This beautifully illustrated book takes readers inside Samuel and Gabrielle Lurie's dynamic private collection of contemporary British art, an intended gift to the Yale Center for British Art. Spanning the past four decades, the collection includes major works by Ian Stephenson, Patrick Caulfield, and John Walker, as well as important prints by Howard Hodgkin and R. B. Kitaj. At its core are 52 paintings and drawings by John Hoyland, widely considered one of Britain's foremost abstract painters. The Independent Eye features an interview with the Luries, as well as essays by leading critics and writers, some of whom were and are personally acquainted with the artists represented. These experts assess individual artists and works, explore their inspirations and methods, and define their shared experiences and values. They also address subjects such as the overall importance of the collection and postwar art in Britain.Distributed for the Yale Center for British ArtExhibition Schedule:Yale Center for British Art(09/16/10-01/02/11)

The captivating story of the first global cosmetics empire, the fascinating woman who built it, and the past she preferred to leave behind

'Because of Trumble's surgical precision, his empathy and self-awareness, his humour, his grace, his exquisite visual sense … in his hands the facts of Rubinstein's life take on new and startling significance.' —Sarah Krasnostein

Helena Rubinstein (1872–1965) is best known for creating the world's first global cosmetics empire. At its height, her name was synonymous with glamour, with salons in Paris, London and New York, and beauty products sold at cosmetics counters around the world.

Much less well known are the years Rubinstein spent in Australia before she was famous. Recently arrived from Poland, aged twenty-three and speaking little English, she worked as a governess and waitress before opening her first salon in Melbourne in 1902. In this captivating and wryly entertaining portrait, Angus Trumble retraces Rubinstein's forgotten Australian years. Later, Rubinstein worked hard to suppress key details of her early life, but they reveal the origins of her extraordinary rise. In the laneways of Melbourne and the dusty streets of Coleraine, we see her laying the foundations of a global empire.

This is the fascinating story of an enigmatic woman, the myth she carefully curated, and the past she preferred to leave behind.

With a foreword by Sarah Krasnostein

'Angus Trumble, scoured records to chart Rubinstein's progress to Sydney, New Zealand and on to a global empire … Rubinstein's motto, "Beauty is power", proved a shrewd prediction.' —Robyn Douglass, The Herald Sun

In this collision between art and science, history and pop culture, the acclaimed art historian Angus Trumble examines the finger from every possible angle. His inquiries into its representation in art take us from Buddhist statues in Kyoto to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, from cave art to Picasso's Guernica, from Van Dyck's and Rubens' winning ways with gloves to the longstanding French taste for tapering digits. But Trumble also asks intriguing questions about the finger in general: how do fingers work, and why do most of us have five on each hand? Why do we bite our nails? This witty, odd and fascinating book is filled with diverse anecdotes about cow-milking, the fingerprint of a grave robber in King Tut's tomb and a woman in Trumble's local bank whose immensely long, coiled fingernails do not prevent her from signing a check. Side by side with historical discussions of rings and gloves and nail varnish are meditations on the finger's essential role in writing, speech, sports, crime, law, sex and, of course, the eponymous show of contempt.

In this collision between art and science, history and pop culture, the acclaimed art historian Angus Trumble examines the finger from every possible angle. His inquiries into its representation in art take us from Buddhist statues in Kyoto to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, from cave art to Picasso's "Guernica", from Van Dyck's and Rubens' winning ways with gloves to the longstanding French taste for tapering digits. But Trumble also asks intriguing questions about the finger in general: how do fingers work, and why do most of us have five on each hand? Why do we bite our nails? This witty, odd and fascinating book is filled with diverse anecdotes about cow-milking, the fingerprint of a grave robber in King Tut's tomb and a woman in Trumble's local bank whose immensely long, coiled fingernails do not prevent her from signing a check. Side by side with historical discussions of rings and gloves and nail varnish are meditations on the finger's essential role in writing, speech, sports, crime, law, sex and, of course, the eponymous show of contempt.

