Did you know that jewellery predates clothes? The oldest known piece is a set of 100, 000-year-old beads, made from Nassarius shells.
Liza Urla advises us not to look at the eyes when meeting a new person, but instead to look at their jewellery. She describes it as the ultimate means of self-expression, essential to our identification as humans. “Jewellery is our armour,” she says, “and precious stones our amulets”. In this book, she journeys from continent to continent, chronicling the pieces that capture her imagination and her heart.
Although many of the pictures are from the street, defining the wearer’s style on the day they were taken, Urla has been lucky enough to access people’s personal jewellery boxes. As she says, the best pieces are always in private collections. Urla’s favourite finds are presented alongside her own jewellery styling, in collaboration with various designers from the jungles of Brazil, the beaches of Mexico, or the streets of London, NYC, Paris or Moscow.
A peculiar can be defined as something that ‘has eccentric or individual variations to the general or predicted pattern’. And, as it turns out, London is overflowing with them. This pocket-sized book will accompany you around the capital, guiding you from the tent-shaped tomb designed for Victorian explorer Sir Richard Burton by his widow, Isabel Arundel Gordon; to what may be the last surviving porter’s rest in London; to a stone niche by a long-demolished foundling hospital where almost 15, 000 infants were discarded over the course of the 18th century. Sometimes heroic, sometimes tragic, often amusing and always unexpected, these so-called ‘peculiars’ bring colour to the fabric of London. Whether you are a lifelong resident or a visitor passing through, London Peculiars is guaranteed to lead you on an adventure. Also in the series: Vinyl London ISBN 9781788840156 Rock ‘n’ Roll London ISBN 9781788840163 Art London ISBN 9781788840385
Terry O’Neill (1938-2019) was one of the world’s most celebrated and collected photographers, with work displayed and exhibited at first-class museums and fine-art galleries worldwide. His iconic images of Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Brigitte Bardot, Faye Dunaway, and David Bowie – to name but a few – are instantly recognisable across the globe.
Now, for the first time, O’Neill selects a range of images from his extensive archive of “vintage prints”, which will surprise and delight collectors and photography lovers alike. Long before the age of digital, photographers would send physical prints to the papers and magazines. These prints were passed around, handled by many, stamped on the back, and often times captioned. After use, the prints were either filed away, thrown out or – for the lucky few – sent back to the photographer or their photo agencies.
At the dawn of the 1960s, when O’Neill’s career began, physical prints were the norm. Terry kept as many as he could that were sent back to him. “I just kept everything,” he says. “I don’t know why. Back then, there wasn’t really a reason to keep them. Photos were used straight away and then I just moved on to the next assignment. No one was thinking these would be worth anything down the line, let alone fifty years later.”
This book collects hundreds of these rare images, a true must for Terry’s fans and photography collectors.
This book focuses on the production of chairs, discussing the work of Avisse, Blanchard, Boucault, Carpentier, Cresson, Delanois, Foliot, Gourdin and Tilliard and recreates the environment centred around the leading figure Nicolas Heurtaut. Sculptors, gilders and upholsterers are the other professions which contribute to the elaboration of a chair. The book’s theoretical section is completed with more technical observations, notably on the art of distinguishing an authentic piece from an imitation. The period covered extends from the end of the regency style to the beginning of neo-classicism (1730-1775). Text in French.
The interior designer Susanna Biedermann (1943-2007) described herself in her curriculum vitae as a painter as well. The compass of her works is in fact greater still. The book that was edited by her long-term partner Max Alioth and the graphic designer Beat Keusch from Basel begins with the sketchbooks where so many of her creations have their origin. The succession of drawings, watercolours, paintings, murals, objects, photographs, posters, logos, plans, models, builduings and words together give rise to a mosaic which is itself a reflection of Susanna Biedermann’s practice of working on several projects simultaneously. Yet what all her many-facetted works have in common is a lightness of touch, a magical quality and a gift for transforming reality. Her many different spheres of interest can all be traced back to her spontaneous fascination with everything around her. Viewed in isolation, her works are simply different parts of a larger whole, which together led to the founding of the Marrakech School of Visual Arts.
Text in English, German, French and Arabic.
Rogier Vandeweghe established himself as an independent potter in Sint Andries, near Bruges, after leaving the ceramic workshop Per Ignem, which he had founded with his brother Laurent in 1947. Under the name Amphora, from 1960 on, his quickly expanding workshop produced entirely hand-thrown vessels. His modern forms – with glazes developed in-house and experimental firing techniques – rapidly earned the workshop an international reputation. Participation in major contemporary exhibitions led to numerous awards and acquisitions by leading ceramic museums across Europe. In 1975 all production ceased, and the workshop faded into obscurity. The present publication is a tribute to Rogier Vandeweghe and his wife, Myranna Pyck, for their unwavering commitment and their continuous quest for high-quality modern beauty in their ceramics.
