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This beautifully illustrated book explores the artistic roots of Flemish identity during the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. Through art, essays, poems, and reflections by artists, academics and collectors, it revives the cultural context of the Flemish Belle Eqoque. Featured here are works by Emile Claus, Valerius De Saedeleer, George Minne and Gustave Van de Woestyne, James Ensor, Rik Wouters and Léon Spilliaert, Constant Permeke, Gust De Smedt, Frits Van den Berghe and Edgard Tytgat.

Since its inception, T.O.P. office has boosted architecture as an uncompromising social tool to persistently question the terrestrial scale and the delicate balance with mankind. Whichever way you turn it, Earth – the orb – is the undeniable alpha and omega for any future stance, action or intervention. An insight Luc Deleu & T.O.P. office have never failed to underscore – or challenge.

Armed with an unsparing but humorous logic, a firm belief in the freedom of the individual, and a persistent commitment to ecology, T.O.P. office continues to hold up a mirror to society. Always unsolicited. Simply because they have to.

For this publication, editors Peter Swinnen and Anne Judong were given unlimited access to the archives of T.O.P. office. The title is also the filter through which to examine the living archive. Which projects – whether conceived in the 1970s or 2000s – retain the intelligent promise of a future plan? And how can they enlighten designers, architects, urban planners, ecologists, cultural workers, administrations and policymakers of today and tomorrow? A future plan in itself.

Dick van Gameren, a partner with the renowned Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo, has been engaging in housing design for the past 25 years as part of his work as designing architect as well as his research and teaching at TU Delft’s Global Housing Study Center. In this book, he presents some 40 of his own projects in this field through concise texts and photographs with explanatory captions as well as through plans and drawings. They’re grouped to illustrate seven specific aspects of housing design: Streets and Squares, Courtyards and Patios, Gardens, Halls, the Fireplace, Walls, and Roofs. Together they constitute a multi-faceted catalogue of housing typologies.

In four supplementing essays, van Gameren explores evolutions in residential architecture in the Netherlands. He places his own concepts in context of these developments and expands on what he considers the key factors of good housing design. A particular focus he puts on affordable housing, a pressing issue in so many countries and metropolitan areas around the world.

Dutch Dwellings is an inspiring read for anyone involved in housing design today.

In 1889, Saint Rémy de Provence was a small provincial town, already prosperous thanks to the arrival of the train and the cultivation of teasel thistle and its seeds. It was a rural village, home to a local bourgeoisie and already enjoying a certain prosperity and attractiveness. Unknowingly, this population would coexist with a painter who had arrived there for health reasons. For a year, one of the most important pages in the history of art would be written, without the population being truly aware of it.

The “mad artist” would, however, make Saint-Rémy-de-Provence famous, and his works would later be exhibited around the world. How would the city gradually become aware of this unintentional legacy? How would it promote it, draw inspiration from it to develop artistic, cultural, economic, and tourism projects?

This is one of the first books to focus exclusively on Van Gogh’s very prolific period in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. One of the chosen angles, unprecedented in the literature devoted to the artist, is to recount the ties that the commune and its residents may have had with him, during his lifetime or posthumously. The book includes testimonies from Saint-Rémy families whose members met or worked with the painter, owned works, or were closely linked to his work after his death.

From the technologically revolutionary to the downright ridiculous, this collection of concise musings documents the varied and often humorous relationships humans have developed with members of the plant kingdom.

These pithy stories span species celebrated as tribal fodder to delicacies elevated as some of our most valued possessions, from the ultimate symbols of devotion and love to campaigns that resulted in genocide, revolt and the shaping of the global political landscape, demonstrating a relationship between humans and the plant kingdom as broad, wonderful, and strange as the plants themselves.

