Tong Jun was an outstanding architect and architectural educator in contemporary China. He was widely considered an all-round talent in theory, creation, writing and painting in Chinese architecture. He had a deep foundation in ancient Chinese literature, and studied Chinese classical poetry since childhood. While studying at the University of Pennsylvania, he won many awards in the national architectural student design competition. He has left behind many works and manuscripts on landscape, architecture, and architecture history, sculpture history, and painting history that have enlightened and educated many generations. However, there are few records about him. This book recollects the last 20 years of his life, and introduces the reader to the very real and vivid practitioner that was Tong Jun.
“… fashion journalist Claudia Joseph opens the door to the world’s most coveted closet.” — Elle
“Diana: A Life in Dresses chronicles Princess Diana’s sartorial evolution from her early shopping days at Harrods to working with world-renowned designers like Catherine Walker.” — Harpers Bazaar
“This stylish survey traces Di’s evolution from unsophisticated debutante to fashion icon, telling the stories behind her most famous, and infamous, dresses.” — New York Post
‘I literally had one long dress, one silk shirt, one smart pair of shoes and that was it’ – so Princess Diana said of the day she and Prince Charles got engaged. Sixteen years later, Diana would die, no longer the girl with one dress, but a global fashion icon who had raised more than £2 million for charity by selling 79 of her dresses at Christie’s auction house in New York.
This chic and stylish book opens Diana’s wardrobe to the world. From the Regamus debutante’s dress Diana wore at a ball at Althorp, her family estate, to her infamous Christina Stambolian ‘Revenge’ dress, which she wore on the night Prince Charles publicly admitted his adultery with Camilla Parker Bowles, each iconic moment is captured in these pages.
Claudia Joseph chronicles Diana’s style evolution from the days she shopped with her mother for her wedding trousseau at Harrods, to her discovery of her wedding dress designers, the Emanuels, and her relationship with Vogue fashion director Anna Harvey, who introduced her to designers such as Catherine Walker, Jacques Azagury and Versace. She looks at the designers who shaped Diana’s image and tracks down her most symbolic dresses to museums around the world.
“We are living history right now. I believe we need to do more to document this unique moment in America, and who better to convey what we all are feeling than our country’s greatest artists? It is my hope that in 50 years, art history classes will pull this book off the shelf and understand the deep emotion of this time.” — William Weinaug
Around the world, many individuals and families have faced isolation due to COVID-19. Our lives have been changed as we face a historical crisis of unprecedented scale. But beauty has also come from this hardship. The Great American Paint In® was birthed to allow artists to paint their emotions during the pandemic, capturing this period of history in a unique way — through art.
This book curates the products of the Paint In️®, revealing the responses of over 50 artists from across the continent. Artists share their experiences, their losses, and their hopes for the future. In doing so, they demonstrate the real grit and backbone of the American pandemic story. Like so many enduring these difficult times, they discovered a whole new world and a brand “new normal” that allows them to live, work, survive — and, most importantly, create.
These stories have been shared by Wekiva Island online, at Gallery CERO, and around the country in several traveling art exhibits. Now, for the first time, they are being brought together in a single volume.
Select artists include: Hai-Ou Hou, Olena Babek, Barbara Fox, Jill Stefani Wagner, Paul Schulenburg, Morgan Samuel Price, Kyle Stanley, Raymond Bonilla, Kathleen Dunphy, Jennfer Miller, Michelle Held, David Arsenault, John S Caggiano, Tony D’Amico, Karen Blackwood, Jeanne Rosier Smith, Justin T Worrell, Thomas Kegler, Shawn Krueger, Erik Koeppel, Ken Salaz, Hillary Scott, Thomas Adkins, Michael Orwick, Kim VanDerHoek, Cindy House, George Van Hook, Kim Lordier, Marc R Hansen, Sergio Roffo, Sam Vokey, Mary Erickson, Tom LaRock, Josh Clare, Howard B Friendland, Marc Dalessio, Andrew Orr, Kari Ganoung Ruiz, Charles Muench, Jim McVicker, Trish Coonrod, Joseph Daily, Jeffrey Hayes, Mitch Kolbe, Dogulas Wiltraut, Ray Howard, Nick Patten, Brett Scheifflee, Jeff Gola, Eleinne Basa, Bill Farnsworth, Garin J Baker, and Mary Jane Volkmann.
