Rio de Janeiro is a wonderful city. Truly, its location on Guanabara Bay is breathtaking. This book takes you to 111 places that the locals love and find special. Meet an artist who paints like Van Gogh and is passionate about showing visitors around his district. Travel up to a little church at the summit of the city’s first favela, where a charming woman from northern Brazil keeps watch. See how 200,000 believers honour St George at four o’clock in the morning. Discover the strange, surprising and enchanting aspects of Rio de Janeiro, the world’s most beautiful city.
Afro Libio Basaldella (Udine, 1912-Zurich, 1976) was perhaps the most renowned member of the Friuli Avant-garde Movement, which influenced his approach towards a more Expressionist sense of painting that had always been based on traditional Venetian Colourism. In the 1940s, Afro joined the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti, and following a visit to the United States, he joined the Gruppo degli Otto, with whom he exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1952. Although in certain aspects his style seemed similar to American Action Painting, his harmonious tonal modulation and later research into abstract shapes and forms produced intellectually sophisticated results. This is the catalogue of the first French retrospective of the artist, held at the Tornabuoni Art Gallery in Paris, showing works ranging from the 1930s to the 1970.
Contents:
Preface by Philip Rylands;
Afro, his work by Philip Rylands;
Afro and the New York art scene by Barbara Drudi;
Letters and writings selected by Barbara Drudi;
Critical anthology selected by Philip Rylands;
The exposition of 1949 at the MoMA by Davide Colombo;
The Garden of Hope by Anne Monfort.
Founded probably in the 5th or 6th century, the Cathedral of Genoa was later rebuilt in Romanesque style and devoted to St. Lawrence the martyr. Money came from the successful enterprises of the Genoese fleets in the Crusades. After a fire in 1296, the building was partly restored, the inner colonnades rebuilt and matronei and frescoes added. In 1550 the Perugian architect Galeazzo Alessi was commissioned by the city magistrates to plan the reconstruction of the entire building, but the construction of the cathedral didn’t finish until the 17th century.
Among the artworks inside the church are ceiling frescoes, paintings and altarpieces by Luca Cambiaso, Federico Barocci, Lazzaro Tavarone and Gaetano Previati, while sculpture include works by Domenico Gagini, Andrea Sansovino, Giacomo and Guglielmo Della Porta. Impressive are also the works of art and silverware kept in the Museum of the Treasury which lies under the cathedral. One of the most important pieces is the Sacred bowl brought by Guglielmo Embriaco after the conquest of Cesarea and supposed to be the chalice used by Christ during the Last Supper.
Contributors include: Gianluca Ameri, Beatrice Astrua, Michele Bacci, Piero Boccardo, Antonella Capitanio, Marco Ciatti, Marco Collareta, Anna De Floriani, Clario Di Fabio, Grazia Di Natale, Gabriele Donati, Lucia Faedo, Marco Folin, Maria Flora Giubilei, Henrike Haug, Karin Kranhold, Anna Rosa Calderoni Masetti, Roberto Paolo Novello, Linda Pisani, Stefano Riccioni, Giorgio Rossini, Philippe Sénéchal, Carlo Tosco, Gerhard Wolf, Photographs by Ghigo Roli.
Text in English and Italian.
Today’s world is the product of the late middle ages. In what is now called ‘Flanders’, a new kind of man emerged. A practical man, an entrepreneur, a critical man who no longer believed what church and nobility tried to tell him. He discovers the world, creates, produces and innovates. In this book young researchers take us back to the middle ages. With attention for top works of art and unknown gems. This art book has a fresh academic point of view: the economical history of the middle ages from the viewpoint of different social groups, with surprising results on clichéd thoughts such as the passive countryside, the dark middle ages and the role of women in society.
This is the first title in a new prestigious cultural tourism project by Lannoo Publishers. The Peter Paul Rubens Atlas illustrates the life of Rubens on a timeline: important dates and periods in the life of the Old Master are indicated and elaborated on in the main part of the book through text, images and maps. One of those maps could, for example, show Peter Paul Rubens’ stay in Italy or his diplomatic journeys, but it could also take the reader on a city walk through Antwerp, visiting places that are linked to Rubens and his work. The maps are designed to reflect the age in which the artist lived. More than striving for artistic comprehensiveness in terms of art history, these atlases are intended to reflect the context in which the artists lived, worked and flourished. Just think of the artistic exchange between Italy and Flanders, the influence of the Catholic Church and the religious strife of the time, the role of art promoters, etc. It goes without saying that the atlases are richly adorned with the work of the artists. The main goal of the three books that will make up the series is to encourage and help readers to further discover and interpret the Old Masters’ work and the locations in which they lived.
