Christo and his late wife Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009, have been drawing a great deal of attention for years with their monumental projects. In 2021 many thousands of art lovers will once again be on the road, this time to Paris. To celebrate the spectacular wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe, the Centre Pompidou is paying tribute to this unusual pair of artists with a large exhibition.

The show and its companion book focus on the period Christo and Jeanne-Claude spent in Paris. Paris means a great deal to the couple’s personal and artistic development. They met here in 1958 and devised the ideas for their first projects together here, as well.

Paris is also the place where Christo and Jeanne-Claude were able to produce their first large public art project, in 1985: the wrapping of the Pont Neuf – a project that has gone down in art history.

Through rarely seen early works, studies, drawings, and collages, the book sheds light on the trailblazing character of the Paris years, as well as on their great significance to the couple’s artistic development afterward.

To the artistic highlight of 2021: wrapping the Arc de Triomphe!

British flower painting has its own unique, if relatively recent, history, but it can only be judged in the light of the wider history of the subject and by comparison with other, particularly European, countries. The first chapter of A History and Dictionary of British Flower Painters, therefore, sets the scene with a brief introduction to floral art world wide before the next four chapters concentrate on British flower painting in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The dictionary provides the biographical details of almost 1,000 British flower painters, offering information regarding their specialities, awards and exhibitions.

Whilst many books have been published about war, the role of the prisoner of war has been largely ignored or paid scant attention. This book, along with the author’s other title – The Arts and Crafts of Napoleonic and American Prisoners of War 1756-1816 – aims to correct this imbalance, and is the result of the author’s quest over thirty years into this almost-forgotten field of history. Part One tells of the various wars that saw the men, from many different countries, become prisoners. Tales of individuals and their voyages, mutinies, fortunes and failures also feature, adding more personal touches to the history and, as with the author’s other title, all the accounts are written in a highly evocative style. Part Two is largely devoted to the prison hulks, describing the vessels and the conditions on board that the prisoners would have had to endure. Many of these hulks were former warships. Now stripped of all their equipment, and with their masts, sails and rigging removed, they sat disabled offshore, filled with their human cargo. Part Three concerns itself primarily with the depots and prisons on land, beginning with a general overview, and going on to explore in greater detail individual establishments and the conditions within. The final three chapters in this section deal with the terms and conditions of various types of parole – many officers granted parole were able to live almost as free men, as long as they did not take up arms against their captors – as well as the punishments to be expected should parole be broken. Written with numerous personal accounts, and drawing upon many years of painstaking and dedicated research, this important book fills a significant gap in the literature of military history.

This wide-ranging study is the outcome of the author’s thirty-year quest to collect information about a neglected and almost forgotten field of history – the prisoner of war, the conditions under which he was held and how he employed his time during long years of captivity. In this instance, the whole is set against an historical background dating from the Seven Years War (1756-63) to Napoleon’s downfall in 1816. Information has been painstakingly acquired by detailed searches through the Public Records Offices of England, Scotland and Wales and the archives of numerous county towns. The author has also studied more than one hundred towns and villages, where paroled captured officers were detained, and visited the sites of prison depots – great and small – and ports and rivers where the dreaded prison hulks had once been moored. The gathering and examination of artefacts, relics and other relevant material was a further important aspect of this extensive study. During the course of his lengthy researches, the author assembled what may well be one of the largest private collections of prisoner of war artefacts in existence. Although thousands of items of prisoners’ work have survived to the present day, most have disappeared into private collections and museums, at home or abroad. A representative selection of items from the author’s own extensive collection is featured in the second part of this book and will show the extraordinary high standard of workmanship achieved by many of the prisoners of war.

