The Victorian Era represents the cradle of our modern society – a time when social change and new technology heralded an industrialised economy. By the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, claims were proudly made of the progress since her accession to the throne. Steam ships had replaced sail, the railway system had superseded the stage coach, and the motor car had just begun to replace the horse. Not only did mass production create a new wealth of household products, ceramics, toys and games, but the arrival of cheaper printing and colour lithography made possible a profusion of printed material. The music sheets, colourful scraps, advertisements, greetings cards and children’s book illustrations that fill The Victorian Scrapbook – with such vigour – all give us an insight into the life and times of our forebears. Fortunately the thousand items gathered here have survived in remarkable condition, some by chance, others by having themselves been pasted down into contemporary scrapbooks. They all combine to celebrate a time when British ruled an Empire ‘on which the sun never sets’.

Modern Utopias is a reflection on the new semi-permanent exhibition at the Centre Pompidou Málaga which will be held until the end of 2018. This account of the great utopias of the 20th and 21st centuries will be told through the great works of art from the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Thematic, multimedia, and chronological, it consists of six extensive chapters: “The Great Utopia”, “The End of Hopes”, “Ensemble”, “The Radiant City”, “Imagining the Future”, and “The Golden Age”. The selected works speak about the historic events that have marked our time and have fed and nurtured the imaginations and ideals of modern and contemporary artists. Text in English and Spanish.

The Jürgensen Dynasty represents four generations of extraordinary watchmakers working in two countries: Denmark and Switzerland. Urban Jürgensen (1776-1830) is perhaps the most renowned member of the family. He was among the most innovative personalities of the Danish Golden Age and internationally one of the most prominent watchmakers of his time. His contributions to the development of horology were significant and he was one of the first watchmakers and inventors to be recognised by the scientific establishment with his innovations in technology and science earning him a place in the Royal Danish Academy of science. In this manner, the book presents a broader cultural aspect of Danish history than the title at first suggests. It is a document of the art of watchmaking, as it is still exercised by the continuing production of Urban Jürgensen & Sønner timepieces today. Contents: The founding Father: Jürgen Jürgensen; Urban Jürgensen 2nd generation; Urban Jürgensen’s timekeepers and instruments; Jules I and Louis Urban Jürgensen the 3rd generation; Jules II and Jacques Alfred Jürgensen the 4th generation; Urban Jürgensen & Sønner today.

The Rococo style dominated the 18th century from the Régence (1715-1723) until the end of the reign of King Louis XV (1774). Despite its many achievements, people frequently describe it with adjectives meant to be disparaging: cloying, lovely, kitschy etc. However, its triumphant progress, which took off in France and spread all over Europe, as well as the coincidence in time and the relationship between the Rococo and the enlightenment can still be traced in contemporary art.

For the first time ever, this book extensively examines the enduring impact of this major European style on contemporary art. But the Rococo was far more than just a form of art, its ideas permeated all areas of society. Therefore, the selection of contemporary approaches presented here does not only show a formal connection with the Rococo period, it also reveals thematic similarities. In addition, it explores the current relevance of the style as a symbol of our own hyped up and disoriented age.

With works by Leonor Antunes, Cornelia Badelita, Karla Black, Thierry Boutemy, Glenn Brown, Alice Channer, Edith Dekyndt, Anke Eilergerhard, Katharina Grosse, Jeppe Hein, Rachel Kneebone, Alexej Koschkarow, Anri Sala, Markus Schinwald, Anj Smith and Pia Stadtbäumer.

Text in English and German.

At the age of 81, Yvon Lambert is one of the most influential collectors of our time. He was only 14 years old when he used his pocket money to buy his first work of art. In 1966, he opened his own gallery in Paris, which soon became a top venue for contemporary art. It was Lambert who introduced the minimal art, land art and conceptual art movements to a wider European audience at a time when they were still relatively new. Besides his work as an art dealer, Lambert has spent the past fifty years creating one of the most prominent collections of contemporary art. In 2011, he donated more than 600 of his works to the French state, which are now on display in a specially dedicated museum in Avignon. In the context of the art project Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017, the Pablo Picasso Art Museum in Münster brings the Lambert Collection to Germany for the first time. In particular, the exhibition features works of artists who have been part of the Skulptur Projekte programme since its early years. Some of their works include installations that still exist in the city today. Text in English and German.

