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.

Although Samuel Abraham Marx was born at the end of the 19th century, he had the eye of a modernist – as an architect, furniture designer, connoisseur and collector. His vision was neither ostentatious or grandiose, but subtle and quietly magnificent. Ultra-Modern, Samuel Marx: Architect, Furniture Designer, Connoisseur is the first monograph on this lesser-known but increasingly influential American designer. In more than 200 photographs, Marx expert and decorative arts dealer Liz O’Brien reveals many of his undiscovered projects including houses that have been raised despite preservationist protests and his range of furniture designs. Marx was also sought after for his ability to integrate art in well-heeled interiors. The private art collections of many of his wealthy clients have, in the last 40 years, been dispersed to major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as the Chicago Art Institute.

Known today for his atmospheric views of the river Oise, Charles François Daubigny was a pioneer of modern landscape painting and an important precursor of French Impressionism. Although commercially highly successful he was often criticized for his broad, sketch-like handling and unembellished view of nature, and was dubbed the leader of ‘the school of the impression’. As a result he drew the attention of the next generation of artists, among them Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, who were inspired by Daubigny’s frank naturalism, bold compositions and technical innovations. Theirs was an artistic dialogue which spanned thirty years, from the early 1860s to the end of Van Gogh’s short life.

A remarkable private collection formed over the last thirty years is the focus of this richly illustrated book that introduces the reader to English silver spanning a century and a half from a little before the Tudor age (1485-1603) to the threshold of the Civil War (1642-51). This was a period when England changed out of all recognition. At the beginning it was still essentially a medieval country dominated by an autocratic king and a rich and powerful Church; by the end of the period the Church had lost virtually all of its power and, with the execution of Charles I in 1649, the monarchy itself was abolished. To a degree, this changing world is mirrored in the styles represented by the silver featuring in the collection. Besides setting the silver against its social and historical background the book examines the wide range of techniques used by silversmiths at the time to shape and adorn silver objects.

The Viennese gallery Slavik has been exhibiting international contemporary jewelry art of the highest quality for 20 years. The rotating bronze disc above the entrance beckons the visitor to enter into a unique universe and into a singular architectonic design concept. As a meeting place for artists, collectors and museum professionals from all over the world, it is the goal of the gallery owner Renate Slavik to provide a deeper understanding of the fascinating nature of contemporary jewelry art. Since 1990 the former antique dealer has supported unique, handcrafted jewelry with her enthusiasm and vision. “Art on the body” made of paper, synthetic material, tin as well as traditional “ingredients” like gold, pearls and diamonds are displayed in her changing exhibitions. In the gallery artistic impetus has been provided by Annelies Planteydt and Gijs Bakker from Holland; from international masters of studio jewelry such as Giampaolo Babetto or from the Padua School of Francesco Pavan. The gallery’s repertoire includes avant-garde jewelry by Annamaria Zanella, Jacqueline Ryan, Stefano Marchetti and Giovanni Corvaja as well as the geometrical creations of David Watkins or the golden bracelet discs by Okinari Kurokawa. The Catalan Massana School of Joaquim Capdevila and Ramon Puig Cuyas with their colorful, narrative style; Helfried Kodré’s brooches and ring sculptures as a three-dimensional, spatially-extended implementation of geometry; Michael Becker’s clear, architectonic language of form; or the works with moving surfaces by Yasuki Hiramatsu represent different expressions of contemporary jewelry work. The doors stand wide open to the up-and-coming generation of craftsmen – one of the gallery owner’s favorite tasks is to scout out young talent such as Miriam Hiller or Isabell Schaupp. Features 60 artists including Gijs Bakker, Anna Heindl, Miriam Hiller, Helfried Kodré, Elisabeth J. Defner, Michael Becker, Anneliese Planteydt, Francesco Pavan, David Watkins, Stefano Marchetti, Daniel Kruger, Annamaria Zanella, Giovanni Corvaja, Jacqueline Ryan, Renzo Pasquale. Text in English & German.

