This radical re-examination of one of the crucial periods of modern British and Irish art demolishes the idea that control of the art world passed after the War from rich individuals to faceless state institutions. Through detailed analysis of unpublished private letters and manuscripts, the machinations of committees, and contemporary newspaper reports, the author demonstrates that the public school and Oxbridge elite retained its hold upon the levers of power within the new state-run art institutions. This highly original book puts history back into the history of art. It approaches the British and Irish art worlds from the historical viewpoint, avoiding theories unsupported by facts. By studying the intricate mechanisms whereby artists turned oil on canvas into money - or not - the book explains how artists' reputations were made or broken. Individual artists discussed include Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Henry Moore, John Piper, Graham Sutherland, Gerard Dillon, Robert Colquhoun, Paul Nash and many more. Readers will be startled and intrigued to find how such artists fought to survive amid the network of powerful individuals, critics and gallery owners that controlled their destinies.
John Rothenstein, son of Sir William Rothenstein, the celebrated portrait painter, was born in 1901, four years after the Tate Gallery had been founded as the national gallery of British art. When Rothenstein took over as its fifth director in 1938, the Tate was in serious trouble: after 1917 when its remit was extended to include the national collection of modern foreign art, the confused dual purpose had placed an intolerable burden on those required to manage an institution still partly controlled by the National Gallery. Furthermore, it had no purchasing budget from the Government and was bound to accept often inappropriate pictures imposed on it by the Royal Academy under the terms of the infamous Chantrey Bequest. 26 years later when Rothenstein retired as Director in 1964, the Tate had acquired a Government grant, escaped the clutches of the National Gallery in 1955, and was firmly established both as the principal collection of modern art in the UK, and the best collection of British art in the world. Yet Rothenstein's career in the art world had never run a smooth course. After a childhood and early professional life dominated by the influence of his father, his curatorial posts in America, Leeds and Sheffield were not without incident, and at times it had looked as if his chosen career would stall. Adrian Clark's thoroughly researched account of the origins and professional life of John Rothenstein, covers his highs and lows and tries to give a balanced view and summary of the achievements of this remarkable human being.
A pioneering collector of Cubist art, the English art historian and critic Douglas Cooper was one of the most important—and divisive—figures in the international art world of the 20th century Born into a wealthy family whose money was made in the 19th century in Australia, Douglas Cooper (1911–1984) built up much of his collection of works by Picasso, Braque, Gris, and Léger in the 1930s. He also trained himself to become a respected art historian, his reputation as a scholar resting largely on his catalogue of the Courtauld Collection (1954) and his catalogue raisonné of Juan Gris (1977). He also organised exhibitions of Gauguin, Braque, and two major displays of Cubism. The second of these, The Essential Cubism, co-curated with Gary Tinterow and held at the Tate in 1983, was one of the most remarkable accumulations of Cubist painting, sculpture, and drawings ever brought together. Based on extensive research and packed with new material and fresh interpretations, Irascible focuses on Cooper’s colourful life and significant accomplishments: his financing and directorship of the Mayor Gallery in London as a young man in the 1930s, when he became close to artists such as Francis Bacon, Paul Nash, Henry Moore, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, and Max Ernst; his wartime experiences as an ambulance driver in support of the collapsing French army in 1940; his job as a senior Monuments Man in charge of tracking down Nazi-looted art in Switzerland; his move to the south of France in the early 1950s, taking his collection with him; and his legendary feuds with leading figures and institutions in the British art world. This book is also the definitive account of Cooper’s collecting, art dealing, writing, and curating.
A Survey of Augmented Reality summarizes almost fifty years of research and development in the field of Augmented Reality (AR). From early research in the 1960's until widespread availability by the 2010's, there has been steady progress towards the goal of being able to seamlessly combine real and virtual worlds.This monograph provides an overview of the common definitions of AR, and shows how AR fits into taxonomies of other related technologies. A history of important milestones in Augmented Reality is followed by sections on the key enabling technologies of tracking, display, and input devices. The author also review design guidelines and provide some examples of successful AR applications.The work concludes with a summary of directions for future work, and a review of some of the areas that are currently being researched. This is an invaluable resource for researchers and practitioners. It provides an ideal starting point for those who want an overview of the technology and to undertake research and development in the field.
