Hailing from the cultural realm of India, the mandala signifies in its original sense a sacred circle. It serves as a meditation aid and at the same time reflects an ancient symbolism of strictly geometric basic forms accompanied by an interpretation of its sacred content. As an expression of the awareness of higher affinities, the symmetrically arranged geometry can be found in a variety of pictorial works and the architecture of various epochs and cultural realms, for example in medieval book illumination, the floor plan of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, in Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, or in various objects of the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. Based on these and other masterpieces from renowned museums and private collections and illustrated in fascinating photographs of unique buildings and rituals, this publication offers an impressive first analysis of the phenomenon of sacred geometry in art and architecture and their underlying ideologies.
Text in German.
Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner (gmp), with more than 500 employees at seven locations in Germany, China, and Vietnam, is a world-leading architectural firm, as well as being one of Germany’s largest. In 1996 gmp realised its first project in Italy: the exhibition Renaissance of Railway Stations that was part of the 6th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. In 1997 gmp’s winning design for the new exhibition halls in Rimini marked the beginning of its list of another 59 projects in the country, comprising diverse structures such as train stations, airports, stadiums, hospitals, or research buildings. Many of these were for sites of historical significance that required the utmost sensitivity in execution; 13 of them have been realised to date.
This book tells the story of gmp’s work in Italy in seven chapters, placing all projects in the historical context of their respective location. In an interview, Volkwin Marg, one of gmp’s two founding partners, talks about his experiences, his enthusiasm for Italy’s building culture, gmp’s great successes, unexpected major obstacles, tough negotiations, and deep disappointments. Numerous colour photographs, plans, and historical reference images supplement the texts.
Text in Italian.
Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706–1775) is regarded as one of the most prominent personalities in the 313-year history of the Meissen porcelain manufactory. His first three workshop employees, Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1696–1749), Johann Gottlieb Ehder (1716/7–1750), and Peter Reinicke (1711–1768), contributed significantly to the appearance of Meissen porcelain in the first half of the 18th-century. The output of the workshop is the focus of the publication, which offers the first complete transcription of the work reports of the three modellers. A catalogue on some 995 models has thus emerged, whose individual entries act as a history of each model’s creation. This catalogue makes it possible to view the porcelain figures in their chronological sequence of production, to comprehend their relationships, and to identify stylistic transformations.
Text in German.
In 1984 the two photographers Philipp J. Bosel and Burkhard Maus travelled from their home town of Cologne to Berlin and started making an uncommissioned record of the Berlin wall. Their goal was to document all 18 kilometers of this border installation, without a gap.
The result of their project is probably the most extensive photographic documentation of the inner city section of the wall. The book is the first to show the entire collection of 1,144 black and white photographs. The juxtaposition of the individual pictures creates a staccato-like panorama that allows the viewer to see the Berlin wall as a spatial continuum. The surface textures of the wall can be studied here, as can the countless graffiti and professions of political belief: testimonials to the times that are all the more fascinating 30 years later.
The publication is being issued as a limited edition of 1,144 copies, corresponding to the number of photographs. Included in each book is a separate print from the pool of 1,144 images.
Text in English, French, German and Russian.
“Reflecting the international food scene, this book presents a bucket list showing today’s most inspiring gourmet experiences.” – Amélie Vincent – The Foodalist
Chefs, gastronomy and lifestyle are hot topics. However, finding the ultimate dining experience around the world might be challenging and can be disappointing.
From Paris (Plaza Athénée, Septime) and Mexico City (Quintonil, Lorea) to Tokyo (Den, Florilège, Sushi Saito), Amélie Vincent, also known as The Foodalist, selects 150 must-visit restaurants around the world in her latest book 150 Restaurants You Need to Visit before You Die. These culinary hotspots promise a unique experience to the diners, through exquisite menus, original designs and creative chefs.
Founder of The Foodalist Communication Agency (www.thefoodalist.com), Amélie Vincent, is an expert in revealing culinary trends worldwide. She has the world’s best chefs in her network, and works with the most influential media around the world.
