Caroline Broadhead (b. 1950) is a highly versatile artist who started in jewellery in the late 1970s. Since then she has extended her practice from “wearable objects” and textile works to dance collaborations and installations in historic buildings. Broadhead’s work is concerned with the boundaries of an individual and the interface of inside and outside, public and private, including a sense of territory and personal space, presence and absence and a balance between substance and image. It has explored outer extents of the body as seen through light, shadows, reflections and movement.

Published to accompany the Exhibition at CODA Museum Apeldoorn (NL), 4 February – 15 April 2018 and the Exhibition at Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, London, 11 January – 2 February 2019.

The 300 works of the Lotte Reimers Foundation showcase the wide spectrum and the diversity of modern ceramic art. The works by 115 international artists, from classical vessels to free sculpture, are to now permanently move to Friedenstein Castle in Gotha, giving rise to this comprehensive publication. As a former gallerist and museum director as well as passionate ceramicist, Lotte Reimers is profoundly grounded in the material and with her unmistakeable flair has compiled this collection, which will now remain within the museum. Her engagement and life-long fostering of ceramic art makes her one of the most significant personalities in the European ceramic scene.

Text in English and German.

From sumptuously embellished glass vessels by Emile Gallé, Daum Frères and Louis Comfort Tiffany, subtly decorated pieces of the famous porcelain manufactories in Rozenburg, Copenhagen, Nymphenburg and Meissen, hair pins richly adorned with blossoms and other extravagant jewellery pieces by the Parisian jeweller René Lalique to individually designed furniture by August Endell, Richard Riemerschmid and Henry van de Velde. The visitor to the collection of the Bayerisches National Museum in Munich has the pleasure of strolling through the fascinating, diverse collection of Art Nouveau pieces. These works comprise one of the most outstanding collections in a German museum that contains works in the artistic style of around 1900. The core consists of the collections, acquired by the Munich museum in 1983, assembled with the great expertise of Professor Siegfried Wichmann and Duke Franz von Bayern. From the more than 500 individual items, this richly illustrated publication presents 150 of the most beautiful and important works accompanied by insightful texts and magnificent reproductions.

Text in German.

Daniel Kruger (b. 1951), widely known as a jewellery artist, presents an overview of his ceramic works, featuring 230 pieces created over twenty years. Classic examples – tulip and lidded vases, delftware and dinner services – are familiar references, which Kruger decorates with images of footballers, homoerotic nudes or casts of twigs or bones. Worlds collide, revealing our preconceptions regarding conventions that provide a manipulated view of reality. There is less interest in the spectacular; Kruger’s choice of images however, leads to unexpected, provocative combinations of form with decoration. In a continual process of artistic acquisition, new interpretation and appropriation, Kruger explores the interstice between historical archetypes and kitsch within European ceramic history.

Text in English and German.

On Jewellery offers a comprehensive overview of the trends and role of contemporary international jewellery art from the 1960s to today, shown within the context of corresponding trends in art and society. This publication is dedicated to themes such as interdisciplinary collaboration, new means of presentation and contextualisation. It also incorporates photography and the relationships between jewellery and the body, jewellery and ornament and new interpretations of traditional technical skills. Furthermore it considers aspects such as terminology and strategies, positioning, prejudices and the significance of content with regard to jewellery. On this basis this publication offers a synopsis of what jewellery art is and what it can be. Its aim is to reveal the characteristics, language and potential of jewellery. A bibliography of the most important works of jewellery art, a directory of jewellery galleries, museums and educational institutions make On Jewellery a compact handbook of contemporary jewellery art. Artists featured include Pia Aleborg, Gijs Bakker, Melanie Bielenker, Manfred Bischoff, Helen Britton, Paul Derrez, Iris Eichenberg, Warwick Freeman, Otto Künzli, Daniel Kruger, Yuka Oyama, Robert Smit, Annamaria Zanella and Christoph Zellweger. Contents: Beyond the Showcase; Conceptual Jewellery; Jewellery and Photography; Reading Jewellery; Borderline Jewellery; Jewellery and the Body; Jewellery and Ornament; Jewellery and the Goldsmith’s Skill; The Language of Jewellery; Documentation: Manifests.