The National Galleries Barberini and Corsini contain paintings and sculptures of exceptional historical and artistic value. Page after page, through the masterpieces of many of the greatest Italian artists from the Middle Ages to the 18th century (Angelico, Raphael, Piero di Cosimo, Bronzino, Lotto, Tintoretto, Cortona, Caravaggio, Bernini, Reni, Guercino, Batoni, Canaletto) the reader can follow the development of art history. The collections also include artwork by Holbein, Murille and Van Dyck, besides a few antique pieces. In addition to the 100 entries, there are descriptions of particularly important elements that are part of the palaces’ architecture, such as Borromini’s spiral staircase, Bernini’s main staircase and the huge ceiling frescoed by Pietro da Cortona.

Everyone loves baby animals! Cute, tender and a bit goofy, the baby animals of each species are naturally born funny. This book shows the baby animals in their original sizes, showing them as they appear in nature. Page after page, the reader will be surprised by the details and characteristics of each baby, while learning everything about their behaviours and physical development. The latest title of our bestselling 100% Full Size series. After animals and bugs, children will learn from the pages all the real sizes of the cute baby animals included in this big format volume. Ages: 6 plus

“Haunting photographs” – The Wall Street Journal. “Henk van Rensbergen is a hero for urban explorers around the world” – Flanders Today. “As an airline pilot, Belgian-born Henk Van Rensbergen was used to travelling the world. But he found a great way to supersize that passion: hunting for the most wonderful, secret, haunting abandoned places” – CNN. While his crew is resting at the pool, pilot and photographer Henk van Rensbergen explores deserted city palaces, overgrown factories or desolate areas of nature, finding beauty in the decay. This engaging book of photographs, a revised edition with new material, lets us wander through abandoned places, including Abkhazia, a break-away region bordering Georgia and Russia and the newest must-visit for every urban explorer.

In this ode to the charms of Paris and Parisian style, Belgian photographer Henk van Cauwenbergh captures the essence of the city’s most iconic venues and its perennially chic denizens. He seeks out the culinary hotspots of Paris and turns his camera on the places to see and be seen. Inspired by the microcosm of Saint-Germain, his Paris is imbued with the spirit of the places where people gather: the casual efficiency of waiters at Les Deux Magots and the Café de Flore, the boisterous atmosphere of Brasserie Lipp. Long influenced by urban and innate style of Serge Gainsbourg, Charles Aznavour, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau, van Cauwenbergh’s Paris is one of seduction and nonchalance, of beautiful women, and the heady emotions of first love.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been collecting Surrealist art since 1965. In something over half a century, what began with a single purchase has now grown into a world-class core collection with works by Dalí, Magritte, Man Ray, De Chirico, Ernst and many others. Surrealism, which started as a literary movement, is not a school, but rather a collective attitude or lifestyle in which automatism, chance and the subconscious are key. The museum’s collection includes paintings, sculptures, objects, drawings, prints and photographs – as well as a large number of Surrealist publications, magazines, manifestos and pamphlets. This dream collection has now been brought together in a catalogue raisonné for the first time.

The catalogue raisonné contains three introductory essays. Sandra Kisters, the current Head of the Collection and Research Department, provides an outline of the Surrealist movement. Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Saskia van Kampen-Prein, explains the acquisition history and establishment of the museum’s Surrealist art collection. Surrealism expert Laurens Vancrevel examines the museum’s unique, often neglected collection of Surrealist publications. The essays are followed by the catalogue, consisting of 108 short texts about the artworks. Most of the texts were written by Marijke Peyser, who was awarded her doctorate in 2008 with her dissertation on the Zodiaque, a circle of patrons around Salvador Dalí. The Duchamp texts are by Bert Jansen, who obtained his doctorate with his thesis on Marcel Duchamp in 2015.

Did you know that Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen was the first public art institution in the Netherlands to acquire a painting by Vincent Van Gogh for its collection? And that 20,562 litres of water are needed for Olafur Eliasson’s installation Notion motion? Or that Gerard Reve once sent an admiring letter to the museum about Geertgen tot Sint Jans’s small panel The Glorification of the Virgin? These and many more fascinating facts can be found in a lavishly illustrated publication featuring more than 150 highlights from the collection.