Alessandra Bigi Iotti and Giulio Zavatta are noted art historians, authors, and professors who have organized exhibitions, events, and conferences in Italy and abroad. In this book, they take the reader on a journey through art galleries, museums, and places of worship, looking for celebrated as well as forgotten masterpieces of Mannerism – the most controversial style of the Renaissance period. Mannerism emerged in the later years of the High Italian Renaissance and continued into the early 17th century. Noted artists who worked in this style include Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Parmigianino, and Giulio Romano. This book offers insight into this movement in the context of its time and brings to light forgotten works that represent an important part of Italian art history.
Text in English and Italian.
Hailing from the cultural realm of India, the mandala signifies in its original sense a sacred circle. It serves as a meditation aid and at the same time reflects an ancient symbolism of strictly geometric basic forms accompanied by an interpretation of its sacred content. As an expression of the awareness of higher affinities, the symmetrically arranged geometry can be found in a variety of pictorial works and the architecture of various epochs and cultural realms, for example in medieval book illumination, the floor plan of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, in Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, or in various objects of the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. Based on these and other masterpieces from renowned museums and private collections and illustrated in fascinating photographs of unique buildings and rituals, this publication offers an impressive first analysis of the phenomenon of sacred geometry in art and architecture and their underlying ideologies.
This is the ultimate bible to Paris unknown.
If you want to see Paris like it is in the movies, Nessy will show you the director’s cut. If you seek the unusual and the underground, she’ll take you down the rabbit hole and park you at the mad hatter’s doorstep. If you think you know Paris, let Nessy challenge you.
This book will encourage the wanderer within. It is a true traveler’s companion as much as a beautifully-designed collectible for your bookshelf. You are about to acquire this curious local’s key to the city that will unlock a precious vault of addresses. Within the pages of this beautifully bound hardback, you will find…
20 Secret Restaurants; 70 Time Traveller’s Bars and Cafés; 50 Romantic Hideaways and Unique Date Ideas; 60 Unexpected Cultural Alternatives to major museums; 50 Movie-worthy Walks & Eye-opening Neighbourhood Discoveries; 35 Cabinets of Curiosity and Aladdin’s Caves; 50 Hip Parisian Hangouts; 50 Places to Inspire & Use Your Creativity; 35 Booklover Havens; 60 Local Food Gems; 40 Places Parisian Families actually take their Kids; 65 Urban Retreats; 30 Obscure/ Underground Adventures; 50 Budget-friendly life-savers; Endless good-to-know Paris tips.
A hundred years after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Museum Fünf Kontinente is showing the special exhibition In trockenen Tüchern! Gewebtes und Besticktes aus dem Osmanischen Reich [A Stitch in Time! Woven and Embroidered Textiles from the Ottoman Empire]. The accompanying publication provides an insight into the different aspects of inhabitants’ life during the Late Ottoman Empire, based on selected textiles and everyday items from the collections of the Museum Fünf Kontinente as well as the private collections of Ther and Middendorf. Together with their rural counterparts featuring woven red and blue patterns, the napkins and hand towels from the 18th to 20th century, artistically embroidered with blossom, fruits, or architectural elements, accompanied people from cradle to grave and bear impressive witness to their craftsmanship. Today these textile objects are a significant part of the cultural legacy of Turkey.
Text in German with partial Turkish translation.
How can industrial buildings with long histories and spatial uniqueness be integrated into urban life more actively? How can newly built industrial plots with large-scale industrial and commercial buildings be situated and integrated into urban planning and design?
This book features nearly 40 cases of redevelopment and industrial design by the German architectural firm gmp Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen (mainland China), and some German cities. These designs are for commercial and industrial buildings, cultural and convention centers, exhibition halls and data centres. They apply gmp’s design concept to industrial buildings within the context of the metropolis, work that is characterized by conciseness, diversity, unity, uniqueness, and orderliness. This book provides examples of, and references to, urban industrial building areas and industrial architecture design, and can be used as a reference by teachers and students of urban planning studies, architectural history, architectural heritage conservation, and architectural design.
Text in English and Chinese.
