Assembly of the Exalted presents some 50 pieces from the remarkable collection of Alice S. Kandell. The works, dating from the late 13th century to the early 20th, include great masterpieces and emblematic examples of Tibetan Buddhist art. They are all presented here as the constituents of a Tibetan Buddhist shrine. Shrines, both modest and grand, are the primary sites of Tibetan Buddhist practice, whether it be reciting scriptures, performing rituals, saying prayers, or engaging in meditation. The introductory essays thus focus on the Tibetan Buddhist shrine, describing its evolution over the history of Buddhism, its special role in Tibet, and how the pieces in the Kandell Collection came to be assembled and displayed in shrines at institutions across America. Illustrated with vivid photography, forty short essays, each centered on a single work or set of objects, describe the pieces in terms of their importance for the practice of Buddhism, highlighting the many essential functions of Tibetan Buddhist art within the space of a shrine.
Tibet – The ‘Land of Snows’ – is ensconced in the blue silence of icy peaks, the ochre silence of rocks, where once it was honey-combed with monasteries rich with their realizations of esoteric universes. A Tibetan inscription calls Tibet ‘divine territory… a land that is a mine of wisdom’. The rich artistic heritage of Tibet reveals the depths of meditations of great Masters, translated into the majestic abundance of iconic symbols that take the form of three-dimensional images or two dimensional thankas.
Tibetan Art is a comprehensive introduction to the complex iconography of thankas, providing a glimpse of the richness of this art and of the land where it flourished. It takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery: Buddhist deities do not exist outside us but represent aspects of innate human potential. With no distinct, independent existence or objective reality, these deities are but symbols of abstract qualities.
Chinese furniture design had been improved through the centuries, maturing during the 14th century. The Qing furniture developed from Ming style furniture; it was attractive with ornate novel decorative elements. In the olden days of China, those who had resources could afford to live in a gracious residence such as the four-closed courtyard house (siheyuan). The four-closed courtyard house is the Chinese art of enclosing space to create an ideal environment for habitation. The multifunctional Chinese classical furniture facilitates the indoor and outdoor activities of its inhabitants. Siheyuan is divided into chambers such as the Hall, female chamber etc.
This book provides details on which pieces of furniture should be displayed in each chamber, as well as full-color illustrations and diagrams of how each piece was made and assembled. This includes three-dimensional drawings by Philip Mak and perspective views of the interior of various rooms. The author guides the readers through them, narrating the placement of furniture with inherent social implications. For easy reference, each piece is numbered and a more detailed description available in the catalog section of this book.
Text in English and Chinese.
The works of Philip and Kelvin LaVerne are already prized among collectors of American 20th-century furniture and art. However, Alchemy: The Art of Philip and Kelvin LaVerne written by gallerist Evan Lobel, reveals for the first time the astonishing breadth and depth of their artistic practice, which ranges from avant-garde furniture to sculpture and painting. As a father and son artist team, the LaVernes’ collaboration resulted in hundreds of unique and complex works, incorporating historical references of past civilizations and art historical motifs, with modernist design principles. Alchemy: The Art of Philip and Kelvin LaVerne is a comprehensive testament to the importance of these artist-designers who brought history, craftsmanship, and innovation into conversation with functional design and art. In writing the book with Kelvin LaVerne, Lobel provides unparalleled insight into the method and history of the duo and introduces a bounty of beautiful and never-before-seen images and commentary. This is, and will continue to be, the authoritative account of Philip and Kelvin LaVerne’s esteemed place in the history of 20th-century art and design.
This fully illustrated and researched catalog commemorates an exhibition of over 200 pieces of Chinese and related ceramics collected within the members of the Oriental Ceramic Society of London. The selection spans the complete range from Neolithic to contemporary ceramics, from minor kilns in many different regions to the major kilns working for the court, and from pieces of academic interest to world-famous masterpieces. It privileges unusual and rarely seen artifacts and avoids well known, repetitive designs such as that of the dragon, which is so firmly identified with China that it has become a cliche of Chinese art. It also aims to demonstrate the vast variety of wares and the inventiveness of Asian potters well beyond the classic confines.
Text in English and Chinese.
The story of the discovery of the 55 most important colors in creative man’s existence from prehistoric times to the present, written from the artist’s perspective. Monica Rotgans describes the many dyes and pigments that humans have turned into paint and color, and how to recognize them.
Learn all about red mercury, white lead, blue glass, black cabbage, pink louse, yellow earth, brown asphalt, green arsenic, and much more. A richly illustrated and accessibly written book about the origins and growth of the painter’s palette.
