In the spring of 2023, Fondation Louis Vuitton will be holding Basquiat x Warhol… Painting 4 hands, the most important exhibition ever devoted to the collaborative work of these two artists. The exhibition will feature more than 100 jointly signed paintings, in addition to individual works by Basquiat and Warhol, and works by other major artists (Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Kenny Scharf, etc.) in order to recreate the New York downtown art scene of the 1980s.
From 1984 to 1985, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) and Andy Warhol (1928–1987) jointly produced about 160 paintings, some of the largest in their respective careers. A genuine artistic dialogue of style and form had developed between them that dealt equally well with crucial issues such as the integration of the African-American community into the narrative of North America, a continent where Warhol was a major manufacturer of icons.

Internationally renowned artist Heiner Meyer (b.1953) utilises Pop Art strategies, combining visual material from a vast variety of contexts. His paintings combine comic figures, compositions by Picasso or Hockney, and advertising for modern luxury brands, condensing them into a new pictorial creation that allows for a diverse range of reflections that update the critical potential of Pop Art in the face of contemporary consumerism.

The publication Pop Art Now shows various views of the installation and paintings from the exhibition at the Kunstforum Wien, as well as recent works from the last two years. In her text, art historian Dr Renée Gadsden provides insights into the exhibition and Heiner Meyer’s oeuvre since the beginning of his artistic career.

Text in English and German.

Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918), as a painter equally significant and controversial, brought Swiss art to international recognition in the early 20th century. His impressive landscapes and portraits, monumental paintings of historic scenes and symbolistic and allegorical figures were exhibited all over Europe and acquired by museums and private collectors alike. Hodler’s work was discussed, praised, and criticised in contemporary publications. The new third volume of the catalogue raisonné of Hodler’s painted work is dedicated to his non-portrayal figure paintings. With around 630 works, this key section of Hodler’s oeuvre is almost as prolific as his landscapes. It comprises religious and patriotic genre paintings, symbolist figures such as The Night from 1890, and vast canvasses and murals with historic scenes. As in the earlier volumes on Hodler’s landscapes and portraits, the new book features an introductory essay, followed by the actual catalogue section listing the works in chronological order, and an appendix documenting questionable or erroneous attributions as well as confirmed forgeries. Text in German.

What can an abstract image be? Starting with this question, Clara Brörmann (*1982) develops paintings in different formats – canvas as landscape, as symbol, as figure. Her works are not two-dimensional, but have a body and can be viewed from various perspectives. The catalogue Kopfbilder begins with her relatively recent series of head paintings. Brörmann’s painting is characterised by her processual work method and a vivid materiality.

Text in English and German.

This artist’s book features a selection of Çağla Ulusoy’s abstract paintings distinguished by her unique visual language and colour palette, accompanied by collages that reflect the processes behind her practice. In her paintings, Ulusoy reshapes lived experiences from various cultures and traditions through an abstract visual language, infusing them with subconscious memories and imagery. Her collages, on the other hand, re-imagine her works within a hybrid narrative and fantastical universe, incorporating adorned figures and scenes. Comprising 83 selected paintings — which Ulusoy creates with materials such as acrylic, oil paint, sand, and wax and in which harmony and friction coexist on the same surface and the balance between colour and form is constantly challenged — and the collages accompanying them, the book deciphers the artist’s multilayered and uncanny visual language.

Sergio De Beukelaer has been working on a self-confident and uncompromising oeuvre of paintings for over 20 years. The work of Sergio De Beukelaer appears simple and colourful but unites all kinds of apparent contradictions. Although his painting looks sleek, formal, geometric and abstract, it always starts out from a strong desire for reality. It is not the reality itself that interests him. He is concerned with a translation thereof.
Through visual thinking and acting, he always achieves a certain form of abstraction within the formal framework of painting. Seemingly effortlessly, his art navigates between surface and space, text and image, intellectual seriousness and playful irony, painting and sculpture. Via the original and inimitable concept of the fat canvas, a three-dimensional painting, the artist breaks down the boundaries of classical painting. His paintings appropriate the space and generate a powerful visual impact on their environment. (cat.) is a bold and beautiful monograph of paintings and installations that look simple but combines a variety of paradoxes.

Text in English and Dutch.

