The greatest designer of French lighting, Robert Mathieu, is still little known to the general public today due to the rarity of his pieces on the market, highly sought after by specialised collectors.
Unlike a traditional designer, Robert Mathieu not only designed his lights, but he made them, like an artist, in his studio on rue de Charenton in Paris. Here there is no publisher, but a dropper production close to that of a work of art, sometimes less than eight copies. What is remarkable about Robert Mathieu is on the one hand his unique creativity in France, because he has designed more than 200 models, but also the very high quality of execution of his pieces which are still in perfect condition today. This unpublished monographic work is born after 10 years of preparation.
Between the beautiful art book and the catalogue raisonné, it presents all the known models of this lighting artist, illustrated by studio photographs and period documentation or non-professional photographic testimonials, because a large number of the creations by Robert Mathieu have never been seen before.
Text in English and French.
Jim Dearden’s latest book, A John Ruskin Collection, brings together a lifetime’s worth of articles on the lives of John Ruskin and those around him. In each, Dearden’s vast knowledge of Ruskin and exceptional capacity for recollection deftly and sensitively illuminate his subjects, moving through both their emotional, intellectual and artistic lives and their everyday domestic routines. We are guided through Ruskin’s portraits of Rose La Touche, asked to consider why he sold Turner’s The Slave Ship, invited to investigate how his father, John James Ruskin, travelled to his office, or provided with a window, onto the lives of the Severn family while at Brantwood, using their drawings and sketches. As Tim Hilton describes in his Preface, the result is like reading an incredibly elaborate family history. However, through his sensitive and precise investigations, and his tireless appetite for detail, Dearden not only helps us to understand the lives of Ruskin and his family, friends and servants, but also achieves an impressive evocation of the nature of 19th-century life. This book will captivate readers who enjoy the interweaving of a life well studied, whether they are new to Ruskin or already well immersed.
The impact of artificial intelligence in the discipline of architecture is unavoidable and undeniable. The recent mass adoption of highly accessible machine learning tools including DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney has allowed designers to test their limits and assess their role as an author in the design of the built environment. This book includes speculations on the introduction of artificial intelligence bots/apps into architecture and features a collection of works from 18 architects and designers who are interrogating current AI applications. Within each chapter, authors put forth a position through a framework consisting of theory and application lenses. Additionally, interviews from leading practitioners will offer insights into the current curiosities fuelling investigation.
This book will incite dialogue about the potential of AI as an ideation device and extension of the architect’s authorship. As a part of this work, curation plays an important role as the technology generates content at an incredible pace. Architectural design thinking will have to reconcile the injection of this new tool and this book will speculate on the current state in its infancy.
Bohemian chic is considered the epitome of an unconventional and free-spirited lifestyle: a colourful, playful mix-and-match look meets reduced earth tones, not infrequently combined with unique flea market finds or exotic travel souvenirs. Far removed from any staging, Boho Style exudes real character – and thus casts a spell over interior enthusiasts all over the world. The new coffee table book Boho Style is now dedicated to the cosy statement look and is aimed at all those who want to bring their inner hippie to life.
Other titles in the series include:
Colors: Colorful ISBN 9783961714506
Eco Materials: Decorating with Ecological Materials ISBN 9783961715015
Modern Glam: Glamorous ISBN 9783961714308
Patterns: Patterned ISBN 9783961714292
Scandi Style: Scandinavian ISBN 9783961714490
Text in English and German.
There is a world of letters just waiting to be discovered in the world around us—if we know how to look for it. In this engaging and delightful book, photographer Elliott Kaufman reveals the “secret” life of the alphabet through his photographs, showing how letters can be found in things we encounter everyday. Each letter of the alphabet is represented by multiple images, each unintentionally created by the intersection of architectural details, shadows, light, or natural elements as caught by Kaufman’s keen eye. Some are obvious, while others demand a little more imagination to recognize, inviting the readers to start their own game of hunting for letters! This fun approach also reinforces the notion that learning to see the familiar in new ways encourages visual literacy and creativity.