There are many ways to perceive and interpret contemporary craft objects – for instance, as works of representational art in materials like ceramics, glass, textile, metal or wood, or as functional, handmade everyday objects. In this publication, the editors have invited different voices in craft theory to investigate the perception of contemporary craft as a particular discourse and aesthetic vocabulary. According to the editors, contemporary crafts can benefit from being discussed as representations of reality that do not rely on the concept of autonomy. As such, neither do they rely on the conventional dualism between aesthetic objects and everyday things. The authors investigate the possibility to perceive craft objects from perspectives that relate to the aesthetic tradition of materialism.
Do fashion and art go together? Fashion and art are both physical and psychological instruments that define our identity in this world. They bring moments of enchantment and passion. Discover the romantic clash between art and fashion in the form of a love story between two young people and get to know the true nature of two worlds that seem completely different from each other. This book is a mix of fiction and non-fiction. The love story between an artist and a fashionista teaches us that both fashion and art can be an élan vital for men and women. Do you remember your first encounter with art and fashion? Was it collecting art or consuming fashion? Fashion is action. Art is a reflection of this action. The authors of this book bring together experts from both disciplines, including 20 top designers and artists.
In The Thousands, an 18-year-old RJ Rushmore curates an extensive collection of some of the biggest names in Street Art including Faile, Banksy, KAWS, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Herakut, Jenny Holzer, Blek le Rat, Futura 2000 and Barry McGee. As the founder and editor-in-chief of Vandalog, Rushmore has achieved a reputation for “genuine reporting, insight and analysis” (Papermag). This quality and attention to detail shines through the compelling writing in his book. Many of the works featured have come from private collections and several pieces have been provided directly by the artists participating in the show and the book. Each artist or group of artists is explored in an immersive two-page spread with an insightful biography and intricate analysis of their work. This fascinating anthology is a must-have for Street Art followers and those simply interested in the movement.
The new edition of The Art of Cookery re-proposes the recipes of the Florentine culinary tradition, enhancing their simplicity, capturing their modern aspects, veering some of them towards an accuracy in the procedures to ensure that those who try the recipes – and then those who are lucky enough to taste them – will discover the presence and taste of each individual ingredient. All organized within the time frames of today’s schedules. We should not be scandalized if the procedures cemented in the historical memory of domestic walls are made faster through the use of the appliances now routinely used in the kitchen. So bring on the pressure cookers, mixers, blenders and immersion robots if they can help to free up a bit of time and a bit of happy effort in favor of imagination and creativity.
Cooking with passion is a game that continually puts us to the test, with results that only our guests can judge.
Costume jewelry is commonly understood to mean fashionable yet affordable adornments made from non-precious material. Originating in in mid-1700s France with the rise of the bourgeoise, the earliest ‘costume jewelry’ mimicked fine jewelry styles. Since then, costume jewelry has always been evolving. From Victorian sentimentalism to the mass-produced ornaments available today, costume jewelry has developed into an artform in its own right. An encyclopedic study of its history is long overdue. Flush with expert information, identification tips and historical anecdotes, Adorning Fashion explores the development of costume jewelry across the past four centuries. The styles of each era – Victorian, Edwardian, Arts & Crafts, Jugenstil, Art Nouveau, and each decade of the twentieth century – are given individual attention. Production methods are also explained in depth. Alloys and gilded electroplating can mimic silver and gold, while the refraction index of treated glass can, to the untrained eye, be mistaken for diamond.
Adorning Fashion discusses the contributions of a remarkable roster of designers and innovators, including Kokichi Mikimoto, Arthur L. Liberty, Carlo Giuliano, René Lalique, Elizabeth Bonté, the Castellani brothers, Jean Fouquet, Jean Després, Fulco di Verdura, Jean Schlumberger, Salvador Dalí, Miriam Haskell, Lina Baretti, Countess Cissy Zoltowska, Line Vautrin, Kenneth Jay Lane, Francisco Rebajes, Diane Love, Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels, Paco Rabanne, Yves Saint Laurent, Napier, Haskell, Trifari, Brania, Bulgari, Versace and more.
This new title in the highly successful Design Series features the design work of the acclaimed artist Peter Blake. Best known of the British pop artists, Peter Blake came to fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s with iconic works like On the Balcony and First Real Target both now in the Tate Gallery. Tate held an exhibition of his works in 1983 as well as a more recent retrospective at Tate Liverpool in 2007. His famous works for album covers, such as The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band the Band Aid single Do They Know Its Christmas, the Oasis greatest hits album Stop the Clocks and Paul Weller’s Stanley Road brought him to a wider audience. This stunningly designed book celebrates the brilliant creative talent of a unique British artist. Also avaliable: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037 E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719 Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665 Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191 Rodchenko ISBN: 9781851495917 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778
Iain R Webb’s Postcards from the Edge of the Catwalk is a personal photographic portfolio spanning three decades that documents the glittering brouhaha surrounding the ready-to-wear and haute couture fashion collections in New York, London, Milan and Paris. The photographs, snapped by the award-winning fashion journalist from the insider vantage point of his front row seat and invite-only parties, capture a world of show-stopping creativity and inspirational individual style.
