Geoff Dyer Knihy

Obsažný průvodce světem výtvarných děl jak nejznámějších, tak i méně známých malířů. Uměleckohistorický exkurz do malířství na 960 stranách začíná malbami z dob starého Egypta a končí výtvarnými díly současnosti. Každé dílo představuje kvalitní reprodukcí a výstižným, zasvěceným popisem. Dozvíte se z něj zajímavé údaje o autorovi malby, poznáte historické pozadí jejího vzniku, osvětlíte si symboliku díla, techniky použité k jeho tvorbě a další souvislosti, díky nimž se na obraz můžete podívat z vícerých a snad i úplně nových zorných úhlů. Předností publikace je její široký záběr. Díky tomu si přitažlivou formou můžete rozšířit své znalosti z dějin výtvarného umění.

Film Andreje Tarkovského Stalker se britskému prozaikovi a esejistovi Geoffu Dyerovi nesmazatelně zapsal do paměti již před třemi desítkami let, kdy jej viděl poprvé. V nové knize nabízí Dyer, autor známý svými žánrově obtížně zařaditelnými texty, svéráznou reflexi tohoto vrcholného díla světové kinematografie, která postupně přerůstá v originální zamyšlení nad obecnějšími otázkami vztahu života a umění. Zóna je výstižnou ukázkou Dyerovy schopnosti objevného pohledu, přesného pozorování a nezaměnitelného autorského hlasu, libujícího si ve střídání poloh, spojování nespojitelného a odbočkách nejrůznějšího druhu. Bezpochyby jde o jednu z nejoriginálnějších a nejhumornějších knih na téma filmu a umění vůbec.

Odvážný a osobitý román, který odhaluje slabiny erotických vášní i touhy po duchovním naplnění. Každé dva roky, při bienále, se Benátky stávají centrem kulturního světa. Přijíždí i Jeff Atman, unavený novinář, jehož vášní jsou večírky a hudba. Životní rytmus mu narušuje jen občasná povinnost napsat článek. Když potká okouzlující Lauru, má pocit, že se mu do žil vrací život, a cítí se jako znovuzrozený. Oba jsou vmžiku strženi do víru milostného vztahu. Zmizí stejně rychle, jako vznikl?

Tohle není kniha o osobním rozvoji. Přední britský prozaik a esejista v ní nabízí originální cestopisný deník z mnoha koutů světa a zároveň poutavého průvodce svou vlastní nepokojnou, bláznivou i přemítavou duší. Ať už popisuje marihuanový rauš v Paříži, hledání amsterdamského hotelu, nástrahy plavby po kambodžských řekách, mladé Američany hledající v thajském letovisku duchovní růst i noční povyražení nebo návštěvu festivalu techna v rozpadajícím se Detroitu, nepřestává fascinovat a bavit jedinečnou směsí postřehů a zamyšlení, anekdot, bizarních dialogů a osobních vyznání.

From Here to There: Alec Soth’s Americ a zeigt erstmals das komplette Spektrum des Werkes von Alec Soth (*1969 in Minneapolis), einem der interessantesten Vertreter der zeitgenössischen Fotografie, dessen fesselnde Bilder vom Alltag in Amerika kraftvolle erzählerische Vignetten darstellen. Neben mehr als 200 Fotografien des Künstlers aus den letzten 15 Jahren enthält die Publikation neue kritische Essays, die Hintergrundinformationen zum Arbeitsprozess des Künstlers bieten, zur fotografiegeschichtlichen Tradition, die seiner Praxis zugrunde liegt, sowie Überlegungen zu seiner neuesten Werkserie. Zusätzlich beinhaltet der Katalog ein 48-seitiges Künstlerbuch mit dem Titel The Loneliest Man in Missouri: ein fotografischer Essay mit kurzen, tagebuchähnlichen Texten, der die Banalität und Langeweile städtischer Randgebiete im Mittleren Westen mit ihren Restaurantketten, Striplokalen und Parkanlagen rund um Bürogebäude einfängt. Ausstellungen: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis 12.9.2010–2.1.2011 Und weitere Stationen