Thanks to her photographer’s eye and her experience as a culinary journalist, 150 Restaurants You Need to Visit before You Die is the ultimate bucket list for every single foodie and gourmet traveller and the sequel to the equally standout book 150 Bars You Need to Visit Before You Die ISBN: 9789401449120.
Jurgen Lijcops, author of the bestseller 150 Bars You Need to Visit Before You Die, selected the 150 wine bars you must visit, from Bordeaux to Cape Town, from Bangkok to Sydney. Some are unique because of their exquisite decor, others for their breathtaking views or their exceptional service. All of them have a unique wine list that will surprise even the most demanding connoisseurs.
This two-volume publication illustrates the evolutionary history of the pendulum clock from the early Age of Metternich and provides detailed explanations on their engineering. In addition, it contains a catalogue with almost 400 wall and longcase clocks, most of which have never been published, and a unique index with over 14,000 entries on clockmakers from all over the Austrian Empire, including a vast amount of previously unknown masters and workshops. It also includes biographical information on the makers, locations of the workshops, masterpieces and exhibits from trade exhibitions, inventions, characteristic features of the pieces, sales outlets, and the prices of the time. An indispensable compendium on classic longcase and wall clocks of the Austrian Empire and a major reference work for all those with an interest in clocks!
Text in German.
This well-designed publication features new photographs by London-based artist Bettina von Zwehl (b.1971 in Munich). Following her graduation from the Royal College of Art in 1999, von Zwehl has completed high-profile residencies and had solo exhibitions at museums around the world, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Freud Museum, Holburne Museum, and the New York Historical Society Museum. During a residency in Oxford, von Zwehl researched the Ashmolean’s founding collections and the many narratives embedded within the historical objects. This served as inspiration for a unique Wunderkammer book and exhibition that seamlessly transition between still-life, portraiture, monumental and miniature elements, as well as non-art objects and specimens from natural history collections. The artist’s aim is to rekindle wonder and curiosity as critical tools for exploring new ideas and unique practices, expanding the boundaries of the photographic medium.
With a superb eye for the beauty and inconsistencies of inconspicuous details, the photobook In Secret: Friederike von Rauch presents the viewer with astounding views of interior spaces. Her compositions of light and shadow, devoid of people, disclose a subtle artistic aesthetic and are at times evocative of abstract painting. This volume features photographs from different series produced between 2009 and 2013. Her photographs – all taken with an analogue camera and in natural light – are characterised by an interaction of spatial experiences. Seen from von Rauch’s point of view, dark alcoves, bare walls, individual objects, and traces of the human hand develop a life of their own while at the same time allowing room for interpretation. Text in English and German.
Elisabeth von Krogh (b. 1947) has been a prominent figure in the field of ceramics in Norway for several decades. Her works have been acquired by numerous Norwegian collections, and her artistic oeuvre is well-known even beyond the art world. Describing von Krogh’s works without resorting to what are often deemed clichés is challenging. How does one articulate that something is simultaneously playful and colourful yet serious and complex? The works’ duality is their strength, and the term ‘playful’ – referring to a beneficial and civilised aspect of humanity – assumes a new dimension in her realm. Play, like ceramics, is one of the few arenas where both body and mind are simultaneously challenged.
This is the first comprehensive monograph on Elisabeth von Krogh. A retrospective of the last 50 years that opens up to the prospective of playful utopian spaces.
Text in English and Norwegian.
In addition to her life’s work in ceramic art, the artist, gallerist and collector Lotte Reimers (b. 1932) has compiled a fascinating collection of applied art from other disciplines. With 132 objects, Die Sprache der Dinge (The Language of Things) presents jewellery, metal and textile design, leather- and woodwork, paper art, and one-offs in glass. The collection, which has grown over decades, reflects Lotte Reimers’ own unique collecting style: aside from personal taste, quality in form and craftsmanship is an essential criterion for inclusion. The things themselves enter a polyphonic and exciting dialogue in their multiplicity and individuality.
