Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899) is revered as one of the most eminent exponents of symbolism and an inventive painter of alpine motifs of the fin de siècle. More recently, he has also been acknowledged as a leading early modernist. Exhibitions of his work regularly attract vast audiences. Yet a number of Segantini’s key works have not been on public display for many years and none of the recent books on him really covers the entirety of his oeuvre. This new monograph fills this gap.

An introductory essay on Segantini’s life and work also investigates the reception of his work over more than a century and looks at his role as paragon, for example for the Futurists or for Joseph Beuys. The core of the book form sixty paintings from all stages of Segantini’s career in full-page plates, with descriptive texts and comments illustrated with details and additional images. The easy-to-read texts offer latest findings on aspects such as topography, iconography, the importance of light, on the modern style of divisionism in Segantini’s later work and, on his biography.

Text in Italian.

Günther Wizemann, born 1953 in Graz (Austria), came to Switzerland as a child in 1960. He graduated from Zurich’s School of Design and has since been working as a painter and concept artist. Studying the Russian modernists raised the question of what he could possibly paint in the aftermath of Kazimir Malevich and Aleksander Rodchenko. Equally, Mario Merz’s installation Che fare? or, as Barnett Newman put it, What to paint? were statements that became programmatic for Wizemann’s work. The 43 paintings of The Black Garden Wizemann has created between 2003 and 2013 are a possible response to his queries. Done in oil and resin on canvas, they are the result of lengthy artistic processes and a multitude of layers of paint, forming an inner and outer image space. Featured in its entirety for the first time in this new book, the paintings are published alongside essays placing Wizemann’s largest series to date in art history. The accompanying texts reveal formal and conceptual relations, ranging from the Renaissance to his contemporaries. Starting from the title The Black Garden they also look at literary and philosophical connotations. Text in English and German.

A great American novelist, illustrated by a great American artist – now available in a collectable two-volume set.

In 1936, the Heritage Press, a publisher of fine editions, commissioned Norman Rockwell to illustrate Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer; four years later, they asked him to illustrate The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well. For each book, Rockwell created eight full-colour paintings and numerous pen-and-ink drawings, the product of extensive on-the-ground research in Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. Famously, Rockwell even tried to buy some Hannibal residents’ old clothes, to dress his models in.

For years, the Rockwell editions of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn have been unavailable in stores. Now, Abbeville Press is proud to reissue them as a handsome new clothbound set. The colour plates are reproduced from new photography of Rockwell’s original paintings, the typesetting has been done anew to a high standard, and new introductions – illustrated with Rockwell’s rarely seen preliminary sketches – examine this unique encounter between two legendary chroniclers of America.

Also available: Treasure Island and Kidnapped boxed set ISBN 9780789214089

This volume represents an important tool for getting to know every aspect of Leonardo da Vinci’s work: his pictorial technique, his scientific and technological investigation, his study on anatomy, his Codices, and every suggestion produced by his genius. All works and paintings are accompanied by descriptive and technical sheets, and ample space has been given to images and details, to the updated report on his most controversial works, to those of recent critical acceptance, and to the masterpieces that have animated the international debate such as The Encarnate Angel, the Salvator Mundi, and La Bella Principessa (Portrait of Bianca Sforza). The narrative captions reveal the most curious aspects of the history of each painting. Thanks to the direct contribution of collectors and museums the photographic reproductions of paintings and works reflect the last restorations.

Text in English and French.

The complex oeuvre of the American artist Cy Twombly (1928-2011) comprises a time period of around six decades, during which it never lost any of its expressive power. Twombly was one of the most productive artists in the history of more recent art. Acclaimed as one of the most important painters of the second half of the 20th century, he fused the legacy of American Abstract Expressionism with European and Mediterranean culture. The book focuses to a degree never before seen on his major cycles: Nine Discourses on Commodus (1963), Fifty Days at Iliam (1978), and Coronation of Sesostris (2000). The artist’s development as a whole is traced based on nearly 200 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photographs. This thus provides unique insights into the overall intellectual and sensual richness of the oeuvre. From his early works at the beginning of the 1950s, which are characterised by the use of text, to his compositions of the 1960s, his reaction to the minimal art and conceptual art of the 1970s to his final paintings, the overview of the oeuvre underscores the significance of the series and cycles in which Cy Twombly invented history painting anew. With its polyphonic conception, the monograph offers numerous approaches with essays that shed light on the various aspects and phases of Twombly’s path as an artist. It comprises et al. the reflections and personal impressions of other artists as well as the memories of his assistant Nicola Del Roscio. These diverse testimonies make it possible to discover Cy Twombly not only as an artist, but also as an individual.