“Ballet inspires me. Human beings have the capacity to express themselves through many art forms, but when it comes to dance – and especially classical modern ballet – I am always amazed by that unbelievably elevated form of expression. It’s so precise and so incredibly skilled; I admire that enormously.” — Photographer and filmmaker Erwin Olaf
“The fact that the photographer is looking through the camera lens means they have a different perspective from looking directly at the figure. That is voyeuristic. The camera can do something that the audience member can’t: zooming in for a close-up.” — Choreographer Hans van Manen
The grand master of Dutch dance, Hans van Manen, celebrates his 90th birthday this year. That has given rise to international celebrations by leading ballet companies with the Hans van Manen festival from 8 to 29 June 2022, the exclusive publication Dance in Close-Up and the exhibition of the same name in Galerie Ron Mandos in Amsterdam from 19 June to 17 July 2022.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, Hans van Manen was not only one of the world’s leading choreographers, but also an internationally acclaimed photographer. It was during this period that the then very young photographer Erwin Olaf met the famed artist, who immediately took him under his wing and introduced him to the world of the visual arts and studio photography.
This book celebrates their 40 years of friendship, with a photo series in which Van Manen directs moments from his choreographic career, recorded with the utmost precision by Erwin Olaf.
With text contributions from the authors Nina Siegal and Michael James Gardner.
Modern Painting in Egypt is an invitation to travel through the Egyptian art scene of the 20th century, highlighting several major painters, as well as their role in the construction of heritage culture of Egypt.
This edition brings up to date the book by Aimé Azar, a well-known specialist in modern Egyptian art. Published in 1961 by Éditions Nouvelles, it is now out of print. Augmented and enriched, this new edition in two volumes provides readers, a comprehensive understanding of this period of art history, through texts and iconography by great qualities. The book is divided into seven chapters, followed by more than 90 biographies of Egyptian artists and foreigners, presented in chronological order and covering 40 years of modern Egyptian art.
A corpus of more than 600 paintings and drawings adorns the book, to allow the reader to understand the essence of Egyptian painting, as well as the extent of its nuances. Translated and reprinted in Arabic in 2006, it is now published in English, in order to provide an international impetus to the subject.
“A lush, illustrated book shows the “Equestrian Life” in the rich paradise around New York – and is also great fun for non-equestrians.” — Monopol
“His book overflows with breathtaking imagery and rich history.” — Frederic
Equestrian life has an enduring appeal for many of us, but it has a special place in the hearts of Hamptonites. Written by renowned fashion and lifestyle editor, Blue Carreon — an avid equestrian who lives and breathes the Hamptons when not in Manhattan — this luxurious book is his photographic showcase of the glamorous, often exclusive, and intriguing horse-sporting life in the Hamptons. This is a place dotted by bucolic barns and exclusive stables, coexisting with the shingle-style mansions with sweeping manicured lawns and modernist beach houses with uninterrupted views of the dunes and ocean beyond. Wending and looping through the picturesque hills and townships of the Hamptons are horseback-riding trails, world-class public and private equestrian facilities and estates, and premier blue-ribbon horse shows, polo competitions, and more. Blue Carreon also explores the hard work that comes with the glamor that comes with the sport. The thrill and danger that come with the sound of a horse’s galloping steps; the frustration of falls and ecstasy of big wins. Equestrian Life in the Hamptons offers a historic framework to the evolution of equestrian culture in the region, provides details on stables and how they are designed, barn and tack room tours, and the fashions on and off the field (both human and equine) as well as interiors inspired by all things equestrian. These pages are jam-packed with stories and interviews with not only the wealthy weekenders but with those who have devoted their life to their equine passions and the equestrian life.
Appreciation of the works by the German artist couple Annelies and Fred Stelzig from Besigheim in the discipline of art made for architecture has been a long time coming. To mark the 100th anniversary of them both, the town of Besigheim has made this its task. For the large retrospective, a publication is launched that focuses on the incredible breadth of their production for the very first time. Waiting to be discovered alongside wall ceramics and carpets are works in wood, glass, and enamel. Numerous contributions by authoritative experts present the personal backgrounds of the couple, trace lines of development, and highlight the material specificities of their works. Over 300 illustrations additionally provide a lively impression of the couple’s ability to be versatile yet at the same time retain continuity during their long creative period, from the 1950s to their last work in 2006.
With contributions by Christian Behrer, Dieter Büchner, Christiane Fülscher, Sabine Gärttling, Inken Gaukel, Regina Ille-Kopp, Andreas Janssen, Cornelia Marinowitz, Martha Pflug-Grunenberg, and Sandy Richter.
Text in German.
According to medieval theologians, faith is a deadly serious business. Humor and virtue are irreconcilable, because laughter is uncontrollable and escapes the control of reason. A modest smile is permitted. But laughing loudly, grinning and grimacing: these are the playing field of the devil – just as pernicious as other uncontrollable urges, such as physical love or the addiction of the gambler. That is the domain of the peasant or fool.
