Hokuei: Master of Osaka Kabuki Prints profiles one of the most intriguing artists ever in kabuki-actor design: Shunbaisai Hokuei (active 1828–1836). A culminating figure in Osaka printmaking, Hokuei produced more masterworks than any other artist of his day. The book presents the artist’s life and work, situating his oeuvre within the demimonde of pleasure and entertainment known as the Floating World (Ukiyo). The world of kabuki comes alive in fascinating detail, while assessments of design and technical attributes bring into focus the achievements of Hokuei and printmaking artisans of his age. The book includes a fully illustrated and annotated catalogue raisonné of 270 prints — the artist’s entire known print oeuvre — including designs not to be found anywhere else. The range of comprehensive information featured in this publication make it a singular reference not only for admirers of Hokuei, but also for those interested in the world of actors on stage.

A collaboration with UNESCO’s GEM Report, Mother Nature in the Bardo explores the impact between art, culture, and the environment. The book illuminates the innate connections between creativity and nature and inspires crucial conversations about humanity’s relationship with nature, sustainability and climate change. Bringing together historical and contemporary artworks from over 100 renowned international artists, galleries, institutions, estates and foundations, Mother Nature in the Bardo speaks to the most critical global dialogues of our time.

The successor to the highly acclaimed bestseller World’s Best – 50 Interiors from Around the Globe ISBN 9782875501325.

Fifty internationally renowned interior designers and architects share their best residential design projects in this beautiful coffee table book. This must have collection of interior design projects includes over 300 photographs of the most remarkable houses from more than 30 countries all over the world.

In the post-war decades, Thai architects, many of whom had studied abroad, embraced modern principles as they addressed the pressing demand for residential and commercial space, as well as the shortage of public facilities, in the rapidly growing capital of Thailand. With more than 300 documented buildings, Bangkok Modern provides an unprecedented and comprehensive overview of the architecture of this transformative period and is unique in combining photography, carefully researched background and scholarly essays. The book aims to serve as a visual document, raise awareness of the city’s modernist buildings and contribute to a better understanding and discussion of their architectural merits and their social, cultural, and historic value.

One of the leading social documentary photographers of the 1960s, Steve Schapiro’s images stand among the most important of the 20th century, covering Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin and many others. These largely unknown jazz photos – shot just before his career breakthrough – showcase his early mastery and his empathy for his subjects, making Jazz Heroes an essential archive.

In the early ’60s, when Schapiro arrived on the scene, New York jazz was enjoying a golden age. A young freelance photographer who had grown up in the Bronx and somehow snagged a gig with Riverside Records, he began voraciously documenting shows, players, venues, recording sessions and gatherings both in his native New York and later in Chicago. Whether it’s Sonny Rollins lifting weights backstage, or Bobby Timmons lost in an instant of discovery at the piano, Schapiro was on their wavelength.

Written by New York Times journalist Richard Scheinin, Jazz Heroes features dozens of never-before-seen photos of jazz legends like Cannonball Adderley, Dorothy Ashby, Bill Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and more.

Visions in Silk presents the first comprehensive exploration of exquisite Japanese fine art textiles from the Meiji era (1868-1912), showcasing the unparalleled treasures from the Khalili Collection of Japanese Art.

This beautifully illustrated volume reveals how Japanese artists and craftsmen ingeniously adapted centuries-old textile traditions to create innovative art textiles that captivated international audiences, won exhibition awards, and served as prestigious diplomatic gifts.

Featuring over 300 spectacular examples, the book examines dazzling works of embroidery, yuzen resist-dyed silk and cut velvet, tapestry, and oshi-e raised silk, ranging from elegant panels, hangings and screens to grand exhibition showpieces. Each represents the pinnacle of artistic collaboration and hitherto unsurpassed technical mastery.

Written by leading international experts, this landmark publication provides unprecedented insight into these remarkable yet understudied treasures. Visions in Silk will enchant anyone interested in Japanese art, textile design, Japonisme, and the cultural transformations that occurred during the Meiji era, when Japan opened to the outside world.

Whether buying gem-set jewelry or loose stones, you will be faced with a colorful array of beauty and value. With such a wide choice – from amethyst to zircon – which should you choose? What is it worth, and how do you even know it is real? All that glitters is not gold, as they say, and all that sparkles is not diamond. Gemstones helps to answer these questions in simple and easy to understand terms. As well as diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires, over 100 gems are featured, with full descriptions, technical details, and tips on how to check for fakes.

