(Re)discover Art Nouveau at the heart of Brussels. At the end of the 19th century, the anti-academic movement pushed Brussels’ architects towards Art Nouveau. Both Victor Horta, in an organic style, and Paul Hankar, in a more geometrical tendency, created an architecture that quickly gained an international reputation. In a little more than a decade, from 1893 on, hundreds of Art Nouveau-fashioned buildings appeared in Brussels, elaborated first by the great pioneers and later by their students and imitators who are also influenced by the Vienna Secession and other trends of European Art Nouveau. At first, this style fulfilled industrial bourgeoisie’s dreams, yearning to assert itself in the city’s structure through this new, and sometimes exuberant, architecture. This book offers nine walks to discover – in different districts – the multiple aspects of architectural Art Nouveau in Brussels. Witness the personal style of the most important architects as well as decorative methods such as sgraffito. Through interviews with owners, custodians and restorers of Art Nouveau-styled buildings, Brussels Art Nouveau describes the fundamental guardians of this remarkable heritage.
The inspiration behind William Morris’s Earthly Paradise, the muse for J.M.W. Turner’s superlative seascapes, a home to hardy fishermen and the top holidaying spot for wealthy Victorians, as well as the scene for relentless witch-hunts and mob justice in the 17th Century, Southwold is far more than a picturesque postcard town. From the time of Saint Edmund, through plagues, fire and wars, to Damien Hirst’s driftwood creations, and the future day when this town will tumble into the sea, this book collects essays that reveal slivers of Southwold’s essence. Some are part-myth, some part-legend. But all make for excellent stories, especially when complemented by beautiful art. This 2017 edition keeps its celebrated essays on some of the more well-known aspects of Southwold’s past – such as the Battle of Sole Bay, one of the fiercest fights in British history. The Battle of Sole Bay was fought against the Dutch in 1672, and the bloody confrontation is fully described and illustrated with contemporary paintings and drawings. In addition, the text contains updated text and pictures. Among the most notable of the new sections is the chapter regarding the tragic dissolution of the romantic friendship between Franklin Lushington and Edward Lear, writer of the nonsense poem The Owl and the Pussy Cat and the lesser known (yet more autobiographical) The Daddy-Long-Legs and the Fly. Another remarkable addition is a page spread dedicated to the oil painting Tired Out by Philip Wilson Steer, which sold at Sotheby’s for £674 500 in 2014. A history, a celebration and an ode merged into one, Geoffrey Munn’s Southwold will take you on a trip through this famous seaside resort as you’ve never seen it before.
Rogier Vandeweghe established himself as an independent potter in Sint Andries, near Bruges, after leaving the ceramic workshop Per Ignem, which he had founded with his brother Laurent in 1947. Under the name Amphora, from 1960 on, his quickly expanding workshop produced entirely hand-thrown vessels. His modern forms – with glazes developed in-house and experimental firing techniques – rapidly earned the workshop an international reputation. Participation in major contemporary exhibitions led to numerous awards and acquisitions by leading ceramic museums across Europe. In 1975 all production ceased, and the workshop faded into obscurity. The present publication is a tribute to Rogier Vandeweghe and his wife, Myranna Pyck, for their unwavering commitment and their continuous quest for high-quality modern beauty in their ceramics.
Text in English, French and Dutch.
The Belgian artist David Huycke is one of the most important silversmiths working today. He first made a name with his sets of dishes, simple design and subtle use of materials. Nowadays, he is best known for his innovative approach to the traditional technique of granulation. Huycke sets to work like a scientist or an alchemist, casting seemingly-impossible concepts in moulds, incurring along the way risks such as breakage or collapse. Eventually, his ideas and experiments are selected and elaborated into an object, where they exude a degree of stillness and have a natural implicitness, as if the work could not have been made any other way.
With essays by David Huycke and Wim Nys.
Text in English, German, French and Dutch.
Evert Nijland (b. 1971) is one of the leading jewelry artists of his generation. Trained in the Conceptual Art and Minimalism of the 1990s at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, he developed a flamboyant and exuberant style, which drew on (art-) historical resources yet is thoroughly anchored in the present. A typical characteristic of Nijland is working with a variety of artisans. It enables him to integrate such diverse materials as porcelain, wood, textile or steel into his works. His use of glass in jewelry, in particular, is unparalleled. This publication presents an exciting review in opulent photographs of Evert Nijland’s jewelry-making over twenty years. Montages of images are a particular highlight, in which jewelry from works of Western art is superimposed, serving Nijland as both a reference and a source of inspiration.