The projects featured in Close to Home are within a 15-mile radius of where Louisville architect Michael Koch was born, raised, and has practiced for almost forty years. Educated at the University of Kentucky School of Architecture during the Dean Anthony Eardley era, where he was taught by Guillermo Julian de la Fuente, Peter Carl, Stephen Deger, Judith DeMaio, Clyde Carpenter, and Herb Greene, Koch has created a body of work in the Ohio River Valley that is site-specific and expressive, translating Kentucky’s regional idioms into a vibrant modernism. From airy houses that take advantage of Louisville’s Olmstead-designed parks and local materials, to structures that are strikingly adapted to the Ohio River floodplain, to church-inspired metropolitan projects, Koch’s buildings are a memorable part of the city’s landscape. Close to Home presents the award-winning achievements of his firm Michael Koch and Associates Architects, and introduces readers to the simple elegance of his designs and meaningful contributions he has made to the architecture of Kentucky.
Native Places is a collection of sixty-four watercolour sketches that are paired with mini-essays about architecture, landscape, everyday objects and nature. The sketches relate the delight found in ordinary places. The short essays, rather than repeat what is visible in the sketch, illustrate ideas and thoughts sparked by that image and offer a fresh interpretation of ordinary things. The goal of Native Places is, in part, to transform the way we see. Through its pages, barns become a guidebook to crops and weather; a country church is redolent of the struggle for civil rights and human dignity; a highway rest-stop offers a glimpse of egalitarian society. This book also explores the belief that hand drawing and writing are not obsolete skills. Both disciplines offer us as citizens, the opportunity to develop a natural grace in the way we view the world and take part in it.
Biographical information about Jan Vermeer is scarce. Little is known about his birth – he was baptized on 31 October 1632 in the protestant church in Delft – and training. When he died in 1676 – during a period of grave financial crisis in the country – he left his wife and children little money and numerous debts. His work, which fell into oblivion for nearly two centuries, was not rediscovered until the end of the nineteenth century. This triggered, among other things, a sizeable production of forged paintings that were considered to be authentic. This volume traces the profile of this enigmatic and original artist, following his story through the few extant established sources and offering a complete view of his work. His oil paintings, which often depict middle-class men and women intent on their work, captivate us still today with their masterful photographic rendering and the brilliance and quality of the colours used: in spite of its prohibitive cost, Vermeer never gave up his use of the ultramarine blue obtained from lapis lazuli, a pigment that conferred his paintings a tonality and purity that remain unmistakable.
More than four centuries ago, the small Republic of the United Netherlands embarked on an economic boom. Contacts were established with the four corners of the world. Many of these centuries-old relationships have left traces in museums and archives, in the open fields or in the city, in stories and in pictures. Footsteps and Fingerprints, the Legacy of a Shared History presents an image of the legacy the contacts between Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Russia, Sri Lanka, Surinam and South Africa have produced over the last 400 years. Various ‘top pieces’ and other remarkable items designated Mutual Cultural Heritage are described: from Vingboons’ View of Table Bay, Henkes Schnapps in Ghana to the Dutch Church in St Pertersburg.
“It amazes me that after all these years and countless books, the scope of subject matter on The Beatles is so amazingly large that writers always find a new angle. This book does that in a very unique and clever way. It’s a must for every Beatles fan.” —Billy J. Kramer
“…It’s a magical mystery tour through the band’s life and times.” —Yahoo Entertainment The It-List
“Part biography and part map to the stars, The Beatles: Fab Four Cities is your “Ticket to Ride” and walk in the footsteps of John, Paul, George and Ringo. It’s the next best thing to actually driving their car…”—Nina Violi, Capitol File. and Gotham magazine
“While the book can be used as a handy tour guide filled with addresses, maps and photos, it also makes for great reading.” —Steve Matteo, The Vinyl District
“But now comes a “magic carpet volume” for Beatles fans that blends travel guide with historical reference in an expanded study of The Beatles’ homes, schools, pubs, venues, and important historic sites…” —Jude Southerland Kessler, Culture Sonar
John Lennon said: “We were born in Liverpool, but we grew up in Hamburg.”
