More than other painters, the Impressionists wanted to shake off the dust of the studio, and swarmed the noisy streets of Paris, filling the cafés and living in garrets and humble little dwellings on the hill of Montmartre, which still seemed like the countryside at the time, its slopes covered with vineyards and vegetable gardens. Nor did they limit themselves to the city, planting their easels in the clearings of the forest of Fontainebleau, on the coast of Normandy, in the rustic villages in the Oise Valley and in Bougival and Argenteuil on the banks of the Seine. Like their Naturalist friends Zola and Maupassant, they liked to mix with the locals so they could experience the places directly, painting everywhere, even on a boat, like the one where Monet had his floating studio.
In an age of fast-changing technologies, offering numerous ways of generating images, Elias Wessel challenges the conventional definition of a painting: he creates his “paintings” without resorting to traditional painting techniques and eschews classical genres. The artist’s abstract paintings – which in many ways show connections to painterly practices – are in fact made up of photographs and digital material.
Wessel, for example, takes photos of smartphone displays to produce monumental abstract compositions from the fingerprints left behind on them. He also documents his scrolling behaviour on social media platforms by using long-time exposure to superimpose accessed profiles and their contents: the result is visual and decontextualised structures. His other works present painterly-looking details of damaged displays: where else in the digital world can we experience such a close relationship with the canvas?
Above all, the quality of Elias Wessel’s working method lies in the way he links the fundamental discourses in the history of photography with the latest technology and current social debates. In so doing, he skilfully observes and questions the social consequences and instruments of digitalisation.
Text in English and German.
Larry Poons (b. 1937) shot to fame while still in his twenties, on the strength of his “dot paintings,” in which dots or ellipses were meticulously arranged on brightly coloured fields, creating a rhythmic, pulsating effect. But within a few years, Poons first loosened the hard-edged precision of the dot paintings and then abandoned them entirely for an organic mode of abstraction based on vertical drips of flung paint. This marked the beginning of an uncompromising five-decade evolution that has finally led the artist back to a more intimate mode of painting with brushes — and his own hands. At every stage, Poons’s career has compelled the attention of critics and, in particular, other artists.
This handsome volume, the first full-length biocritical monograph on Poons, reproduces more than 140 of his most important works in full colour, some as spectacular gatefolds. The incisive text — a collaboration between four leading critics and historians — traces the development of the artist’s extraordinary career. Larry Poons is a necessary addition to the library of anyone with an interest in American art.
The tale of the shepherd girl Radha and the Hindu god Krishna is probably the most famous love story in India. Written by Jayadeva at the end of the twelfth century, the Gitagovinda narrates the highs and lows of Radha and Krishna’s relationship. As a vivid metaphor for the human yearning for god, the work is today closely associated in India with the religiosity of Krishna. In the eighteenth century, in the former princely residence of Guler, the artist family of Nainsuhk and Manaku created the outstanding picture series of the second Guler Gitagovinda of 1775/80, which recounts the love story with an unparalleled elegance. This book retells the story using selected pieces from this series (printed in original size) and whisks the reader off into the atmospheric world of Indian miniature painting and poetry. This book accompanies an exhibition at Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 24 October 2019 – 16 February 2020.
Text in English and German.
Today, known for its black and white portraits covering entire buildings, Hendrik Beikirch today presents the Siberia project, a project in the continuity of Tracing Morocco started in 2014. The intensity of these powerful foreign faces recalls a familiarity that can be experienced anywhere in the world. Beikirch takes these studies of humanity with him on his travels and permeates them as traces of personified life in new contexts. The project is the result of Beikirch’s meeting with this distant immensity that is Siberia. From this project was born the book Siberia, which gives an overview of all the works created, paintings, and 10 murals carried out all over the world.
Text in English, French and Russian.