Presents a selection of more than 100 furnishing textiles and designs that range from a spectacular printed hanging designed by the Wiener Werkstätte artist, Dagobert Peche, between 1911 and 1918, to a series of dramatic woven, silk and metal wall coverings Les Colombes designed by Henri Stephany for the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes. The Art Deco period is well represented by the works of Raoul Dufy, Alberto Lorenzi, Robert Bonfils, Alfred Latour, Emile Alain Seguy and Paul Dumas. Although the majority of pre-Second World War textiles are of French origin, the exhibition also includes some rare British furnishing fabrics from the 1930s, in particular the iconic and very elegant Magnolia Leaf by Marion Dorn, woven in off-white and silver viscut by Warner & Sons in 1936. During this period, Britain attracted talented European designers, such as Jacqueline Groag and Marian Mahler who had trained with Josef Hoffmann at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule. They became highly influential in creating a ‘New Look’ that took hold of Britain after the austerities of the Second World War. ‘The Festival of Britain,’ held in 1951, was epitomised by Calyx which launched the career of its designer, Lucienne Day and is now considered to be a landmark of post-War design. So great was its success that several versions were produced as well as contemporary copies, all of which are reproduced here in spectacular colour.

Two great textiles from the 1950s – Seaweed designed by Ashley Havinden in 1954 for Arthur Sanderson and Grecian by Alec Hunter in 1956 for Warner & Sons – bridge the gap between the spirit and elegance of the inter-War period and the new ‘contemporary’ look of the 1950s. Britain maintained its pre-eminent position in textile design throughout the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. This was because firms like Edinburgh Weavers, Heal & Sons and Hull Traders and museums such as the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester (the centre of the British textile industry) worked hard at integrating and promoting great design, often by well-known artists within the industry. Among the artists who worked with Edinburgh Weavers were Marino Marini, Victor Vasarely and Alan Reynolds. Britain was not alone in applying art to industry. An elegant example of Op Art is the work of the German artist, Wolf Bauer, whose 1969/70 designs for one of the leading American manufacturers, Knoll Textiles, is a highlight of this book.

It has long been a dream of art director Iris Rombouts to produce an art book that sheds new light on our familiar surroundings and our daily food in particular. And what better way to do that than with the bee, the most important creature to humans on earth? Not only is this small insect indispensible to our food chain – it pollinates over 80% of all flowering plants and 70 of the top human food crops – but it is also a source of inspiration for architects, writers, artists and even whole cities. This book celebrates the bee in all its humble glory, and does so in a completely original way. With a preface by author Jeroen Olyslaegers.

We see the bee represented by old masters and contemporary artists, by insectobsessed Renaissance man Jan Fabre, by Joseph Beuys and his Honey Pump and by Tomás Libertiny with his beeswax sculptures. There is the ceramic piece of art ‘The Wall’ by Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen, with its repetitive structure that reminds of a honeycomb. Fashion, too, is represented: designer Harm Van Zwolle chose the bee as his muse, proving that the beekeeper s outfit can become a covetable piece of clothing.

The book is as multi-faceted as the eye of the bee. It pays homage to Maurice Maeterlinck, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, who tells the most inspiring tales about the life and death of the bee. It explores the mythical powers of the Apis Mellifera, and invites passionate beekeepers from all over the world to share their vision and show that there is much more to the bee than honey. The book also explains how the beehive inspired architects Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright to create stunning buildings that will impress many generations to come. As readers, we explore the feather-light steel building ‘The Hive’ by Wolfgang Buttress, and travel to Manchester, the city that chose the bee as its symbol and has shown to be every bit as courageous and resilient as the insect itself. All these weird and wonderful stories are accompanied by the work of talented photographers such as Stephen Mattues, Diego Franssens, studioEAST, Mark Haddon, Stephen Goodenough, Joao Sousa, Filip Van Roe, Wout Hendrickx and Iris herself. With this book, Iris Rombouts has created a joyful, brilliant mix of stories, photography and art, with the bee as the well-deserved star of the show.