George Byrne’s photography depicts the gritty urbanism of Los Angeles in sublime otherworldliness. Arriving a decade ago, the Australian artist was immediately enthralled by the sprawling cityscape of L.A., mesmerised by the way the sunlight transformed it, into two-dimensional, almost painterly abstractions. In his Post Truth series (2015–22), Byrne reassembles his photos of the urban landscape into striking, ascetic collages of colour and geometric fragments, creating a postmodernist oasis in the metropolis. By masterfully harnessing the malleability of the photographic medium, the photographer situates his work in the space between real and imagined. Byrne’s compositions evoke associations with Miami Beach’s Art Deco, the Memphis Group’s designs, as well as the painting of David Hockney or Ed Ruscha, and at the same time tap into the aesthetics of today’s visual culture played out on Instagram.
The volume offers an unprecedented reflection on the work of Lucio Fontana, whose art appears to be not so much masculine, volcanic, demiurgic, as much critical literature has already claimed, but alluding to the female generative force, which is active in the mind of the artist as in nature, in the cosmos and in the fertile body of the earth. Through a selection of refined drawings and small sculptures, a new reading of the master’s research is proposed, directed towards a chthonic, original, telluric dimension of a newly generated material: new light can thus be shed on the “cuts”, on the “holes” and on the graphic representations, often performed with a primary, childish gesture, like an instinctual drive, even before being a project and reproduction. The volume includes a series of critical texts and is completed by bio-bibliographical apparatuses.
Texts by: Sergio Risaliti, Paolo Campiglio, Andrea Bruciati, Luca Piero Nicoletti, Maria Grazia Messina, Lauretta Colonnelli, Letizia Fuochi, Marco Fagioli, Eva Francioli
Six women, six stories. They make cartoons and graphic work in the besieged Syrian city of Idlib or unfree Egypt of President al-Sisi, they fight fat shaming and homophobia in Mexico, are on the run from president Putin, criticise Hindu nationalism and misogyny from Indian Prime Minister Modi or defy the powers that be in The Washington Post. Whether they are from Mexico, the USA, Syria, Egypt, India or Russia, they all belong to the absolute world top. But the way to the top was not an easy one for any of them.
The office complex in Karlsruhe is considered as Tadao Ando’s first urban design in Germany. The publication provides exclusive insights into the creation and planning of the building. Architecture photographs and building plans show Ando’s design formula: reduction to the essentials, exposed concrete on the scale of the tatami mats, strict geometries, precision and refined detail give the building its characteristic touch. The architect and client agreed on creating an aesthetic and energy-efficient building that meets the latest technical standards and offers the employees the best working conditions.
Text in English and German.
A pioneer of the Nouvelle Tapisserie (New Tapestry) movement, Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930–2017) revolutionised the practice of weaving in the 1960s. She elevated this craft to the status of sculptural expression, using the possibilities of organic fibers such as wool, sisal, and linen as living, malleable materials to realise her artistic vision based on the observation of nature and man. Her spectacular wall-mounted and spatial woven works made her name internationally and marked several editions of the Biennale of Tapestry, held in the Swiss city of Lausanne between 1962 and 1995.
This French-language book illuminates the crucial role that Lausanne played at the beginning of Abakanowicz’s international career and in her artistic explorations. Her reflections and creative paths are juxtaposed with places and encounters in Lausanne and the rest of Switzerland: the Bienniale of Tapestry and the Alice Pauli Gallery, local patrons and collectors of art, scholars, and friends.
Text in French.
The first monograph on a pivotal figure of postwar American art.
Best known for his monumental sculptures, Ronald Bladen (1918–1988) was regarded as an artistic forerunner by such minimalist artists as Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt, and Carl Andre. But in contrast to the matter-of-fact work of these artists, Bladen’s sculptures are charged with emotional power. They fill entire rooms, pressing outward against the walls and ceiling; their themes include the force of gravity, the dynamism of planar surfaces, the impact of scale, and confrontation with the viewer.
This splendidly illustrated book presents a comprehensive overview of Bladen’s career: his breakthrough works such as Untitled (Three Elements), a standout at the Jewish Museum’s legendary Primary Structures exhibition of 1966; his monumental outdoor commissions of the late 1960s through the 1980s; and his reflective wall reliefs of 1980s. Bladen’s drawings and working models are discussed in detail, and his early career as a painter is considered in the light of his later sculptural oeuvre. Art historian Robert S. Mattison’s thoughtful analysis of Bladen’s art is informed not only by extensive archival research but also by numerous interviews with Bladen’s contemporaries, including fellow artists like Bill Jensen, Alex Katz, and Dorothea Rockburne.