The Nymphenburg Castle Marstallmuseum is one of the largest internationally known collections of historic state and ceremonial carriages. The Marstall exhibits range from the Louis XIV period, to work by the Strasbourg master coach builder Johann Christian Ginzrot, culminating in a made for bavarian ‘fairy-tale monarch’, Ludwig II, which were entirely gilt and lavishly fitted out with exquisite embroidery and furs. Two volumes (plates and text) representing the first complete survey of the Munich state carriages. Recently researched and written in collaboration with the Bavarian Administration of State Castles, Gardens and Lakes. This set is a fantastic overview from baroque carriages to the early automobiles.

The project takes its name from the demand for the transfer of power and other things to the newly independent Indonesia in 1945. It travels through time, from European colonial occupation through the development of the republican state to the trans-national contemporary cultures of today. It looks at the various international exchanges that happened in the territories of contemporary Indonesia, through the images and ideas of artists. These exchanges were of different kinds: trade, culture, religion, ideology and war. They produced a variety of results: violence, oppression, racism, creativity, spiritual awakening, and other things. The ideologies and challenges of modernity are common ways in which Indonesia has been depicted by others and has defined itself over the period. As this modern period recedes into history, the project will seek ways to remember how it has influenced contemporary understanding and ask the current generation of artists to look back in order to rewrite the past and potentially create the conditions for a different future. The catalogue and the exhibition will follow a broad chronological narrative, allowing readers and visitors to learn more about how this huge archipelago has changed over the past two centuries and to observe how it has responded and adapted to influences originating from both inside and outside the islands. The influence of the imperial Dutch and Japanese occupations naturally form a significant element in the narrative of the exhibition as does the constant struggle for different forms of independence or equal treatment by the Javanese and other Indonesian cultures. The importance of Chinese and Arab influence on Indonesia’s cultural history will also feature as the exhibition tries to look for alternative ways, alongside the post-colonial, for understanding the present. The presentations will include work made during the residencies as well as new commissions.

The work of Kohn Pedersen Fox is international in scope, collaborative in design, and a product of individual voices focused on a single objective – making an architecture, of our time, which creates strong bonds with the the specific place it occupies.

While William Pedersen founded the firm, with partners Gene Kohn and Shelley Fox, he never aspired to be a ‘director of design.’ They had the components with Gene’s entrepreneurial drive, Shelley’s management and Bill’s design leadership – to be a large firm. ‘Directing’ the work of a large firm was not Bill’s desire, instead he wanted to focus on a body of work which he could call his own. The example that work set would inspire others, and it did. Now there are several voices leading their design – all of them rose to their position within the office.

The purpose of this book is to define the work of one of the voices – Bill Pedersen’s. Pedersen has worked with many different designers, in close collaboration, throughout his career, though his work speaks with a singular voice. Here it is represented chronologically and concludes with the latest phase – furniture. Working from the largest scale to the smallest has always been a preoccupation of those who lead design in KPF. Many of Pedersen’s architectural heroes designed chairs, and he strives to follow in their footsteps.

The versatility of Holland’s landscape gardeners is introduced here through the work of 19 leading practitioners. Apart from private gardens and estates, many of their assignments are for public spaces. After all, there is an immense need in the city for high-quality spaces of this kind, such as squares, promenades and parks. It is the landscape gardener’s task to find the ideal combination between stone and greenery. Urban and ecological functions are also being combined more and more to form attractive ‘working landscapes’, while recreation is moving discretely into natural areas. Text in English and Dutch.

Kwan Architects and their associates Percy Thomas Partnership were founded in 1979. These 3 monographs show off their body of work and include residential, office, hotel and industrial buildings, both in Hong Kong and overseas.

Collage is one of the most popular and pervasive of all art-forms, yet this is the first historical survey book ever published on the subject. Featuring over 200 works, ranging from the 1500s to the present day, it offers an entirely new approach. Hitherto, collage has been presented as a twentieth-century phenomenon, linked in particular to Pablo Picasso and Cubism in the years just before the First World War. In Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage, we trace its origins back to books and prints of the 1500s, through to the boom in popularity of scrapbooks and do-it-yourself collage during the Victorian period, and then through Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism. Collage became the technique of choice in the 1960s and 1970s for anti-establishment protest, and in the present day is used by millions of us through digital devices. The definition of collage employed here is a broad one, encompassing cut-and-pasted paper, photography, patchwork, film and digital technology and ranging from work by professionals to unknown makers, amateurs and children.