Thanks to a conscious reduction in form and colour, the ceramics by the Swiss artist Sonja Duò-Meyer (b. 1953) unfurl incredible expressive power. Their flowing silhouettes appear almost meditative, fixed points emerge in the light asymmetry of their forms, and a sophisticated play on light and shade develops. Surfaces, material, corpora and technique are interwoven through a minimalistic design concept that celebrates stillness and the concept of the void. Photographs of objects as well as exhibition views show vessels, objects and wall installations from 1992 to 2017. A particular highlight are works and ideas from the ceramic centre Tajimi, where, as artist in residence, the artist engaged intensively with Japanese techniques.

With exciting illustrations and informative essays, this first monograph on Sonja Duò-Meyer presents the development of a career in contemporary ceramic art now spanning over forty years.

Text in English and German.

Comprehensive Examples of Landscape Classification is an in-depth reference guide to the varying types of landscape architecture and design, offering a complete overview of the subject. The book is divided into 18 chapters: road and street landscape, floor covering landscape, planting landscape, table and chair landscape, stair landscape, trestle and quay landscape, rail and fence, door landscape, artificial waterscape, natural water landscape, swimming pools, wall landscape, roof landscape, landscape construction, landscape architecture, lighting landscape, sculpture piece and professional facilities.

Materials+: Creative Products focuses on original design ideas. It features wall clocks made from old vinyl records, comic books used as plant pots, vases made from sticks of dynamite, waste baskets constructed from sheets of recycled newspaper, lampshades made from eggshells, ornaments made from matchsticks; the materials used to make many of the products are not typically associated with the product, resulting in exceptionally creative designs. This innovative book offers access to many unique designs and is an excellent source of inspiration.

The term ‘Media Facades’ is most often associated with screens, animations, illuminations etc. on the front of buildings – often used as advertisements, or to convey messages. The in-depth reference work Media Facades – History, Technology and Content asks vital questions: what developments have there been in the last three years? Which kind of media facade has established itself? How can media facades be integrated into today’s often ‘curvaceous’ architecture and urban landscape? These are just some of the questions that are examined by looking at around 35 current examples, supplemented by interviews with early protagonists from this field, scientists, journalists, product developers and many more. New trends, directions and technologies are discussed and the important topic of sustainability is not forgotten either. With projects by Asymptote, Big, realities:united, UNStudio and many more.

This lavishly illustrated book presents one hundred significant drawings from the 15th- to the 21st-century, including new discoveries and works by both celebrated masters and others who deserve to be better known. Among the artists represented are Annibale and Ludovico Carracci, Guido Reni, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Antoine Watteau, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Pierre-Paul Prud hon, Thomas Gainsborough, George Romney, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Lovis Corinth, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Käthe Kollwitz, Otto Mueller, Emil Nolde, Egon Schiele, Edward Hopper, John Marin, Grant Wood, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Edward Ruscha. Catalogue entries for each drawing includes complete documentation, provenance, and bibliography. The text provides important new scholarship and attributions; examining a variety of themes, such as connoisseurship, patronage, materials and techniques, watermarks, and collectors’ stamps; and discusses how a work fits into the artist’s oeuvre or represents larger developments in artistic movements or trends in artistic production. Published to accompany an exhibition in Minneapolis, MN July 13, 2014 – September 21, 2014. Contents: A History of Drawings at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts Tom Rassieur; Topography of a Drawing; Contributors to the Catalogue; To the Reader; Catalogue.

In this collection of photographs taken in over 36 countries, Christer Löfgren explores the international art of graffiti and wall paintings. From his base in Stockholm, Sweden, Löfgren travels to places where street art can be found, including places like the Antarctic, Greenland, and Svalbard, where you may not expect to see it. The book addresses the current duality of opinion about street art: it is still viewed as a criminal act in many places, and yet at the same time it is accepted as a valid and important art form. It crosses boundaries to unite communities all around the world. Organised in two sections, the first section of this book explores the methods and motivations behind the work, while the second section focuses on street art in specific countries around the world.

Spanish-born photographer Fadia Ahma (b.1975) lives and works in Lebanon. Her poetic series of photographs of Beirut eloquently captures the street life of that resilient city; merchants on street corners, grocers, fishermen, bathers, street artists, collapsed buildings, new construction. She presents fragments of life through fragments of the city itself. This is the first monograph of her vibrant and intuitive work on the people and places of Beirut.