Vessel | Sculpture refers to the direction studio pottery has taken since the mid-20th century, developing from primarily functional vessels to artistically designed vessels, ceramic sculpture, installation and conceptual art. The aim is to trace the history of how ceramics has evolved and developed into an autonomous art medium, which is continually self-renewing. Focused on the GRASSI Museum’s collection of contemporary ceramic work since 1946 when Germany was divided into East and West after the World War II, this book provides a fascinating and instructive overview of developments and trends in the two Germanys. Moreover, a broad-ranging selection of works by ceramicists now active in both the new and the old Federal German states is supplemented by contemporary pieces from all over the world. The publication is devoted to one-off pieces and limited editions from the past six decades. Reproductions in large formats of approximately four hundred selected objects are accompanied by biographies of as many artists and their signatures. Text in English & German. Artists include: Gordon Baldwin, Richard Bampi, Hedwig Bollhagen, Jan Bontjes van Beek, Hans Cooper, Dieter Crumbiegel, Anne Currier, Ruth Duckworth, Karl Fulle, Walter Gebauer, Ewen Henderson, Gerd Knäpper, Maria Teresa Kuczynska, Beate Kuhn, Bernard Leach, Heidi Manthey, Sonngard Marcks, Gertraud Möhwald, Colin Pearson, Walter Popp, Gilbert Portanier, Renée Reichenbach, Lucie Rie, Antje Scharfe, Karl Scheid, Ursula Scheid, Tatsuzo Shimaoka, Alev Siesbye, Bärbel Thoelke, Jindra Viková, and many more.

With her unmistakable signature and exuberant imagination, Beate Kuhn (1927-2015) is one of the most significant German ceramicists of the post-war era. She turned to the liberal arts as early as the end of the 1950s. In linking sculptural reasoning with the possibilities of the material and inherent pottery techniques, the internationally renowned artist conquered the frontiers of ceramics and created virtuosic works that went on to form their own contribution to the history of modern sculpture.

With around 190 works from all her periods of creativity, the Mannheim architect Klaus Freiberger was able to compile a collection unmatched anywhere else in the world. In honour of its foundation at the Neue Sammlung, the impressive oeuvre of Beate Kuhn is now being presented for the first time in this comprehensive publication.

This book accompanies an exhibition at Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, Munich (DE), 13.7.-19.11.2017.

Text in English and German.

The Ashmolean Museum holds a world-class collection of over 200 prints made by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669). Widely hailed as the greatest painter of the Dutch Golden Age, Rembrandt was also one of the most innovative and experimental printmakers of the seventeenth century. Rembrandt was extraordinary in creating prints not merely as multiples to be distributed but also as artistic expressions by using the etching printmaking technique for the sketchy compositions so typical of him. Almost drawing-like in appearance, these images were created by combining spontaneous lines with his remarkable sense for detail.

Rembrandt was a keen observer and this clearly shows in his choice of subjects for his etchings: intense self-portraits with their penetrating gaze; atmospheric views of the Dutch countryside; lifelike beggars seen in the streets of his native Leiden; intimate family portraits as well as portrayals of his wealthy friends in Amsterdam; and biblical stories illustrated with numerous figures. This book presents Rembrandt as an unrivalled storyteller through a selection of over 70 prints from the Ashmolean collection through a variety of subjects ranging from 1630 until the late 1650s.

The Active House B10 is situated in the heart of the famous Weissenhof estate in Stuttgart. It is a research project exploring how innovative materials, constructions and technologies can sustainably improve our built environment. Owing to an ingenious energy concept and self-learning home automation the building produces twice its energy requirement. The surplus thus gained powers two electric cars and an adjacent building designed by the architect Le Corbusier (home to the Weissenhof museum since 2006). Prof. Werner Sobek is the founder of a globally active association of planning agencies for architecture, support structure planning, facade planning, sustainability consulting and design. Based on award-winning experimental buildings such as R128, H16, F87 and now B10 he analyses how new materials, structures and technologies can radically change our built environment.

Text in English and German.