The Norwegian painter Bjørn Ransve (b. 1944) is one of the best-known contemporary Scandinavian artists. Very few painters indeed express themselves so brilliantly in two dimensions, thematically, technically and formally. The third volume of the catalogue raisonné is devoted to Ransve ‘s graphic oeuvre: in over 1,300 illustrations it documents prints and multiples, created from the 1960s to 2013. This book is not only an indispensable standard reference for all scholars, art dealers and collectors, it also provides insights in the complex interrelations between prints, paintings and drawings in Ransve ‘s artistic work. The accompanying text by Lars Eisenlöffel investigates the changing and recurrent groups of motifs and places the works in their art historical context.
Since each page of the book has been designed individually in close collaboration between Ransve and the graphic artist and book designer Silke Nalbach, Bjørn Ransve ‘s development as an artist can be traced in a way that is particularly illuminating.
Text in Norwegian.
The Norwegian painter Bjørn Ransve (b. 1944) is one of the best-known contemporary Scandinavian artists. Very few painters indeed express themselves so brilliantly in two dimensions, thematically, technically and formally.
The third volume of the catalogue raisonné is devoted to Ransve’s graphic oeuvre: in over 1,300 illustrations it documents prints and multiples, created from the 1960s to 2013. This book is not only an indispensable standard reference for all scholars, art dealers and collectors, it also provides insights in the complex interrelations between prints, paintings and drawings in Ransve’s artistic work. The accompanying text by Lars Eisenlöffel investigates the changing and recurrent groups of motifs and places the works in their art historical context. Since each page of the book has been designed individually in close collaboration between Ransve and the graphic artist and book designer Silke Nalbach, Bjørn Ransve’s development as an artist can be traced in a way that is particularly illuminating.
Francis Bacon is considered one of the most important painters of the twentieth century. A major exhibition of his paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts, planned for 2020 but postponed because of the pandemic, explores the role of animals in his work – not least the human animal.
Having often painted dogs and horses, in 1969 Bacon first depicted bullfights. In this powerful series of works, the interaction between man and beast is dangerous and cruel, but also disturbingly intimate. Both are contorted in their anguished struggle, and the erotic lurks not far away: ‘Bullfighting is like boxing,’ Bacon once said. ‘A marvellous aperitif to sex.’ Twenty-two years later, a lone bull was to be the subject of his final painting.
In this fascinating publication – a significant addition to the literature on Bacon – expert authors discuss Bacon’s approach to animals and identify his varied sources of inspiration, which included wildlife photography and the motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge. They contend that, by considering animals in states of vulnerability, anger and unease, Bacon was able to lay bare the role of instinctual behaviour in the human condition.
Images below, left to right:
Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Fragment of a Crucifixion, 1950. Oil and cotton wool on canvas, 140 x 108.5 cm. Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Photo Hugo Maertens
Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Study for Portrait (with Two Owls), 1963. Oil on canvas, 198.1 x 144.8 cm. Private collection. Photo Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Man with Dog, 1953. Oil on canvas, 152 x 117 cm. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Gift of Seymour H. Knox Jr, 1955, inv. K1955:3. Photo Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
All images © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2020.
“Inès van den Kieboom paints in a remarkably anticyclical manner. Through the calm, unassuming conviction with which she pursues her artistic goals, as well as through her archaic, supratemporal pictorial inventions, she shows the present what art really is – and what it has the potential to be.” — Markus Stegmann
Inès van den Kieboom (b. 1930 in Ostend; lives and works in Antwerp) has been painting since the 1960s, yet she only decided to exhibit her paintings in the last two years. Van den Kieboom mainly finds inspiration for her works in her everyday surroundings, but also in art history, popular culture and current affairs. She paints or draws her subjects through the filter of her memories or impressions, which she depicts figuratively, abstracted to their essence. Van den Kieboom’s self-assured, lively and energetic paintings offer new perspectives on the way we observe the world.
In collaboration with Tim Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp, where the artist’s retrospective runs from 23 March to 20 May 2023.
With text contributions by Petra Maclot and Markus Stegmann.
