Hand-In-Hand: Ceramics, Mosaics, Tapestries, and Wood Carvings by the California Mid-Century Designers Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman is the first monograph of the artists whose oeuvre was critically influential and is now seen as the epitome of California mid-century modernism. With a preface by Jonathan Adler, the book tracks the couple’s careers in the decorative arts from their beginnings to the creation of Jenev Design Studio and its eventual shift to ERA Industries, as well as their involvement in every prestigious California Design exhibition from 1954 to 1976. Additionally, after almost 30 years of work they continued to create and develop their styles. The Ackermans became known for their uses of a wide spectrum of mediums including weaving, ceramics, wood carvings, and mosaics. The Ackermans’ individualistic and innovative techniques also ensured that great design be both accessible and affordable. Featuring many never-before-seen preparatory drawings and color guides, this book tells the heartening story of a successful collaboration and celebrated partnership, in not only design, but in life.
These hand models are the stars of the biggest advertising campaigns around, but you’ve never seen their faces… until now. 24 portraits, 24 ways to peel a banana.
Maria Lai always had a special relationship with fairy tales. She considered them a metaphor for art and a way of communicating with the public in a simple, straightforward way. Starting in the 1980s, fairy tales became central to her art. Tenendo per mano il sole, Tenendo per mano l’ombra, Curiosape and Maria Pietra, are her most famous “sewn fairy tales” – books created by the artist using castoff textiles.
Maria Lai’s fairy tales are not merely children’s stories, but profound reflections on life and what it means to be a human being. They are often inspired by Sardinian myths and legends, to which the artist gives a personal twist, adding autobiographical details and philosophical reflections.
This edition of Tenendo per mano l’ombra is a printed version of Maria Lai’s 1987 tale. The original consists of fabric pages sewn together and collages of dyed textiles, on which the artist has embroidered geometric figures, yarn and other materials. The fairy tale tells the story of a human being (and his double) who must learn to accept shadows, the dark part of the world and of himself. The figure’s shadow, in Maria Lai’s fairy tale, is not a negative element to be rejected, but an integral part of his personality. To live an untroubled and complete life, one must learn to accept and live with it.
Elena Pontiggia’s concluding essay accompanies the reader in a fascinating page by page interpretation of the fable, and discusses Lai’s artistic and stylistic approach in the context of an extensive network of philosophical, literary and artistic references: from Kant and Manzoni to Klee and Malevič.
Text in English and Italian.
In the 1970s, in the region of the Landes, between Bayonne and Peyrehorade, on the banks of the Adour River, the photographer Jeannette Leroy and the art dealer Paul Haim created a sculpture garden around a modest farm, La Petite Escalère.
Paul Haim has evoked the bewitching beauty of La Petite Escalère better than anyone else: “The nonchalant visitor will pass from the shade of Les Barthes to the brightness of the Moura, from the freshness of the fountains to the suffocating heat of the forest. Coming around a bush, he allows himselfto be surprised by an unusual presence. Immutable. … Far from the agitations of the world, sinking into nothing-ness, watching the clouds go by, contemplating the places of joy.”
Text in English and French.
Maria Lai (Ulassai, September 27, 1919 – Cardedu, April 16, 2013) is without doubt one of the leading figures in the history of contemporary Italian art. Not only on account of the content of her works, but also thanks to the diversity of her artistic approach, ranging as it does across many media – public art, embroidery, weaving, sculpture, drawing, and writing: all are grist for her poetics. The book is published to coincide with the exhibition at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, which is presenting to the general public over one hundred works by the Sardinian artist, from the early 1960s to her very last works, and explores the various themes dear to the artist with the contributions of experts in their fields: the locations, the creation, and publication of art books, her public art events and her relationship with the written word and her own writing. Her entire oeuvre is distinguished by its powerful visual impact, revealing a ‘way of doing art’ that is nothing other than an instrument of thought. The book’s structure reflects the exhibition’s own sections, arranged by theme, whose titles are paradigmatic of Lai’s oeuvre as a whole: Essere è tessere. Cucire e ricucire; L’arte è il gioco degli adulti. Giocare e raccontare; Disseminare e condividere; Il viaggiatore astrale. Immaginare l’altrove; L’arte ci prende per mano. Incontrare e partecipare.
Published to accompany an exhibition at the MAXXI Museum, Rome, 19 June 2019-12 January 2020.
Text in English and Italian.