Text in English, French and Dutch.
A portrait of an eminent jewellery artist and her unique creations!
Inspired by the Arte Povera movement, the Italian jewellery artist Annamaria Zanella (b. 1966) uses base materials, which only gain meaning through their context. Corroded metal or found objects convey statements that can be both political and personal in nature. Zanella wants to bring the soul of the material to light through the work of her own hands.
The colour used is intended to evoke feelings and reactions. To this end Zanella studied the history of colours and their production, especially that of her unmistakable blue. She produced a blue pigment according to a recipe from the fourteenth century, invoking in its modern use pioneering artists such as Giotto, Wassily Kandinsky and Yves Klein.
Annamaria Zanella is represented in numerous museums, including Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (FR); Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin (DE); Die Neue Sammlung The Design Museum, Munich (DE); Museum of Arts and Design, New York (US); Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim (DE); Museo degli Argenti, Florence (IT); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (GB); Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (IT); Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York (US); Swiss National Museum, Zurich (CH).
Text in English and Italian.
A sphere encrusted with reindeer antler tines, an intricate bone-laden tapestry and sculptural flora integrating domestic textiles are only three of the many works unveiled in this first ever comprehensive look at tactile works by Norwegian artist Aslaug M. Juliussen (b. 1953). Self-reflections upon her life and everyday experiences with the Arctic landscape shape the imagery in her work, as evidenced by her choice of materials and techniques. Juliussen explores materials that speak to culture and tradition in Northern Norway, and the Sami culture in particular.
The publication comprises engaging cross-disciplinary essays that illustrate the multifaceted aspects of Juliussen as an artist. Scholars from such diverse fields as biology, philosophy, gender studies and art history look at Juliussen’s art from multiple perspectives and thus enable a new dialogue on art in the context of a European indigenous culture. Published to accompany the exhibitions at Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø (NO), 20 October 2018-31 March 2019 and at Blaafarveværket, Modum (NO), Summer 2019 and at Anchorage Museum, Alaska (USA), Autumn/Winter 2019.
Engravers Gerd and Patrick Dreher are famous the world over for their masterly animal figures, each of which is cut from a single gemstone. In the early twentieth century, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather all cut gemstones for Fabergé – mostly agate but also ruby, obsidian, aquamarine, citrine and rock crystal. Today, creations are still being meticulously made by hand using traditional techniques.
The realistic miniature forms of mice, snails, toads, monkeys and hippos are designed by the two artists in multilayered and coloured gemstones so that, for example, the faces, palms of the hand or soles of the feet shine in an iridescent red-brown agate while the bodies are worked in the glossy deep black part of the stone. These unique engravings are today some of the rarest examples of the highest quality in craftsmanship, and represent fascination of the highest cultural degree in a world of increasing globalisation.
Lace was a passion of Leopold Iklé (1838-1922), scion of a Hamburg textile dynasty who successfully produced machine-made embroidery over the course of the industrial boom in St. Gallen around 1900. He exported to England, France and the United States, among other places, at a time when St. Gallen was the market leader in the lace industry. Iklé’s collection of handmade European bobbin lace and needlepoint from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century originally served as inspiration for his firm’s textile designers. Through his passion for collecting, however, it quickly surpassed the practical demands of a simple pattern collection, and in 1904 he donated it to the Textile Museum St. Gallen. Historische Spitzen provides a comprehensive review as well as highlights of the lace samples in this unique collection.
Text in German.
This publication draws on sales catalogues and advertising brochures documenting the entire range of Ikora metalwork produced by WMF (Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik AG, Geislingen) from the early 1920s until the 1960s. Even during the first world war, Hugo Debach, who would later become director-general of WMF, took the initiative in having experiments conducted in chemical and thermal tinting of metals. Shortly before 1927 he founded the Neue Kunstgewerbliche Abteilung (NKA: New Division for the Applied Arts) at WMF for upgrading metals. The brilliant colours and the boundless possibilities for design arising from this new technique met with resounding success at the time. Now pieces of Ikora metalwork by WMF are coveted as valuable collectors’ items. The name Ikora, borrowed from a plant with brilliantly-hued flowers endemic to South-east Asia and sacred to the goddess Ixora, was designed to express the costly and exclusive quality of this line in metal products.