James Bishop can be called the only real painter of his generation still alive. He has developed a unique, poetic, and sensitive visual vocabulary, and describes himself as “an Abstract Expressionist of the quieter kind.” Bishop likes to have his art speak for him, as he believes it has a language of its own: “Artists should neither be seen nor heard, with the exception of opera singers, of course.” Although Bishop began his career with stronger colours on large canvases, which speak for themselves, he soon turned to earth tones, and then later greys in square, mostly unmodified, smaller formats. This tendency toward reduction has remained constant from the 1960s until just recently, especially with regard to individual works on paper. Bishop has been on a persistent search for an aesthetic balance among opposing factors: drawing and painting, opacity and transparency, two and three dimensions, open forms and simple tectonic elements. In his work he has succeeded in compellingly interweaving these opposing forces into a subtle tonal relationship, creating a miniature-like, intimate aura.

Contents: Emotional viewing – by Erich Franz; “Bishop’s Expressiveness” by Molly Warnock; Biography; Exhibition List.

Text in English and German.

Leng Bingchuan: Master of Chinese Black and White Painting is the most comprehensive collection of ink paintings he has created so far, containing his 256 works from 1980 to 2000. Through these works, we can see the author’s self-conscious pursuit of the theme, his straightforward, pure, strong and distinct characteristics, reflecting the spirit and charm of oriental art. With its unique cover design, Leng Bingchuan: Master of Chinese printmaking and Engraving also implies the design concept of minimalism.

The dramatic landscape photographs of Saskia Boelsums manifest a strong connection to the Dutch tradition of landscape paintings. She is inspired by nature, weather, and the seasons, with clouds and skies characterised by moody chiaroscuro and painterly monumentality. The reality of the changing climate, and what this will mean for the future, is a theme that runs throughout her work. She captures not only the beauty of the landscape, but also a vague sense of uncertainty and threat. As she says: “It looks like the classic historical Dutch landscapes and skies are being pushed out by landscapes and skies that are the result of climate change. I am very aware of that tension.” “I am photographing when most people think the weather is too bad to go outside. By exploring different landscapes in all four seasons, I feel strongly connected to the universe. That feeling I’m trying to pass on through my landscape photos.” – Saskia Boelsums.

Helmut Middendorf is one of Germany’s most renowned painters. As a member of the neo-expressionists, the Neue Wilden, he left a lasting impression on the artistic landscape of the 1980s. In 2022, Middendorf showed an exhibition entitled Berlin SO 36 Revisited at the Museum Schloss Derneburg, Hall Art Foundation. SO 36 was the name of an area of Kreuzberg, but also of the famous music venue that inspired many of the artist’s works. Middendorf lived and worked in Berlin Kreuzberg’s SO 36 district throughout the 1970s and 80s. As well as the documentation accompanying the exhibition at the Museum Schloss Derneburg, this publication presents a wide selection of paintings and works on paper dating from that era, most of which are being republished here for the first time in many years. A large number of hitherto unseen photographs from the artist’s private archive also feature.

Text in English and German.

“After a good dinner one evening, with excellent company and a bottle of wine, I settled by my fire with a volume of paintings by the 15th century Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio. For much of my life I have been under the spell of this artist. I am no connoisseur, cultural scholar or art historian. I know nothing about painterly techniques, chromatic gradations or artistic affinities, and my infatuation with him is largely affectionate fancy. I feel I know him personally, and I often sense that I am directly in touch with him across the centuries, across the continents, as one might be in touch with a living friend…” So starts Jan Morris’s latest book, which she has said will also be her last: a genial, witty, and touching journey through the endlessly evocative art of Carpaccio. Saluting the painter whose pictures remain some of the most enchanting ever made of Venice, Jan Morris makes her own last journey to a city she has written about like no other. Richly illustrated with complete paintings and eye-catching details, this book is a fitting swansong by a great writer to her favourite painter.

The essays in this lavishly illustrated volume offer a multi-faceted portrait of American financier J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913) as a collector of art. A riveting exploration of Morgan’s acquisitions from antiquities to medieval manuscripts to Old Master paintings and European decorative arts, Morgan—The Collector introduces the reader to how and why he amassed his vast collection. The lively essays also serve as a tribute to Linda Roth, curator at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, who dedicated much of her forty-year career to researching Morgan and the over 1,500 works from his collection now in the museum. This much-needed publication focuses on Morgan as a collector and is directed at both a scholarly and more general audience that is interested in the history of collecting, America in the Gilded Age, Pierpont Morgan, and European art.