This book presents a personal collection of ancestor sculpture and protective deities, following the ancient migratory and trade routes of the Austronesian, Southeast Asian Bronze Age, and Hindu-Buddhist peoples. The author, Thomas Murray, has spent a lifetime studying this art through his endeavors as a peripatetic dealer, collector, and field researcher. The objects illustrated come from a swath of widely varied cultures from Nepal eastward to Hawaii, with the overwhelming majority from Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Murray’s eye is highly informed and based on an unusually large sampling of objects to which his experience and research have exposed him. The artworks documented represent some of the top examples he has acquired and retained over the course of a long career. They are characterized by sculptural balance and a harmony of line, as well as a rare quality of expressiveness. Each ranks high in terms of aesthetics and desirability within its own particular style as perceived by the art market and by other western aficionados.
This book offers a beautiful exploration of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s works in lithography. It explores the new artistic approach to the poster at the end of the 19th century, which bridged visual and popular culture and turned the relationship between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art on its head. Technical innovations in lithography pioneered by Lautrec and other artists produced larger sizes, more varied colors and new effects and launched the role of the poster as a powerful tool for communication and marketing in fin de siècle Paris. Lautrec’s embrace of celebrity helped to define the famous hotspots (theaters, cabarets and café-concerts) of fin de siècle Paris and made their stars recognizable figures across the whole city.
Works by contemporaries such as Pierre Bonnard, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen and Jules Chéret also feature, and Lautrec’s influence on British, and particularly Scottish, artists of the period will be explored. These include Walter Richard Sickert, Arthur Melville, John Duncan Fergusson and William Nicholson.
Hiroshige. Nature and the City is the most extensive overview of the career of the famed Japanese print artist, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) in the English language to date. It is based on the largest collection of Hiroshige in private hands outside Japan, the Alan Medaugh collection. The catalogue consists of 500 entries, with an emphasis on urban and rural landscapes, fan prints and prints of birds and flowers. Grouped chronologically by subject, it presents Hiroshige’s interpretation of the urban scenes from his hometown Edo (present-day Tokyo), the great series documenting travel along the famous highways of Japan, and the idylls of nature as represented in his bird-and flower prints. Hiroshige often incorporated poetry in his works and for the first time all textual content is transcribed and translated. Additionally, the catalog pays due attention to the differences between variant editions of his prints. Thus, it provides essential comparative material for every scholar, dealer, and collector.
This beautifully illustrated book, with over 300 color reproductions, showcases many of the greatest masterpieces of 19th century Orientalist art. During this period, colonization, and a revolution in means of transportation allowed artists to visit countries from North Africa to the Middle East that had previously been relatively inaccessible. The patterns, colors, and light of this region influenced artists such as Delacroix, Decamps, Berchère, Bridgman, Ziem, Gérôme, Corrodi, Dinet, Matisse, Majorelle and many others. Upon returning to Europe, these artists captured the atmosphere of these distant and exotic lands in painted scenes of daily life and wrote memoirs of their travels. Some returned to settle there, including painters like Dinet, who spent a large part of his life in Algeria, and Majorelle, known as the “painter of Marrakech.” This book offers insight into the Orientalist aesthetic that inspired the movement, and lays the groundwork for a deeper understanding of these vibrant works of art.
Text in English and French.
Until the early seventeenth century, the distribution of paintings and other art works was in the hands of the artists, but after that to an increasing extent it was taken on by specialists.The most important art dealers were active in Amsterdam, the art center par excellence. Hendrick Uylenburgh and his son Gerrit Uylenburgh were leading figures among these dealers. The Uylenburghs, father and son, ran an art business and at the same time headed a painters’ workshop where renowned artists worked. Rembrandt worked for this business from 1631 to 1635. He painted countless commissioned portraits and as well as historical paintings and ‘tronies’ also did grisailles and etchings. While working for this business he met Saskia Uylenburgh, a cousin of the art dealer, whom he married in 1634. Uylenburgh & Son provides insight into the nature and significance of the Uylenburghs’ enterprise and also discusses their investors and customers. A great deal of new material has been found about the Uylenburgh family and is presented here for the first time.
The goldsmith and art dealer Johann Karl Bossard (1846–1914) is regarded as one of the key figures of Historicism in Switzerland. This publication focuses for the first time on not only the workshop’s exceptional production and signature style but also the appropriation and adaptation of historical paradigms as well as Bossard’s international network. The production of jewelry, cutlery, weapons, and commissions for the Church are particularly explored in further detail. In addition, an overview is also given of the production by the successors of the Bossard goldsmithing atelier, extant until 1997. The approximately 500 images lend an impression of the immense workshop legacy, which is preserved by the Swiss National Museum. Moreover, key objects from public and private collections are published for the first time and presented in a comprehensive catalog section.
