Marco Livingstone – författare

A fully updated edition of the most comprehensive illustrated survey of the life and work of Peter Blake, one of Britain’s most popular artists. Since his emergence in the early 1960s as a key member of the Pop Art movement, Peter Blake has become one of the best-known and most popular artists of his generation. Though primarily a painter, he has worked across many media, from drawings, watercolours and collages to sculpture and printmaking, as well as commercial art in the form of graphics and album covers – most notably his design for The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album in 1967. Exploring his remarkable creative output from the 1950s to the present, Peter Blake is the most comprehensive illustrated survey available of the life and work of the artist. Marco Livingstone grounds Blake’s art firmly in his working-class origins, identifying a yearning for the innocence of childhood in his bittersweet paintings of the early to mid-1950s that depict children reading comics or going to the Saturday matinee at the cinema. From that moment, while studying at the Royal College of Art in London, Blake concerned himself with popular entertainments as subject matter, and as the source of formal solutions, for his paintings. The directness with which Blake gave expression to his enthusiasms for mass culture during the 1950s brought him to the forefront of the Pop Art movement before it had even been named, and independently of the investigations into similar areas by other British, American and European artists. The radical nature of his collage paintings of 1959–62, in particular, in which he combined existing imagery from popular culture with unapologetically bold and bright colours, made him a singularly influential figure within British Pop. This fully updated edition includes a new chapter on what the artist has jokingly styled his ‘Late Period’, in which Blake has continued to mine the many strands of his art with undiminished energy and completed some of his most ambitious long-standing projects. As well as the sheer scale of Blake’s production, what becomes clear is the kaleidoscopic variety of subject matter, form and medium to be found in his work, its humour and friendly appeal, and, above all, its celebration of life and humanity.

One of the most popular and influential British artists of recent times, David Hockney (1937–2026) never ceased to change his style and ways of working, always re-energizing his art with new solutions, fresh ideas and technical mastery. Right up to the end of his life, Hockney remained as engaged as ever with the questions he always posed for himself – what to depict, how to depict it and how to persuade the spectator that he or she is an active participant rather than just a passive witness. Originally published to mark Hockney’s 80th birthday, this new edition includes a new preface, afterword and final chapter covering work up to 2018. Tracing a line from the beginnings of Hockney’s career in the early 1960s, the portraits and images of Los Angeles swimming pools, his drawings and photocollages, to his highly acclaimed stage designs for the opera, video works, his iPad drawings and other novel forms of picturemaking, Marco Livingstone shows the continuing preoccupation with invention and artifice that has made this artist’s work at once popular and enduring.

'An utterly compelling rogues’ gallery of the famous, the infamous and the anonymous' The Spectator'Attractive and entertaining ... Hockney’s gifts (close observation and an elegantly expressive line) have always been evident in his portraits' Sunday Times'An elegant framework for an account of a life which is also a study and a celebration of that life’s work … virtually every page turned is another encounter with Hockney’s distinctively expressive sense of line and colour' Times Literary Supplement'A Thames & Hudson treat' VogueDavid Hockney’s belief in the importance of the portrait and his virtuoso skill in creating a sense of close communication between artist, sitter and viewer resulted in some of the best-loved works of the postwar era. From the 1950s on, Hockney’s most persistent subject matter, in paintings, drawings, collages and photoworks, was of people usually very close to him, as well as of himself. These works are narratives of autobiographical relationships: they reflect the intimate and often intense stories of this artist’s life. They also explore different formal ways of representing the passage of time and at the same time the unavoidable but marvellous stillness of portraits. The works include fascinating sequences as he paints his mother or Henry Geldzahler or Celia Birtwell on and off for decades; the special qualities attached to depictions of lovers; and the range of celebrities, writers and artists – Billy Wilder, Armistead Maupin, W.H. Auden, Henry Moore, Christopher Isherwood – who were part of a very full life. The text by a distinguished European critic and curator reinforces the point that this hugely popular English-born artist, who made America his second home, became a figure of worldwide appeal.

Caroline Walker (b. 1982, Dunfermline) has established herself as one of the UK’s most exciting figurative painters of her generation working internationally today. By means of an elegant and seductive yet forthright use of paint, Walker makes paintings that explore ideas of gender in relation to architecture. With a particular interest in femininity, she addresses people’s physical, psychological, emotional, and social relationships with the buildings in which they spend time – whether at home, at work, at leisure or in more mysterious circumstances. By depicting women undertaking all manner of activities, from everyday chores, sleeping, and sunbathing to more obscure or dramatic scenarios, she takes the viewer inside people’s private worlds and states of mind. Some of the women depicted seem lonely, bored, tired, or depressed, while others appear playful and relaxed, whether alone or in company.Often it is unclear who the women are or what their relationship is with the premises in which they are located, raising notions of identity, class, and roles acted out at different times in people’s lives. As many of the locations depicted are luxury houses and apartments, it is hard to say if a particular person is the owner or a tenant, a guest or a maid, opening up economic, political, social, and cultural questions about the paintings – are we looking at the super rich at leisure, house-sitters, holidaymakers, domestic workers, squatters, or actors on set? While the paintings are often charming and appealing, there is regularly something odd or unexpected underlying them – occasionally verging on the threatening or dangerous. Sometimes dream homes can be anything but…The research and development for Walker’s paintings is an elaborate process. Involving numerous life models and actors, she finds properties around the world in which to stage photo shoots. Carefully chosen costumes, accessories and props are brought along, and Walker directs her cast around the property. Following this, the artist makes a number of drawings and oil sketches before settling on a composition to work up into a final painting back in her studio. It is a process that clearly helps to generate the cinematic and theatrical atmosphere that pervades her work. Alongside film influences ranging from Hitchcock to Lynch and recent Hollywood productions, Walker is inspired by artists including Eric Fischl, the Scottish colorists, and current painting from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as by the constructed photography of Hannah Starkey, Gregory Crewdson, and Jeff Wall. Full of contemporary and historical references and influences, Walker’s practice is an engaging journey into the modern female condition and the ‘female gaze’.In Every Dream Home – the first monograph of Walker’s work – features around fifty key paintings, oil sketches, and ink drawings alongside an introductory text by art historian, critic, and curator Marco Livingstone, an essay by independent critic and curator Jane Neal, and an interview with the artist by editor and curator Matt Price.