This is the first book on Venetian mosaics of the nineteenth century. It illustrates work by both the Salviati Company and the Venice and Murano Glass and Mosaic Company. A carefully researched work, Venetian Glass Mosaics addresses the revival of the art of Venetian mosaic making in the mid-nineteenth century and discusses the complicity of both Antonio Salviati and Sir Austen Henry Layard in that revival. It is a comprehensive work, illustrating Salviati’s earliest surviving mosaics, the 1860 mosaic decoration of the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore and continuing through his company’s last commission, the Stanford Memorial Church in Palo Alto, California. The recovered art of Venetian mosaic in the late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century is now seen as one of the most important aesthetic achievements of the Victorian-Edwardian era. Neglected and unappreciated for decades, surviving mosaics are being cleaned and restored worldwide. Whether highly visible monuments in major cities or small achievements of Venetian manufacturers are now treasured for the splendid masterpieces they are.

Founded in Idar-Oberstein in 1847, the company Constantin Wild has left its mark on the world of gemstones like barely any other enterprise. For its 175th anniversary, Constantin Wild, great-grandson of the company’s founder, has been out on the trail of history. He now takes us back to the beginnings of the Wild family, which looks back on a tradition of 400 years of artistic stonecutting and also in the trading of one-of-a-kind gemstones. Travel with him around the globe on the quest for the most beautiful and rarest stones. Discover sublime items of jewelry — a selection of the very best, the zenith of international haute joaillerie. Their beauty begins with the stone, and often enough this begins chez Constantin Wild: without that fine cut, by adept craftsmen and artists, the expressive color of the gemstone fails to come into its own. Only once it has been subjected to these processes can the gemstone unfold its true character, to reach its final fiery, vivacious brilliance. The opulently designed publication Gems, Colours & Wild Stories is an homage to and an affirmation of love for the irrepressible diversity of these extremely valuable gemstones.

Headrests from Southern Africa – The architecture of sleep presents the subject of southern African headrests in a fascinating new light. The book, richly illustrated – often with in situ photographs, offers unique historical and personal information collected from many of the original owners and carvers of the headrests. So, for the first time African headrests are brought to life with detailed information and the stories of their creation, ownership, use and significance.

The 438 headrests from the collections of Bruce Goodall from Cape Town and Frédéric Zimer from Paris are presented according to 3 geographical areas: KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo (where the Ntwane people live) and Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland).

Since 2003, Goodall has made numerous field trips collecting, as well as interviewing and photographing the owners and carvers of headrests. In 2017, Goodall’s collection grew substantially with the purchase of a comprehensive collection of headrests from the Msinga area of KwaZulu-Natal. This collection had been assembled and meticulously documented by the late Anglican priest Clive Newman and his friend and assistant, Mavis Duma, between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s. The Zimer collection has been built up since the 1990s through his many travels in Africa, and his acquisitions from collectors and African art dealers around the world.

This publication not only offers insight into the personal and historical dimensions of this important southern African tradition through the text written about the headrests and their owners by Bruce Goodall, but includes essays by Newman, Nel and Leibhammer and a text about collecting by Duma. Together these facilitate a penetrating understanding of these valued items as well as a respectful appreciation of the cultures and individuals who made and used them.

“It is often said that great things take time and after a twelve year hiatus from publishing, renowned artist Swoon has returned with the must-have monograph, THE RED SKEIN.” — Quiet Lunch
In 224 pages, with more than 200 color images, this book explores the work of Caledonia Curry, also known as Swoon, and her aim “to bring a human presence to the street in a delicate way”. Covering her works on the street and in the studio, animation projects, collaborations, museum installations and community-based projects, The Red Skein is the most interesting and valuable collection of the artist’s works. Of particular interest is “Persephone, Medea, Hecate: Constructing a crossroads for art and psychedelic-assisted therapy”, an intimate and moving text in which Caledonia explains her background and what art means for her.
The in-depth book includes an introduction by bestselling author Dr Gabor Mate, a Hungarian physician with huge expertise on a range of topics including addiction, stress, and childhood development. There are also essays by RJ Rushmore (one of the youngest and most respected critics of street and graffiti art in the world), Melena Ryzik (New York Times reporter who was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on workplace sexual harassment), Jerry Saltz (American art critic, senior art critic for The Village Voice and columnist for New York magazine) and Pedro Alonzo (Boston-based independent curator and Adjunct Curator at Dallas Contemporary). Other contributors include Hans Ulrich Obrist (director of Serpentine Gallery, Art curator, critic and historian of art), Jeffrey Deitch (art dealer and curator, director of the Moca 2010-2013) and Judy Chicago (feminist artist, art educator and writer).