Text in English, French and Dutch.
Frida the woman. Frida the artist. Frida the icon. Fragile and indomitable, she made herself a work of art, celebrating the beauty of imperfection. Hers was an existence made of passion, revolution, brightly coloured clothes, and paintings that mirrored her dances with death and love for life. A life like hers requires splendid images and intense text chronicling its many adventures. From her childhood to the accident, from her discovery of painting and the ties with extraordinary characters such as André Breton, Tina Modotti, Lev Trotsky, to her legendary marriage to Diego Rivera and her enchantment with the Casa Azul. This stunning book is a homage to the human being who became a symbol of emancipation and freedom. A hymn to diversity and joie de vivre, dedicated to all women of the world.
Marylène Madou was established in Belgium early 2017, launching the brand with a successful collection of printed scarves and today print still is the ultimate starting point in each collection. Every textile print is created in-house by the designer herself, exclusively using her own original paintings and digital illustrations.
Marylène Madou: Prints & Patterns provides an overview of Marylène’s most distinguishing print designs and patterns, a treat for print admirers and textile enthusiasts worldwide with Italy, the UK, and the Benelux being the largest sourcing countries for the materials. For the manufacturing of her ready-to-wear, she is in a unique position, working with a local atelier in Belgium. A collection of both highly detailed and more stylized prints, highlighting Marylène’s multidisciplinary design process, covering more than 190 pages, divided into 5 chapters. Marylène Madou: Prints & Patterns is printed on high-end paper, with a recognisable print all over the cover. The holographic pink foil makes the title stand out among the crowd.
Text in English and French.
Young Rembrandt concentrates on the first ten years of the career of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). Born in Leiden, he trained there with Isaac van Swanenburg and in Amsterdam with Pieter Lastman. After a short stay in Amsterdam he returned to Leiden and set up a studio where he began his extraordinary career, painting scenes from the Bible and classical mythology and history, as well as a handful of genre scenes and portraits. His progress is remarkable: from the earliest hesitant paintings of the Five Senses in about 1624 to the wonderfully assured Jeremiah of 1630 it is almost possible to trace his development and his increasing fluency and self-confidence from month to month and certainly from year to year. Published to accompany exhibitions at the Lakenhal, Leiden from November 2019 to February 2020, then at the Ashmolean Museum from February to June 2020.
With the help of 100 artworks, this book guides you through the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Learn more about Kazimir Malevich’s groundbreaking abstract paintings, the ingeniously knotted chair by Marcel Wanders, nearly kitschy art by Jeff Koons, and Rineke Dijkstra’s intense portraits.
Ten introductory texts impart everything you need to know in 1,000 words about modern art, photography, and design. For instance, why waste and junk can also be art. Or why skillfully appropriated art is better than badly conceived. Or why an unsuspecting visitor may suddenly find themselves part of a work of art. Included with the guide is a sheet of stickers featuring 100 works from the collection. With this guide, every curious visitor can be well prepared for their next encounter with modern art.
This book reveals that James Ensor did not develop his fantastic and grotesque universe of masks and skeletons out of his melancholic soul, but that he re-used and transformed an old image tradition that was collected and published by the French author and art critic Jules Champfleury in his History of Caricature. A second essay analyses how these weird creatures infiltrate the image borders and the frames of Ensor’s paintings in order to disturb the ‘normal’ world.
The Addison Gallery of American Art, located at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, is internationally recognised for its outstanding collection of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, and photography. When its founder, Thomas Cochran, opened the Addison to the public in 1931, it was one of the few museums in this country devoted solely to American art. Cochran initially donated four hundred significant works of art, commissioned a building, and provided generous endowments. Today the holdings total over 12,000 objects that span the history of American art from the seventeenth century to the present.