In addition, this volume collects several of the most important critical essays on Bladen, by Irving Sandler, April Kingsley, Bill Berkson, and Naomi Spector. The full scholarly apparatus includes an illustrated chronology of the artist’s life and career.
Today, Bladen’s works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, Storm King Art Center, and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, among many others. His grasp of the expressive power of mass and abstract form continues to influence sculptors from Richard Serra to Ursula von Rydingsvard. Here, finally, is a book that reveals and elucidates the full extent of his achievement.
Van Overstraeten is one of the oldest and most exclusive interior design companies in Belgium, started in 1891 and now with a worldwide reputation working with the best architects, interior designers and decorators for private and public projects. In this stunning debut monograph, beautifully presented with all new photography is a selection of more than 40 projects from recent years.
Text in English, French and Dutch.
Cities of art and culture that captivate. Villages at the top of tightly-knitted roads, or, stretched out across waves of vineyard-covered hills. Monuments, palaces, and cathedrals that chronical centuries past. A place where history is imprinted in every wall and enchantment found in every breath-taking landscape. A journey through Italy is always rich; it is a country with hidden treasures in every corner. This beautiful photographic book takes the real or daydreaming traveller through Italy’s most spectacular itineraries. Taking time to describe not only the landscape and historical sights, but also the culture, traditions, celebrations, and specialities of each territory along the way.
When he discovered that his home country, the Netherlands, was the second largest food exporter in the world after the US, photographer Kadir van Lohuizen was interested to learn more. He wanted to discover the world behind our food production. Where is our food produced? And how is it distributed across our world? Like a fly on the wall, Van Lohuizen follows the entire process, in the Netherlands, in Kenya, the US, the United Arab Emirates and China. The scale and efficiency of most food companies raises as much respect as questions: What are the effects of these production and consumption chains on the planet? And how future-proof is this? Food for thought, indeed. In this book, which was also partly conceived as a food atlas, Van Lohuizen bundles his images, but together with experts he also takes a closer look at the facts and figures behind the global food industry and shows unique infographics.
This book presents the richness, diversity and strength of the work of the most famous street art artist in the world… and yet nobody knows his identity. We are invited to follow the evolution of the artist from England to the United States, France, Israel and the Ukraine, and through more than a hundred emblematic works, all explained. This is the original Catalog Raisonné of the Banksy Museum, in which all these works are reproduced in their urban contexts, allowing the general public to discover them in a realistic way and to grasp their strength, including those that have been stolen or defaced and no longer exist.
Twenty-five portraits of upcoming and renowned interior architects and designers from all over the world. The follow-up volume of the highly successful Generation Next, ISBN 9782875500649.
What was the meaning of the extraordinary collection of texts, sketches and graphic prints that Edvard Munch called The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Get a glimpse into the artist’s world of ideas through one of the greatest mysteries he left behind. In this book you can experience The Tree of Knowledge as it was found in Munch’s home, with both loose, bound and blank pages. An essay by art historian Nora Ceciliedatter Nerdrum provides new perspectives on Munch’s most enigmatic project. No one knows why he created this album. Was it a book proposal? Or was it an attempt to organise his ideas?
What we do know is that he worked on the album for several decades, and that it was probably never completed. The most astonishing part of its content is perhaps Munch’s own texts about love, jealousy, life and death, composed in large, colourful lettering.
Step into a captivating world where the lens becomes a storyteller, and architectural marvels and interior masterpieces unfold with mesmerising clarity.
For the first time ever, this book brings together 50 of the world’s best photographers specialising in architecture and interior design and showcases each one through portraits, interviews and a handpicked selection of their best images to date.
In Focus is not just a book; it’s a visual odyssey paying homage to the world’s most exceptional architecture and interiors photographers.
As the curated collection unveils the unique perspectives of each photographer, from the play of light on architectural structures to the intimate details of curated living spaces, readers are invited to witness the convergence of art and functionality. This tribute encapsulates the essence of architectural and interior photography, showcasing the visionaries who have dedicated their craft to immortalising the soul of spaces.