“As an artist, I look for beauty in things, and appreciate the unusual.” – Ceil Pulitzer

Ceil Pulitzer started her journey as a collector of African art more than 30 years ago. Her artistic spirit has drawn her to all forms of culture and human expression. As a dedicated painter, she has relentlessly exercised her eye in the study of art and art history.  As a collector of modern art first, she understood that African art shaped the trajectory of 20th-century art. Later, in Paris, she met the venerable expert and legendary dealer of African art, Charles Ratton. In one brief meeting, he said to her: “You have a good eye.”  This encounter distilled her passion and pursuit of excellence in classical African art.

The Ceil and Michael Pulitzer Foundation has developed and supported a number of philanthropic endeavors in Africa, and in major institutions that promote the art of Africa and humanitarian efforts there.

Rembrandt van Rijn married Saskia van Uylenburgh, the love of his life, in Friesland (the Netherlands) in 1634. The famous painter came to know her when she visited her cousin in Amsterdam, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, Rembrandt’s art dealer. This book, the catalogue for a traveling exhibition, sketches a picture of marriage in the time of Rembrandt and Saskia. Their story is the tale of a high society marriage in seventeenth century Holland, from courtships to weddings to daily married life and funerals. The show follows Rembrandt and Saskia from their meeting to her untimely early death after 10 years of marriage. Paintings, drawings, and etchings by Rembrandt, as well as letters and poetry, are featured alongside wedding portraits, objects, and jewelry from the period, offering insight into what weddings and married life meant in the Golden Age of 17th century Holland.

Artist and print designer Sabina Savage creates her own visual world informed by nature, myth and history in the exquisite hand-drawn illustrations printed on her silk and cashmere scarves. A Savage Kingdom is the first book on her eponymous luxury brand, marking its 10th anniversary and exploring the fascinating narratives behind some of her most successful drawings to date.

Grouped by collections, A Savage Kingdom guides readers through the details and symbolism contained within each design, presenting large-scale images of the pencil drawings and full-color prints of the scarves.

Writer and curator Zoë Lescaze introduces the book, covering Sabina’s development as an artist and the tensions between humans and other animals at play in her designs. A Savage Kingdom is for devotees of the brand and those new to it alike, interested in drawing, craftsmanship and fantastic tales.

Manish Pushkale, born in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, is an autodidact who honed his artistic style and sensibility at Bharat Bhavan’s fertile and creativity-filled ambience of the time. His engagement at the art center cemented Pushkale’s deep engagement with indigenous folk and tribal traditions. The installation To Whom the Bird Should Speak? is a visual enquiry into the significance of language as a medium of communication. Pushkale’s artistic research into indigenous cultures was inspired by the story of the Aka-Bo tribe in the Andaman Islands and their oral tradition of communicating with birds that was lost to the world after the death of its last speaker, Boa Sr.

As a contemporary artist and an abstract painter, Pushkale works at the intersection of linguistics and archaeology in an immersive 125 square meters of hand-painted installation, as he imagines a visual ‘script’ of a lost history that we would like to recover, or should it be allowed to fade inexorably into oblivion?

With contributions by Claire Bettinelli, Yannick Lintz, Ganesh Devy and Devika Singh, and a poem by Ashok Vajpeyi.

Text in English and French.