Text in English and Dutch.
Ruudt Peters (b. 1950) is a pioneering conceptual jewelry artist who challenges traditional definitions of adornment by pushing the boundaries of context, wearability, material and presentation. On the occasion of his retrospective exhibition he gives a first complete overview of his forty-four-year oeuvre. All series of his work are comprehensively presented in texts and photographs of objects and portraits. Many previously unpublished views of installations and exhibitions as well as numerous drawings and sketches enhance the review, all complemented by video clips that can be accessed via QR codes, which provide the reader with short movies featuring background information about Peters’s work, and those who wear his pieces and the art of jewelry. The last chapter of the catalogue will be dedicated to Peter’s latest, hitherto unpublished series.
This book accompanies an exhibition, to be held at the CODA Museum, Apeldoorn (NL), 12.11.2017 – 28.1.2018; followed by venues in Huangzhou (CN), Tallinn (EE) and Vincenza (IT) (dates not yet confirmed)
www.ruudtpeters.nl
active on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ruudt.peters?fref=ts
A key, a safety pin, a balloon, a propeller, a voltmeter – these unexpected objects in art jewelry rewrite the world of the Norwegian “jewelry engineer” Sigurd Bronger. He carries over his fascination for machines and instruments in humorously constructed jewelry pieces, and transforms natural materials and everyday objects into meticulously executed, complex and ingenious constructions. In his Oslo “Laboratorium Mechanum” Bronger works on his witty “carrying devices” – brooches, pendants, and rings with balloons, sponges, eggs, even his mother’s gallstones, or with medical equipment, which have a greater positive effect on the mind than on the physical well-being. An established feature of his work, which symbolically marks the entrance into Bronger’s world, is the key. This current publication offers such a key; a review of over thirty years of his creative work: from Bronger’s experiments with materials and constructions in the struggle with the avant-garde Dutch art jewelry to his attempts in fathoming out states of expansion and emptiness in jewelry. He revolutionized contemporary creative jewelry work in such a way, not just in Norway, where to this day he still finds new forms of expression at the interface of jewelry, art, design and engineering. With works from the 1980s to the present day, the book will carry you off into the humorous world of the decorative engineering art of Sigurd Bronger, one of the most significant Norwegian jewelry artists today. Text in English, German & Norwegian
Pierre-Émile Legrain (1888-1929) was a French bookbinder, framer, landscape designer, furniture designer, and interior architect. This is the first full-length monograph about him, exploring his life and his creations in every genre, and highlighting the formal links between his work as an ensemblier, bookbinder, and draftsman. Pierre Legrain is credited with revolutionizing bookbinding in the early 20th century. In 1916 he was commissioned by the French bibliophile, couturier, and collector Jacques Doucet to design bindings for his extensive library. He created nearly 400 unique bindings for him, and numerous frames for Doucet’s exceptional modern art collection – including a steel frame for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – as well as a series of African-inspired furniture. He was a member of the UAM, whose logo he designed, and he associated with André Breton, Paul Éluard, Jean Cocteau, the sculptors Gustave Miklos and Henri Laurens, the painter Francis Picabia, and the milliner Jeanne Tachard for whom he designed a garden. His rare body of work – a hundred or so pieces of furniture and a few interiors – is dispersed today in museums and private collections throughout the world.
Text in French.
One of two seminal texts for understanding the life of Miyamoto Musashi (c.1584-1645), the most celebrated swordsman in Japanese history, completed in 1755 by Toyoda Masanaga, senior retainer to the Nagaoka clan; with the Bushû denraiki (also available from Floating World), the Bukôden stands as the most reliable record of Musashi’s life and exploits outside those from the hand of the master swordsman himself. Now, for the first time in two-and-a-half centuries, Masanaga’s insight into this enigmatic and solitary swordsman has been made available to the English reader. It throws a new and refreshing light on many aspects of Musashi’s life, especially his later life – his adoption of Iori, his return to Kyushu in 1634, and of course the gestation of his great work on the philosophy and art of Japanese swordsmanship, the Book of Five Rings.