The book is illustrated throughout with fabulous color photographs to make identification easier. Technical terms such as refraction and fluorescence are explained and some basic identification tests are introduced. A helpful tour around the world details where gems are best available. Informative appendices include a glossary of terms, tables of specific gravity and refractive index, and the comparative value of different stones.

The clear, uncomplicated presentation makes this book a must for anyone interested in gemstones, whether as an investment or simply as a hobby.

“This exhaustive study will be an invaluable tool in identifying not only where a piece was made and when, but in understanding the processes of its manufacture” The Regional Furniture Society
“Cataloguers now have an impressive volume of new information to draw on when describing anything from a simple tea tray to those suites of papier mâché furniture which remain as impressive today as when they dazzled visitors at the great international exhibitions of the 19th century” Antiques Trade Gazette
As one of the few decorative arts about which little has been written, japanning is today fraught with misunderstandings. And yet, in its heyday, the japanning industry attracted important commissions from prestigious designers such as Robert Adam, and orders from fashionable society across Europe and beyond. This book is a long overdue history of the industry which centered on three towns in the English midlands: Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Bilston. It is as much about the workers, their skills, and the factories and workshops in which they labored, as it is about the goods they made. It tells of matters of taste and criticism, and of how an industry which continued to rely so heavily upon hand labor in the machine age reached its natural end in the 1880s with a few factories lingering into the late 1930s. Richly illustrated, it includes photographs of mostly marked, or well-documented, examples of japanned tin and papier mâché against which readers may compare – and perhaps identify – unmarked specimens. Japanned Papier Mâché and Tinware draws predominantly upon contemporary sources: printed, manuscript and typescript documents, and, for the period leading up to the closure of the last factories in the 1930s, the author was able to draw on verbal accounts of eyewitnesses. With a chapter on japanners in London, other European centers, and in the United States, together with a directory of japan artists and decorators, this closely researched and comprehensive book is the reference work for collectors, dealers and enthusiasts alike. Contents: From Imitation to Innovation; Enter the Dragon!; The Lion of the District; Japanning & Decorating; Not a Bed of Roses!; Clever Accidents?; Decline of the Midlands Japanning Industry; The Birmingham Japanners; The Wolverhampton Japanners; The Bilston Japanners; Japanners in London and Oxford; Products; Other Western Japanning Centres; Appendices.

Lewis Foreman Day (1845-1910) is one of the most neglected figures in late nineteenth-century design. In exploring Day’s dual career as an industrial designer of extraordinary range and versatility as well as a major writer and critic, this well-illustrated book restores his place among the influential figures of his time. Day’s relationships with colleagues William Morris, Walter Crane, W.A. S. Benson and others placed him in the vortex of development of design in Britain. Joan Maria Hansen, design historian, examines Day’s work as a prolific industrial designer whose mastery of pattern, color, ornament and superb draftsmanship resulted in tiles and art pottery, clocks and furniture, wallpapers, textiles, stained glass, and interiors of remarkable diversity and beauty. Day embraced modern technology. His views on the role of the designer for industry, along with his unshakable belief that a marriage of design and industrial processes was essential to produce beautiful furnishings for the majority of people, reveal him to be startlingly modern in his attitudes and practice in the changing world of industrial production. Today collectors prize Lewis F. Day’s clocks, furniture, tiles and art pottery, and books – which he both wrote and designed – along with reproductions of his patterns for wallpapers and textiles which are enjoyed by enthusiasts. Day’s textbooks on design continue to influence designers, and his magazine journalism provides insightful and balanced commentary on developments in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century design. This book – the very first full treatment of this major figure – is the definitive reference on Day’s life and work and is an invaluable reference for collectors and dealers, decorative arts professionals, designers, business historians and enthusiasts of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century design.

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 recognizable 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.

In this book Hartmut Esslinger – one of the most influential designers and thinkers, as well as the founder of frog design – explains how ‘strategic design’ in business and society can and must bring about positive change through innovative creativity. A key component is the strategically extended definition of design as a convergent and humanistic amalgamation of technology, the environment and the economy. For Esslinger, design has always been a key strategic discipline, which he has practised successfully in cooperation with companies such as Wega, Louis Vuitton, Sony, SAP and especially Apple, collaborating directly with Steve Jobs. Therefore in this book he sets out to establish a wide range of creative innovators as top executives, who are equally influential and occupy leading positions in economics, education and politics. Every future projection is always based on history, Design Forward also shows relevant and richly illustrated case studies taken from Esslinger’s career, as well as selected works by his students at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Contents: A New Culture of Design Shaping the Design Revolution Leading by Design

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.