In the late Middle Ages, every right-thinking town-dweller knew the difference between the peasant and the fool. Peasants are innocently gullible, primitive, throwing themselves into feasting, gorging, drinking and sex. The peasant is the antithesis of the cultivated urbanite, who fastidiously controls his urges – and who therefore above all must not laugh too loudly. Only during Innocents Day parties or Shrove Tuesday celebrations is it permitted for urban partygoers to play the fool and to show their ‘underbelly’.
In contrast to the peasant, the fool escapes the existing order. He holds up a mirror to the self-declared wise citizens, because ‘the fool reveals the truth through laughter’, even though it may be hidden between piss and shit, sex and snot. It is for precisely this reason that Erasmus, in his In Praise of Folly writes not as himself but through the persona of Folly, a broad back behind which the wise person can hide when he denounces social problems. Laughter thus alters the world.
In this context, the fool and irony became important motifs in medieval art, especially in the Low Countries. This original art book is illustrated with dozens of top-quality works by Flemish masters from worldwide collections.
As early as 1934 Charlotte Perriand began to reflect on the architectural aspects of leisure activities for all, but it was with Les Arcs, her greatest work, that she completed her reflection on the art of living in the mountains.
Alongside the developer Roger Godino, Charlotte Perriand displayed all the facets of her immense talent: design, urban planning, but also bioclimatic architecture, of which she was a pioneer. She had to deal with financial and time constraints in order to design most of the Arc 1600 and 1800. Thanks to her perseverance and growing inventiveness, her integration of architecture into the sites, her innovative and human approach to traffic, and the life she breathes into the resort, especially on the rooftops, she has made it a friendly place, in harmony with the environment. Thus, she designs the interior architecture of more than 4,500 homes, 25,000 beds, for an annual flow of more than one million people. Her wish to combine the art of living in the mountains with housing for the greatest number of people has been largely realized.
Today, it seems more urgent than ever to focus more attention in design on the common good. This is because we are faced with the consequences of a design methodology that is geared towards the good of individuals wherever we look. The concept of public value seems ideal as a way of focusing design education more strongly on the common good: Public value is what the public values. It provides an alternative to one-sided orientations such as the shareholder value paradigm.
The iF Design Foundation 2022 has carried out the present study in order to determine the public value of design study programs at German universities. This study provides a basis for encouraging and realizing a form of design education in Germany geared towards the common good. This publication also contains a list of all design courses of study at German universities.
China’s Song dynasty (960-1279) ceramics have long been famed for their simple shapes and beautiful glazes. Ceramics in Song China is the first book to look beyond their creation and aesthetics to explore how they functioned in Chinese society in their own time, and beyond. Looking at connections between ceramics and daily life, it takes in geology and environmental impacts as well as the movement of ceramics throughout the expanding Song urban environment. It shows how some ceramics document otherwise forgotten lives and social practices while illuminating how the concerns of poets, scholars and officials are present in others. Concluding with a survey of Song ceramics in the collections of Chinese emperors, Japanese temples, European royalty and English writers, this book presents a new account of how one of the world’s greatest ceramic productions touched every Song life and went on to intrigue generations of admirers across the world.
Rising near the baths of Diocletian, where Imperial Rome once proclaimed its power, the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome stands as a different but no less enduring monument to Italian genius. Inaugurated in 1880 as the Teatro Costanzi, it was born at a pivotal hour – when a newly unified Italy sought not only political coherence but a shared cultural soul. Within its crimson and golden interiors, that soul found one of its most resounding expressions. Here Puccini’s Tosca premiered in 1900, at a time when the theater became both witness and protagonist of modernity – surviving war, regime, and reinvention – while safeguarding a repertoire that binds Italy to the wider world. To enter its auditorium is to step into a continuum: ancient stone outside, velvet and light within, and above all the breath of singers transforming silence into shared memory. This is a stunning volume, enriched by glorious photography, that honors and uplifts one of the most important opera houses in the world.
Text in English and Italian.
Matisse in 400 Images offers a vibrant introduction to one of the most influential artists of modern art. Bringing together 400 carefully selected works, this compact volume traces Henri Matisse’s artistic journey from his early experiments at the turn of the twentieth century to the bold cut-outs of his final years. Alongside celebrated masterpieces, readers will discover lesser-known paintings, drawings, and decorative works that reveal the richness and evolution of his vision.
