New Releases by Aaron Rosen

Some of the most compelling spiritual insights today come from artists, both through their art and what they say about it. Yet interviewers and critics rarely ask artists searching questions about their spiritual interests, missing a key feature in the landscape of contemporary art. With a fresh, jargon-free style, Aaron Rosen—a leading scholar, writer, and curator—addresses this gap. He takes readers into studios, galleries, and worship spaces as he paints a compelling picture of art and spirituality today through essays and interviews. As the title suggests, Rosen pays special attention to places where spiritual traces might appear hidden, fleeting, or on the edge of possibility, which creates room for readers to ruminate on their own spiritual leanings and interests. Rosen focuses on close engagements with individual artists, from established names to emerging talents, drawing upon close relationships with artists from across the globe and many traditions. With more than sixty color images of works ranging from paintings to performances, this volume is essential reading for those looking to see art today in a new light.

Imagine having 5,000 of human history''s most amazing artefacts at your fingertips! Go on a trip through the famous Metropolitan Museum of Art without ever leaving your home! Prepare to explore the treasures of the world''s civilizations-from ancient Egyptian amulets, Mayan jewelry, and prehistoric tools-to Medieval tapestries, Renaissance suits of armor, and modern-day baseball cards. Each page brings you closer to the past as you learn about the people of different ages through the objects they left behind. Discover hand-picked highlights of the museum''s huge collection as you travel through history, one incredible object at a time. This book combines exclusive Met photography with colorful and quirky illustrations in a resource that parents can trust, with a design that kids will love. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

What would Jesus see if he looked at the world around us today? In these pages, Aaron Rosen, one of the world''s leading experts on art and religion, tackles this question by considering Jesus as a visual thinker. He invites readers to use their imagination to explore with him how Jesus saw, what he saw, and why it is important today. Rosen brings a fresh lens to the Gospels, informed by his experience as an art curator and scholar, as well as his life as a practicing Jew married to an Episcopal priest. He examines Jesus''s eye for spectacle, his strategies for attentiveness, and his tools for discerning truth amid the flurry of false appearances. As Rosen applies Jesus''s unique ways of seeing the world to key challenges facing society today, he taps a surprising trove of examples drawn from art, current events, and popular culture. At the core of Jesus''s ministry, Rosen finds, is a call to look at our world--especially those who are most disadvantaged--with radical empathy. In a time when our eyes have grown weary and unfocused, Rosen argues, Jesus offers us the chance to see the world with renewed vision, focused on those who need us most.

On Brick and Mortar Retailing, the easy way to learn the things you''ll have to learn the hard way in retailing, is a different kind of business book. It deals primarily with the relationships and feelings among the players in the retail drama, rather than the technical side of the business. The players include you, as the potential or actual owner, partners, employees, customers, lawyers, nasty and annoying people of all sorts (folks who will never spend a dime, salespeople, flimflammers, thieves and con-artists, to name but a few), landlords, suppliers, significant others and business associates. The first part of the book, "Retail Tales", describes many of the interactions I had with the nasties, mentioned above, and how I dealt with them - sometimes well and sometimes not very well. If you are a potential retailer, these stories, though difficult to believe, will prepare you for life in the real world and, hopefully, the bad things may not depress you as much as they did me. As they say, forewarned is forearmed. The second part, "Retail Realities", covers some of the aspects of buying or starting a business, operating and managing it and managing yourself. The emphasis is again on human interactions and the effect of your behavior and performance on others and their behavior on you. Reading and thinking about these things in the cold light of day before they occur, rather than in the heat of battle, may make the difference between your happiness or depression and, therefore, your success or failure in retailing.

Contemporary artists are engaging more deeply than ever with religious imagery, themes, practices, and audiences. With a bracing, jargon-free style, Aaron Rosen—a leading scholar, art critic, and curator—takes readers into studios, galleries, and worship spaces as he paints a compelling picture of art and religion today. Focusing on individual artists, from eminent names to emerging stars, Rosen’s essays and interviews tackle key questions, from how art might sustain communities to how it might offer new approaches to conflict resolution. Drawing on years spent developing relationships with artists around the globe—from Algeria to India to the United States—Rosen gets artists to talk, often for the first time, about how religion impacts their practice. Whether inspiring or unsettling, these brushes with faith challenge and invigorate the artists in question, and those who ponder the results. Replete with more than seventy color images of works ranging from video art to outdoor installations, this volume is indispensable reading for those looking to see contemporary art in a new light.

A child’s introduction to art history through the centuries and across the globe A Journey Through Art is a global history of art with a time- travel twist, taking young readers on a expedition from the Paleolithic period to the present day, voyaging to thirty locations around the world. As readers travel from one incredible destination to the next, they discover the amazing network of caves carved into the rock in AD 500 at Ajanta, India; Cambodia’s Angkor Wat as it stood in AD 1200; the glories of Renaissance Florence in AD 1500; and the remarkable energy of New York in the 1950s. At every location readers encounter stories of artworks and the cultures that surrounded them. The journey is chronological with three sections: prehistoric and ancient; medieval and early modern; and modern and contemporary. Two beautifully illustrated spreads showcase each destination, allowing children to engage with the art, artifacts, and culture of a unique place in time as Aaron Rosen tells the story of how art developed across the world.

