Rare Special Editions available from ACC Art Books –  More Information

In this book, photographer Henk van Cauwenbergh introduces us to the marvellous worlds of matador Jean-Baptiste Jalabert (France) and prima ballerina Francesca Docli (Italy). The public’s favourite ‘Juan Bautista’, born in Arles, France and ballet dancer Francesca Dolci, a flamboyant member of the Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, are the representatives par excellence of a world in which sports and art seamlessly melt together. Follow both top athletes/performers during their daily preparations, become a privileged witness to the particular rituals preceding each performance and be a spectator of a dazzling sham fight at the Mediterranean! Text in English, French and Dutch.

“… Van Belleghem always delivers. Most companies want to create a customer-centric culture, but many struggle, even though they are capable of doing so. This is what the author refers to as A Diamond in the Rough. In addition to clearly articulated concepts, there are more than 100 tips and examples to help you build a culture that gets and keeps customers.” — Forbes

This book shows you how to build a customer-oriented corporate culture. Turn your rough diamond into a beautiful shiny jewel. Many companies have the intention to be customer-oriented, but only a few succeed in making the customer really happy. The key to success is building a customer-centric culture: a culture where both leaders and employees of an organisation are aware of their role towards the customer at all times. In this book you will learn in very concrete steps and clear tips on how you can develop a customer-oriented corporate culture. Success or failure is often in details and in having the right attitude.

Jan De Maesschalck’s paintings represent a sharp view on topical subjects and the news. However, his clear observation of current events is depicted within an atmosphere of muse and memory. As such, his work represents an impression of melancholy and mockery, yet both in a mild form. According to De Maesschalck, melancholy leads to beauty. The tone set in the depiction of schadowy interiors and forlorn women is relativizing and even humorous. All works speak of a strong but indefinable desire. De Maesschalck’s metier reveals an extreme attention for detail. With technical precision, he prepares his paper and draws with paint. Utilising acrylic paint that dries immediately, De Maesschalck has to work fast. He is drawer and painter at once. Brushstrokes are visible, and hence his secure draughtsmanship contributes to the vibrant quality of the works.

Maps that Made History is like a 1000-year-long journey around the world; every one of the carefully selected maps featured here has influenced the course of history in some way. This beautifully illustrated book gathers 100 marvellous old maps, each with a fascinating story to tell, from a 12th century Persian world atlas to a Soviet spy map. These maps were used to resolve conflicts, situate battles, construct a road or a canal, establish important shipping routes, even as propaganda tools. All the maps are reproduced in an oversized format, while accompanying text from an experienced team of historians explains the importance of each one.

There are no rules, and even less justice. Death takes everyone without discrimination. Sometimes it is accidental – like Signorelli, who fell from scaffolding. Sometimes it is expected, as with the diabetic Cezanne, who wrote “I am old, sick, and I swore to die while painting”. But often, researching a painter’s death is an easier task than determining which of their works is truly their ‘last’. Paintings tend to be dated by year and not month, inciting much debate among art historians. This book embraces this ambiguity, studying 100 examples of works that lay completed for several years, or were left unfinished on the easel, or were finished post-mortem by a friend’s grieving hand.

The Last Painting collects 100 terminal paintings from 100 artists, including Dalí, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Goya, Pollock, Rembrandt, Dix, Bonnard, Titien, and many more. Each picture gives us a glimpse into the painter’s mind. Did they know death was coming? Did they paint with denial, or acceptance? Did they return to a favourite subject, or decide to embark on a new, original project while they still had time? A poetic and thought-provoking book, The Last Painting is a sensitive exploration of the relationship between art and death.

With the exception of Africa, the highest percentage of HIV infections are found in high-risk groups such as drugs users, prostitutes, the transgender community, gay men, street children or prisoners. They encounter more stigmatisation and discrimination than other groups, which makes it harder for aid to reach them. Writer Colet van der Ven and photographer Adriaan Backer travelled around the world to give these people a voice: women in patriarchal Tadzhikistan, victims of political violence in Kenya, black homosexuals in the deeply religious southern states of America, transgenders in India, (ex-)prisoners in South Africa and drug users in Myanmar. They also interviewed a representative of the first generation of AIDS patients in the Netherlands and a female refugee in the Ukraine.