Also available: Residentials by Werner Sobek ISBN: 9783899862355 Werner Sobek: Light Works ISBN: 9783899862218

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) is the most important painter of sketches in the history of European art. His Italian and Flemish predecessors had for the most part prepared their paintings by using drawings. Rubens transformed this process by systematically making sketches in colour, with oil paint, and nearly always on panel supports. Rubens’s oil sketches were essentially a new form of painting. They brought together the design and colour stages of preliminary work. Because their purpose was to advance another work of art, oil sketches demanded less effort and time than the final products, and this translated into a less polished finish and smaller size. Rubens’s sketches invite us to indulge in his art. They are powerful, vivid renditions of a variety of themes, from ancient history and mythology to religion, still life and portraits. They combine seriousness of purpose and a zest for life, transmitted through a masterly lightness of touch. Their small size and appearance of incompleteness draw us in and entice us to look closely. Their sheer quality is a great source of pleasure and learning. This catalogue presents detailed studies and superb illustrations of eighty-two of Rubens’s most eloquent oil sketches, and two essays explaining the historical context from which they emerged, their salient features and how they were viewed by contemporaries.

The book features Laura Anderson Barbata’s iconic work with stilt dancers Moko Jumbies and Zancudos for whom she creates, in collaboration with community members and traditional artisans, costumes and wearable sculptures. The resulting works challenge the notions of collaborative community art, public art, performance, sculpture and tradition. Transcommunality examines the beginning of the project in Trinidad and Tobago, and highlights the way Anderson Barbata has integrated into her work The Brooklyn Jumbies, a group of stilt dancers from the West Indies and West Africa living in Brooklyn and more recently collaborating with Los Zancudos de Zaachila from Oaxaca, Mexico. By uniting these two living traditions and working alongside them, Anderson Barbata bridges continents, cultures and communities creating astonishing work that melds contemporary art and cultural heritage practices. A related exhibition, ‘Carnival and Masqerades in a Worldwide Perspective’, will be held at the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen and Afrika Museum in The Netherlands, November 2016-April 2017.

M is the new museum in Louvain, Belgium; a new building and a new concept. It will house early and modern art inspired by the city’s diversity: Leuven the historical city of art, Leuven the innovative knowledge base.

On September 20th 2009 M will take possession of a complex designed by architect Stéphane Beel. It will be the city’s largest cultural institution and an important new landmark. M will open in 2009 with a remodelled permanent collection and exhibitions of work by Rogier van der Weyden and Jan Vercruysse.

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.

The Fondation Baur, Musée des Arts d Extrême-Orient, Geneva, Switzerland, houses one of the most important collections of Asian art in the world: some 9,000 works from China and Japan. This new book celebrates the 50th anniversary of the museum and the 150th birthday of Alfred Baur (1865-1951), whose collections are housed in the museum’s elegant nineteenth-century townhouse. Lavishly illustrated with stunning new photographs, most full page, the book showcases the diversity and quality of Baur’s collections, which span netsuke, lacquerware, saber fittings, prints, jades, imperial ceramics, textiles, and much more. Precious Japanese objects, meticulously worked and technically perfect, reveal the outstanding skills of Japanese craftsmen; the simplicity of the forms of Chinese monochrome ceramics displays the contemporaneity of the visionary master ceramists of the Song dynasty.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it was fashionable to collect ‘curios’, objects so named because they aroused ‘curiosity’. Imaginatively decorated and made from different materials, some of which are still underappreciated, these exotic objects from China and Japan fascinated Westerners. They stimulated a fad for Asia, captivated art lovers, and had a profound influence on the graphic arts in Europe. This beguiling period kindled a passion for collecting in Alfred Baur (1865-1951) and for creation in Alfred Cartier (1841-1925) and his three sons, Louis (1875-1942), Pierre (1878-1964), and Jacques (1884-1941). While the pieces fashioned in Asian style by the Maison Cartier are generally known, their historical and cultural context is not, thus the idea arose of bringing these fine creations together with the collections of the Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, based in Geneva. As one leafs through the pages, Asia Imagined slowly becomes apparent, like a treasure hunt. Diamond-studded pagodas and pavilions, busy scholars beneath the starry sky, nacreous moonlight scenes, shimmering phoenixes, jade dragons, and multi-coloured cherry blossom-like gems depict an imaginary land. The Cartier magic has its effect. Side-by-side with the creations of the Parisian jeweller, the imperial porcelains, lacquerware embellished with precious metals, embroidered silks, jades, coloured enamels, netsuke, sword hilts, and prints belonging to the Baur Foundation give their version of the marvels of China and Japan and install a unique dialogue, offering an exceptional opportunity to view two of the world’s most outstanding collections.