Among the some 240 notable examples from the collection included in this tiny tour are paintings from the eighteenth century by Gilbert Stuart and John Singleton Copley; from the nineteenth century by Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, and F. Childe Hassam; and from the early twentieth century by John Sloan, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and Andrew Wyeth; and contemporary works by Frank Stella, Sol Lewitt, and Brice Marden. Also featured here are images from such masters of photography as Walker Evans, Eadward Muybridge, Berenice Abbott, and Robert Frank. In addition, there are outstanding works of sculpture from Paul Manship and Elie Nadelman to Alexander Calder and Martin Puryear.
Dominik Schmitt (*1983) is primarily interested in philosophical and biological questions about the self and the unimaginably vast network of causes and effects to which everything in life is subject. Through his mixed-media technique, involving acrylics, oils, and pencils on collaged canvas, he combines the human and the animal, depicting their organs with allusions to the aesthetics of biological illustrations of bodies. Schmitt’s images are dominated by a dark, almost gloomy colour palette. This publication provides an overview of Schmitt’s recent paintings.
Text in English and German.
Pedro de Mena y Medrano (1628-1688) is the most highly regarded master of Spanish Baroque sculpture, on a par with his contemporaries, the great seventeenth-century painters Velázquez, Zurbarán and Murillo. Mena’s contributions to Spanish Baroque sculpture are unsurpassed in both technical skill and expressiveness of his religious subjects. His ability to sculpt the human body was remarkable, and he excelled in creating figures and scenes for contemplation. This first monograph of Pedro de Mena shows incredible details and remarkable images of his hyper-realistic sculptures, full of passion. In addition to text by curator Xavier Bray, Pedro de Mena also features important contributions by José Luis Romeo Torres, curator of the exhibition Pedro de Mena, to be held in Málaga in 2019.
Holly Addi is a U.S.-based artist who creates abstract paintings focused on the philosophy of beauty in imperfection. With a background in psychology, Addi examines energy, colour, space, and landscape through tempered abstraction. Addi considers her practice as a “composition of imperfectionism.” By utilising abstraction, she creates moments by means of rules and omissions, acceptance and refusal, providing a space for contemplation. Her works do not reference any particular form, and interpretation becomes multifaceted. She has exhibited nationwide, and has been featured in Architectural Digest, My Domain, and Electrify Magazine. Holly’s work can be found in public and private collections worldwide.
Nadia Kaabi-Linke. Seeing Without Light features a selection of artworks by the Berlin-based artist spanning more than two decades. Through paintings, works on paper, sculptures, photographs, and mixed-media installations Kaabi-Linke confronts historical erasure, and explores the hidden traces of violence that don’t noticeably shape our understanding of the past and the present. For her solo exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, the artist created a new video and sound installation that was shot in Ukraine in the spring of 2023. Titled Bud’mo (a popular Ukrainian toast that loosely translates to “let us be”), the work is a poetic yet sobering acknowledgment of tragedies perpetrated by man and of cycles of life and death. Central to the exhibition is Blindstrom for Kazimir (2023), a conceptual installation that refers to a number of paintings, now preserved at the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv, which were censored and confiscated by Soviet intelligence during the 1930s. Through this work, the artist examines the role of censorship and violence in Central Europe’s art and political history.
This is the third in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial text by Sam Bardaouil, an interview with the artist by co-curator Daria Prydybailo, and a contribution by Paul Ardenne that situates Nadia Kaabi-Linke’s work within a larger context.
Text in English and German.
Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), one of the great visionaries of European art, spent all his life in Northern Germany, apart from four years studying in Copenhagen, and his output appears to consist almost entirely of German landscapes. But far from being parochial, he was, in the words of the French sculptor David d’Angers, the artist who ‘discovered the tragic in landscape’. His paintings assemble minutely observed elements of nature into compositions that celebrate the riches and the melancholy of a cosmos fully imbued with the divine, while never losing an almost hallucinatory engagement with reality. For all their clarity, they are the quintessence of Romanticism.