Wines from Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage and Châteauneuf-du-Pape have made the Rhône Valley world famous. This may be a classic wine region, but as Matt Walls reveals in Wines of the Rhône that doesn’t mean it is set in its ways. Change here is not only driven by innovations in winemaking and fashions in wine, it is also an essential response to a rapidly shifting climate, which has seen temperatures rise significantly over the last 40 years and extreme weather events become more commonplace. Walls provides a rounded picture of this large and complex region, which varies greatly along the 200-kilometre stretch of river, from Vienne in the north to Provence in the south. Beginning with a vivid journey through the terrain, he explores one of the region’s constants, its varied geology, before moving on to the pressing issue of climate. A short tour through the Rhône’s winemaking history, from early Greek settlers to the modern industry, is followed by vignettes of all the AOC-permitted grapes and an explanation of the five levels of the region’s appellation system. Walls encourages readers to venture beyond the famous crus, making it easy for those eager to explore by detailing the terroir of every appellation and describing and assessing typical wines. Profiles of 200 key producers complete the picture. Boxes throughout the text provide interesting asides on current issues as well as key appellation facts, while an appendix on ageing wines offers a guide to the last 40 vintages. This comprehensive examination of a renowned region is an ideal introduction for those new to the Rhône, while providing fresh insights for long-time admirers of the wines.
The fall of the Berlin Wall motivated photographer and journalist Lieve Blancquaert to set off on an epic tour of Europe in her campervan. She visited all 27 member states of the European Union in search of the origins of this identity. She wanted to hear and feel what holds us together and what divides us.
Her many personal encounters reveal time and again that our own language, history, concerns, desires and dreams are far more universal than we might at first think. Europeans as such don’t exist, and yet we are connected in many different ways, whether we like it or not.
Through hundreds of penetrating images and dozens of colourful stories, Lieve Blancquaert shows, as in a travel diary, the complexity, diversity and beauty of this vulnerable continent.
With a foreword by Hendrik Vos. At the same time as the book, VRT Canvas is also launching a series of the same name, and the accompanying exhibition at Mechelen Cultural Centre runs from 14 March to 30 June 2024, as part of the city festival Construct Europe.
Palazzo Vecchio portrays the architecture of the historic Florentine palace immortalised by the internationally-renowned photographer Massimo Listri. The first complete and organic photographic documentation of the building, updated in the wake of recent restoration and re-functionalization, the sequence of images runs page after page through the exterior and the interior of the palace. The alternation of rooms, courtyards and museum spaces, enriched by countless pictorial and sculptural elements, gives life, in Listri’s view, to a faithfully objective overview of the building that, since the end of the 13th century, has been the heart of Florence’s civic and political life, still today a place for meetings, debate and dialogue. The volume, edited by Sergio Risaliti, offers brief essays by experts on the subject such as Serena Pini and Carlo Francini, with a contribution by Mayor Dario Nardella.
Award-winning German photographer Michael Wolf (1954–2019) grew up in Canada, Europe and the United States. In 1994, Wolf moved to Hong Kong, where he worked for eight years as a contract photographer for Stern Magazine. The core of Wolf’s work consisted of capturing life in megacities. Many of his projects depict the architecture and popular culture of metropolises, and Hong Kong Whispers is no exception.
This book contains a stunning series of photos showing the vibrant global city of Hong Kong. Wolf’s photographs are displayed in dialogue with the acerbic and ambiguous drawings of Arpaïs Du Bois (°1973). Based on intense engagement with Wolf’s series of images, she reflects on unnoticed moments and events that characterise life in the metropolis. The visual exchange between photographs and drawings took shape during Du Bois’ stay of several weeks in Hong Kong (2004), during which the two artists observed the city both together and individually.
In this opulent coffee table book, photographer Werner Pawlok shows us the diversity of New Orleans and paints a breathtaking portrait of the city. He captures special places, personalities and stories in his expressive photographs. We marvel at the colonial-style rooms steeped in history as well as the passionate music scene in the city, which is also known as the “cradle of jazz”. The magical feeling of life in this unique metropolis in the south of the USA becomes immediately tangible.
Text in English and German.
Hotels continue to appeal to the imagination. The sector re-invents itself time and time again and sets the limits for the ultimate overnight stay. But which hotels offer you a once in a lifetime experience? This book lists the ultimate top 150 hotels, compiled by travel and lifestyle journalist Debbie Pappyn. All hotels guarantee a unique experience: a unique view or location, the incredible luxury or inimitable charm, the sophisticated design, the service or simply manta rays and sea turtles swimming under your bed… Debbie Pappyn visited more than 1000 hotels. She draws from her own experience, adds her ultimate wish list and gives you the reason why you have to stay there. This is a revised and updated version of the ultimate ‘bucket list hotel guide’ and one of the 10 books in the highly successful 150 series.