From the end of the 19th century onwards, jewelry became an important vehicle for the formal experimentation and plastic innovation of its time, thanks to the development of knowledge about stone, the techniques used to produce it and the development of the art of jewelry. Books and exhibitions showcase this leading decorative art, which accompanied Romanticism in all its forms. It accompanied Romanticism in its final stages before adopting the emerging Art Nouveau repertoire.

Text in English and French.

Italian and American Art focuses on the period between 1930 and 1980 in particular. By comparing artworks and examining exhibition and gallery policies, political meddling, and figures linking Italy to the United States, a common thread emerges which held two worlds that were literally an ocean apart but in constant touch as they explored each other’s movements contributing to art, from Futurism, Concrete art, and Abstract Expressionism, to Nuclear art, Pop art and Spatialism.

“A must for art lovers who like their culture with a side of room service.” — Boss Hunting

For centuries, art, design, and architecture have been used to transform, illuminate, preserve, and make sense of the world in which we live. Art and design, much like travel, are acts of discovery, invitations where influence, healing and enchantment are all possible. And as we travel, these art forms connect us to the unknown, deepening our comprehension and appreciation of the places and people we visit. The 28 hotels featured in this book creatively embrace art in its many forms to provide authentic reflections and experiences for every guest. The World’s Best Art & Design Hotels is dedicated to the influence, discovery, and power of art and design, as we travel — bon voyage!

Bright sun, blue sea, churning waves, shifting sand: these and other elements of surf life are featured here in work by 30 contemporary surf artists from around the world. In addition to the text are interviews with the artists, which gives a deeper understanding and insight into the transformation of their surf experience into art. Curated and written by surfing journalist Veerle Helsen, author of the bestselling travel guide Surf & Stay, this unique collection of paintings, watercolors, graphics, and digital artworks capture the joy, beauty, and energy of this sport and lifestyle.

‘That this is a legitimate question, even a necessary one, is argued by Vergara in a pleasurable manner, with the pace and attitude of a peripatetic thinker. There is something here that reminds one of Montaigne or Stendhal.’ – El País

Throughout history, human beings have excelled at creating art of the highest quality. Aristotle wrote that Homer “surpassed all others” and Pliny the Elder referred to “masterpieces that we never tire of admiring”. Velázquez distinguished between portraits “made with art” and those that were not. What did they all mean exactly? What do we mean when we say that a work of art is good, of high quality? This book is an attempt to explain this central question, which remains surprisingly unexplored.

Alejandro Vergara-Sharp argues that “a deep knowledge of the history of art provides us with the tools to approach this issue objectively”. He then invites the reader to share with him a Socratic voyage of discovery, gradually unveiling arguments that can assist us in understanding this elusive and crucial concept.

Over the course of six decades, the American artist William Harper (b. 1944) has conjured a body of work unique in the realm of jewelry. Masterfully crafted in enamel and gold, his pieces explore multiple realms – from ancient mythology to personal iconography – and draw on influences such as African sculpture, medieval art, and modernist dance. Harper has nonetheless created an oeuvre that is instantly recognizable, branching into formats including paintings, ornamented casks, artist’s books, and more. Bizarre Beauty, the definitive study of Harper and his work, includes a full biography by co-editor Glenn Adamson, as well as thematic essays and primary texts. A visual feast, the book provides an intimate look at this brilliantly imaginative artist.

The Art of Endurance is a coffee table book about the 2024 season of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), which is one of the most exciting competitions in motorsport. This book is based on the very rich production of images that will be developed and embellished over the eight races that are held around the globe on internationally renowned circuits, including the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. The main goal is to capture the “spirit” that characterizes these endurance races. This beautiful publication will be a perfect promotional tool for the championship, whose considerable drawing power is due to the number of competitors and manufacturers who are taking part.

Desperately Young introduces the masterpieces left behind by some of the greatest rising stars in fine art – all of whom died before their thirtieth birthday.