Prejudices and stereotypes are as ancient as mankind. Why do we think we can deduce someone’s characteristics by their appearance? This book is based on the contested theory of Italian doctor Lombroso on the heredity of criminality. Lombroso stated that criminal behavior is a part of human nature. He wanted to prove some forms of criminality are hereditary. Facial features, corporal constitution… as a basis to stigmatize people. But how do we deal with appearance these days, in a multicultural society? Do we still presume ‘other’ features are ‘suspicious’? Is there such a thing as a ‘born criminal’? This book also pays attention to phenomena such as physical anthropology, craniometry and phrenology. Published to accompany an exhibition at Museum Dr Guislain, 15 March until 20 September 2015. Through exhibitions and books, The Museum Dr. Guislain aims to put the focus on important psychiatric problems and put them in a broader social and cultural context. Text in Dutch with English summary.
Apart from a handful of art historians no one has ever heard of the Brussels painter Hendrick De Clerck (1560-1630). Nevertheless, De Clerck was a contemporary of Peter Paul Rubens – the latter having gone down in history as an artistic trailblazer and painting powerhouse, while Hendrick De Clerck has quietly faded into oblivion. Yet the subtly coded, vibrantly colored pictures that De Clerck painted for Archduke Albert of Austria and his wife Isabella are political propaganda of the highest order. In creating a mode of archducal representation that could help to gain an empire, the sky is quite literally the limit. De Clerck represents Isabella as wise Minerva, chaste Diana, the Virgin Mary. And that’s nothing compared to her husband, for in De Clerck’s paintings Albert is transformed into the sun god Apollo or even into Jesus Christ himself. Hendrick De Clerck’s mastery of ingenious pictorial strategy made him a leading player in one of the most ambitious projects history has ever seen. For those who know how to read them, his paintings tell a story of power, political promises, and grandiose ambition. Most of all, they are supreme examples of image-building; for as the Archdukes were well aware, even as a monarch you’re only as important as you make yourself. Text in English and Dutch.
“Because of her long experience with the East, both in travel and in study, the eastern element is much stronger and more authentic in her work than it is in the works of other artists. The East is not merely a touch of varnish, it is something that defines her art.” – Prof. Dr. Willy Vande Walle. In her first monograph, Nicole Halsberghe provides an extensive overview of her oeuvre of the past 50 years. During her many travels to the East she always had a sketchbook and camera at hand. She captures everything she sees, everything that inspires her, and transforms it into acrylic paintings, drawings and lithographs. Traces on the Way shows how she ‘abstracts’ subjects, interprets them and makes them come to life. She portrays mankind and their surroundings in an impressive and unique way, from intimate rooms and train compartments to the immense, vast Japanese landscape. Text in English and Dutch.
Modern Indian Painting presents a survey of Indian painting from the late 19th century to the present day, drawn from the private collection of Jane and Kito de Boer remarkable for its broad historical scope and wide range of artists. The book clearly delineates major developments over a long period of time, while contextualizing them with previously unpublished examples by major artists. The first part of the book features the de Boers talking about their passion for India and Indian art. The second part presents a history of modern Indian painting, with essays on the Bengal School, the so-called ‘Dutch Bengal’ artists, the Calcutta naturalists, the portrait painters of the Bombay School in the early 20th century, the Progressive Artists Group and the post-Independence artists of Bengal. The de Boer collection also contains strong representations of a few individual artists, such as Chittaprosad, Ganesh Pyne, Ramachandran and Broota, whose works are explored through essays and interviews. The fact that many of these chapters draw almost exclusively on the de Boer collection is a testament to its incredible size and breadth. In this volume, we hope to show how the collection takes a dispassionate view of the global status of Indian art, while at the same time revealing a commitment and long-term engagement with the country and its creativity. With contributions from Partha Mitter, Giles Tillotson, Yashodhara Dalmia, Sona Datta, Sanjay Kumar Mallik and Rob Dean.