For over 170 years, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been building up a very varied collection of art and design from the Middle Ages to the present day. Best of Boijmans presents the collection as a unity in diversity. Detached from time, place and medium, surprising connections are made between the different areas of the collection. A sculpture of a human figure by the contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan bears an unexpected resemblance to a drawing of John the Baptist by Raphael; a 19th‐century landscape by Barend Cornelis Koekkoek sits extraordinarily comfortably alongside a work by the Rotterdam artist Daan van Golden. This handy little book takes you on a thematic, visual journey through the collection.

This book, designed and edited by the Italian-Swiss artist Vivianne van Singer, is an ode to Italian sculptor Luciano Fabro (1936-2007), a well-known Informalist artist and one of the founders of the Arte Povera movement. Having been long acquainted with his work and then having met the artist in person, Van Singer reflects upon his untimely death and pays homage to his career in a collection of texts, images, and works. The starting point of the project is a letter Van Singer sent artists, critics, and prominent figures of the art world in which she invited them to submit a work of art or a text exemplifying what Luciano Fabro had represented for them. Among the contributors to this collection: Giovanni Anselmo, Izzo Arcangelo, Gianni Caravaggio, Rudi Fuchs, Von Fürstenberg, Giovanni Lista, Alessandra Lukinovic, Massimo Minini, Giulio Paolini, Margit Rowell, Sarkis, and Ettore Spalletti.

Text in English, German, French, and Italian.

The Belgian architectural firm Van Damme – Vandeputte was founded 5 years ago but their portfolio is impressive, featuring a wide range of architectural projects: new residential constructions tailored to the client’s needs, sustainable and high-quality renovations, interior design with special detailing, offices and corporate sites built with, among other things, great attention to the integration into the surroundings, and restorations of (protected) heritage sites. In this coffee-table book, compiled and designed with the greatest care, the architects present a selection of projects and shed light on the process and philosophy behind their oeuvre. The book is like an extension of their work and exemplifies the firm’s passion and dedication, captured in the amazing photos by Thomas De Bruyne (Cafeine). He specialises in architecture and interior design photography and works for renowned clients and firms in Belgium and abroad.

“This is the very best of Antwerp and the best from here in Oxford.”  The Oxford Times Weekend
“This entertaining exhibition of the 16th- and 17th-century drawings from the Low Countries has energy to spare.”   The Telegraph
This catalogue will accompany the Bruegel to Rubens exhibition held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford between 23 March and 23 June 2024.

Through a selection of over 100 world-class drawings created by Flemish artists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an insightful and comprehensive overview will be given into how these drawn sheets were used as part of artistic practice, within or beyond the artist’s studio. By revealing the drawings’ function, rather than on their attribution or iconography, these sheets will become more fully understood through the eyes of contemporary readers. Identifying how and why these sheets were created will render these artworks more accessible to a wider audience. The three main essays will each deal with one of the principal functions of drawings at the time: studies (copies and sketches), designs for other artworks (paintings, prints, tapestries, metalwork, stained glass, sculpture and architecture), and finally the independent drawings. Each essay will discuss the relevant works within their functional context and compared with other related objects. Introductory chapters will focus on what precisely can be considered a drawing, including its materials, media and techniques, in addition to an attempt to explain the notion of Flanders and Flemish art. Emphasis will be placed throughout the catalogue on how Flemish artists collaborated in creating the most astonishing artworks of their time, unveiling their networks and friendships, as well as their travels across Europe, revealing their international importance.

The exhibition is a partnership with the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp and will bring together for the first time the most stunning drawings from both the Ashmolean and the Plantin-Moretus collections, in addition to further loans from renowned Antwerp and Oxford institutions like the Rubenshuis and Christ Church Picture Gallery. Many of the sheets coming from Antwerp are registered on the Flemish Government’s Masterpieces List and will not be shown again for the next five to ten years to protect them from fading. Prominent artists featured in this catalogue include Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacques Jordaens, among many others. Highlights will include a sketchbook in which a young Rubens has copied Holbein’s Dance of Death woodcuts, intricate pen and ink drawings by Pieter Bruegel, meticulously drawn miniatures by Joris Hoefnagel, portrait studies by Anthony van Dyck, and a rare survival of a friendship album containing numerous drawings and poems dedicated to its owner. Two recently discovered sheets by Rubens will also be included, a design for a book-illustration on optics and an anatomical study of three legs.