Text in German.
Born into the American aristocracy, Elizabeth Eyre de Lanux abandoned high society to pursue an artistic career. Starting her training with Constantin Brancusi, she then arrived in Paris in 1919, following her marriage to French diplomat and writer Pierre de Lanux. She soon met the designer Eileen Gray. Eyre took over Gray’s research on laquer and continued experimenting with innovative materials not previously used in furniture, namely cork, amber and linoleum. With Evelyn Wyld, she created a literary universe in which the poetry of her rugs, blended with furniture and lamps in totally new ways, all in an environment of muted shades and modern comfort.
An ambitious artist in the Surrealist Paris of the interwar years she wanted to believe in a peaceful future. But the crash of 1929 and World War II sounded the death knell for the career of this fresh new talent, ensuring that her creations became the rarest of objects. A bridge between the pioneering Eileen Gray and the rational Charlotte Perriand, like them, Eyre de Lanux drew inspiration from Japonism. Neither poor, nor stripped bare, her rare architectured interiors have remained secret until now.
Elizabeth Eyre de Lanux is a recognised name but a forgotten talent. With Eileen Gray, Eyre de Lanux, Charlotte Perriand and Maria Pergay, the four cardinal points have now been identified.
Gauri (also known as Gavri or Gavari) is celebrated by tribal communities in the southern part of Rajasthan as a forty-day festival that entails fasting and celebration in honor of Lord Shiva and his consort, the Goddess Parvati. Public performances put on as part of the revelry include dance, storytelling, music and worship.
The tradition of the Gauri dance has been celebrated for centuries, yet there have been no books in English till now on this mystical and enchanting practice. Photographer Waswo X. Waswo has joined with art historian Sonika Soni to create this book that delves into the esoteric world of Gauri dance.
Through Waswo’s distinctive studio portraiture, with the photographic prints hand-painted by hand-colorist Rajesh Soni, the astonishing visuals of Gauri costuming and performers is presented in beautiful color reproduction. In her essay, Sonika Soni explores the history of this ritual dance with an eye to examine both what is known about it, and what still needs to be discovered, keeping central the conflicting stories of its origins and the folk tales that make Gauri the enigmatic opera of Mewar.
Contents:
Photographing the Elusively Liminal – Pramod Kumar KG; An Enigmatic Opera – Waswo X. Waswo; Gauri Dancers 2010-2018; Gavri – Sonika Soni.
Michael Broadbent, wine critic, writer, auctioneer and much-admired expert revolutionized the wine trade with his first edition of Wine Tasting in 1968 and has continued to capture the magic of wine for over 50 years, bringing it to the page and to the public in compleling detail, always tinged with his uniquely wry sense of humor.
Michael’s original text (from the 1975 edition) updated with the latest vintages and footnotes revealing Michael’s reactions to the changing wine scene.
Personal tributes to Michael from Hugh Johnson OBE, Jancis Robinson OBE MW, Steven Spurrier, the late Gerard Basset OBE MW MS, and international wine auctioneers Paul Bowker and Fritz Hatton.
“He had added what the wine trade had lacked; a veneer of scholarship, and a dealer of genius.” – Hugh Johnson
“A must read” – Ian Harris, CEO of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust
A new photographic exploration of Chicago, a city which attracts the visitor with its profoundly American character. The book presents over 100 photographs shot in Chicago between 2006 and 2011, mainly in black and white. Several aspect of this diverse city are shown. Starting from the most celebrated downtown areas, where so many movies have been shot making them familiar to the entire world, to the suburbs and outskirts of the city, each with its own personality and charm. Page after page, empty streets mix with the most solemn of buildings and the waterfronts; people who work and live here meet other people who come from the Mid-West to check out unexpected urban landscapes. And then there are a number of photographs dedicated to the world of Blues, from the many clubs where the Blues are played and lived each night, to the Chicago Blues Festival, the great late Spring event attended by an extraordinary and multifarious public, who are as much a part of the scene as the artists on stage.
Paper is undeniably a vehicle for the flowering of Indian art, literature, history and religion, but where did it come from? Who made it and how? What was their inspiration? How has this ancient craft survived in today’s India? Comprehensive and detailed, this book traces the nearly thousand-year history of hand paper-making in India.