Exploring the full breadth of work by British artist Adrian Berg RA (1929-2011), and drawing heavily on the artist's personal archive, this book discusses Berg's meticulous engagement with the landscape which resulted in an impressive oeuvre created over a long career.Embracing the figurative when abstraction was in the ascendancy, Berg's artistic mission was to push the boundaries of representative painting to discover new interpretations of familiar scenes. Accordingly, his paintings revisited particular places repeatedly — most notably the view of Regent's Park from his studio window at Gloucester Gate.Highly colourful and engagingly written, this book provides a long overdue appraisal and celebration of an artist who is key to the conversation around the development of British landscape painting, that most celebrated of British traditions.

Joe Tilson RA (1928-2023) was one of the great figures in post-war British art and a pivotal artist of the British Pop Art movement during the 1960s. His work ever evolving, he explored many new directions and a great variety of mediums after moving away from his Pop origins. Astonishingly, no general monograph documenting all these phases of Tilson’s prolific production has ever been published. This book remedies this through a series of insightful chapters, exploring each decade of the artist’s career, written by Marco Livingstone, a respected authority on British contemporary art. Featuring a lively and visually rich design, this unique work will guide the reader through the evolution of one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary British art.

_Uncertain Swimmer_ is the second monograph on the work of British artist Jonathan Wateridge (b. 1972, Lusaka, Zambia), presenting around eighty paintings and works on paper made between 2019 and 2022\. Following on from the bodies of work Enclave and Expatria (2016–18), _Uncertain Swimmer_ develops the artist’s interest in modes of representation and the legacies of twentieth-century modernist painting through a visual and social exploration of the motif of the pool, depicting swimmers and sunbathers, often by night. Far from being an escapist environment of aspiration and privilege, Wateridge imbues the pool with a disquieting atmosphere, creating a cumulative feeling of unease and ennui among those present, now seemingly unsure of their world. The publication charts a marked evolution in the artist’s style from the realism of his earlier paintings with complex multi-figure compositions to more solitary, gestural and expressive works. His masterly application of paint takes new forms in the beautiful, curious and often haunting paintings and works on paper showcased here. Art historian and curator Marco Livingstone’s essay considers the change from Wateridge’s naturalistic paintings to the flattened, reduced shapes, forms and lines of the modernism- and abstraction-infused pieces he is making today. Francis Bacon, Edvard Munch and Paul Cézanne are among numerous art historical influences cited by Livingstone, who ruminates on the identity of the people in Wateridge’s portraits and the mercurial spaces they occupy, examining how Wateridge’s current critical preoccupations have transitioned from the autobiographical to more formal concerns.In the featured conversation between Wateridge and fellow painter Caroline Walker, the two artists discuss their overlapping experiences studying painting at Glasgow, as well as Wateridge’s fourteen-year break from painting until 2005\. He eventually returned to the medium when he realised it excited him more than anything else. Wateridge elaborates on his fascinating painting process, staging shoots in studios with hired actors and using elements from the photographs in the paintings, often over a period of years. On his canvases, he will scrape back the paint and reapply it, frequently taking pictures of the paintings in their various stages; he will then print the photographs and draw over them to continue working out what he will do with the final paintings. For Wateridge, a painting works when it stops failing, and he embraces unforeseen conclusions.Jonathan Wateridge has recently exhibited with the Hayward Gallery, London; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, New York and Brussels; TJ Boulting, London; Galerie Haas, Zurich; Pace Gallery and HENI, London. Wateridge's art is in the collections of institutions worldwide, including Aïshti Foundation, Lebanon; Pinault Foundation, Venice; the Saatchi Collection, London; the Rennie Collection, Vancouver; and Simmons & Simmons, London. He has been featured in publications such as _The Sunday Times, The Independent, Fad Magazine, Artforum_ and _Artnet_. Wateridge is represented by Nino Mier Gallery.

_R.B. Kitaj: London to Los Angeles_ explores the relationship between Kitaj’s art and the places where he lived. This is the first significant publication about the artist in over a decade and provides a chronological overview of Kitaj’s career. Published to accompany Piano Nobile’s exhibition of the same title, it includes 43 paintings and drawings with catalogue entries containing original research, in many cases presenting new information about Kitaj's sources and sitters for the first time.The book contains three essays, which describe the artist's lives in London and Los Angeles. Andrew Dempsey recounts Kitaj’s relationship with artists, institutions and art critics during his thirty-eight-year period in London. Colin Wiggins, who worked with Kitaj on his National Gallery exhibition in 2001, writes about the artist’s last decade in Los Angeles. Marco Livingstone in his essay remembers the long correspondence he shared with Kitaj. A further section includes extended excerpts from Kitaj’s letters to Livingstone, which are now held by the Tate Archive and are published here for the first time.