Text in English and German
From 1958 to 1973 the Young Art Circle of Fulda (JUKU) was intensively engaged with post-war modernist art. With its mentor Karlfried Staubach almost a hundred exhibitions were carried out that not only enriched the cultural life of the German city of Fulda but shook it up on many occasions. This volume deals not with the reconstruction of regional art and cultural history but rather with the rediscovery of an episode in German post-war art. By way of example are Franz Erhard Walther and Verena Pfisterer, who continued their artistic genesis in JUKU as contemporaries of Beuys, Richter and others at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. The graphic prints published to finance the JUKU gallery, and the exhibition catalogues, designed too with the group’s own print works, are shown in full for the very first time.
Artists include: Karl-Oskar Aha, Rudolf Benz, Karin Boese, Manfred Buse, Dieter Ebert, Erich Fischer, Gertraut Fuchs, Ellinor Giebel, Pedro Herzig, Erhard Imhof, Egon Knapp, Helmut Kopetzky, Jean-Luc Mercié, Oswald Pejas, Verena Pfisterer, Thomas Rücker, Thomas-Peter Schardt, Gisbert Seng, Karlfried Staubach, Robert Sturm, Franz Erhard Walther and Bärbel Zielke.
Text in German, with full English translations in the appendix.
Over the past twenty-five years, the Austrian artist Margit Hart has created an extremely diverse oeuvre of contemporary jewellery. Mindscapes, the name of her latest group of works, is synonymous with her ever changing jewellery objects. Since 2009 Margit Hart’s work – parallel to her jewellery has extended into abstract photography, resulting in a mutual dialogue between both disciplines. In her Schattenflug [Fleeting Shadows] works, she goes beyond illustrating the purely representational to create imaginary three-dimensional pictorial spaces that immerse us in mysterious worlds of light and shade. This monograph showcases the interplay between both modes of artistic expression in a tangible way.
Text in English and German.
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.
Throughout its history, the Ashmolean has evolved to meet changing needs and reflect new ideas. In the process, it has transformed from a cabinet of curiosities, representing the world in microcosm, to a museum of art and archaeology, illustrating connections between cultures over time. This book tells the story of that remarkable transformation. It shows what the Ashmolean was like at various points in the past and introduces the people who helped to make it the museum it is today. It looks at the buildings that have housed the Ashmolean and how they have been continually altered and adapted, as well as at the collections and how they have been interpreted and reinterpreted over the centuries.
How many cubic metres does the little Michelin man actually take up? What insurance value does the potato peeler Rex have and how fragile is Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s Dr. Komplex? The designer pack of cards The Happy Collector shows 52 objects from the design and decorative arts collection at the Museum of Design Zurich. Playfully – as a classical card game or top trumps – it presents not only the favourite objects and collection highlights of the museum, but also conveys important aspects of the collection procedure: from purchase, storage and handling to insurance and documentation. The Museum of Design Zurich is the leading museum for design and visual communication in Switzerland. The collection of international importance comprises around 500,000 objects from the areas of decorative arts, textiles, graphics, typography, as well as poster, furniture and product design. Sabine Flaschberger and Renate Menzi are its curators.
This publication combines the works of Belgian artist Philippe Vandenberg (1952-2009) and American artist Bruce Nauman (b. 1941). At first, it may seem startling to see Nauman’s small but dense selection of works alongside those by Vandenberg. The artists never met one another and they could not be more different in their choice of artistic media. And yet there’s something that links the oeuvre of these apparently divergent artists. This publication examines that extraordinary link. The art of both Vandenberg and Nauman is direct, uncompromising and distressing. They share a common attitude towards their artistic practices. Their works are raw and uncouth, finished just to the point where they enter the onlooker’s conscience as a kind of prelude or genesis to something. The work of Vandenberg and Nauman originates form the same source: frustration. They cry out in despair at the dark side of humanity, mourning our propensity for hatred and violence, coldness and vilification. They explore the impossibility of genuine, uncompromised communication between individual people. Both artists succeed in creating images that capture the abyss within ourselves, our failings and our cruelty. Lust and pain, violence and horror are all too close to each other. “It is said that art is about life and death. That may be melodramatic, but it’s also true,” Nauman said. “LIVE OR DIE! Nothing more, nothing less.” The book is edited by Wouter Davidts, with texts by Dr. Brigitte Kölle (Head of Contemporary Art, Hamburger Kunsthalle), John C. Welchman (Professor of Art History, University of California, San Diego) and Anna Dezeuze (Lecturer in Art History, Ecole Supérieure d Art et de Design Marseille Méditerranée). It accompanies an exhibition at Gallery Sofie Van de Velde in Antwerp: 30.03.2017 – 21.05.2017.