In this ode to the charms of Paris and Parisian style, Belgian photographer Henk van Cauwenbergh captures the essence of the city’s most iconic venues and its perennially chic denizens. He seeks out the culinary hotspots of Paris and turns his camera on the places to see and be seen. Inspired by the microcosm of Saint-Germain, his Paris is imbued with the spirit of the places where people gather: the casual efficiency of waiters at Les Deux Magots and the Café de Flore, the boisterous atmosphere of Brasserie Lipp. Long influenced by urban and innate style of Serge Gainsbourg, Charles Aznavour, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau, van Cauwenbergh’s Paris is one of seduction and nonchalance, of beautiful women, and the heady emotions of first love.

In 2019, it will be 450 years since the death of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1526/28-1569). To mark this anniversary, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is organising the first ever retrospective of Bruegel’s work, while The World of Bruegel will be shown in the Bokrijk Open-Air Museum. The two institutions are joining forces to bring Bruegel’s masterpiece The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (1559) to life. An important key in this respect are the numerous everyday objects that are depicted in the painting. In collaboration with the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam) and the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), the props that Bruegel depicted have been examined and interpreted from a contemporary perspective. The authors allow the objects to speak for themselves, preceded by an introductory essay by curator Sabine Pénot of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Just as Bruegel’s paintings were ‘conversation pieces’ in their day, intended to trigger a discussion between guests during dinners, this book presents a three-way conversation about The Fight Between Carnival and Lent through Bruegel realia, in which art history (Katrien Lichtert), historical design (Alexandra van Dongen and Lucinda Timmermans) and literature (Abdelkader Benali) enter into a dialogue. In A Conversation Piece, the authors reveal the humour, symbolism, imagery and hidden stories behind the everyday objects in the painting. The exhibition Pieter Bruegel the Elder will run from 2 October 2018 to 13 January 2019 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and the exhibition The World of Bruegel will be on display in the Bokrijk Open-Air Museum from 6 April to 20 October 2019.

Who isn’t familiar with Claude Monet’s world-famous water lilies, his impressionistic bursts of colour on canvas in which water and air flow into one another? Over three decades, Monet painted the water lilies in his pond more than three hundred times. Today these garden paintings are regarded as his absolute masterpieces. The development of the artist’s work can be clearly discerned in the water lilies. In the earliest paintings he still adheres to conventional spatial boundaries, but his lily ponds evolve into increasingly limitless universes in which the subject is defined by light. Monet is one of the most influential artists of all time. His impact on art history is immense. Vincent van Gogh, but also abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, pop icon Andy Warhol and even the minimalists of the sixties, were heavily influenced by Monet’s play of colours and light, his formal language and his purified reinterpretation of the same subjects over and over again. The last large-scale Monet exhibition in the Netherlands was at the Van Gogh Museum in 1986, which is why Kunstmuseum Den Haag thought it was high time to celebrate the impressionist with another major exhibition this year. In Monet: Gardens of Imagination (12 October 2019 – 2 February 2020), the museum brings together no fewer than forty international masterpieces. This book is being published in connection with the exhibition and contains texts by Benno Tempel (director of Kunstmuseum Den Haag), Marianne Mathieu (director of the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris) and Frouke van Dijke (curator of nineteenth-century art at Kunstmuseum Den Haag).