In 2008, a discovery was made that brought the works of Marie Goslich to light. Part of her estate, long thought to have been lost, was rediscovered in a guesthouse in Geltow at the Schwielowsee lake. Some 400 glass plate negatives exist today, survivors of the chaos of both world wars. This book makes Goslich’s photos available to the public 100 years after their capture, celebrating her as a bold pioneer and a grande dame of German photojournalism and social critique. Born in Frankfurt (Oder) in 1859, Marie Goslich tried her hand at various things before beginning to work as a journalist and editor. Cited in Berlin’s residents register, these professional titles alone were remarkable for a woman of her time. To cap it all, she began training as a photographer at the age of 44 in order to be able to provide her articles with pictures. As a result, she is one of the first professional female photographers in the world. With social injustice being her main concern, Goslich wrote and illustrated many articles, some of which were quite radical, to address the causes of suffering and misery. Again and again, her works denounce the gap between rich and poor. They portray travelling people, street vendors, beggars, ragmen and tinkers. All of her pictures betray her empathy towards her subjects, giving her photos a very intimate and rousing effect. Text in English and German.

Upon the discovery of Tanzanite in Tanzania a specimen was entrusted to the stonecutter Manuel de Souza, who shared some samples with distinguished gemologists. While the prospector thought that he had found some sapphires, he was astonished to learn that he had unearthed something altogether extraordinary. The new gem immediately caught the eye of Tiffany & Co. Since 1968, the New York-based jeweller has pushed the stone into the spotlight. It launched a campaign that was successful enough to earn tanzanite the noble title of ‘gem of the 20th century’. Tanzanite gained further renown when in 2002 the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) named tanzanite, together with turquoise, the birthstones for December. Tanzanite’s transformations have ultimately placed it alongside the most precious of precious gems. In short, tanzanite’s age of glory has finally dawned. Needless to say, tanzanite’s allure has attracted the attention of a list of famous designers: Lorenz Bäumer (France), Ruth Grieco (Brazil), Catherine Sauvage (Germany), MVee (Hong Kong) and TTF (China). In Asia and elsewhere, tanzanite is seen as the source of happiness for the happy few. Tanzanite: Born from Lightning showcases hundreds of beautiful pieces of tanzanite jewellery, including superb creations made by Boucheron, Bulgari, Cartier, Chanel, Chaumet, Chopard, Dior, Boucheron, Louis Vuitton, Piaget, Van Cleef & Arpels, Wallace Chan and more.

Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850-1950 portrays the history of romantic love between men in hundreds of moving and tender vernacular photographs taken between the years 1850 and 1950. This visual narrative of astonishing sensitivity brings to light an until-now-unpublished collection of hundreds of snapshots, portraits, and group photos taken in the most varied of contexts, both private and public.

Taken when male partnerships were often illegal, the photos here were found at flea markets, in shoe boxes, family archives, old suitcases, and later online and at auctions. The collection now includes photos from all over the world: Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Japan, Greece, Latvia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Serbia. The subjects were identified as couples by that unmistakable look in the eyes of two people in love – impossible to manufacture or hide. They were also recognised by body language – evidence as subtle as one hand barely grazing another – and by inscriptions, often coded.

Included here are ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tin types, cabinet cards, photo postcards, photo strips, photomatics, and snapshots – over 100 years of social history and the development of photography.

Loving will be produced to the highest standards in illustrated book publishing, The photographs – many fragile from age or handling – have been digitised using a technology derived from that used on surveillance satellites and available in only five places around the world. Paper and other materials are among the best available. And Loving will be manufactured at one of the world’s elite printers. Loving, the book, will be up to the measure of its message in every way.

In these delight-filled pages, couples in love tell their own story for the first time at a time when joy and hope – indeed human connectivity – are crucial lifelines to our better selves. Universal in reach and overwhelming in impact, Loving speaks to our spirit and resilience, our capacity for bliss, and our longing for the shared truths of love.