This beautifully illustrated book takes readers inside Samuel and Gabrielle Lurie's dynamic private collection of contemporary British art, an intended gift to the Yale Center for British Art. Spanning the past four decades, the collection includes major works by Ian Stephenson, Patrick Caulfield, and John Walker, as well as important prints by Howard Hodgkin and R. B. Kitaj. At its core are 52 paintings and drawings by John Hoyland, widely considered one of Britain's foremost abstract painters. The Independent Eye features an interview with the Luries, as well as essays by leading critics and writers, some of whom were and are personally acquainted with the artists represented. These experts assess individual artists and works, explore their inspirations and methods, and define their shared experiences and values. They also address subjects such as the overall importance of the collection and postwar art in Britain.Distributed for the Yale Center for British ArtExhibition Schedule:Yale Center for British Art(09/16/10-01/02/11)

The captivating story of the first global cosmetics empire, the fascinating woman who built it, and the past she preferred to leave behind

'Because of Trumble's surgical precision, his empathy and self-awareness, his humour, his grace, his exquisite visual sense … in his hands the facts of Rubinstein's life take on new and startling significance.' —Sarah Krasnostein

Helena Rubinstein (1872–1965) is best known for creating the world's first global cosmetics empire. At its height, her name was synonymous with glamour, with salons in Paris, London and New York, and beauty products sold at cosmetics counters around the world.

Much less well known are the years Rubinstein spent in Australia before she was famous. Recently arrived from Poland, aged twenty-three and speaking little English, she worked as a governess and waitress before opening her first salon in Melbourne in 1902. In this captivating and wryly entertaining portrait, Angus Trumble retraces Rubinstein's forgotten Australian years. Later, Rubinstein worked hard to suppress key details of her early life, but they reveal the origins of her extraordinary rise. In the laneways of Melbourne and the dusty streets of Coleraine, we see her laying the foundations of a global empire.

This is the fascinating story of an enigmatic woman, the myth she carefully curated, and the past she preferred to leave behind.

With a foreword by Sarah Krasnostein

'Angus Trumble, scoured records to chart Rubinstein's progress to Sydney, New Zealand and on to a global empire … Rubinstein's motto, "Beauty is power", proved a shrewd prediction.' —Robyn Douglass, The Herald Sun

In this collision between art and science, history and pop culture, the acclaimed art historian Angus Trumble examines the finger from every possible angle. His inquiries into its representation in art take us from Buddhist statues in Kyoto to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, from cave art to Picasso's Guernica, from Van Dyck's and Rubens' winning ways with gloves to the longstanding French taste for tapering digits. But Trumble also asks intriguing questions about the finger in general: how do fingers work, and why do most of us have five on each hand? Why do we bite our nails? This witty, odd and fascinating book is filled with diverse anecdotes about cow-milking, the fingerprint of a grave robber in King Tut's tomb and a woman in Trumble's local bank whose immensely long, coiled fingernails do not prevent her from signing a check. Side by side with historical discussions of rings and gloves and nail varnish are meditations on the finger's essential role in writing, speech, sports, crime, law, sex and, of course, the eponymous show of contempt.

In this collision between art and science, history and pop culture, the acclaimed art historian Angus Trumble examines the finger from every possible angle. His inquiries into its representation in art take us from Buddhist statues in Kyoto to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, from cave art to Picasso's "Guernica", from Van Dyck's and Rubens' winning ways with gloves to the longstanding French taste for tapering digits. But Trumble also asks intriguing questions about the finger in general: how do fingers work, and why do most of us have five on each hand? Why do we bite our nails? This witty, odd and fascinating book is filled with diverse anecdotes about cow-milking, the fingerprint of a grave robber in King Tut's tomb and a woman in Trumble's local bank whose immensely long, coiled fingernails do not prevent her from signing a check. Side by side with historical discussions of rings and gloves and nail varnish are meditations on the finger's essential role in writing, speech, sports, crime, law, sex and, of course, the eponymous show of contempt.