To paraphrase Lennon, we could say that: “The Beatles were born in Liverpool, grew up in Hamburg, reached maturity in London, and immortality in New York.”
Four cities. Four stars. The Fab Four – the Beatles – are revered the world over, but it is in these urban centres that their legacy shines brightest. Liverpool: where the band graduated from church halls, leaving their initial line-up as ‘The Quarrymen’ far behind. Hamburg: where their raucous stage act was honed; where arrests earned them a more notorious celebrity reputation, but they became a true emblem of rock ‘n’ roll. London: where The Beatles produced Sgt Pepper, and home to the iconic album cover for Abbey Road. And New York: the city that became John Lennon’s home, where their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show announced them to 73 million Americans.
The Beatles: Fab Four Cities invites the reader on a cosmopolitan trek across continents, tracing the Beatles’ rise to fame from one metropolis to the next. Flush with timelines, stories, trivia, the numerous links and connections between the cities and both pop cultural and local history, this is a travel guide like no other.
From 5th September until 1st March 2020 the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, in conjunction with the City of Antwerp, VisitFlanders and the Flemish Community, presents From Titian to Rubens: Masterpieces from Antwerp and other Flemish Collections, an exhibition curated by Ben Van Beneden, director of Rubenshuis in Antwerp. The magnificent Doge’s apartments have been transformed into veritable ‘constkamers’, rooms filled with exquisite art demonstrating the riches of Flemish collections. Featuring masterpieces by artists including Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Michiel Sweerts, the exhibition offers a dazzling array of works, and the finest group of Italian and Flemish art to come to Italy.
Three icons of Venetian painting return to their hometown of Venice: Titian’s Jacopo Pesaro presenting Saint Peter to Pope Alexander VI, the altarpiece of the former San Geminiano church, covered by the press worldwide as David Bowie’s Tintoretto, and Titian’s Portrait of a Lady and her Daughter
(thought to be a depiction of Titian’s mistress Milia and their daughter Emilia). These masterpieces from Flemish collections, both public and private, are rarely lent and some have never, until now, been shown in public.
From Titian to Rubens is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A special section of the exhibition is devoted to Flemish star composer Adriaan Willaert who settled permanently in ‘la Serenissima’ to become Maestro di Cappella of the Basilica di San Marco in 1527. It was Willaert who founded the celebrated Venetian School of music that was to instruct, among others, Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) moved from place to place from quite early on in his life, never staying in one spot for very long. In the Borinage distract of Belgium, he decided to devote himself to art. The photographer Karin Borghouts followed in Vincent’s footsteps, from his Dutch birthplace in Zundert to Auvers-sur-Oise in France where he took his own life. She has also reconstructed 25 of his still lifes and photographed them.
Text in English, French and Dutch.
This catalogue documents an exhibition of paintings by the Italian artist Roberto Fanari at the Studio Museo Francesco Messina in Milan. The central feature of the show is The Rediscovered Sky, a painting on canvas, 12 metres long and 6 metres wide, on two panels composed of 36 individual canvases and placed at a height of 12 metres. Other works shown on the ground floor are closely connected to the painted ceiling piece through their affinity or contrast. The centrality of nature in his work, and the link between art and nature, are evident in the way architectural elements of the surrounding space are incorporated into a seamless dialogue with the work. The artist, inspired by John Constable, has often focused on the subject of the sky and clouds, achieving an effect that evokes the dreamlike and visionary aspects of the imagination.
Text in English and Italian.
From the late 15th to the mid-16th century, an impressive corpus of architecture, sculpture, and painting was created to embellish monastic sites affiliated with the Benedictine Cassinese Congregation of Italy. A religious order of humanistically trained monks, the Cassinese engaged with the most eminent artists and architects of the early modern period, supporting the production of imagery and architecture that was often highly experimental in nature: from Raphael’s Sistine Madonna in Piacenza to Andrea Riccio’s Moses/Zeus Ammon, from Andrea Palladio’s church of San Giorgio Maggiore (Venice) to the superbly crafted choirstalls of San Severino and Sossio (Naples).