Precocious talent seeps from each artist’s work, along with a sense of unfulfilled potential. Informative biographies detail their legacies, while their tragic deaths lead us to wonder what heights they might’ve reached, had their lives not been cut short. Richly illustrated, Desperately Young presents prime examples of each artist’s work, demonstrating how our cultural heritage is just a little narrower for their loss.

From Europe to America to Japan and the Indian Subcontinent, the mid-14-hundreds to the late 20th century, this book hails the acknowledged greats and introduces those who died before they could leave an indelible mark on history. A compendium of 109 artists who fell prey to sickness, warfare, heartbreak or bad luck, Desperately Young is the only book to provide an in-depth study of artists who died young.

Contents: With works from Tommaso Masaccio, Frédéric Bazille, Thomas Girtin, Egon Schiele, Henri Regnault, Ernst Klimt, Jeanne Hébuterne, Kaita Murayama, Hermann Stenner, Maurycy Gottlieb, Fyodor Vasilyev, Marie Bashkirtseff, Richard Parkes Bonington, Luisa Anguissola, Walter Deverell, August Macke, Pauline Boty and Jean-Michel Basquiat – among many others.

The best art isn’t just created in art schools. Scratched into cave walls, molded in clay, embroidered onto clothing, sketched in the margins, painted on scrap cardboard in time snatched after work, perhaps in secret. Art is not only made inside academies and institutions by people with money and training, though sometimes the canon suggests otherwise. From Ukrainian pansky eggs to politically charged quilts, these 65 artworks challenge our preconceptions about what constitutes art, how it should be made and who should make it. 

Art pushes boundaries and so does skateboarding. This book explores this philosophy by showcasing skateboard-inspired artists and their work from around the world. From artists working in the skateboard community to freelancers being influenced by it. From traditional pencil to digital drawing. They all have one thing in common: skateboarding. Skate & Art, following bestseller Surf & Art by Veerle Helsen, is curated and written by Michele Addelio, editor of Backside skate magazine who explores the skate scene outside the mainstream. In his online publication he has interviewed over 50 skateboard-inspired artists. This experience laid the foundation to continuously discover the diversity and beauty of the two art forms colliding.  

1000 piece puzzle featuring the artwork of acclaimed New York City based outsider artist Nicole Appel.

Nicole Appel’s Patchwork Portraits represent people non-traditionally, as a collection of the things that they like or care about. Pakistani Truck Art was done as a gift for Jerry Saltz, the Pulitzer Prize winning art critic who has long championed her work. With images of Dante’s Inferno, elaborately decorated Pakistani trucks, and even the Drive-By Truckers, this “portrait” of Saltz references his purgatorial years as a long haul truck driver after he had abandoned his career as an artist. Conventional portraits have traditionally represented people using their faces. Nicole Appel’s Patchwork Portraits represent people non-traditionally as a collection or ‘patchwork’ of the things that they like or care about. Her “Patchwork Portraits” have been exhibited at the Outsider Art Fair, in New York City, and sold out for the past 13 consecutive years. Her works are included in important collections, nationally and internationally, including representation in the collections of The Museum of Everything and Brian Donnelly, a.k.a KAWS. In 2025, KAWS included 10 of Appel’s Patchwork Portraits, from his personal collection, in the critically acclaimed, blockbuster show, The Way I See It: Selections from the KAWS Collection, at the Drawing Center, in N.Y.C.

Continuing the publication program that aims to disseminate the Collection through albums that present specific sections in a systematic manner, this volume focuses on Egyptian Art. The section was first studied by Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, when the pieces that would be included in the Museum’s permanent exhibition were selected, and first published in 1991 by the curator of the section, Maria Helena Assam. 15 years on, new texts have been written by Egyptologist Luís Manuel de Araújo, a professor at the Arts Faculty of the University of Lisbon.

Calouste Gulbenkian mostly assembled his collection of Egyptian art between 1922 and 1929. Relatively small but very diverse, it includes pieces of exceptional quality from the various periods when art in pharaonic Egypt was at its height. The catalogue not only covers the pieces on display at the Museum, but also those kept in the storeroom.