Established following the 125th anniversary of the Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh and named after the painter Sir John Watson Gordon, the Watson Gordon Lectures typify the long-standing positive collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the National Galleries of Scotland: two partners in the Visual Arts Research Institute in Edinburgh. The fifth lecture was given by Hal Foster of Princeton University. Professor Foster is an acknowledged expert on modernist art and architecture, and has a particular fascination with Pop art. His wide-ranging lecture on Roy Lichtenstein is a gripping engagement with the multiple aspects of the artist’s work: the conjunctions of art and technology, the satirical playing with previous modernist styles, and the sinister background of the military-industrial complex. Also available in the series:
Roger Fry’s Journal: From the Primitives to the Post-Impressionists: Watson Gordon Lecture 2006 9781906270117 Sound, Silence, and Modernity in Dutch Pictures of Manners: Watson Gordon Lecture 2007 9781906270254 Picasso’s ‘Toys for Adults’: Cubism as Surrealism: Watson Gordon Lecture 2008 9781906270261
Established following the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh and named after the painter Sir John Watson Gordon, the Watson Gordon Lectures typify the longstanding and positive collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the National Galleries of Scotland: two partners in the Visual Arts Research Institute in Edinburgh. This lecture was given by Neil Cox of the University of Essex, one of Britain’s leading scholars of Cubism and Surrealism, and a particular authority on Picasso, approaching the Spaniard’s work from intriguing angles. He concentrates on a single work, Picasso’s Head of 1913, and in doing so demonstrates how scrupulous focus can open out challenging perspectives in the work of a great master.
Also Available:Roger Fry’s Journey ISBN: 9781906270117 Sound, Silence, and Modernity in Dutch Pictures of Manners ISBN: 9781906270254
Unfinished paintings can be seen in many of the world’s great collections, including that of the National Gallery of Scotland: they fascinate the viewer and raise intriguing questions. What circumstances left them incomplete? What do they tell us about the ways that painters worked? How do we define ‘finish’, and when did an artist consider a work to be finished? These and other questions will be considered by David Bomford, in an exploration of the non-finito from the Renaissance to the 20th century. The Watson Gordon Lecture Series: The Watson Gordon Lectures, established in 2006, typify the long-standing collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the National Galleries of Scotland. Each lecture is by a leading scholar and reveals new research on a focused topic. The lectures are delivered and published annually, and now number eight titles in the series. Also available: ‘The Hardest Kind of Archetype’: Reflections on Roy Lichtenstein ISBN 9781906270384 Picasso’s ‘Toys for Adults’, Cubism as Surrealism ISBN 9781906270261 Roger Fry’s Journey: From Primitives to the Post-Impressionists ISBN 9781906270117 Sound, Silence, and Modernity in Dutch Pictures of Manners ISBN 9781906270254
For the first time in this series, Quart presents architects from Belgium, where a consistently high standard of building culture was produced in the 1990s. Henk De Smet and Paul Vermeulen are important representatives of that movement. To this day, they have produced an impressive, high-quality oeuvre. Their works include townhouses, residential and office buildings and a wide range of public buildings.
Text in Dutch and French.
Swedish master florist Per Benjamin won the Swedish championship in 1997, the Scandinavian championship in 2000 and became world champion in floristry in spring 2002. According to Per, floral art is all about emotions. Bringing flowers to the people is translating and communicating emotions, is showing them that the future has always something good and beautiful to offer. In this book he shares his personal ideas about flowers and creativity. His unstoppable curiosity is his driving force and allows him to find new materials as well as new ways to use the old ones. Per Benjamin is without a doubt one of the greatest ‘technicians’ in the world of floristry. In this book he shows a wide range of arrangements, from the well known playful and colourful, almost kitschy pieces to the more natural transparent, discrete ones. However, they always manage quite easily to draw one’s attention in an elegant, charming way. This updated and revised edition of his very successful monograph Elements (2004) demonstrates how his pieces have stood the test of time and are still very fresh and relevant. Text in English and Dutch.
Fibre-Fixed. Composites in Design is a book about what can be achieved when tried and tested fibers are combined with other materials – often (bio) plastics – to create fiber reinforced composite materials. These fibers can be manifold: carbon, glass, a synthetic fibre or natural fibers such as flax, hemp, jute, ramie, silk… The strength and stiffness of these fibers, combined with the lightness of plastics, inspires designers to create lightweight, energy-efficient products. At the same time, the composite materials allow a great freedom of shape and design. Designing and using composite materials can be an answer to the social and ecological challenges today’s society is facing. This book, edited by Lut Pil and Ignaas Verpoest, focuses on the results achieved in the past five years and looks ahead to some of the breakthroughs that are expected in the years to come. The projects presented in the book are diverse and come from different sectors such as mobility, sports, medical applications, energy supply, infrastructure, architecture and products for daily use. Text in English and Dutch.