Melle Smets and Joost van Onna took only twelve weeks to assemble Turtle 1, a car built entirely from recycled parts. Made in Africa, Turtle 1 is entirely suited to the local context, sufficiently sturdy to resist the climate and the road conditions, and easy to operate.This book is part of an extensive documentation of the project; this documentation spans several years and has used exhibitions, films and apps to tell the story of this great idea. The automobile industry is monopolised by multinational companies who care only for profit, and constantly seek to outbid each other by developing ever more sophisticated technology. The majority of people outside of the Western world have little access to this market. However, Turtle 1: Building a Car in Africa proves how people’s ingenuity can tackle any challenge. Dutch artist Melle Smets and sociologist Joost van Onna went to Suame Magazine in Ghana, one of the largest industrial areas in sub-Saharan Africa where some 200,000 people dismantle and repair cars and sell used spare parts. Their aim was not only to develop a totally new type of car but, more importantly, to boost autonomy and self-reliance in an attempt to be free from global economic interests. Within two years, the vehicle attracted much attention from the public and the media both in Africa and the Netherlands, prompting Smets and van Onna to create the conditions for producing the car on a small, local scale. The production, however, never took off as their Ghanaian partners had other intentions in spite of all success. While Smets and van Onna promoted their recycling model, the Africans had tragically begun to work on a luxury version of the car. A homage to a project that was never fully realised, this book is a succinct demonstration of humanity’s ability to overcome odds. Exhibition runs until 28 August 2016, Project Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been collecting Surrealist art since 1965. In something over half a century, what began with a single purchase has now grown into a world-class core collection with works by Dalí, Magritte, Man Ray, De Chirico, Ernst and many others. Surrealism, which started as a literary movement, is not a school, but rather a collective attitude or lifestyle in which automatism, chance and the subconscious are key. The museum’s collection includes paintings, sculptures, objects, drawings, prints and photographs – as well as a large number of Surrealist publications, magazines, manifestos and pamphlets. This dream collection has now been brought together in a catalogue raisonné for the first time.

The catalogue raisonné contains three introductory essays. Sandra Kisters, the current Head of the Collection and Research Department, provides an outline of the Surrealist movement. Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Saskia van Kampen-Prein, explains the acquisition history and establishment of the museum’s Surrealist art collection. Surrealism expert Laurens Vancrevel examines the museum’s unique, often neglected collection of Surrealist publications. The essays are followed by the catalogue, consisting of 108 short texts about the artworks. Most of the texts were written by Marijke Peyser, who was awarded her doctorate in 2008 with her dissertation on the Zodiaque, a circle of patrons around Salvador Dalí. The Duchamp texts are by Bert Jansen, who obtained his doctorate with his thesis on Marcel Duchamp in 2015.

Making cheese is an art, tasting cheese is a delight. Respect for craft, raw materials and animals are how quality raw milk cheeses obtain their full bodied flavours, rich in depth and complexity. For this book, cheese refiner Van Tricht and cheesemaker De Snijder went looking for the best raw milk cheeses. The result is a selection of sustainable top products that are entirely handmade and prepared the traditional way. Here, the authors talk about the people and the stories behind 20 international raw milk cheeses, while demonstrating their love for both the profession and the product.

“The new book features a ton of never-before-seen photos that expose the sheer variety, wonder, and beauty of these organisms that inhabit all the waters around us.” — Deeper Blue
Planktonium
is a photo project and a short film by Dutch photographer/cinematographer Jan van Ijken about the unseen world of living microscopic plankton. It is a voyage into a secret universe inhabited by alien-like creatures. These stunningly beautiful, extremely diverse, and numerous organisms are unknown to most of us because they are invisible to the naked eye. However, they are wandering beneath the surface in waters all around us and are of vital importance for all life on earth. Phytoplankton (small plant-like cells) produce half of all the oxygen on earth by photosynthesis, like plants and trees do on land. Zooplankton form the base of the food chain of aquatic life. Plankton also play an important part in the global carbon cycle. They are currently threatened by climate change, global warming and the acidification of the oceans. Jan van Ijken photographed the plankton through microscopes, revealing the beauty and delicate structures of these minute organisms in the finest detail.

Seventeeth-century Dutch art is famed throughout the world. Yet how ‘Dutch’ are those paintings in actual fact? Did the countless history pieces, landscapes, portraits, still lifes and scenes from everyday life truly originate in cities like Amsterdam, Haarlem, Delft and Leiden? Or might the cradle of these genres actually be located somewhere else?
This book presents over 90 masterpieces by Flemish and Dutch artists to show how 17th century Dutch painting could never have flourished the way it did without the foundations laid in 16th century Antwerp. Thoroughly researched, it tells the story of the talented and accomplished artists and merchants who migrated north in search of religious liberty and new commercial opportunities after Antwerp fell to Spanish Catholic troops in 1585.
With text contributions by Koenraad Jonckheere, professor of art history at Ghent University and author of the bestseller A New History of Western Art, Micha Leeflang, curator at the Museum Catharijneconvent, and Sven Van Dorst, head of the restoration studio at The Phoebus Foundation, and others.

