Totem

Sculpture expert and art historian Jo Baring animates the human story of sculpture across the globe. Featuring 70 specially commissioned B&W illustrations

Groundbreaking

This lively and passionate book celebrates all the ways that sculpture roots us into first-hand physical experience - both of the world and our innermost feelings

Like visiting a gallery with a knowledgeable friend, Jo Baring takes us on a personal journey through her specialist subject, guided not by chronology but passion and intrigue. Following connections between works as they speak to one another across time and cultures, she skilfully weaves together a compelling case for the power and magic of sculpture. Totem is a captivating enquiry into the curious human impulse to capture the intangible in the most physical of forms

An eye-opening, soul-stirring wonder of a book. Jo Baring has travelled to some of the most remote places on Earth to tell the story of sculpture through the people and places that made them. She doesn't seek to pluck out the heart of a sculpture's mystery, but guides us - gently, wittily and insightfully - towards finding power and meaning in them for ourselves. A glorious blend of travel and nature writing, history and biography, this is a book about things made of metal, wood and stone that gets to the heart of what it is to be human

Praise for Revisiting Modern British Art : 'An intelligent and engaging reappraisal

This inclusive, questioning, invigorating book feels like a game-changer

Through this careful and original reconsideration, modern British art emerges in an expanded form, more relevant than ever and more urgent in its message

Jo Baring is an art historian and curator. She is host of the popular podcast Sculpting Lives and in 2023 was elected as the Frankland Visitor to Brasenose College, Oxford. She is the Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art and a former Director of Christie's UK.

jobaring.com @jobaringart @sculptinglives