Applying a network framework to the congregation’s infrastructure of monasteries makes clear that the circulation of sophisticated Renaissance art and architecture constituted only a segment of the monks’ investment in the arts. Monks also served as custodians of an antique monumental heritage and popular votive images, assuring the survival of ancient buildings and artifacts of limited aesthetic value that supplied opportunities for early modern masters to confront an array of artworks for the reinvention of reformed Christian art and architecture.
Text in English, Italian and German.
Architecture Stuff
is about a way of looking at architecture. It examines 7 seminal projects and shows how they might have been conceived with or without the design architect’s awareness. More a working method than a theory, the book deals with questions pertinent to designers as well as to critics of buildings. More Stuff then illustrates how the same sensibility and working method can be used in the design of buildings as a tool for creating architecture.
The 7 buildings featured are chosen for their breadth of styles and approaches to architecture, demonstrating that this approach to architecture can be applied to any building. Presented in reverse chronological order, the first project, Grace Farms, is a building by SANAA. Noted for its meandering river form and minimalist detailing, it is seen to be – among other things – a juxtaposition of orthogonal and sinuous forms. The second project is Villa Dall Ava by Rem Koolhaas/OMA. Located in the suburbs, the house is a transition from city to country. The third project is the Neue Staatsgalerie by James Stirling. The analysis shows how the ‘bad boy’ of architecture subverts conventional architectural tropes. Robert Venturi’s Mother’s House is shown to be a compressed stately manor and an architect’s conceit. The Kimbell Art Museum by Louis Kahn can be understood as simple repetitive forms with elaborated elements that organize a diverse collection of spaces. Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre is much more than types of transparency and mechanisation. One of its major themes is the use of ‘L’ shaped spaces. Finally, St George’s Bloomsbury by Nicholas Hawksmoor is a parish church swallowed by a classical temple. The critique exposes how the architect used that idea to juxtapose the clerical and the civic to develop all of the details in the building.
These are not singular idea buildings and, as a way of seeing architecture, there are overlapping themes in this collection. The history of architecture of specific periods is a common theme, as is architecture’s stasis with spaces expanding or contracting. A dry sense of humour is always appreciated. What separates these buildings from any other building is the density of ideas presented.
More Stuff accounts for the same working methods as a way to make architecture. Here the author illustrates eleven projects across the span of his career. Though often done in collaboration with others, in all cases the author generated the design ideas. One of the key aspects of architecture stuff is that it is unpretentious and accessible and these projects are meant to illustrate that quality. Architecture can be serious and playful at the same time.
After having finished training in painting, ceramics and sculpture, Moniek Vanden Berghe focused on floral art. Her style is contemporary-modern. One of her main specialities is bridal work. With an eye for stunning detail, she designs, with great accuracy, bridal bouquets, floral purses, corsages, hair claps and tiaras… She also decorates the bridal table, the cars, the church and the bridesmaids in an elegant and harmonious way. This book offers ‘bridal ideas’ to florists and is an inspiration for anyone who’s soon to be married and wants to have a flourishing party. This is an excellent addition to Moniek’s first bestseller on the theme of love and marriage.
Text in English, French and Dutch.
Also available:Flowers in Love ISBN 9789058561619 £22.50 More than 25,000 copies sold! Wedding Emotions ISBN 9789058561756 £42.50Brides in Bloom ISBN 9789058561190 £42.50
Vasari famously wrote that Giotto “recovered the true method of painting, which had been lost for many years before him,” and indeed, he is traditionally considered a founder of the Italian Renaissance. Producing a series of commissioned works for the church and upper classes in his native Tuscany and surrounding regions, Giotto changed the course of European art by breaking away from the rigid, stereotyped figures of the Byzantine and medieval traditions. His innovation was to give his characters natural movement and expression. His great fresco cycles, such as the lives of the Virgin and Christ in the Scrovegni (or Arena) Chapel, Padua, are populated with realistic depictions of three-dimensional figures; secondary characters, both comic and tragic, display the range of the painter’s wit and invention. And Giotto’s treatment of perspective was just as revolutionary as his approach to the human form: the dramatic power of his scenes is heightened by the convincing illusionistic spaces in which he places them.In this authoritative survey of Giotto’s life and work, Francesca Flores d’Arcais draws on an impressive range of sources, from 14th-century documents to the most recent art-historical investigations. Her research leads her to important reattributions of Giottesque paintings and to new conclusions regarding the execution and dating of both famous and lesser-known works. In this second edition of her study, d’Arcais also discusses the earthquake of September 26, 1997, that damaged the frescoes of the Upper Basilica of San Francisco in Assisi, some of which are attributed to the young Giotto; she explains not only the extent of the damage, but also the art-historical insights that emerged from the subsequent restoration effort.
