The medieval world does not end in Western Europe, and within the last twenty or so years some of the most stimulating art-historical discoveries have been made in the Near East. Moving beyond the confines of Jerusalem and Carthage, this volume considers the art of Armenia, Ethiopia, Coptic Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Mongol East in relation to Byzantium, Cyprus, Italy, and the West. The Christian arts of the Near East, long considered naïve and provincial, are now being reconsidered for their complex liturgical and theological significance. The essays in this essential reference volume cover topics ranging from the classically inspired Christian iconography of Jordan's mosaics, sources and influences of style in Jerusalem and the West, and stylistic interaction between Ethiopia and Egypt to wooden carvings from Coptic Egypt and manuscripts from Antioch as well as icon painting in Lebanon and Cairo. Specific case studies on ivories from the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Monastery Conservation Project, the Edessan Image of Christ, and the Marriage Charter of Otto II and Theophanu are accompanied by iconographical exposés of the Abgar Legend, the Biblical Sarah, and the Çintamani motif. The contributors are Susan H. Auth, Elizabeth S. Bolman, Erica Cruikshank Dodd, Anthony Cutler, Jaroslav Folda, Marilyn E. Heldman, Lucy-Anne Hunt, Mat Immerzeel, Adeline Jeudy, Catherine Jolivet-Lévy, Irma Karaulashvili, Hugo Meyer, Mati Meyer, William North, Michele Piccirillo, and Alexander Saminsky.

A history of our time.

Part of the acclaimed 'Documents of Contemporary Art' series of anthologies. This title comprehensively surveys and looks beyond the phenomenon of "designart" that has emerged since the Pop and Minimalist era: cutting edge, hybrid practices that blur traditional boundaries between art, architecture, graphics and product design. Key debates about form and function, the everyday, the collective and the utopian are contextualized historically and theoretically by leading practitioners and critics from both the art and the design worlds. Contributors include David Bourdon, Peter Cook/Archigram, Douglas Coupland, Kees Dorst, Charles Eames, Experimental Jetset, Vilém Flusser, Hal Foster, Liam Gillick, Dan Graham, Clement Greenberg, Richard Hamilton, Donald Judd, Frederick Kiesler, Miwon Kwon, Maria Lind, M/M, N55, George Nelson, Lucy Orta, Jorge Pardo, Norman Potter, Rick Poynor, Paul Rand, Tobias Rehberger, Ed Ruscha, Joe Scanlan, Mary Anne Staniszewski, Superflex, Manfredo Tafuri, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Paul Virilio, Joep van Lieshout, Andy Warhol, Benjamin Weil, Mark Wigley and Andrea Zittel.