In a series of fictional portraits, Geoff Dyer captures the beating heart of jazz, its pathos and lyricism, urgency and self-destruction: Charlie Mingus in New York; Art Pepper in prison; Lester Young in the Alvin; Bud Powell in Paris. 'Drawing on how he hears the music of people like Mingus, Monk, Bud Powell, Art Pepper and Lester Young, Dyer has constructed eight variations like highly concentrated novels, 80 per cent proof swigs of fiction. The result, I think, is brilliant...His attempts to recreate the drug-fogged, music-drenched, reality-melting, racism-crazed insides of the minds of people like Powell, Mingus, Webster and Chet Baker are unnervingly effective. So too, are his pen-portraits of their music ...his long postscript on jazz today shows that he can operate as a lucid and catholic jazz critic as well' Miles Kington, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Looming large in the cultural imagination as a wild territory to be conquered and the ultimate perimeter of human power, the seemingly untouched landscape of the Arctic has been an inspiration to artists from the Romantic age to the present. Arctic , published to accompany a major exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, brings together a range of artists responding to the terrifying sublime of the Arctic, from Caspar David Friedrich to Sigmar Polke, Sophie Calle, Mark Dion and Joachim Koester. With contributions from geologists, historians, archeaologists and glaciologists, as well as a new essay by Geoff Dyer about the photographs from the nineteenth-century expeditions that provided some of the first glimpses of the region and its inhabitants, this catalogue considers the place of the Arctic in the history and culture of the West at a moment when the region is taking on a new significance as a threatened, vanishing space.

The American writer, John Cheever, died in 1982, leaving behind 29 loose-leaf notebooks begun in the late Forties. They form the content of this book. His commitment to them was of central importance to his life - as a workbook and a retreat, an unhindered act of self-revelation where he could explore his ambiguities. He loved his wife and their children, but was acutely lonely; he loved women, but he also loved men; he hated himself for his drinking, but for much of his life was dependent upon it; he was a great writer, but one whose acute levels of perception often crippled him as a person.

From Ancient Egyptian frescoes to the Renaissance masters, from French Impressionists to American Abstract Expressionists, this highly browsable guide embraces all cultures and every style of painting from 4,000 BC to the present. A visually arresting reference for art lovers and students, it provides a truly comprehensive worldwide gazeteer of paintings organized chronologically by date of completion. Each entry includes the history of the painting, information about the artist or artistic movement, the current location of the painting (all are on view to the public), as well as other details. The works are also indexed by artist and by title, making for easy cross-referencing. Included are popular paintings, key works that are the most breathtaking for their extraordinary power and beauty, paintings that were turning points in the history of art, and rediscovered masterpieces, making "1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die" an art museum in its own right.

By sea and on the airwaves, by dollar and yuan, a contest has begun that will shape the next century. If globalisation has been the driving force of the past few decades, the author argues that a more traditional great power-style competition between the US and China will dominate this century.

The book presents a diverse collection of ideas and themes, showcasing a broad spectrum of knowledge and perspectives. It invites readers to explore various subjects, engaging them with its eclectic approach. The content is designed to provoke thought and inspire curiosity, making it a compelling read for those interested in a wide-ranging exploration of topics.

Sitting down to write a book about his hero D. H. Lawrence, Geoff Dyer finds himself compelled to write about anything else. He is in fact compelled to do more or less anything else instead of write. In Sicily he is too preoccupied by his hatred of seafood to follow the great writer's footsteps; in Mexico he cannot get beyond a drug-induced erotic fantasy on a nudist beach . . . And yet, incredibly, this attempt to write a 'sober academic study' reveals the hold Lawrence and his work still exert on us today. Out of Sheer Rage is a complete one-off, a richly comic study of the combination of bad temper, procrastination and the uncanny power of obliquity.

See/Saw' is an illuminating history of how photographs frame and change our perspectives. Starting from single images by the world's most important photographers - from Eugene Atget to Alex Webb - Geoff Dyer shows us how to read a photograph, as he takes us through a series of close readings that are by turns moving, funny, prescient and surprising.00Following Dyer's previous books on photography, 'The Ongoing Moment' and 'The Street Philosophy of Garry Winogrand', 'See/Saw' brilliantly combines visual scrutiny and stylistic flair. It shows us how a photograph can simultaneously record and invent the world, and reveals a master seer at work.00In the spirit of the intellectual curiosity of Berger, Sontag and Didion, Geoff Dyer helps us to see the world around us, and within us, afresh.

A wonderful, nostalgic novel about youth in London in the 1980s

In the spirit of Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It, his critically acclaimed collection of travel writing, Geoff Dyer is back on the road

In his last book, YOGA FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO DO IT, Geoff Dyer confessed that not only did he not take pictures in the course of his travels but that he did not own a camera. With characteristic perversity - and trademark originality - THE ONGOING MOMENT is Dyer's unique and idiosyncratic history of photography. Seeking to identify their signature styles Dyer looks at the ways that canonical figures such as Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Kertesz, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus and William Eggleston have photographed the same scenes and objects (benches, hats, hands, roads). In doing so Dyer constructs a narrative in which those photographers - many of whom never met in their lives - constantly come into contact with each other. Great photographs change the way we see the world; THE ONGOING MOMENT changes the way we look at both. It is the most ambitious example to date of a form of writing that Dyer has made his own: the non-fiction work of art.

