BELLAS ARTES

A major monograph of the American realist artist, descendant of one of America’s most revered artistic families, and painter of dark and uneasy subjects. This book traces a persistent vein of intriguing, often disconcerting, imagery over the career of renowned artist Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946), famous for his hyperrealist paintings of farm animals and Maine lighthouses. The focus in this volume is on the chilling thread that runs through his work, present but not overwhelming, and ever-evolving with his style and subjects. Whether he is introducing curious characters or surveying strange landscapes, Wyeth is at home with uneasy subjects and a master of the unsettled mood

Back in print for the first time in years, this classic of interior-design history showcases the masterful work of David Hicks (1929–1998), who is acknowledged as one of the most important designers of the late twentieth century, in the company of Billy Baldwin and Albert Hadley. Known for his bold use of color, eclecticism, and geometric designs in carpets and textiles, Hicks turned English decorating on its head in the 1950s and ’60s. His trademark use of electrifying color combinations, and mixing antiques, modern furniture, and abstract paintings became the “in style” for the chic of the day, including Vidal Sassoon and Helena Rubinstein. By the 1970s, David Hicks was a brand; his company was making wallpaper, fabrics, and linens and had outposts in eight countries, including the United States where he worked with the young Mark Hampton, and where his wallpaper was used in the White House. “My greatest contribution as an interior designer has been to show people how to use bold color mixtures, how to use patterned carpets, how to light rooms, and how to mix old with new,” he stated in his 1968 work, David Hicks on Living—With Taste, the last authoritative book on his work. Written by his son, Ashley Hicks, with unprecedented access to Hicks’s archives, personal photographs, journals, and scrapbooks, this book is a vibrantly illustrated celebration of a half century of stunning interiors.

Following her success with Nora Murphy’s Country House Style, Murphy celebrates a selection of homes and their homeowners, each exemplifying a different style. For Nora Murphy, a country house isn’t so much a place as it is a state of mind. A country house is warm, welcoming—at once down to earth, yet elegant. A country house has genuine character, tells a story, and is truly, wonderfully lived in. Here Murphy explores the tenets of country house style, as illustrated by her own “new” country house, and the many other striking homes she has curated for the book. Each one of these homeowners has embraced country house style—but each implements it in their own unique way. There is a pastoral 1732 center-chimney colonial in Connecticut nestled in spectacular gardens, a cozy cottage on the coast of Maine rich with local details, and an 1840s Greek Revival in the Hudson Valley filled with romantic Victorian ephemera. Common threads weave through the stories: the thrill of the antiques hunt, the role of history, and the priority of comfort.