Letters, manuscripts, drawings and ancient books… many are unique documents that offer us a closer look at the men and women who have made history. These written treasures of cultural heritage and social history, patiently collected by the team of the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts in Brussels, are the very source material for historians and researchers, and often constitute the only link between the world of the remote past and the present time. Anthology, which was conceived to preserve and publicise what amounts to an exceptional overview of history, presents 120 documents signed by some of the most famous historical figures (Alexander III, Charles V, Louis XIV), statesmen (De Gaulle, Eisenhower, Leopold I), authors (Voltaire, Dickens, Hugo Claus ), scientists (Vesalius, Marie Curie, Einstein), artists (Delacroix, Van Gogh, Magritte) and musicians (Mozart, Strauss, De Greef).

Drawing on their own wide-ranging experience, the authors offer useful tips and tricks that will help you score with the audience, and provide solutions for every possible presentation problem. Too introverted? Complex themes? Paralysed by stress? This book shows that giving a presentation doesn’t need to be an ordeal. You will learn how to keep your audience’s attention to achieve the results you want and will also be shown a number of classic and instantly recognisable examples of bad presentations, so that you can immediately see how not to do it!

In her specific and appealing style, Sanny Winters describes the city of Ghent by means of beautiful graphic designs. Original and imaginative, the buildings, historic events and famous places of Ghent are transformed in a funny and intelligent way. A fascinating graphic exploration of a beautiful city. Text in English, French, German and Dutch. Also available by Sanny Winters in the Xtra Bold series: Belgium Xtra Bold ISBN 9789401416108

Kairos Castle is a book on ‘the opportune moment’, with Dutch philosopher and author Joke Hermsen as curator. We know Chronos as the Greek god of time. But who also knows his grandson Kairos, the god of ‘the opportune moment’, who provides unexpected insights and offers new opportunities? He interrupts measurable time and represents all those inspired moments of beauty and vigour that make life intense. If Kronos is the time that we have, Kairos is the time that we are. With this book, Joke Hermsen reveals a place where this other time is experienced. Together with a team of artists she sets out in search of traces of the inspiring ‘Kairos time’. With word and image, sound and colour she is seeking for muted time, for reflection, inspiration and movement. This is a collaborative project involving a multitude of artists, among them Maarten Baas, Peter Bogers, Mynke Buskens, David Claerbout, Alexandra Cool, Annabelle Daou, Mariska de Groot, Jaap de Jonge, Eric de Nie, Nicolas de Staël, Gilbert Garcin, Antony Gormley, Suzanna Hertrich, Jay Mark Johnson, Dani Karavan, Evi Keller, Olga Kisseleva, Jorge Macchi, George Meertens, Corinne Mercadier, Sofie Muller, Hans Op de Beeck, Thierry Pecastaing, André Pielage, Quayola, Pipilotti Rist, Georgia Russell, Susumu Shingu, Berndnaut Smilde, Martijn Veldhoen, Antonella Zazzera …

The bamboo: tall, strong and flexible. This fast-growing shoot has been used as a construction material, a foodstuff and fuel for millennia, from India to Japan. Tanabe Chikuunsai IV’s art elevates bamboo to new heights. By weaving together small pieces of fibrous stalk, he creates vast, detailed sculptures without the use of rivets or adhesives. Under Chikuunsai IV’s skilled craftsmanship, bamboo is more than a functional tool: it is modern art, a unifying symbol of Japanese culture. His sculptures revere traditional workmanship, while conveying important contemporary messages – the codependence of nature and man, and the importance of protecting our environment.

Part autobiography, part introduction to the craft, this monograph follows Chikuunsai IV’s growth from a child marvelling at his grandfather’s mastery of bamboo, to a maestro in his own right. Bamboo weaves his past to his present, providing a sturdy foundation on which his art continues to build.

“Love bamboos, live with bamboos,” says Chikuunsai IV. As this book demonstrates, he has done precisely that.