Follow these Canadian artists as they travel abroad and return home again, over a series of journeys taking place during the last decades of the nineteenth century to the turn of the twentieth. 130 masterworks by some 35 artists situate Canadian art within the global phenomenon of Impressionism and present a fresh perspective on its reception in the arts of Canada. Adopting a thematic approach, comprehensive essays demonstrate the commitment of these pioneering artists to an innovative interpretation of foreign and familiar surroundings, imbued with an Impressionist vocabulary.
Gisbert Stach’s (b. 1963) monograph Jewellery and Experiment presents a multifaceted opus from twenty-five years of gold- and silversmithing. In his oeuvre the primarily conceptual artist combines jewelry with video, photography and performance. One focus of his work deals with processes of transformation and experiment – pieces disappear through chemical dissolution, and form is determined by agencies of growth in nature. Stach works with means of alienation and irritation. Ground amber serves as pigment, which he works into jewelry pieces in the form of fish fingers, sliced bread or schnitzel. A further characteristic of his work is the performative act, for example when brooches are pelted with knives.
Gisbert Stach is represented in numerous museums and collections, including Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, Munich (DE); Fondazione Cominelli, Brescia (IT); Museo de Arte Moderno, Tarragona (ES); Museum of Arts & Crafts, Itami (JP); Gallery of Art, Legnica (PL); Museum of Bohemian Paradise, Turnov (CZ); Amber Museum, Gdansk (PL).
Published to accompany exhibitions at Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart (DE), 9-11 November 2018, and Bayerischer Kunstgewerbeverein (BKV), Munich (DE) 28 February-24 March 2019.
Text in English and German.
Petra Zimmermann occupies a unique position among emerging contemporary jewelry artists: she shares their exciting approach to the subject of jewelry and the quotable adoption of the pop culture label for defining the auteur jewelry concept in which she succeeds, this time through historical reference. The artist draws on past encounters with costume jewelry from the previous century for her rings, bracelets and brooches. Comprised of bright, colorful synthetic forms, these objects receive a framework in which their artificial appearance contrasts to the dusty splendour of the historic costume jewelry. Beguiling pieces of jewelry emerge, which combine the present fascination for glamour with an element of progression, thus referencing the costume jewelry as an essential component in the production and construction of glamour in the portrait photography of the Hollywood diva. In her latest series of works, the artist uses mass media images of models, floral motifs, architecture and design objects which broaden her scope of cultural and social interpretations. Thus behind the visual opulence of her work, she succeeds in handling relevant aesthetic and social themes in her pieces; relevant for a generation that no longer struggles against traditional conventions, but that negotiates much more in an increasingly complex environment in the search for personal and historical coherence.
Petra Zimmermann is one of the most ambitious artists in contemporary jewelry. This book provides the first overview of her fascinating and exciting creative jewelry works with sumptuous images and scholarly articles.
The Alice and Louis Koch Collection of finger rings was originally collated by a jeweler from Frankfurt am Main, once described as the German ‘Cartier and Fabergé’. By 1909 the collection comprised 1,722 rings from Antiquity to 1900. Rene Lalique, a contemporary of the time, was included, undoubtedly as a modernizer of the ring form. In the past twenty-five years the fourth generation of the family continued where Louis Koch and his wife Alice left off and expanded the collection to include rings from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
This publication will present the complete collection of contemporary rings, now kept in the Swiss National Museum, Zurich. Nearly 600 rings by artist jewelers from around the world document how these miniature works of art have become modern sculptures showcasing new materials and techniques, daring designs and current themes.
Text in English and German.
The largest surviving portion of the first major collection of Classical antiquities in Britain – the sculptures and inscriptions collected in the early 17th century by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel for his London house and garden – is in the Antiquities Department of the Ashmolean Museum. This handbook tracks their eventful history.
The office of Licht Kunst Licht AG was founded in 1991 by Andreas Schulz, simultaneously at two locations in Bonn and Berlin. Today, the field of work of the office’s twenty six employees covers office and administration buildings, museums and cultural buildings, representative buildings, government projects, transport infrastructure, shopping centres, hotels and restaurants, outdoor projects and private construction projects.
The seventeen projects in this book show the total range of the firm’s works, illustrating, amongst others, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main, the ThyssenKrupp Quartier in Essen or the New Gallery in Kassel.
Text in English and German.