‘What if Vincent van Gogh suddenly realises that he is… himself a sunflower? Or thinks he is?

This book recounts the story of this well-known Dutch artist who, standing in the midst of his overwhelming sensory world, becomes aware just how thin the line between reality and dream world is. Did he live and work on a narrow borderline between truth and fantasy? Did he enter a different, perhaps higher frequency? How did all the images and observations come into him so intensely, and then spill out again onto his canvases? And how did the artist, but also beloved son, brother,… and therefore perhaps sunflower, relate to the world and his immediate environment?

In this richly illustrated, poetic book, author Paul de Moor creates, in words and images, an immersive experience for children aged 10 and over into the world of Van Gogh. As a celebrated children’s author, De Moor has already introduced children and young people to the artistic universes of Roger Raveel, Francis Alÿs, Michaël Borremans, Luc Tuymans and Raoul De Keyser. And now also Van Gogh.

Ages 10 plus.

Van Hulle is not an interior designer but an interior artist. He understands the art of transforming the soul of the occupants into the soul of a house.” – Elle Deco

Grand Interiors is an immersive ‘grand tour’ of Geoffroy Van Hulle’s grandiose interiors. The Belgian decorator gives us a look inside exuberant private homes, from Knokke to New York. In his unpretentious interiors, he sprinkles generously with colours, patterns and exoticism. ‘Nowhere in my interiors is the distance to a bookcase, fireplace or bar cabinet more than five steps,’ he says. With the bravura of his teachers Cecil Beaton and David Hicks, he designs dazzling sets for everyday theatre.

Please welcome on stage, mister Geoffroy Van Hulle and his Grand Interiors!

In this book, photographer Henk van Cauwenbergh introduces us to the marvellous worlds of matador Jean-Baptiste Jalabert (France) and prima ballerina Francesca Docli (Italy). The public’s favourite ‘Juan Bautista’, born in Arles, France and ballet dancer Francesca Dolci, a flamboyant member of the Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, are the representatives par excellence of a world in which sports and art seamlessly melt together. Follow both top athletes/performers during their daily preparations, become a privileged witness to the particular rituals preceding each performance and be a spectator of a dazzling sham fight at the Mediterranean! Text in English, French and Dutch.

The National Galleries of Scotland comprises three galleries: the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Scottish National Gallery. Together these galleries house one of the finest collections of art to be found anywhere in the world, ranging from the thirteenth century to the present day. Many of the greatest names in Western art are represented by major works, from Titian, Rembrandt and Vermeer through to Picasso, Hockney and Warhol. This lavishly illustrated book contains one hundred of the National Galleries of Scotland s greatest and best-loved treasures. The selection made by the Director-General Sir John Leighton is intended to evoke the special character of the collection at the National Galleries with its distinctive interplay between Scottish and international art as well as the many conversations that it establishes between the art of the past and the present.

From the mythical De Dion Bouton Type K1 to the Delahaye, from the Jeep Willys to the combi Volkswagen, from the Mercedes Benz to the Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500, from the Aston Martin DB7 to the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, and from the Austin Mini to the Range Rover.

A hundred years of innovation, inventiveness and triumphs are condensed in this book, which reads as easily as a novel, and is illustrated with a rich and rare iconography.

“The photography is stunning and the book gives a privileged insight into some of the most beautiful and stylish resorts. Highly Recommended! “Hot Brands Cool Places

There are few destinations more alluring than resorts. The combination of an evocative location, lavish rooms, exceptional service and architecture that’s designed to inspire, has long been irresistible to travellers. In the past decade, however, the global search for stylish getaways has become so intense that hospitality has now become the world’s fastest growing industry.