Where''s your creativity? It''s the tingle in your toes, or the hop in your step when you have a brand-new idea. It makes you want to do something that hasn''t been done before. Where''s Your Creativity? is an inspirational picture book for young creatives. The fun and rhythmic text looks at ways children can express themselves creatively each day and sets imaginations alight with ideas. With bold and colorful illustrations, this book explores all areas in which children can express their individual creativity, including dance, music, food, literature and art.

5,300 years ago a man was killed protecting a deadly secret. Was he part of a conspiracy, or did he simply stumble onto something he shouldn''t have? In the Iceman Recovery the series takes a step back in time approximately five years before the events the first five books when the full operational RAMS team, the Sneaky Bastards, were still in business. The team''s agency handler sends them on a secretive mission to find a mysterious cave that''s been lost for thousands of years. Almost from the first day people start dying as seemingly tragic accidents stalk the expedition. But nothing stops the RAMS team when the Fat Man, Q, and the rest of the Sneaky Bastards are on the hunt. The team has to unravel a Stone Age mystery with a modern twist and, as always, they can trust no one. From India, to England, to the Italian Alps, the team has to fight the terrain, a shadowy cult protecting an ancient secret, and their own maverick personalities to unlock the mystery of an ancient cave that men have died hunting for centuries. It''s a new beginning for the series and another adventure for the RAMS team. Once you start, you won''t be able to put it down.

Close distances

Short-listed for the Art and Christian Enquiry/Mercers'' International Book Award 2009: ''a book which makes an outstanding contribution to the dialogue between religious faith and the visual arts''. What does modern Jewish art look like? Where many scholars, critics, and curators have gone searching for the essence of Jewish art in Biblical illustrations and other traditional subjects, Rosen sets out to discover Jewishness in unlikely places. How, he asks, have modern Jewish painters explored their Jewish identity using an artistic past which is- by and large - non-Jewish? In this new book we encounter some of the great works of Western art history through Jewish eyes. We see Matthias Grunewald''s Isenheim Altarpiece re-imagined by Marc Chagall (1887-1985), traces of Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca in Philip Guston (1913-1980), and images by Diego Velazquez and Paul Cezanne studiously reworked by R.B. Kitaj (1932-2007). This highly comparative study draws on theological, philosophical and literary sources from Franz Rosenzweig to Franz Kafka and Philip Roth. Rosen deepens our understanding not only of Chagall, Guston, and Kitaj but also of how art might serve as a key resource for rethinking such fundamental Jewish concepts as family, tradition, and homeland.

Blaspheming artists get all the press. Some exploit the shock potential of religious imagery - but many also reflect deeply on spiritual matters and are, in fact, some of the most profound and sensitive commentators on religion today. Here, Aaron Rosen shows how religious themes and images permeate the work of contemporary artists from across the globe. Contrary to the expectations of twentieth-century rationalists, religion has not faded away in the 21st century, but roared back onto the scene with renewed vitality. This survey shows how religious themes and images continue to permeate the work of contemporary artists from across the globe. Some exploit the shock potential of religious imagery, but many also reflect deeply on spiritual matters. The introduction outlines the debates and controversies that the art-religion connection has precipitated throughout history. Each of the book''s chapters opens by introducing a theme - ideas about creation, the sublime, wonder, diaspora and exile, religious and political conflict, ritual practice, mourning and monumentalizing, environmental art and sacred space - followed by a selection of works of art that develop that theme. The book encompasses a wide range of media and genres, from sculpture to street art, and considers faith in its broadest sense - from Islam and Christianity to Aboriginal mythology and meditation. Artists discussed include Ai Weiwei, Francis Alÿs, Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Cristo and Jeanne-Claude, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, Mona Hatoum, David LaChapelle, Richard Long, Annette Messager, Mariko Mori, Grayson Perry, Richard Serra, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Bill Viola, Mark Wallinger and more.

""When you''re in New York" the sculptor Louise Nevelson once said, "you''re in perpetual resurrection." She might have said the same thing about St. Peter''s Lutheran Church, set in the heart of midtown Manhattan. In the 1970s the church made a radical move, scrapping its neo-gothic building for a sleek modern structure in the shadow of a skyscraper. The transformation was not just architectural. Inside, Nevelson created a shimmering chapel, while over the years artists and designers such as Willem de Kooning, Kiki Smith, and Massimo and Lella Vignelli produced works for the sanctuary. This fusion of modern art, architecture, and design was complemented by an innovative jazz ministry, including funerals for Billy Strayhorn and John Coltrane, and performances by Duke Ellington and other jazz legends. For the first time, this volume examines the astounding cultural output of this single church. Just as importantly, the story of St. Peter''s serves as a springboard for wider reflections on the challenges and possibilities which arise when religion and art intersect in the modern city. Working from a wide range of disciplines, including art history, theology, musicology, and cultural studies, a distinguished group of scholars demonstrate that this church at the center of New York City deserves an equally central place in contemporary scholarship."--Provided by publisher.

A selection of new poems reflecting Rosen''s appreciation for love and language

A poet of wit, spit, and polish, Aaron Rosen deals with two major themes, love and language, each held close and at furthest distance. He is simultaneously spare and rich; he is a master of opposites brought into close proximity, call it storm and calm, or the proximity of appearance and illusion, certainty and hesitation. His is a poetry of discovery and preservation--the structures of his art.

And efficiency in practice.

Rosen is a master of opposites brought into close proximity, call it storm and calm, or the proximity of appearance and illusion, certainty and hesitation. His is a poetry of discovery and preservation--the stuctures of his art.