“Futuristic, shrill, strange? Beyond these clichés, photographer Richard Koek captures everyday life in Tokyo – his pictures tell of life in the metropolis.” — Stern Germany
A unique book by photographer Richard Koek about one of the world’s largest cities, Tokyo. The visitor of this megapolis in Japan will see a lot of neon and plastic, but also traditional kimonos and cherry blossoms. Fashion and advertising are at least as important as etiquette and tidiness. In Tokyo Tokyo Koek reveals the true face of a city where tradition and innovation go hand in hand. Surely the stereotypes are a subject of his photographs, but Koek always gives them his own twist. His colorful images are raw, realistic and extremely striking. Koek knows how to capture the magic of everyday life by putting the ordinary on a pedestal. The beauty of the image and the story behind it always go hand in hand in his works. This is how he shows a different side of the city.
Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman, the prolific artist-couple were central to the development of mid-century design in Southern California. They combined modernist craft—in weaving, carving, ceramics, tapestries, hookings, and mosaics—and made it accessible to the middle class. Their works were celebrated for their combination of bright colors and craftsmanship, with an artisanal attention to detail. In Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman: California Mid-Century Designers Laura Ackerman-Shaw, their daughter, who has expanded their legacy with both commercial and institutional recognition, takes the reader through her parents’ unique impact on post-war design in America. Because of the success of Hand-in-Hand, Pointed Leaf Press is publishing a new book, in a much larger format, with 80% new material, much of it discovered by Ackerman-Shaw in her parent’s archive. By showcasing their output through Jenev Design Studio, ERA Industries, and their involvement in the prestigious California Design exhibitions from 1954 to 1976, readers can see how they translated their ideas into the varied materials of their choosing. Unlike the previous monograph, this book focuses less on their personal lives and more on the Ackerman’s impact on the world, a must-read for collectors and connoisseurs. With new and updated essays by scholars, as well as numerous never-before-seen drawings, photographs, and archival materials, Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman: California Mid-Century Designers is the indelible story of a lifetime of artistic partnership.
Wabi-sabi, the ancient philosophy that values imperfection, has dominated Japanese art at its highest level.
Today, it is becoming an “endangered species”. Worse still… this aesthetic of the timeless, which feeds on the long term, even enriching itself with the patina of time, has been recuperated by the mass-market decorating industry, and is now used in communications relating to consumer goods that are unfashionable and disposable: a total antimony.
Wabi-sabi cannot be reduced to formulas or ready-made expressions without destroying its essence. Hence, the Wabi-Sabi Lab is an original and demanding event bringing together some 20 players who embody the values of wabi-sabi and/or the creative or even experimental dimension suggested by the suffix “lab.”
Wabi-sabi Lab. What it is: A bias, a selection of brands, galleries, artists, craftsmen, designers, publishers, material suppliers, in phase with our intention, our vision, our affirmed tastes with all the assumed subjectivity that our choices imply.
What it is not: Wabi-sabi Lab is not a classic trade show with stands, exhibitors and brands juxtaposed, sometimes without coherence. There are no colossal exhibition halls, but rather a place of prestige without ostentation.
This publication is a crossbreeding, driven by the selective eye of a pair of insatiably curious bargain hunters. A manifesto that invokes the very foundations of wabi-sabi, far removed from the fad it has become.
Text in English and French.
The Modern Guide to Vintage Jewellery takes the reader on a tour from the 1930s through to the early 1980s, scouting out the most desirable, collectible and enduring styles of the time.
Beginning the tour with the later part of the Art Deco period, the book then guides the reader through the three periods of Retro jewelry during prewar, wartime and post-war optimism. Then we’re off to the cocktail suburban lifestyle of the ’50s, the rebellious ’60s, the glitter and glamor of the ’70s disco era, and the new ‘career-woman’ style of the ’80s. On our journey, we visit stars from Hollywood’s Golden Era and beyond, and the renowned jewelers who designed for them and became legends in their own right.
Whether you are a novice or consummate collector, a starter vintage dealer, shop owner, burgeoning jewelry historian or student of jewelry making, this book is a must-read for all enthusiasts and collectors of vintage jewelry. The Modern Guide to Vintage Jewellery will show you how to identify the most popular gemstones, materials, styles and collectible pieces in the market today, as well as divulging invaluable information from dealers and experts.
Women and men – strong, proud, tragic or beautiful – from the heyday (1765–1865) of Japanese printmaking are this book’s subject. It seeks to dig below the surface of the prints to describe the often subtle iconography employed in these masterful creations by the most famous artists of their time.
It begins with Suzuki Harunobu’s subdued and introverted scenes of women seated on verandas. The book then moves on to the spectacular ‘big face’ (okubi-e) portraits of prostitutes and Kabuki actors by artists like Kitagawa Utamaro, Toshusai Sharaku and Utagawa Kunimasa.