How to create higher performing teamsDespite working together in human societies for millennia, why is it still so bloody hard to get teamwork in the workplace right and move together in the same direction? In Teams that Swear, Adrian Baillargeon breaks down the art and science of teamwork and provides numerous exercises to make leading teams that much easier. He reveals powerful teamwork examples, such as which three words can help teams bring up touchy topics more quickly, how a $10 note helped install the right behaviours across an entire department, and how sharing objectives and collaboration improved Cricket Australia's chances of fielding their best team. In Teams that Swear you will learn: Why swearing can be good for you and your teamWhat research reveals about high performing teamsHow to assess whether your team is sinking, spinning or spikingWhat areas to focus on to help your team thriveAt the end of the Teams that Swear, Baillargeon provides readers with his higher performing teams checklist, allowing readers to use this self diagnostic tool on an ongoing basis in his bid to help leaders and their teams shine. Loaded with insightful, practical team-building exercises, and shot through with Adrian's wry sense of humour, Teams that Swear will help existing and aspiring leaders get their teams swearing by each other and not about each other.
The Siege by Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott-Clark - a searing account of the 2005 terrorist attacks at Mumbai's famous Taj HotelOn 26th November 2008 the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai is besieged by Pakistani Islamists, armed with explosives and machine guns.For three days, guests and staff of the hotel are trapped as the terrorists run amok.On 29th November commandos launch Operation Black Tornado. The world holds its breath.The Siege is a helter-skelter thriller, threaded with powerful human stories. By turns tragic and heroic, the events are told through a cast of real characters, who were thrown together in the luxurious, century-old Taj: waiters, chefs, captains of industry, hedge funders, celebrities, tourists, policemen, special forces and terrorists. For the first time, this astonishing book takes us through the news footage and into the heart of the hotel. Each hostage has a choice: hide, run or fight. What would you do?This classic non-fiction account will grip readers of No Easy Day and No Way Down and will be enjoyed by fans of 'United 93' and 'The Towering Inferno'.Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy are the authors of four books, most recently the acclaimed The Meadow: Kashmir 1995 - Where the Terror Began (Harper Press UK; Penguin India). For 16 years they worked as foreign correspondents and investigative reporters for the Sunday Times and then the Guardian. In 2009, the One World Trust named them British Journalists of the Year, having won Foreign Correspondents of the Year in 2004. They co-produce documentaries for British and American television; their most recent for C4 Dispatches, on Pakistan's war on terror, City of Fear, was nominated for an award at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. Currently they are filming new projects in Myanmar and China.
The extraordinary inside story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in the years after 9/11.Following the attacks on the Twin Towers, Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, eluded intelligence services and Special Forces units for almost a decade. Using remarkable, first-person testimony from bin Laden’s family and closest aides, The Exile chronicles this astonishing tale of evasion, collusion and isolation.In intimate detail, The Exile reveals not only the frantic attack on Afghanistan by the United States in their hunt for bin Laden but also how and why, when they found his family soon after, the Bush administration rejected the chance to seize them. It charts the formation of ISIS, and uncovers the wasted opportunity to kill its Al Qaeda-sponsored founder; it explores the development of the CIA’s torture programme; it details Iran’s secret shelter for bin Laden’s family and Al Qaeda’s military council; and it captures the power struggles, paranoia and claustrophobia within the Abbottabad house prior to the raid.A landmark work of investigation and reportage, The Exile is as authoritative as it is compelling, and essential reading for anyone concerned with history, security and future relations with the Islamic world.