“A breathtaking and emotive journey across our planet.”  Outdoor Photography

“van Oosten provides plenty of technical details and anecdotes about how he took his pictures, as well as explanations about the subjects they face.” – Nigel Atherton, Amateur Photographer

An elephant, a waterfall, a tree. For award-winning nature photographer Marsel van Oosten, simplicity is the ultimate form of expression. Through singular subjects and pared-down motifs, he captures the beauty, diversity, and vulnerability of the natural world. This visually stunning volume begins with photographs from Africa before moving through all the continents. The alternations between landscapes and close-ups, colour and black-and white photographs, create a stunning, emotive journey across the planet we call home.

Text in English and German.

‘What if Vincent van Gogh suddenly realises that he is… himself a sunflower? Or thinks he is?

This book recounts the story of this well-known Dutch artist who, standing in the midst of his overwhelming sensory world, becomes aware just how thin the line between reality and dream world is. Did he live and work on a narrow borderline between truth and fantasy? Did he enter a different, perhaps higher frequency? How did all the images and observations come into him so intensely, and then spill out again onto his canvases? And how did the artist, but also beloved son, brother,… and therefore perhaps sunflower, relate to the world and his immediate environment?

In this richly illustrated, poetic book, author Paul de Moor creates, in words and images, an immersive experience for children aged 10 and over into the world of Van Gogh. As a celebrated children’s author, De Moor has already introduced children and young people to the artistic universes of Roger Raveel, Francis Alÿs, Michaël Borremans, Luc Tuymans and Raoul De Keyser. And now also Van Gogh.

Ages 10 plus.

For family game nights, for long car rides or even just back-to-school trips, for potty talk or playtime with friends.
This box includes 100 dinosaur cards, each with a question and multiple-choice answers on one side, and the correct response on the other. Why did dinosaurs become extinct? Why were some dinosaurs so large? Why did tyrannosaurus have such short arms? Ages 5+

“The photography is stunning and the book gives a privileged insight into some of the most beautiful and stylish resorts. Highly Recommended! “Hot Brands Cool Places

There are few destinations more alluring than resorts. The combination of an evocative location, lavish rooms, exceptional service and architecture that’s designed to inspire, has long been irresistible to travellers. In the past decade, however, the global search for stylish getaways has become so intense that hospitality has now become the world’s fastest growing industry.

Few people understand the nature of resorts and the secrets of designing them more than the world-renowned architects and designers, Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (WATG), whose mission over the last six decades has been ‘to design experiences that lift the spirit’. Having created hundreds of exclusive destinations for well-known companies such as the Four Seasons, Sheraton and Hyatt, ranging from luxurious island resorts to exotic desert getaways, sophisticated urban hideaways, and cool mountaintop retreats, WATG has become a respected name in the area of resorts and hotels. Some of their extraordinary projects include the Hotel Bora Bora in French Polynesia, The Palace of the Lost City in South Africa, The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in California, and the Hyatt Regency in Kauai Resort & Spa in Hawaii.

This spectacular volume looks at these and other world-class destinations, and also takes you behind the foyers to explore the inspiration and ideas behind the designs, which often begin from a thought on a notepad. As well, it offers insightful interviews with those involved with the projects, explains how the vernacular architecture of the region can influence the end design, and even predicts what resorts may look like in the future.

The 500 Hidden Secrets of Rotterdam is a guide to the city’s hidden gems. It takes you off the beaten track to discover the city’s turbulent history, its modern architecture, its little-known museums, the best restaurants and the coolest clubs.
True locals Saskia Naafs & Guido van Eijck selected 500 addresses and facts about Rotterdam that few people know and presents them in lists of 5, alongside beautiful photographs. Guido and Saskia’s favourite addresses include a former harbour warehouse turned daily fresh market where you can sample a perfect locally roasted coffee or a homemade cider, a bright-red light-vessel ship where you can attend an intimate concert, or a former subtropical swimming paradise where you can grow your own oyster mushrooms.

The book is published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Damiani, a historic goldsmith company from Valenza (Alessandria – Italy), whose creations, appreciated all over the world, represent one of the excellences of Made in Italy.