Frail ‘streetwalkers’, forced by circumstance into the lowest ranks of prostitution, are transformed into elegant beauties, obscuring their tragic existence. The spectacle of heroes from Japan’s rich mythological and pseudo-historical past crowd the printed sheet. Stern-faced actors drawn by the confident hands of Utagawa Toyokuni and his pupil Kunisada demonstrate the economy of line and powerful expression of the woodblock medium.
Each print is explored in the finest detail in order to explain the riddles of Ukiyo-e: the intriguing and captivating mode of visual expression that would have such a profound influence on Western art.
What is assembled here might look like a modern ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’, an assemblage of the exotic and curious from the four quarters of the world. There is an intention behind it, however, that goes beyond presenting a wide variety of curiosities. We are today linked up to all those four quarters, and while a huge amount of information is available to us, unlike to those who awaited the ships in the ports of Amsterdam, Genoa, Lisbon, London, Marseille, Seville or Venice, the horizon of what interests us seems to have shrunk. The art market is an interesting barometer of this shrinkage. The point is, therefore, that we can connect with the whole world on a much more profound level than can be gained from package touring, through the possession of, and study of even the most modest objects of different cultures. The purpose of collecting, as Moliere might have put it, should not be limited to becoming rich through the investment in one’s purchases, but to become enriched through the possession of what one has acquired. Highlights include: the silver libation cup of Mongke Khan, grandson of Genghis and ruler of an empire that stretched from modern Bucharest to Peking, and Karachi to Novgorod; the apple from the Garden of Eden – a silver pomander belonging to the Stuart Kings, with bite marks, opening to reveal a silver skull; a Scythian (6-7th centuries BC) jade pendant of the endangered Saiga antelope, as nely carved as anything by Faberge; a bronze Bacchus head from a tripod table belonging to the Emperor Augustus; a limestone bear carved in 3rd millenium BC Bactria.
Who is Samantha McEwen?
Who is this Anglo-American artist born in 1960 in London, about whom Keith Haring declares in one of his interviews: “When I arrived in New York, I spent my time at school (School of Visual Arts). Everything was new and exciting. I was 20 years old. In my drawing class, I was immediately drawn to a girl named Samantha McEwen.” Samantha remembers: “He sat in front of me and said: ‘Can I draw you?’”
Who is this artist, still relatively unknown to this day, who also models for Francesco Clemente and Alex Katz? In the 1980s, Samantha McEwen was one of the few women to exhibit twice in the famous Tony Shafrazi Gallery. She also participates in numerous group exhibitions alongside the leading artists of that flamboyant decade.
However, very few texts exist about her work; art critics are mainly men who write about men. In the numerous articles of the art press on these exhibitions, her name is merely mentioned and rarely accompanied by a few lines. A revealing paradox of that era, Samantha McEwen is found in full-page spreads in the fashion sections of major magazines, such as Interview (Andy Warhol’s magazine) and The New York Times Magazine.
By the late 1980s in New York, most of Samantha’s friends disappear, taken by AIDS or drugs. Samantha McEwen returns to live in London and begins (or simply continues) a long period of obscurity, like most female artists of those generations. It takes until the 2010s for her work to reappear. This happens in 2015 in London, in the famous group exhibition organised by Pace Gallery in homage to the great London art dealer Robert Fraser. 48 artists are presented, 45 men and 3 women.
Text in English and French.
Issue 7: In our cover story, Roberto Tassi evokes a museum of Italian agrarian life, featuring brilliant if humble creations that transcend their utilitarian origins. The Manila Galleon carries both stunning Japanese folding screens and the gifted craftsmen who made them, across the Pacific to Novohispanic Mexico (Hwee Lie Bléhaut & Rodrigo Rivero Lake). In a magnificent show at the Hudson Valley’s Magazzino Italian Art, the geometric daring of architect Carlo Scarpa’s glasswork, created in 1920s-40s with Murano’s master glasscrafters (Marino Barovier). Vincenzo Patanè recounts Lord Byron’s last love, in Ravenna, while reviewing the great works of 19th-c. art that sprang from Byron’s unique visions. In Hors d’Oeuvres: Nobelist Orhan Pamuk’s Mr. PA returns to the Met, to delve into the secrets of Cézanne’s The Card Players, Simone Facchinetti studies the tricks of the art dealer’s trade, and we fondly remember our friend and colleague, Italo Calvino on the centennial of his birth.