Almost too familiar today, to Friedrich’s contemporaries these extraordinary paintings were astonishing and challenging. This volume records the reactions of some of the most prominent figures of German Romanticism: Kleist, Brentano and Arnim (in a witty series of dialogues between gallery visitors alternately bewitched and bewildered by Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea), the painter and physiologist Carus, the psychologist Schubert, the Russian poet and translator Zhukovsky. A piece by Goethe and his colleague Heinrich Meyer records the somewhat baffled admiration of the earlier generation; and Friedrich’s own Commandments of Art breathes the almost overwhelming passion with which he approached his vocation. An introduction by the leading scholar Johannes Grave situates Friedrich’s art and its reception in the context of the Romantic movement both in Germany and in Europe as a whole.
Titian (c. 1488-1576) was recognised very early on as the leading painter of his generation in Venice. Starting in the studio of the aged Giovanni Bellini, Titian, with his contemporary Giorgione, almost immediately started to expand the range of what was possible in painting, converting Bellini’s statuesque style into something far more impressionistic and romantic. This restless spirit of innovation and improvisation never left him, and during his long life he experimented with a number of different styles, the brushwork of his last great paintings showing a mysterious poetry that has never been equalled. This volume in the series Lives of the Artists collects the major writings about Titian by his contemporaries and near contemporaries. The centrepiece is the biography by Vasari, who as a Florentine found Titian’s very Venetian sense of colour and transient forms a challenge to his concept of art as design. The poet Ariosto and sparkling letter writer Aretino had a more nuanced view of their friend’s work, and Priscianese’s account of a dinner party with Titian, and the contributions by Speroni and Dolce, and the slightly later Tuscan critic Borghini, round out the picture of this hugely thoughtful, intellectual artist, whose paintings remain some of the most sensual and affecting in all of Western art. Mostly unavailable in any form for many years, these writings have been newly edited for this edition. They are introduced by the scholar Carlo Corsato, who places each in its artistic and literary context. Approximately 50 pages of colour illustrations cover the full range of Titian’s great oeuvre.
“Fascinating details of the original pictures and a social history of footwear fashion” VOGUE
In acclaimed photographer Lois Lammerhuber’s pictures, shod feet in the Louvre paintings reveal undreamt-of information about people. The details are not only separate works of art, but also studies on centuries of shoe fashion and an excursion into social history. Almost intimate, the photographs raise the world of feet and footwear to eye level, showing delicate shoes and stout limbs; feet without shoes and shoes without feet. The viewing angle is a special one, not only for art enthusiasts but also for shoe lovers. Raphael, Goya, or Ingres did not produce or design footwear, but they all ‘recorded’ shoes, contributing to a history of footwear and at the same time creating fashion archives of shoes that people stepped out in between 1280 and 1863. In a brilliant discourse, Margo Glantz, an icon of Mexican literary studies, introduces the viewer to original thoughts on painting and footwear design, the history and sociology of shoes. Text in English, German, French & Spanish.
Pioneers of Art in Oman: Rasheed Abdulrahman celebrates one of Oman’s most influential visual artists through a stunning bilingual presentation in English and Arabic. This definitive volume features over 60 meticulously curated paintings and sculptures that chronicle Rasheed’s remarkable artistic evolution and his pivotal role in shaping Oman’s cultural landscape.
Beyond showcasing his visionary work, this book offers intimate biographical insights into the artist who transformed raw materials into vibrant masterpieces and mentored countless emerging talents. Detailed analyses of selected artworks reveal the profound symbolism and philosophical depth that characterise his unique artistic vision.
As the inaugural edition in a prestigious series documenting Oman’s artistic heritage, this publication represents a collaboration between the National Museum of Oman and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth. For art enthusiasts, collectors, and cultural historians alike, this book provides unprecedented access to Rasheed Abdulrahman’s legacy – a testament to his enduring influence on contemporary Omani art and his ability to illuminate tradition while pioneering new artistic frontiers.
Text in English and Arabic.