A superb attention to detail, unsurpassed craftmanship, an emotional understanding of her clients, a dislike of overcomplicating things and a mind that never stops seeing new opportunities and ideas. These are only a few of the characteristics that made and still make Moniek Vanden Berghe the number one and trendsetting floral designer as far as bridal arrangements are concerned. And as time goes by, as is the case with many talented people, Moniek only seems to become more determined, more focused, more passionate. The colorful array and the diversity of the bridal bouquets, corsages, table arrangements, head pieces, and other decorative wedding designs compiled in Flowers in Love 4 demonstrate that Moniek is one of these artists whose well of inspiration never runs dry, on the contrary, it only flows more vigorously. Packed with fantastic new designs, this fourth book in the Flowers in Love collection will prove once again to be a goldmine of inspiration for aspiring florists and brides alike. Text in English, French and Dutch.
With an impressive career of over 40 years that has resulted in the installation of large-scale art projects in numerous public spaces, artist/sculptor Luk Van Soom needs no further introduction in Belgium and the Netherlands. This beautifully designed art book is a first retrospective on his life and career. In a series of discussions and interviews with the artist, author Johan Pas sheds some light on the influences, philosophy, thinking and themes that have been vital for Van Soom’s artistic development: the relation between life and passion, travel and art, etc. Together, these texts present a kaleidoscopic image of Luk Van Soom’s life and work that is just as multifaceted and compelling as his art. At the age of seventeen Van Soom took his first tentative steps as an artist. Now 40 years later, he has an impressive curriculum including many exhibitions, commissions and projects both in his home country and abroad. Moreover, he created more than 50 monumental works for the public space in Belgium and the Netherlands, among which some very well know sights, such as Walhalla (1993, Antwerp), The Man from Atlantis (2003, Brussels), The Wharfinger (2005, Zwolle) and Walking to Magdalena (2012, Ostend). Text in English and Dutch.
Christophe Hardiquest, chef of Restaurant Bon-Bon in Brussels, earned his second Michelin star earlier this year. Culinary guide Gault Millau awards him a top ranking too: with a score of 19 out of 20, Restaurant Bon-Bon is in the top 5 of the best culinary addresses in Belgium. With the alphabet as a guide Hardiquest presents his favorite products. He talks about his passion, his drive, inspiration and his entourage. Twenty letters stand for his most cherished ingredients, products that characterize his kitchen and around which the chef works out his exquisite signature dishes. Forty gourmet creations give the reader a taste of the craftsmanship and the impeccable taste palette of Bon-Bon. Master chef Christophe links the remaining letters of his kitchen alphabet to a keyword that brings his culinary philosophy and his personality into the picture.
Text in English, French and Dutch.
In this book, photographer Henk van Cauwenbergh introduces us to the marvellous worlds of matador Jean-Baptiste Jalabert (France) and prima ballerina Francesca Docli (Italy). The public’s favourite ‘Juan Bautista’, born in Arles, France and ballet dancer Francesca Dolci, a flamboyant member of the Les Ballets de Monte Carlo are the representatives par excellence of a world in which sports and art seamlessly melt together. Follow both top athletes/performers during their daily preparations, become a privileged witness to the particular rituals preceding each performance and be a spectator of a dazzling sham fight at the Mediterranean! Text in English, French and Dutch.
Yasser ‘Mierkat’ Booley started producing photographs in 1993 on the eve of the ‘new’ South Africa. Raised within the tension of a conservative Cape Malay home in politically fraught South Africa, he soon became an observant apprentice, set on mastering the essence of the electric ‘rainbow nation’. This book is a celebration, an indulgent vision. Booley’s South Africa shows ordinary people caught at a crossroads, entangled in a dishevelled unity. He brings to light the beauty of humanity through all religious and cultural differences, through class and gender diversity. His character and style reveal an unbridled optimism, sprinkled with an accidental whiff of irony. Text in English, French, Dutch, and German. Also available in the Africalia series: Grassroots Upgraded ISBN 9789058563910 Calvin Dondo ISBN 9789058564214 Julius Mwelu ISBN 9789058564030 Kiripi Katembo ISBN 9789058565174 Teddy Mazina ISBN: 9789058565167 Sammy Baloji ISBN 9789058563965