Kim Vertue —

Considering the origins and Modern reinterpretations of the imagery of chess… — Chess pieces and game boards have long been symbols of sophistication, style, intellectual and, sometimes, material wealth. The sets of small tactile sculptures present artisans and artists with an almost irresistible opportunity to showcase their craft and, in turn, for owners to proclaim their good taste. I recall a time…

Getting to grips with the first steps toward poetic, painterly genius — Most parents will know that a fascination with socks and feet is not uncommon among children, and it seems the young Joan Miró i Ferrà was no exception. Among the earliest surviving drawings by the pioneering Catalan artist is an illustration of a visit to a chiropodist, dated 1901. Surprisingly…

Magical Powers were attributed to ancient Blacksmiths as they mastered prehistoric technology… and their stories endure — Folklore and Fairy Tales have led to discoveries about the earliest development of iron technologies, uncovering an intricate cultural network that spans the globe. Some stories are older than any of the languages used to tell them… and the oldest ‘folk-tale’ of all seems to be that of a…

James Deegan —

A very brief overview of a long and influential career in art that transcended fashion, leaving a considerable cultural legacy… — Issey Miyake was one of the few fashion designers I own books about. I regularly loaned them to art students I was teaching, for whom he proved a perennial inspiration — and not only for those specialising in fashion and textiles.

How the early work of Herbert Bayer became human-scale environments of positive or negative volumes in the landscape… — Artist and designer Herbert Bayer is perhaps best known for being a Master at the Bauhaus design school, in charge of graphic design, advertising, and typography. In the early-1920s, he’d studied large-scale painting and murals under Wassily Kandinsky at their Weimar campus, where he also devised the Universal typeface by…