She has been crisscrossing her city with a camera since 2003. District after district, house after house, she explores the complexity and humanity of Beirut and the Lebanese people. “I decided,” she explains, “to follow an itinerary, which is always the same, so that I wouldn’t disperse myself. It is my constancy that allows me to discover, to meld with this city.” Fadia Ahmad’s imagines her photographs as paintings, which mirror Beirut and capture the poetry of place and people which are nestled in the slightest details.

Text in English and French.

Bricks, one of the earliest materials associated with both housing and the body, are the subject and object of this publication. In terms of human agency, bricks are the basic unit through which the artist introduces his designs in the landscape. Kaufmann uses this simple, yet tough, material to build up an imaginative world that is not linked solely to the bricks as such, but also to the symbolic charge they possess (the concept of transparency, physical and metaphorical walls, and their associated imaginative world). A total of ten works will be exhibited and Kaufmann himself presents each in the book. The introduction is edited by Anne-Claire Schumacher, who discusses Kaufmann’s development and his place in the history of ceramic art and in contemporary art as a whole. This is followed by a contribution by Luca Pattaroni, who views the topic from a socio-political perspective. The five main works set in the park of the Ariana Museum and the continuation into the museum’s basement are described and commented by the artist.

Text in English and French.

Eclectic, eccentric and tirelessly innovative, art crafted from cut paper has experienced an exciting renaissance in recent years. Published to accompany a travelling exhibit organised by the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Slash: Paper Under the Knife examines the resurgence of traditional handicraft materials and techniques in contemporary art and design. Highlighting the work of forty-five international artists, among them Olafur Eliasson, Tom Friedman, William Kentridge, and Kara Walker, the book features not only cut but also burned, torn, laser-cut, shredded and sculpted paper art. In addition, the book includes cut-paper animation, as well as cut paper incorporated in photography and fashion. Works range from small-scale intricate cuttings to large-scale architectural inventions and sculptures. With an essay by well-known decorative arts expert David Revere McFadden, this singular book reveals that, with ingenuity and craftsmanship, one of our most familiar implements can be transformed into unforgettable works of art.

“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 The Power of the Avant-Garde, contemporary artists from different art disciplines enter into dialogue with their colleagues from the historical avant-garde movement. Luc Tuymans talks about ‘Le Grand Cheval’ of Raymond Duchamp-Villon; Marlène Dumas describes her passion for Edvard Munch; John Baldessari discusses the genius Marcel Broodthaers,… This book makes surprising links, shedding new light on the power and influence of art before, during and after World War I. Text in English, French, and Dutch.

“Vandekeybus brought into focus a whole new genre of modern dance… Combat rolls, breakneck sprints and savagely wrestled duets became the defining vocabulary of a new generation.” The Guardian
In 2016, Wim Vandekeybus’ company Ultima Vez celebrates its 30th birthday. Never before has his oeuvre been recorded in a book. Until now. This extraordinary book is a visual trip through the most powerful images from his repertoire, a quest for the ideas and themes that inspire him. It also contains unpublished texts, notes and scripts from his shows and films. A number of compagnons de route, such as David Byrne, Mauro Pawlowski, and Peter Verhelst, offer a personal textual contribution. Text in English, French, and Dutch.

“‘The marvellous is always beautiful,’ reads a sign on the wall of the Scottish National Museum of Modern Art. This stirring slogan, by Andre Breton, from his Manifesto of Surrealism, sets the tone for this fascinating, mind expanding exhibition.” – BBC Arts “Outstanding… The finest spread of surrealist art – paintings and objects – to be seen in Britain since the momentous Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design show at the V&A in 2007.” – Sunday Times

This book brings together over 160 of the finest surrealist artworks by legendary artists including Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró and Man Ray. The works hail from the four renowned and extraordinary private collections of Edward James, Roland Penrose, Gabrielle Keiller and Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch, and together offer a superb overview of surrealist art. Ten essays explore the different origins, historical contexts and creative urges behind these collections. Artworks, perhaps more than anything else that one can acquire, are objects of desire and surrealist artworks even more so. The sheer quality of the works acquired (and, in the case of the Pietzsches, still being acquired) is astonishing and, while passionate about their private visions, all the collectors have been mindful of contributing something to the public good. The collections complement each other to an extraordinary degree and allow us to follow some of the artists’ careers from beginning to end. By uniting them, exciting new juxtapositions emerge along with a fuller and richer picture of the surrealist movement as a whole.