Albrecht Dürer changed the way we saw the world. From his prints of the Apocalypse in 1498—the first works mass-produced by an artist—to his hyper-real images of animals and plants, Dürer proved art is a time-machine.
It allows us to see what we’ve done, and are about to do.
In Albert & the Whale, Philip Hoare sets out to discover why Dürer’s art endures. He encounters medieval alchemists and modernist poets, eccentric emperors and enigmatic stars. He witnesses the miraculous birth of Dürer’s fantastical rhinoceros and his hermaphroditic hare, and traces the fate of the star-crossed leviathan that the artist pursued.
And as he swims through his story, prophetic artists and downed angels ask awkward questions. What’s real or make-believe? Does art have the power to save us? 500 years on, Dürer is still waiting for the answer.
Observer review – Albert and the Whale by Philip Hoare – his greatest work yet
New York Times review – A Wide-Roaming and Personal Meditation on Dürer and His Art
the sulphur-blue sky carved by a crescent moon, slipping into evening's stars my bones remembering the chill of an… t.co/oE8plVm21X
‘I felt selected, for something else’ The Essay - Beyond Borders - Philip Hoare - The Haunted Sea - BBC Sounds t.co/N1B6FrIREI
The best art books of 2021 t.co/JeqcjhXKyH big thanks to @LauraCummingArt @TimAdamsWrites @4thEstateBooks t.co/xN2rQh5QGg
Show Media