Contents:

Collage Over the Centuries, an introductory essay by Patrick Elliott; Collage Before Modernism by Freya Gowrley; On Edge: Exploring Collage Tactics and Terminology by Yuval Etgar; catalogue of exhibition works; a Chronology of Collage.

The Lucerne architects Thomas Lussi and Remo Halter Casagrande competently solve the complex tasks involved in heritage renovation today: the ideal preservation of the substance, discovering and restoring often nuanced, detailed qualities in the original building, the careful static stabilisation of the structure and the gentle renewal of individual elements as a result of use in and around the building. The original building was erected in 1951 according to plans by Otto Dreyer – one of the most important Lucerne architects of the time. The library was widely regarded throughout Switzerland. The book documents the original 1951 building using historical plans and photographs, provides insight into the building-historical analysis before the renovation and uses plans and photo material to describe the strategy and measures by the architects in renovating the architecturally important historical building.

Text in English and German.

Features articles by Cony Grünenfelder, Siegfried Moeri, Ulrich Niederer, and Stanislaus von Moos.

Berlin’s Aedes Architecture Forum is one of the best-known centres for architecture and architectural culture in the world. Founded in 1980 by Kristin Feireiss und Helga Retzer, Aedes has since put on 500 important exhibitions on current themes, featuring many of the world’s most eminent architects. After Helga Retzer’s unexpected death in 1994, Aedes has been run by Feireiss, together with Hans-Jürgen Commerell and a large, committed team of collaborators.

Faces & Spaces: 40 Years Aedes Architecture Forum looks back at four decades of the gallery’s lively and multifaceted history. It does so in an engaging and accessible way by showing photos of the 500 protagonists who have spoken at Aedes or put on an exhibition there. Arranged by decade, this results in a captivating and amusing Who’s Who of the international architecture scene from the post-modern era until today. Included are also images that document key exhibitions as well as the various spaces in Berlin which Aedes has used as a venue, along with a complete list of all shows staged between 1980 and 2020.

Text in English and German.

When Antje Freiesleben and Johannes Modersohn opened their own Berlin-based firm Modersohn & Freiesleben Architekten in 1994, the city, which had been divided until 1989, needed to be repaired and re-united. The Potsdamer Platz train station and the office block in the Beisheim Centre in Ebertstrasse, close to this central and now revitalised location, are two significant projects that were designed by the firm in the prevalent spirit of urban renewal of those years.

After the millennium, the architects further honed their approach: whether in the city or the countryside, Modersohn & Freiesleben consistently develop the character of their projects in terms of the site, the materials, the construction, and the lives of their clients. Their deliberate engagement with the given environment while simultaneously aiming at an inventive individuality has created an architecture that ensures their houses are functional objects that combine sustainability with aesthetics.

This new monograph features 12 built houses alongside other projects from the last two decades. They are located in Berlin, Brandenburg, Sweden, and Canada.

Text in English and German.

The new MEETT Toulouse exhibition and convention centre in the French city of Toulouse once again demonstrates how a seemingly dull, functional task results in striking and refined architecture if the Rotterdam-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture OMA and its mastermind Rem Koolhaas take care of it. The vast structure, covering ca 618 by 246 yards of ground, makes for a spectacular spatial experience in its main exhibition hall that offers 484,376 square feet of column-free floor space. OMA also took an unusual path with regard to the configuration and transport connection of the entire complex. Rather than sealing even more ground with tarmac for endless car parks, it concentrated them into a compact multi-storey parking garage at the heart of the complex that also serves as a general traffic hub for MEETT Toulouse.

The book offers impressions of MEETT Toulouse’s enormous dimensions and the vast spaces it provides through images taken by French photographer Marco Cappelletti. The volume is rounded out with selected plans and concise texts on the particulars of the project.

