultural art history, focused on the encounter, or the confrontation, in Australasia between the visual cultures of European colonization and Indigenous expressions. This new edition of Possessions contributes to today’s debates on diversity and race, giving voice to Indigenous artists and their continued presence in contemporary art today. A new introduction and concluding chapter frame the book in the present day, with recent studies, catalogs, and updated references.

Every time an artist portrays a human subject, a decision has to be made about the posture of the figure. Will they be standing, sitting, or reclining? Smiling, screaming, or weeping?

Never before given such dedicated attention, Postures argues that the gestures portrayed in a work of art can reflect the mores of a particular period in history, the customs of a certain culture, or a fashion in artistic styles. Exploring these with masterful subtlety, celebrated artist and anthropologist Desmond Morris uncovers fascinating insights about changing social attitudes and conventions throughout history, finding surprising similarities and significant differences.

Morris’s vast selection of gestures, from the handshake to the glove-slap, are analyzed and grouped according to wider forms of communication—greetings, threats, insults, and more. All are illustrated with full color works, ranging from prehistoric masks and Greek statues to contemporary paintings and sculptures. Postures uniquely combines Morris’s expertise in both art and social science, shedding new light on even the most familiar paintings.

French flower painter Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) devoted himself exclusively to capturing the diversity of flowering plants in watercolor paintings which were then published as copper engravings, with careful botanical descriptions. The darling of wealthy Parisian patrons including Napoleon’s wife Josephine, he was dubbed “the Raphael of flowers,” and is regarded to this day as a master of botanical illustration.

This elegant catalogue brings together all engravings from Redouté’s illustrations of Roses and Choix des plus belles fleurs (Selection of the Most Beautiful Flowers) and the most astounding images from The Lilies. Offering a vibrant overview of Redouté’s admixture of accuracy and beauty, it is also a privileged glimpse into the magnificent gardens and greenhouses of a bygone Paris.

Ontdek de betoverende tuin van Rubens