Hand-woven rugs from Persia are among the most exquisite art works ever created. In this fully revised edition of Persian Rugs, Essie Sakhai reveals recent discoveries that present us with a new understanding of this unique art. With hundreds of stunning new photographs, taken especially for this book, Sakhai takes us on a journey through Iran and beyond.
Beginning with the history and art of creating woven masterpieces, Persian Rugs goes on to present full-page examples of some of the most cherished and valuable rugs and carpets in the world. No two hand-woven carpets are the same, each with its own special property, beauty and quality. Sakhai has handpicked the most important of these and gives detailed explanations of how and why these art forms hold such singular and even mystical appeal. A new demand for original and ancient hand-woven pieces has increased their value greatly, leading to world-record prices being achieved at auction and important examples entering major museum collections around the world. 

This monograph’s title, The Hand of Others/La Main des Autres, could not be more appropriate, as it aptly summarizes Emmanuel Babled’s work and essence. The French designer, who now operates his studio in Lisbon after stints in Paris, Milan, and Amsterdam, initially graduated as an industrial designer. However, early in his career, inspired by the great Ettore Sottsass, he realized that his true passion did not lie in the mass production of plastic objects, but rather in creating distinctive, precious functional pieces through close collaboration with master craftspeople. These artisans are situated in specific production centers where age-old traditions and highly skilled craftsmanship continue to produce magic today, albeit increasingly challenged by the signs of our times.

Babled’s objects encapsulate the collective knowledge of master craftspeople, his design talent, and his ability to collaborate with masters worldwide. His unparalleled talent for integrating out-of-the-box design thinking with cutting-edge technology culminates in limited editions that contain intangible world heritage. Precious traditions, local history, and groundbreaking innovation converge in Babled’s work, breathing new life into ancient crafts and precious materials such as marble.

Within this monograph, we gain a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Babled’s limited editions, delving into the spirit of the designer as he celebrates a successful career spanning over 30 years. Through him as an intermediary, we are initiated into the rare craft of highly skilled craftspeople in places inaccessible to the public, where secrets are passed down from generation to generation.

The book captures the essence of Babled’s career: he transcends the role of an individual designer and instead utilizes his brand to represent an entire industry and culture deeply rooted in tradition and local knowledge. He achieves this through an impressive multidisciplinary use of contemporary design and technological applications, propelling ancient tradition into the 21st century.

In this manner, Babled surpasses his own ego and individual signature, embodying the idea that a designer is not a solitary entity but rather a collective enterprise, beautifully illustrated in this unique monograph.

Text in English and French.

Birmingham (UK) born and based Ben Sadler’s colorful painted portraits of imaginary people are full of personality, eclectic states of mind, and varying degrees of intrigue. They are also sometimes evocative, emotive, and amusing. The publication features two bodies of work: You and I (2024) and Exclamations! (2023), both of which present small paintings corresponding to each letter of the alphabet (though the letters U and I are curiously missing from the series You and I). The starting point was the idea of visitors to an imaginary exhibition––who are they, what kinds of people are they, and what thoughts are going through their minds? Such questions are explored in celebrated Birmingham-based author Catherine O’Flynn’s text commissioned for the publication, along with a foreword by Deborah Kermode, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, and an interview by London-based creative coach, podcaster, and public speaker Ceri Hand.

Warwick Freeman (b. 1953) is regarded as one of the world’s most influential contemporary jewelry artists. His works tell of his life, culture, and history, as well as the history of Aotearoa New Zealand and the country’s unique materials from millimeter thick mother-of-pearl from the pearl shell to the iridescent inner membrane of the pāua (a rainbow abalone).

In the 1980s Freeman co-revolutionized the world of New Zealand jewelry, which led to the creation of a unique artistic language. Initially influenced by western jewelry traditions, and later impacted by a growing awareness of Māori and Pacific adornment practices, Freeman has built a language of emblematic forms across five decades. Through jewelry making he discovers symbols that connect us – from Hook to Hand to Heart to Star.

Text in English and German.