This is not another treatise on the heroic nature of the Jeffersonian imagination. Rather, it offers another reading generated by Joseph Campbell’s reluctant hero in The Hero of A Thousand Faces as offered by Jeffrey Hildner in his prescient Epilogue Labyrinth R.U.N. It is rather weaving fictions, constructing dialogues, (Rashomon) again and again on Jefferson as boy/man, as adolescent, as dreamer and instrumental explorer of here and there, close at hand and worlds long, long ago and far, far away. This is a collection of meanders, speculations, fog-bound as well as iridescent.

The fact may be that Jefferson was a farmer and politician, but highlighted here was that at thirteen he was an adolescent first, orphaned sooner than later as was common at the edge of the Arcadian Wild, as were Romulus and Remus, but custodian of terrains, knowledge and human energy. He was a Surveyor, Nomad and given his penchant for oculi and mirrors, a certifiable Lunatic.

This is a book on American Pragmaticism and self-evident truths in a new culture of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness rooted in the promise of Eden and the enduring resistance of Jerusalem, articulated by William McClung in The Literary Legacy of An Architecture of Paradise. We aligned ourselves with contemporary philosophical debates benchmarked by Andre Gide and Bruno Latour which posit that previously called Ancient if not Archaic belief systems might hold self-evident truths coincidental with contemporary survival systems of sustainability once called common sense, grounded in the recurrent dualities of Architecture.

This is a philosophical work framed on epistemological and ethical questions, sustained by Joseph Campbell in The Hero of a Thousand Faces. It also seeks to identify the contemporary vitality of American cultural history and contemporary topographic landscapes.

Translations examines the architecture and artwork of Sigrid Miller Pollin. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a professor of architecture at the University of Massachusetts, Miller Pollin has created a rich body of work, from residential and academic buildings to furniture and artwork inspired by the natural world. Her design sense and deep understanding of space and colour combine to present an oeuvre worthy of study. As a book about a practicing female architect who has successfully woven family, work, and art into a creative life, it offers inspiration, anecdotes and examples for women entering the professional world of architecture.

The Soviet Union has left a vast heritage in interior design that is largely unknown in the West. Other than architecture and graphic or product design, interior design from the Soviet era has not yet been thoroughly investigated. For the first time ever, this book offers a comprehensive survey of the country’s interior design culture between revolutionary avant-garde and late Soviet modernism. Drawing on archives that were inaccessible until recently and featuring a wealth of previously unpublished material, it documents the achievements of seven decades in the former socialist empire.

Soviet design is often discredited as massive, non-ergonomic and monotonous. Yet a remarkable variety of original styles have emerged behind the iron curtain. The 1920s were marked by bold exploration and experiments at Vkhutemas and by constructivism, rationalism, and suprematism. Early in Stalin’s reign constructivism was heavily criticised and post-constructivism and Soviet neo-classicism appeared alongside what became known as ‘agitational furniture’, inspired by the regime’s propaganda. The 1930s brought Soviet Art Deco and eventually Stalinist Empire, which has produced some of the Soviet Union’s most iconic buildings. In the late 1950s, after Stalin’s death, the last Soviet ‘big style’ originated modernist and functionalist furniture, mass-produced to fit the small apartments in the Khrushchyovka multi-unit housing developments that were built in cities on a large scale. The 1960s mark the Golden Age of Soviet interior design, showing again influences by the early Soviet Avant-Garde and the Bauhaus, while most of the visionary work of a new generation of designers in the 1970s and 1980s remained unrealised.

Richard Manion Architecture creates distinctive residences and estates with a respect for traditional forms and historic imagery adapted to modern living. The curated selection of rarely published projects in this second volume of RMA’s work, Streamlined, demonstrates the firm’s signature classicist style, which draws upon traditional and streamlined classical, regional, and contemporary influences to reflect authentic details, proportions, and a sophisticated sense of place for the 21st century.

In this book, the firm’s focus is on the integration of modernism within an overall framework of simplicity and restraint, discretion and harmony. Academic studies of European modernism, with its visionary approach and embodiment of the machine age, have come back to inspire, but with the understanding that many of its roots can be traced back to the heritage of classical design principles. This exquisite, fully illustrated volume showcases RMA’s goal to unite ideas about tradition, history, and modernity in a synergy and explores the meaning of shared architectural imagery and heritage for our time.