Bøger af Angus Trumble

Every smile is the product of physical processes common to all humans. But since the dawn of civilization, the upward movement of the muscles of the face has carried a bewildering range of meanings. Supreme enlightenment is reflected in the holy smile of the Buddha, yet the Victorians thought of open-mouthed smiling as obscene, and nineteenth-century English and American slang equated "smiling" with drinking whisky.In A Brief History of the Smile, Angus Trumble deftly combines art, poetry, history, and biology into an intriguing portrait of the many nuances of the smile. Elegantly illustrating his points with emblematic works of art, from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European paintings to Japanese woodblock prints, Trumble explores the meanings of smiling in a variety of cultures and contexts. Effortlessly mingling erudition, wit, and personal anecdote, Trumble weaves a seamless interdisciplinary tapestry, bringing his expertise as a writer, historian, and thinker to bear on the art of smiling in this warm and perceptive work.

This meticulously researched and wryly entertaining portrait of Helena Rubinstein (1872-1965) focuses on the years she spent in Australia as a young woman, recovering a 'lost' chapter in the grand narrative of the woman who created one of the first global cosmetics corporations. At its height, Rubinstein's brand was synonymous with elegance and employed 30,000 women around the world. Rubinstein arrived in Australia from Poland when she was twenty-three years old. She lived in Australia for the next eleven years, working first as a governess and then as a waitress, before opening her first beauty salon in Melbourne. In later years, owing to the degree of control she exercised over her glamorous image, many details of her early life in Australia were suppressed. But the events she airbrushed out of her own myth reveal the surprising origins of her extraordinary rise. In this absorbing book, we see her laying the foundations for a global empire.With a foreword by Sarah Krasnostein'An unforgettable portrait of a four-foot ten-inch female Jewish business genius/dynamo. Apart from admiring the extraordinary scholarship, I chuckled at many points at the dry humour - concerning, for example, the mysterious doctor working with raw materials found only in the Carpathian Mountains. The author is also an excellent art and fashion critic.' -Robert Manne

Views of Edwardian era have swung between seeing period as a golden summer afternoon of imperial and elite complacency and starkly conflicting depiction of decade as one of intense political, and artistic instability. This book explores themes of power and a contrasting lightness of touch through architecture, and decorative and fine arts.