In 1932 Antonio Seguso and his sons Archimede and Ernesto joined forces with Napoleone Barovier and Luigi ‘Olimpio’ Ferro to found Vetretia Artistica Barovier & C.; the name of the firm was changed to Seguso Vetri D’Arte in 1937. The turbulent era of the company’s history – marred by some severe economic downturns – ended in 1973 when it was taken over by Maurizio Albarelli. On entering the firm in 1945, Flavio Poli turned the programme around to make it fresh and contemporary. Thus Seguso Vetri D’Arte became the leading glass factory on Murano. Flavio Poli’s designs chimed perfectly with the 1950s and ’60s zeitgeist. We are indebted indeed to Marc Heiremans for devoting years of hard work at various Murano sites to tracking down almost all the Seguso archive material: an incredible treasure trove which he has been evaluating, working up and subjecting to meticulous scholarly treatment. The fruits of his labors are presented in this book, which is essentially a catalogue of works.

Large firms are increasingly assuming the role of quasi public institutions. Business culture is, therefore, becoming a networking culture and a public space. Business consulting is shifting its focus from “market capital” to “social and intellectual” as well as “cultural capital”. The Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Kunstoffrecycling (DKR: German Plastic Recycling Company) in Cologne has taken this new shift in emphasis into account and dedicated an innovative project to it in Berlin. An as yet unused station for the planned U3 underground line – an empty concrete tube 300 metres long – was turned into a very special place. The exhibition “Art, Plastic, Recycling Plastic”, in which such leading artists as Isa Genzken, Thomas Rentmeister and the stellar art-designer trio Bar+Knell participated, revealed the astonishing aesthetic potential of recycled plastic nowadays. The “tunnel” itself mutated into a total work of art, becoming one of Berlin’s most “in” venues.

The nightclub is a place to let off steam, to relax after a hard day’s work. This compilation of projects illustrates the very best of contemporary club design. Accompanied by stunning color photography The Charming Night outlines the fantastic attention to detail employed by the designers. A marvellous visual design feast.

The trend for loft residences began among a few select groups, namely artists, artisans and designers. A discarded factory or warehouse is converted into a tall and spacious living area, often highly personalised in design. Over the years, loft residences have developed their own unique style.

This book is divided into two parts: ‘Hard Loft’ – converted factories or warehouses – and ‘Soft Loft’ – new residence space designed in the loft style. In addition, several popular contemporary design styles are featured, such as industrial, Scandinavian, modern and minimalist. Combining different styles within a loft setting means that there are infinite possibilities to explore.

Structural Packaging Art has it all wrapped up, literally! Presenting the most innovative and imaginative graphic designs and technical constructions using paper and cardboard to promote a range of products from snacks to stationery, to teabags and truffles. All are designed to create a unique identity and brand within a highly competitive consumer market, colorful and eye-catching, quirky and desirable these wrappings are about first impressions with the focus on presenting each item as a ‘gift’ to be purchased, then savoured and enjoyed as an essential feature of the whole product experience.

This interactive book presents a curated collection of more than 60 uniquely designed boutique homes, brought together by the founders and authors of the eponymous brand. The composition of excellent architecture and design staged with stunning photography, showcases an international ‘best of the best’ selection. This is further divided into chapters: beach and cliff houses; architectural gems; chic and cheap; updated history; urban retreat; country living; emotional luxury; unplugged; cabins; and spaces for family and friends.

The book and complementary app for iPhones is more than an exciting and glamorous source of inspiration. Each of the shown houses and apartments is also available for rent, and can be experienced in all its glory.

This book presents around 100 buildings that were erected between 1917 and 2017, and are already considered to be classics of architectural history. With informative texts accentuated by photos, plans, archive material and, most importantly, facts (planners, construction period, addresses, access), this book is the holistic guide to Stuttgart’s incredible architecture that the world has been waiting for. Featured buildings are by: Theodor Fischer, Martin Elsaesser, Paul Bonatz, Paul Schmitthenner, Rolf Gutbrod, Paul Stohrer, Günther Behnisch, Hans Kammerer, Fritz Leonhardt, Frei Otto, Hans Scharoun, James Stirling, Schlaich und Partner, LRO, UN Studio, Auer und Weber, Atelier 5, Hascher Jehle, Wulf und Partner, and many more.

The 2000s proved a turning point for the skateboard and its relationship to art. Previously restricted to practical use, the skate deck left the pavement to appear on the walls of galleries and auction houses. Such was the advent of an entirely new contemporary art movement, laconically baptized Skate Art. From silk-screening to Posca markers, from repurposing and twisted shapes to upcycling broken boards, SkateArt is an anthology of specialized and eclectic decks made by artists from all over the world. Text in English and French.