Bangkok arrests the visitor with a bewildering juxtaposition of old and new, high-tech and impromptu, sacred and profane. While modernizing apace and a myriad outside influences, the Thai capital draws equal vigor from its historical communities, cultural diversity and contemporary urban tribes. Author of Very Thai and Time Out Bangkok, Philip Cornwel-Smith takes an alternative look at the subcultures of his adopted town in this practical thematic handbook. With the aid of maps, listings and references, the visitor can engage with Bangkok’s contradictory character according to their mood or interest.
Explore the city’s contrasting environments, architectural fabric, ethnic patchwork and intertwined beliefs. Encounter distinct social scenes, where the hip or hi-so, local or bohemian and see how traditional roots infuse the current Thai flowering in arts and entertainments, fashion and food lifestyle and spas. Photography by Philip Cornwel-Smith and others enhances this insiders’ guide to a city like no other.
The famed Bengal textiles which once ‘clothed the world’ have received little scholarly attention. With the systemic destruction of Bengal’s textile industry, prompted by the Industrial Revolution in Europe, the muslins and Balucharis of Bengal were lost in obscurity. The partition of the Indian subcontinent and the consequent varieties of cultural and social identity in present-day India and Bangladesh have contributed to this neglect. This pioneering publication explores in depth the lost textile traditions of Bengal from the 16th to the 20th century and traces its impact on the historical and cultural aspects of the region.
Supported by superb illustrations of textiles, maps and trade documents from the past, most of which have never been published before, the book serves as a public history, with engaging chapters presenting a unique perspective on the textiles of wider Bengal. This volume will inspire the reader, reorient scholarly attention and provoke a rethinking of the nature and history of Bengal textiles.
A multidisciplinary artist of the 20th century, Guy de Rougemont (1935-2021) flourished throughout his career in painting, sculpture, the decorative arts and ceramics, in a constant play on color, line and form. The monumental wrapping of the columns at the Musée d’Art Moderne in 1974, the highly acclaimed paving of the entrance to the Musée d’Orsay in 1986, and the paving of the Ministry of Finance in 1987, as well as the 30-kilometer stretch of the A4 motorway in 1977, are all still making their mark, the result of the artist’s desire to make art part of the lives of passers-by. Guy de Rougemont was constantly reinventing himself, between public and private space, urban and domestic, between Pop Art and Minimalism. Among his most famous works: his cloud table, his colored totems, his serpentine lines, his tapestries for the Mobilier National, his cutlery and other more confidential works earned him a major retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1990. He became an Academician in the painting section in 1997.
Text in English and French.