In November 2011, Geoff Dyer fulfilled a childhood dream of spending time on an aircraft carrier. Dyer's stay on the USS George Bush, on active service in the Arabian Gulf, proved even more intense, memorable, and frequently hilarious, than he could ever have hoped. In Dyer's hands, the warship becomes a microcosm for a stocktaking of modern Western life: religion, drugs, chauvinism, farting, gyms, steaks, prayer, parental death, relationships and how to have a beach party with 5000 people on a giant floating hunk of steel. Piercingly perceptive and gloriously funny, this is a unique book about work, war and entering other worlds.

From the acclaimed writer and critic Geoff Dyer, an extremely funny scene-by- scene analysis of Where Eagles Dare - published as the film reaches its 50th anniversary A thrilling Alpine adventure starring a magnificent, bleary-eyed Richard Burton and a coolly anachronistic Clint Eastwood, Where Eagles Dare is the apex of 1960s war movies, by turns enjoyable and preposterous. 'Broadsword Calling Danny Boy' is Geoff Dyer's tribute to the film he has loved since childhood: an analysis taking us from its snowy, Teutonic opening credits to its vertigo-inducing climax. For those who have not even seen Where Eagles Dare, this book is a comic tour-de-force of criticism. But for the film's legions of fans, whose hearts will always belong to Ron Goodwin's theme tune, it will be the fulfilment of a dream. 'Geoff Dyer's funniest book yet. Who else would work in Martha Gellhorn on the first page of a book on the film Where Eagles Dare?' Michael Ondaatje 'One of our greatest living critics, not of the arts but of life itself, and one of our most original writers' Kathryn Schulz, New York Magazine

Could it be that our deepest desire is for it all to be over? A book about the end of days from the award-winning author of Out of Sheer Rage and Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It

The international art event La Biennale di Venezia will take place for the fifty-fifth time from June 1 through November 24, 2013. For this occasion, Germany is not only switching pavilions with France, but is also showing artworks that focus on themes of intercultural and intellectual transference. Susanne Gaensheimer, director of Frankfurt's MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, has curated a selection of work for Germany's pavilion in the building of the French pavilion by Chinese conceptual artist and regime critic Ai Weiwei, the German-French filmmaker Romuald Karmakar, the South African photographer Santu Mofokeng, and the Indian photographer Dayanita Singh. With the selection of these artists, Gaensheimer is continuing her transnational curatorial approach from 2011 that presented Germany as playing an active role in a complex, global structure that benefits from international exchange.0Exhibition: La Biennale di Venezia, German Pavillion, Italy (1.6.-24.11.2013).

I powered through Geoff Dyer's book about his inability to write a book about D.H. Lawrence, Out of Sheer Rage. Funny and self-laceratingly candid but with a nice Nabokovian spin on the fatal and irresistible allure of procrastination.

Luke va a Parigi per scrivere un libro (un'idea poco originale) ed è estate, la città si sta svuotando, per le strade soltanto turisti e chi non può andarsene. Incontra Alex, un inglese come lui che lavora in un magazzino. E' un'amicizia a prima vista. Conoscono Nicole e Shara e se ne innamorano: Luke e Nicole, Alex e Shara. Per un anno i quattro fanno vita comune: frequentano locali notturni, provano le nuove droghe, vanno in vacanza e fanno l'amore, tanto e bene. Luke non scriverà nulla, sarà Alex a raccontare la sua storia, o meglio a raccontare quella parte che comprende lui stesso, Nicole e Shara.

Un investigatore privato dal passato oscuro e dal presente non meglio identificato, che divide equamente il suo tempo fra palestre diurne e sbornie notturne; una donna sensuale e misteriosa, disposta a “starci” ma solo finché e fin dove vuole lei; un uomo d’affari (sicuramente poco puliti) in perenne via di sparizione, di cui nessuno sa più niente da oltre sei mesi, o meglio da sempre, data la sua patologica riservatezza. Guidato dall’istinto più che dalla proverbiale logica deduttiva, l’occhio inquadra paesaggi alienati, imbocca prospettive fantasma e fugge da apocalittici ingorghi autostradali, per poi perdersi in solitarie piazze dechirichiane fino a sfidare il ghigno grottesco e fulminante di mostruose statue medievali, in una drammatica scena madre con svelamento (e relativo rovesciamento) delle parti.