Ski & Art is a visual tribute to the world of skiing, where adrenaline, landscape and creativity come together. In this richly illustrated book, author Katie Bamber explores how ski culture inspires artists – from iconic alpine posters to illustrations that make the powder fly off the page. Ski & Art, the successor to Surf & Art and Skate & Art, tells the story of a lifestyle shaped by mountain communities, subcultures and a shared love of freedom and expression. Bamber selected the 22 ski artists who define the scene, interviewed them and showcases their finest work. This book is a must-have for anyone fascinated by the cross-over between sports and art, and by the unique magic of the mountains.

As a celebrated and accomplished artist of the 19th century, Rosa Bonheur succeeded in elevating animal painting to the status of art. Defying the social conventions of her time, she became the first female artist to receive the Legion of Honour, making her work a symbol of independence and freedom. Her realistic animal depictions and naturalistic style established her as a pioneer of her era. Largely forgotten after her death, her work, in this book, is being brought back into the spotlight by Armelle Fémelat, art historian, journalist, and specialist in the Italian Renaissance and animal studies. This book offers a precise and attentive reading of the artist’s work, allowing readers to appreciate the uniqueness of both her art and her life.

FMR Issue No. 18: “The Unreachable House of the Olsons” marks the start of a series from Giovanni Mariotti, “A River of Words, a Cascade of Astonishment” narrates the narrative of Niagara Falls, “Tesseract at the Palazzo” tells how staging art in Venice is an art unto itself, while “Paper Lion” traces Rembrandt’s brush with a big cat. “JACK OF FALCONS BEATS FOUR OF DUCKS” presents unfamiliar fauna in playing cards; “THE AEROPAINTRESS AND HER SWIFT MESSENGERS” reminds us that the one notable female Futurist was looking down from her cockpit at a world newly linked by now-old media; in “BUTTERED SPRINGTIME,” Gloria Fossi links art to asparagus. “THE PALACE OF TWELVE-POINTED STARS” tours us through a Moorish revival palace in Tangier. And “RUNAWAY QUEEN” tells the tale of an independent female royal eager to shed the ballast of her birth in the Eternal City.

Yoga & Art is an in-depth exploration of the world of yoga, in which breath, movement and creativity flow seamlessly. In this richly illustrated book, author Renee Marie Schettler explores how yoga culture inspires artists across styles, from meditative line drawings to paintings that capture the stillness of a pose mid-motion. The fourth book in a series including Surf & Art, Skate & Art and Ski & Art, Yoga & Art tells the story of a practice shaped by ancient tradition, contemporary life, and a shared search for balance and presence. The book features 25 yoga-inspired artists whose work explores diverse and thoughtful interpretations of the same practice. Yoga & Art is a must-have for anyone fascinated by the crossover between mindfulness and art, and touched by the quiet power of the practice.

“When you land on this book, if you do not yet have an appreciation of butterflies or Chan’s workmanship, after reading, it will leave you in awe of both.”—Beth Bernstein, Forbes
“When I was a young boy, butterflies were flying colours – I knew not their name. Then butterflies became the Butterfly Lovers: a tragedy, a love story, a symbol of eternal love. As I grew older, I found them to embody the words of a great philosopher: life is but a dream; only we need to decide whether we want it to be the dream of a man, or the dream of a butterfly. I could not decide, and so I became The Butterfly Man.” – Wallace Chan

Father of The Wallace Cut – an illusionary three-dimensional gemstone carving technique – and The Wallace Chan Porcelain – a ground-breaking material five times stronger than steel – Wallace Chan is a guiding light in the world of jewelry design. Always innovating, always testing boundaries with his materials and technique, Chan’s creations are as stunning as they are intricate. Compiled by jewelry experts, this book explores the cultural and personal significance of Wallace Chan’s most famous emblem: the butterfly.