Die Sprache der Dinge is an invitation to all aficionados of applied art to enter Lotte Reimers’ world of collecting.
Text in German.
150 Gardens You Need to Visit before You Die profiles a selection of the most beautiful gardens in the world, renowned for their exceptional flora, imaginative designs, and inspiring locations. From Kew Gardens in London to the Singapore Botanical Gardens, and from Monet’s garden at Giverny to the Zen garden of the Ryōan-ji Temple in Kyoto, this handsomely bound book captures in words and images the most notable features of these 150 glorious, not-to-be-missed gardens. An essential bucket list book for garden lovers!
Photographer Christophe von Hohenberg’s photographs give the impression of squinting against the glaring summer sun-bleached out details blur and feint gestures carve out the presence of figures against the vast oceanic expanse. Allowing himself to be “blinded by the light” von Hohenberg has found harmony on the beaches of the Hamptons, a place that cleanses, renews, and soothes.
As delicate smears and ghostly shapes flesh out the familiar yet distant dreamscape of the beaches, von Hohenberg’s photographs intimate an ineffable feeling-haunting, serene, and sublime. The White Album of the Hamptons
provides a visual record of von Hohenberg’s experiment in capturing the soul of the Hamptons and its unseen world of transcendent illumination through black-and-white photographs.
Marianne von Werefkin played a key role in the development of expressionism in the early 20th century, thanks to her knowledge of the latest developments in Paris. She brought this to Germany and later Switzerland and developed a unique way of painting herself, using rhythm and colour to convey her vision and emotions. Social themes, such as the lives of workers and women, remained of great importance to her. Werefkin was at the cradle of several artists’ networks, such as Der Blaue Reiter, which included her partner Alexej von Jawlensky as well as Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and Gabriele Münter. Museum De Fundatie is the only museum in the Netherlands to have a work by Werefkin in its collection and, with this book, offers an overview of her colourful universe for the first time in the Netherlands. Several essays give a multifaceted impression of the life, work and significance of one of the greatest art innovators of the last century.
“This is a volume that will be informative to specialists, but also a visual delight for the average reader. An indispensable addition to the field.” ― John Wilmerding, Sarofim Professor of American Art, emeritus, Princeton University
“William Morgan offers an overview of the flowering of the collegiate Gothic style in America between the Civil War and the crash of 1929. Here is a splendidly illustrated book full of insight.” ― New Criterion
Explore America’s most breathtaking college campuses ― where Gilded Age wealth found a Gothic inspiration.
The Collegiate Gothic style, which flourished between the Gilded Age and the Jazz Age, was intended to lend an air of dignified history to America’s relatively youthful seats of higher learning. In fact, this mash-up of Oxbridge quaintness with piles of new money gave rise ― at schools like Princeton and Vassar, Yale and Chicago ― to unprecedented architectural fantasies that reshaped the image of the college campus. Today the ivy-covered monuments of Collegiate Gothic still exercise a powerful hold on the public imagination ― as evidenced, for example, by their prominent place in the Dark Academia aesthetic that has swept social media.
In Academia, the noted architectural historian William Morgan traces the entire arc of Collegiate Gothic, from its first emergence at campuses like Kenyon and Bowdoin to its apotheosis in James Gamble Rogers’s intricately detailed confections at Yale. Ever alert to the complicated cultural and social implications of this style, Morgan devotes special sections to its manifestations at prep schools and in the American South, and to contemporary revivals by architects like Robert A. M. Stern.
Illustrated throughout with well-chosen color photographs, Academia offers the ultimate campus tour of our faux-medieval cathedrals of learning.