Startling and scandalous, this is an intimate insider's story of Osama bin Laden's retinue in the ten years after 9/11, a family in flight and at war. From September 11, 2001 to May 2, 2011, Osama Bin Laden evaded intelligence services and special forces units, drones and hunter killer squads. The Exile tells the extraordinary inside story of that decade through the eyes of those who witnessed it: bin Laden's four wives and many children, his deputies and military strategists, his spiritual advisor, the CIA, Pakistan's ISI, and many others who have never before told their stories. Investigative journalists Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy gained unique access to Osama bin Laden's inner circle, and they recount the flight of Al Qaeda's forces and bin Laden's innocent family members, the gradual formation of ISIS by bin Laden's lieutenants, and bin Laden's rising paranoia and eroding control over his organization. They also reveal that the Bush White House knew the whereabouts of bin Laden's family and Al Qaeda's military and religious leaders, but rejected opportunities to capture them, pursuing war in the Persian Gulf instead, and offer insights into how Al Qaeda will attempt to regenerate itself in the coming years. While we think we know what happened in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011, we know little about the wilderness years that led to that shocking event. As authoritative in its scope and detail as it is propuslively readable, The Exile is a landmark work of investigation and reporting.
This volume assembles essays by 25 emerging and established scholars, who have turned their minds to the art and the writing of it in Southeast Asia from the 19th century to the present. Supplemented by 200 images, surveys of national modernities and expanded thematic discussions play out alongside monographic projects; inclusions and exclusions from conventional narratives and categories of art are critically reviewed. Together, these essays chart new paths of inquiry in the shifting geographies of art in the region.
In the page-turning tradition of Black Hawk Down, the definitive account of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai Mumbai, 2008. On the night of November 26, Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists attacked targets throughout the city, including the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, one of the world's most exclusive luxury hotels. For sixty-eight hours, hundreds were held hostage as shots rang out and an enormous fire raged. When the smoke cleared, thirty-one people were dead and many more had been injured. Only the courageous actions of staff and guests--including Mallika Jagad, Bob Nichols, and Taj general manager Binny Kang--prevented a much higher death toll. With a deep understanding of the region and its politics and a narrative flair reminiscent of Midnight in Peking, journalists Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy vividly unfold the tragic events in a real-life thriller filled with suspense, tragedy, history, and heroism.
Some argued it would save the U.S. after 9/11. Instead, the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program came to be defined as American torture. The Forever Prisoner, a primary source for the recent HBO Max film directed by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, exposes the full story behind the most divisive CIA operation in living memory.Six months after 9/11, the CIA captured Abu Zubaydah and announced he was number three in Al Qaeda. Frantic to thwart a much-feared second wave of attacks, the U.S. rendered him to a secret black site in Thailand, where he collided with retired Air Force psychologist James Mitchell. Arguing that Abu Zubaydah had been trained to resist interrogation and was withholding vital clues, the CIA authorized Mitchell and others to use brutal “enhanced interrogation techniques” that would have violated U.S. and international laws had not government lawyers rewritten the rulebook.In The Forever Prisoner, Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy recount dramatic scenes inside multiple black sites around the world through the eyes of those who were there, trace the twisted legal justifications, and chart how enhanced interrogation, a key “weapon” in the global “War on Terror,” metastasized over seven years, encompassing dozens of detainees in multiple locations, some of whom died. Ultimately that war has cost 8 trillion dollars, 900,000 lives, and displaced 38 million people—while the U.S. Senate judged enhanced interrogation was torture and had produced zero high-value intelligence. Yet numerous men, including Abu Zubaydah, remain imprisoned in Guantanamo, never charged with any crimes, in contravention of America’s ideals of justice and due process, because their trials would reveal the extreme brutality they experienced.Based on four years of intensive reporting, on interviews with key protagonists who speak candidly for the first time, and on thousands of previously classified documents, The Forever Prisoner is a powerful chronicle of a shocking experiment that remains in the headlines twenty years after its inception, even as US government officials continue to thwart efforts to expose war crimes.Silenced by a CIA pledge to keep him imprisoned and incommunicado forever, Abu Zubaydah speaks loudly through these pages, prompting the question as to whether he and others remain detained not because of what they did to us but because of what we did to them.