To celebrate the anniversary, 100 masterpieces considered to be the summa of Damiani’s history are presented, taken from some famous jewellery lines: the Mimosa collection, representing the jewellers’ mastery; the Margherita collection, an expression of their creativity; Belle Epoque, a symbolic collection for the brand’s history; and the Fantasy Cut collection, whose precious gems are emblematic of the passion that animates the company.

At the heart of the book is the story of the Damiani family, which for three generations has been carrying on a unique craftsmanship tradition, deeply rooted in the values of Made in Italy and with a vocation open to the future. The book is enriched by a rich corpus of archive photographs – with shots of fashion shows, actresses, award ceremonies and special moments of success – and images of workmanship, from the choice of gems to the realisation of the jewellery, through to the centenary celebrations.

In five complementary contributions, recognised authors draw a fascinating and complex picture of contemporary jewellery in the twenty-first century. Through a rich palette of themes, works, reports and concepts from current art practices, they illuminate the conditions and interconnections of education, making, presentation, marketing and networking in design and art using the example of the New Zealand Handshake project. This book will enrich and bring pleasure to all who are interested in the visual arts in their broadest sense! Handshake is a unique mentoring programme in the art world, in which established artists spread their knowledge to less experienced protégés. The knowledge accumulated in this exchange, of a relationship based on feedback, is realised in exhibitions and joint projects. Exhibition at The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt (NZ), 5.8. to 3.12.2017. www.http://handshakeproject.com/ https://handshake3.com/

Young Rembrandt concentrates on the first ten years of the career of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). Born in Leiden, he trained there with Isaac van Swanenburg and in Amsterdam with Pieter Lastman. After a short stay in Amsterdam he returned to Leiden and set up a studio where he began his extraordinary career, painting scenes from the Bible and classical mythology and history, as well as a handful of genre scenes and portraits. His progress is remarkable: from the earliest hesitant paintings of the Five Senses in about 1624 to the wonderfully assured Jeremiah of 1630 it is almost possible to trace his development and his increasing fluency and self-confidence from month to month and certainly from year to year. Published to accompany exhibitions at the Lakenhal, Leiden from November 2019 to February 2020, then at the Ashmolean Museum from February to June 2020.

This book sets out in accessible, concise, practical manner the challenges faced by the corporate world and what solutions are available to management. The method described in this book is used by Zenit, a consultancy firm based in Belgium. Established in 1989 by Marcel Van der Avert, Zenit has an impressive list of clients, ranging from small and medium-sized companies to leading multinationals from wide-ranging sectors of trade and industry in Belgium and The Netherlands. Zenit’s mission is ‘coaching organisations towards better results by enhancing motivation, involvement, creativity and productivity.’ This instructive and interesting book creates an overview of the cooperation between managers and their team members and reflects on the successes the strategies have yielded.

Praise for Get Results:

“An exciting new genre to the business bookshelves – a business novel and a business workbook. Deep insights about how leaders create a results-oriented culture.” – Richard Barrett, author, consultant and managing partners of Richard Barrett & associates, USA.

“Marcel Van der Avert sets a guide and successfully coaxes the reader to enter into the essential work of laying good foundations for future business success. I recommend it.” – Mario Pretorius, CEO, The Masters Group. South Africa

“The world cries out for leaders with vision, inspiration and action. Easy to read, this book provides us with simple and effective methods of getting the results needed in any organization” – Lars Hasjlund, President JCI

Ham explores the world-renowned European ham culture; a fascinating journey from the Spanish Pata Negra to the French Jambon de Bayonne and from the Italian Prosciutto di Parma to the German Schwarzwaldschinken and the Flemish Gandaham. Stefaan Daeninck tells the full story from pig to ham, with meticulous attention to the specific production and maturation processes, as well as the differences in smell, texture, appearance and taste. What’s more, he provides the reader with several delicious recipes, specifically tailored to each kind of ham. Includes additional recipes by Massimo Bottura (chef patron of 3 Michelin starred Osteria Francescana and listed in the top 5 of the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards since 2010, winning the award in 2016) and Geert Van Hecke (chef of 3 Michelin starred De Karmeliet in Bruges).