Winged Beauty: The Butterfly Jewellery Art of Wallace Chan features approximately 30 of his finest pieces. Enter a butterfly house of colorful gems, with brooches and necklaces so delicate they might have flown down and alighted on the page.

This volume brings together leading scholars of Sikhism and of Sikh art to assess and interpret the remarkable art resource known as the Kapany Collection, using it to introduce to a broad public the culture, history, and ethos of the Sikhs. Fifteen renowned scholars contributed essays describing the passion and vision of Narinder and Satinder Kapany in assembling this unparalleled assemblage of great Sikh art, some of which has been displayed in exhibitions around the globe. The Kapanys’ legacy of philanthropic work includes establishing the Sikh Foundation (now celebrating its 50th year) and university endowments for Sikh studies. Through this profusely illustrated book’s chapters, scholars examine the full range of Sikh artistic expression and of Sikh history and cultural life, using artworks from the Kapany Collection.

The Ashmolean is fortunate in having the finest collection of Indian art in Britain outside London, one which includes many works of great beauty and expressive power. For this we are indebted above all to the generosity, knowledge and taste of our benefactors and donors from the 17th century to the present. This book offers a short account of how the collection developed and a selection of some of its more outstanding or interesting works of art. While it is written mainly for the general reader and museum visitor, it includes many fine objects or pictures, some of them unpublished, that should interest specialist scholars and students.

Since 1987, the Ashmolean has made many significant new acquisitions of Indian art and these are highlighted in this collection. As the book’s title implies, it also ventures beyond the bounds of the Indian subcontinent by including works from Afghanistan and Central Asian Silk Road sites as well as many from Nepal, Tibet and Southeast Asia. From the early centuries AD, Indian trading links with these diverse regions of Asia led to a widespread cultural diffusion and regional adoptions of Buddhism and Hinduism along with their related arts. Local reinterpretations of such Indic subjects, themes and styles then grew into flourishing and enduring artistic traditions which are also part of the story of this book.

The selection of works ends around 1900. By the 16th century and the early modern period in India, growing European interventions and Western artistic influences under Mughal rule saw a significant shift in sensibility and the practice of more secular and naturalistic forms of court art such as portraiture. By the late 19th century, fundamental cultural changes under British rule and the advent of new technologies brought about a gradual decline in many of India’s traditional arts.

India is a nation of conflicting realities, where the old and the new, the traditional and modern regularly coexist. Here, the artists are concerned not solely with telling their own tales but also with exploring what it means to live in a nation steeped in tradition.

Within the context of modern and contemporary India, works on paper offered artists a way of cultivating transnational modernist expression while continuing to explore the potential of a medium that had deeper roots in older artistic traditions native to the subcontinent. This volume features over 100 watercolors, drawings, etchings, sketches and lithographs by senior Indian modernists, born primarily before the 1950s and who came of age in the decades directly following Independence in 1947. These artists span the transition from colonial to post-colonial India, embracing both realism and abstraction, exploring complex metaphors, and making political statements that directly engage India’s past, present, and future.

With contributions by Tamara Sears, Michael Mackenzie, Paula Sengupta, Emma Oslé, Darielle Mason, Rebecca M. Brown, Jeffrey Wechsler, Kishore Singh and Swathi Gorle. 

The Meaning of the Earth offers a retrospective on the lives and work of the relentlessly controversial artists, placing them within the context of twentieth century British culture. Wolf Jahn tells the story of how Gilbert & George found their identity in opposition to pervasive ideas around social conformity and religion after meeting in 1967.
The artists staged an internal revolution, mining their psyches to create visionary and unwaveringly modern art. The ‘two people but one artist’ ask the questions that gnaw at us all: ‘Where do we come from?’, ‘Who are we?’ and ‘Where are we going?’ The book meditates on the artists’ role in this century, connecting their beginnings as Living Sculptures to their pictorial work of today.
The Meaning of the Earth is a continuation of Jahn’s 1989 work, The Art of Gilbert & George. The author writes a playful philosophical interrogation of Gilbert & George’s work that truly grasps its cosmic scale.