The architectural structuring principle of the cellular compartment floor plan is as simple as it is economical, yet it allows for spatial and combinatorial freedom that can be interpreted in ever-new, ever-different ways. The resulting self-contained units or spatial sequences are suited for residential purposes as much as for office buildings, museums or schools, with the floor plans providing highly dynamic and surprising traffic patterns and views.

The cellular compartment floor plan is the generating principle in many buildings, projects, and competition entries by Basel-based office Luca Selva Architects, who have been continually developing this typology in their many years of practice, modifying it and adapting it for new applications in different projects. It is therefore at the centre of this new book on the work of the prolific office. The numerous plans and photographs are supplemented by a theoretical essay by Christoph Wieser and a conversation between Luca Selva and Patrick Gmür. The book for the first time sheds light on this surprisingly sparsely researched topic, and thus its wider significance for the discourse reaches beyond the exemplary designs by Luca Selva Architects.

Text in English and German.

“This book celebrates teamwork and collaboration over the individual, a refreshing take on a practice which is given to celebrating starchitects.” —Peter H. Miller, Traditional Building
In 1897, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Spencer, Dwight Perkins, and Myron Hunt, all young architects just starting out in practice, shared office space in Chicago. This book is both a history of that brief period and an attempt to assess the extent to which they collaborated on their architectural designs and on the creation of architectural theory which would impact a half century of architectural design. While there is little firsthand documentation of the time spent in their shared loft office in Steinway Hall, this study engages in a side by side comparison of projects they each designed while working there. Overlapping ideas, design similarities, and an analysis of their subsequent work, all suggest that these men formed a creative “collaborative circle” of friends, who jointly developed ideas later claimed as the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. This is a book about artistic collaboration at a time when discussions of art and architectural history are still largely dominated by the belief that significant works are created by the lone artistic genius.
At the turn of the last century Spencer, Perkins, Hunt, and Wright were part of a community of architects who were all active members of the Chicago Architectural. Steinway Hall, an office building designed by Dwight Perkins, became a home to Chicago’s architectural community with as many as 50 different architects renting space in that building at the turn of the last century. Based on Real Estate Directories from 1897 through 1910 the book includes a listing of the architects that worked and interacted there. Also included are brief biographies of Spencer, Perkins, and Hunt. Excepting Hunt, none of these men have been the subject of individual publications. While Frank Lloyd Wright’s life and work have been extensively chronicled, this book reexamines the period between Wright’s arrival in Chicago in 1887 and his move into the loft office in Steinway Hall in 1897.

In Dark & Dystopian Post-Mortem Fairy Tales, Mothmeister pays homage to the muses who have sparked their alienating dream world. From artists worldwide, legendary figures, their collection of taxidermy to lurid places where their figures were born, such as the catacombs of Palermo, Pyramiden or the disaster area around Chernobyl. A special fairy tale world that flirts with the morbid, religious and grotesque and in which stuffed animals are brought back to life in an extraordinary way.

Created with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Tales of the People is a series of children’s books celebrating Native American culture with illustrations and stories by Indian artists and writers. In addition to the tales themselves, each book also offers four pages filled with information and photographs exploring various aspects of Native culture, including a glossary of words in different Indian languages.

The vast medium of jewellery and fashion artefact design continues to be a central pillar of fashion luxury goods industries and artistic practice, but there is a lack of discussions on the researches, value and roles of it. Design is an expression of values and attitudes, and a tangible form of guiding the thoughts and desires of individuals and members of society. In the contemporary society, when science, technology and craftsmanship reach a stage, whether products and services become luxurious or not, its quality, uniqueness, artistry and rarity are all achieved through design. This book represents the articles from 20 outstanding design researchers from 11 countries, including many works from international designers, who are engaging with and pushing the boundaries of the medium. It contributes to these international debates on contemporary fashion and jewellery design while providing an accessible overview and a concise reference book.