This publication combines the works of Belgian artist Philippe Vandenberg (1952-2009) and American artist Bruce Nauman (b. 1941). At first, it may seem startling to see Nauman’s small but dense selection of works alongside those by Vandenberg. The artists never met one another and they could not be more different in their choice of artistic media. And yet there’s something that links the oeuvre of these apparently divergent artists. This publication examines that extraordinary link. The art of both Vandenberg and Nauman is direct, uncompromising and distressing. They share a common attitude towards their artistic practices. Their works are raw and uncouth, finished just to the point where they enter the onlooker’s conscience as a kind of prelude or genesis to something. The work of Vandenberg and Nauman originates form the same source: frustration. They cry out in despair at the dark side of humanity, mourning our propensity for hatred and violence, coldness and vilification. They explore the impossibility of genuine, uncompromised communication between individual people. Both artists succeed in creating images that capture the abyss within ourselves, our failings and our cruelty. Lust and pain, violence and horror are all too close to each other. “It is said that art is about life and death. That may be melodramatic, but it’s also true,” Nauman said. “LIVE OR DIE! Nothing more, nothing less.” The book is edited by Wouter Davidts, with texts by Dr. Brigitte Kölle (Head of Contemporary Art, Hamburger Kunsthalle), John C. Welchman (Professor of Art History, University of California, San Diego) and Anna Dezeuze (Lecturer in Art History, Ecole Supérieure d Art et de Design Marseille Méditerranée). It accompanies an exhibition at Gallery Sofie Van de Velde in Antwerp: 30.03.2017 – 21.05.2017.
With his mythical depictions of demons and fabulous creatures, the Austrian graphic artist and illustrator Alfred Kubin (1877-1959) was an early representative of surrealism. Like other followers of this early 20th century movement, he rejected purely rational behaviour and explored the depths of the unconscious instead. In 1909, he published his novel The Other Side, (Die andere Seite) a classic example of the fantastic genre that tells a cryptically absurd story of a dream kingdom in decline, replete with references to metaphysics and gnostic philosophy. Borrowing the novel’s title, the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum has put on an exhibition showing early works by Alfred Kubin alongside outstanding examples of contemporary art. The exhibition is designed in a way that aims to stimulate the imagination, and to highlight hints of surrealism in international contemporary artworks. With works by: Thomas Feuerstein, Alfred Kubin, Henrique Oliveira, Hans Op de Beeck, Markus Schinwald, Stéphane Thidet and others. Text in English and German.
Following 150 Bars, 150 Restaurants, 150 Hotels, 150 Houses and 150 Gardens, 150 Golf Courses You Need to Visit Before You Die is the newest addition to the successful 150 series. Here are the most beautiful golf courses in the world presented in a handy and handsomely illustrated guide. The golf courses bundled in this book are located all over the world and can be found along coastlines, in the mountains, in deserts, and along lakes, and they are all accessible to the public. “When great golf courses meet the world’s most stunning land forms, it makes for the most epic experience in the game.” – GolfPass
Since 150 Bars You Need to Visit Before You Die came out in 2018, more than 17,000 copies have been sold. Time for an updated version, with no less than 50 new bars. Discover which bars you must visit worldwide for their delicious cocktails, unique interiors or authentic atmosphere. Sommelier and spirits connoisseur Jurgen Lijcops once again takes you on a trip/bar crawl around the world and also gives you the best cocktail recipes en cours de route.
After 150 Bars, 150 Restaurants, 150 Hotels, 150 Houses, 150 Gardens and 150 Golf Courses, there is now 150 Vineyards You Need to Visit Before You Die. For wine lovers, both professionals and hobbyists, vineyards are must-see places. They are found in the most scenic regions in the world where you can wander for hours, or unexpectedly, right in the middle of the city. This beautifully illustrated book, the latest in the 150.. series, presents a carefully curated selection of the world’s most exceptional vineyards, from Japan to Argentina and South Africa to France. In this guide you’ll discover tips on how to visit the vineyards, along with interesting stories about each place, and – of course – where to taste wine. The perfect gift for the wine aficionado who dreams of travelling the world.