Few people understand the nature of resorts and the secrets of designing them more than the world-renowned architects and designers, Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (WATG), whose mission over the last six decades has been ‘to design experiences that lift the spirit’. Having created hundreds of exclusive destinations for well-known companies such as the Four Seasons, Sheraton and Hyatt, ranging from luxurious island resorts to exotic desert getaways, sophisticated urban hideaways, and cool mountaintop retreats, WATG has become a respected name in the area of resorts and hotels. Some of their extraordinary projects include the Hotel Bora Bora in French Polynesia, The Palace of the Lost City in South Africa, The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in California, and the Hyatt Regency in Kauai Resort & Spa in Hawaii.

This spectacular volume looks at these and other world-class destinations, and also takes you behind the foyers to explore the inspiration and ideas behind the designs, which often begin from a thought on a notepad. As well, it offers insightful interviews with those involved with the projects, explains how the vernacular architecture of the region can influence the end design, and even predicts what resorts may look like in the future.

“… Van Belleghem always delivers. Most companies want to create a customer-centric culture, but many struggle, even though they are capable of doing so. This is what the author refers to as A Diamond in the Rough. In addition to clearly articulated concepts, there are more than 100 tips and examples to help you build a culture that gets and keeps customers.” — Forbes

This book shows you how to build a customer-oriented corporate culture. Turn your rough diamond into a beautiful shiny jewel. Many companies have the intention to be customer-oriented, but only a few succeed in making the customer really happy. The key to success is building a customer-centric culture: a culture where both leaders and employees of an organisation are aware of their role towards the customer at all times. In this book you will learn in very concrete steps and clear tips on how you can develop a customer-oriented corporate culture. Success or failure is often in details and in having the right attitude.

Maps that Made History is like a 1000-year-long journey around the world; every one of the carefully selected maps featured here has influenced the course of history in some way. This beautifully illustrated book gathers 100 marvellous old maps, each with a fascinating story to tell, from a 12th century Persian world atlas to a Soviet spy map. These maps were used to resolve conflicts, situate battles, construct a road or a canal, establish important shipping routes, even as propaganda tools. All the maps are reproduced in an oversized format, while accompanying text from an experienced team of historians explains the importance of each one.

‘Making every day’s life extraordinary’ is not just a slogan for Dutch designer and floral artist Pim van den Akker. His floral creations connect the worlds of design and floral art at the same time prove how natural forms, structures and colours are determinative for the atmosphere. Pim van den Akker is a master in displaying the beauty of both flowers and plants in a surprisingly playful and movingly honest way. Beauty, naturalness, structure and individuality are the key words in his creations. This monograph not only shows the virtuosic skills of this floral expert, it is also a splendid testimony to the philosophy of this exceptional floral designer.

Melle Smets and Joost van Onna took only twelve weeks to assemble Turtle 1, a car built entirely from recycled parts. Made in Africa, Turtle 1 is entirely suited to the local context, sufficiently sturdy to resist the climate and the road conditions, and easy to operate.This book is part of an extensive documentation of the project; this documentation spans several years and has used exhibitions, films and apps to tell the story of this great idea. The automobile industry is monopolised by multinational companies who care only for profit, and constantly seek to outbid each other by developing ever more sophisticated technology. The majority of people outside of the Western world have little access to this market. However, Turtle 1: Building a Car in Africa proves how people’s ingenuity can tackle any challenge. Dutch artist Melle Smets and sociologist Joost van Onna went to Suame Magazine in Ghana, one of the largest industrial areas in sub-Saharan Africa where some 200,000 people dismantle and repair cars and sell used spare parts. Their aim was not only to develop a totally new type of car but, more importantly, to boost autonomy and self-reliance in an attempt to be free from global economic interests. Within two years, the vehicle attracted much attention from the public and the media both in Africa and the Netherlands, prompting Smets and van Onna to create the conditions for producing the car on a small, local scale. The production, however, never took off as their Ghanaian partners had other intentions in spite of all success. While Smets and van Onna promoted their recycling model, the Africans had tragically begun to work on a luxury version of the car. A homage to a project that was never fully realised, this book is a succinct demonstration of humanity’s ability to overcome odds. Exhibition runs until 28 August 2016, Project Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.