Organized chronologically, the book follows Matisse’s development through key periods — from the discovery of modern art and the explosive Fauvist years, through phases of decoration, abstraction, and experimentation, to the luminous works created in Nice and the radical innovations of his late career. A remarkable selection of historical photographs further illuminates the artist’s life and creative environment. Accessible and visually engaging, this beautifully illustrated volume is an ideal introduction for a broad audience and an essential companion for all admirers of Matisse and modern art.
This publication offers a rare and fascinating insight into the teaching world of renowned architect Peter Zumthor. Based on previously unpublished material – including letters, sketches and photographs – as well as recent interviews with former students, assistants, colleagues and Zumthor himself, it examines the origins, historical context and far-reaching influence of his pioneering course “Primo Anno” (1996–1999) at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. The “Primo Anno” exercises form the structural basis of the book, while thematically organized interviews open up diverse perspectives on Zumthor’s thinking and his unique didactic approach. Narrative chapters connect these elements into a common thread, reflecting on the findings and placing them in a broader theoretical context. Based on his dissertation, written between 2018 and 2021, as well as previously unpublished materials and interviews, the Swiss-Brazilian architect Rafael Lorentz documents a rediscovery that not only sheds light on Zumthor’s thinking, but also reveals his formative influence on the identity of the Accademia.
Nature in Close Up reveals flora and fauna like you’ve never seen them before. Award-winning nature photographer Yuan Minghui showcases his extraordinary sensibility and original eye for the natural world through his stunning selection of photographs of the wetlands in Wuhan, China. Each image surprises and thrills, rendering every object an artistic creation in its own right. Yuan Minghui’s ability to create beautiful and meaningful images from our surrounding environment is startling; from winding vines that look like treble clefs and floating aquatic plants with diamond droplets, to the unseen glimpses of insects and amphibians playing out their extraordinary lives. Yuan Minghui sets out to give each and every object the beauty and dignity that he sees in ordinary human life, with the aim of emphasizing the importance of our planet and how we need to give it the care and attention that it deserves.
The Letting Go is a long-standing, performative, and participatory practice by artist Natascha Stellmach. It explores themes of vulnerability and empowerment. Following a meditation and in response to the question, “What would you like to let go of?”, the practice involves identifying, naming, embodying, and experiencing healing and impermanence through the body. Its method includes ritual tattooing without ink (a bloodline tattoo) to address a personal obstacle and initiate an intimate enquiry.
Over a period of almost 10 years, Stellmach performed more than 120 sessions with individuals in galleries and privately, including herself. Through evocative photography, academic research, and participant-contributed selfies and reflections, the publication invites readers to embrace “the wonder in our wounds” and offers a deeply human portrait of what it means to let go.
The book includes a foreword by acclaimed actor Sandra Hüller, as well as essays by curator and arts writer Kelly Gellatly and psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Dr. Matthew McArdle.
This richly illustrated volume, produced by Uzbek publisher Dinara & Co. in partnership with Kulturalis, explores the enduring legacy and contemporary revival of miniature painting in Uzbekistan. Highlighting the work of acclaimed Bukharan master Davlat Toshev, the book guides readers through the intricate brushwork, symbolism and narrative depth of his recent creations. By situating Toshev’s oeuvre within the broader context of Islamic art and the cultural memory of the region, the book demonstrates how these seemingly fantastical images resonate with contemporary audiences. For art lovers, collectors and cultural historians alike, this publication is both a celebration of Uzbekistan’s artistic heritage and a key to unlocking the relevance of miniature painting in modern times.
Copenhagen. One of northern Europe’s chicest cities. A marvel of Scandinavian style, blending the traditional with the modern and the minimalist. Denmark’s capital is a burgeoning design hub, an increasingly popular destination for fans of modern architecture and an unexpected fashion hotspot with a proud ethos of sustainability and its own major biannual fashion week.
Copenhagen. In Fashion is an unmissable opportunity to discover the city’s historic harbor, squares, islands and islets, experience the warmth of the hygge lifestyle and find inspiration in the composed and impossibly urbane Scandi outfits without leaving your own home.
From Paris and New York to more surprising hotbeds of style, the In Fashion series invites you to discover the most fashionable locations in the world. Covering high fashion, classic street style and trendsetting people, as well as interiors, streets, shops and more, each beautifully presented volume offers a unique glimpse into the clothes and fashion culture of a distinct and remarkable destination.
Perfect for fans of fashion and travel.