More than three hundred illustrations, most in full colour and some on double gatefold pages, reproduce all of Giotto’s important frescoes in exquisite detail, as well as his moving crucifixes and jewel-like polyptychs. These splendid images and d’Arcais’s insightful text, now, for the first time, in an affordable paperback edition, make this the definitive monograph on the greatest of trecento masters.
Chasing records through Europe: This book takes you to 111 truly unique and record-setting places in Europe. Dress warmly for the coldest music festival, where instruments are made of ice. Ride on the fastest roller coaster. And come with us to the highest church tower – it’s not in Rome or Cologne, but in … Well, do you know?
This book is your guide to the successful “Europe to the Maxx” series from the lifestyle and culture magazine “Euromaxx” by Deutsche Welle. All videos from the series can be called up using the QR codes in the book. For travel enthusiasts, fans of Europe, and everyone who likes to show off their knowledge of the unusual at parties. Record-breaking good!
This book guides even Mallorca connoisseurs to places that will amaze them. And it tells stories that hardly anyone has ever heard. You think you already know everything and then this picturesque island, and then you find it’s full of big and small surprises – 111 times!
Gracefully written and brilliantly illustrated, this handsome new volume captures the vision, the wit, and the down-to-earth inventiveness of one of the most influential and beloved architects of the early 20th century. Raised in Greenwich Village and trained in Paris, Maybeck spent most of his long career in northern California. An irrepressible bohemian with no desire to run a large office, he spent much of his time designing houses for friends and family, as well as for other patrons so loyal that they often hired him to design more than one house. Maybeck also created two of the most beautiful buildings in all of California: the exhilarating Church of Christ, Scientist, in Berkeley, and the gloriously romantic Palace of Fine Arts, in San Francisco. This incisive overview-the first to feature colour reproductions of Maybeck’s exquisite interiors and exteriors-analyses every aspect of his life and work. Not only his architecture but also his furniture, his lighting designs, and his innovations in fire-resistant construction are thoroughly discussed and illustrated. The book is also enlivened by documentary photographs, by clearly drawn plans, and by several of Maybeck’s dazzling, previously unpublished visionary drawings. Bernard Maybeck is a major study of an internationally significant architect whose environmentally responsive work has much to offer today’s designers and whose houses have given enormous pleasure to those fortunate enough to visit or dwell in them.
“This ‘Broken Fingaz’ art book is so pretty, it basically doubles up as decor.”—Amy Glover, BuzzFeed
Over the last two decades Broken Fingaz have won international acclaim, emerging as one of the most dynamic and popular street artists working today.
Emerging from the graffiti scene in Israel in the early 2000s, Broken Fingaz amassed a huge cult following internationally, appreciated for their “colourful and controversial” (BBC) art. Broken Fingaz’s instantly recognisable aesthetic blends high and low brow references, from 1980s punk and Neo-psychedelia to Modernist painting and Erotica.
Their D.I.Y collaborative approach — a rarity in today’s individualist, fast-paced culture — has enabled them to create highly ambitious works, in both scale and endeavour, all over the world: from monumental murals and installations, to intensely detailed, award-winning animations, textile works and paintings. They’re also known for the art they’ve created for some of the world’s leading musicians, including Pearl Jam, U2, Blink 182, Beck and more.
This book is their first monograph and is an unprecedented insight into the BF’s innovative and multilayered art practice, with never-seen-before works presented alongside some of their most iconic, as well as personal texts, documents and photographs by the artists reflecting on their journey to date.
The book is designed by celebrated Copenhagen-based studio Claus Due, with texts by Charlotte Jansen. This monograph is a must for anyone with an interest in contemporary art and design, street art, or Middle Eastern culture.