With passion and expert insight, Frank Nievergelt compiled an impressive collection over forty-five years of more than 900 pieces of contemporary ceramics, ranging from vessels and sculptures via display pieces to monumental works. Over one hundred leading figures of the international ceramic scene from 1970 to 2015 are represented in the collection, the emphasis of which is on newer objects. In this publication, the most significant pieces of this renowned collection are presented in a selection of forty-one artists, hence impressively highlighting the unaffected beauty and diversity of contemporary ceramic art. Moreover, Nievergelt introduces the artists individually, enhanced with reflections from Anne-Claire Schumacher (curator of the Musée Ariana) and Prof. Volker Ellwanger. The catalogue documents the latest inventory of the Musée Ariana in Geneva. Text in German and French.
Du Paquier, an independently operating Viennese porcelain factory, was established in 1718, only eight years after Meissen. Although its heyday was brief, lasting only twenty-five years, Du Paquier produced porcelain of great beauty, notable for an enchantingly graceful style and consummate sophistication of execution. In three sumptuously illustrated volumes, scholars of international standing present the distinctive style and the exciting history of Du Paquier porcelain in the context of Baroque Vienna. The first comprehensive publication on this important porcelain factory, this work has been made possible through a five-year research programme conducted by the Melinda and Paul Sullivan Foundation for the Decorative Arts. The objects shown, many of them for the first time here, are in major public and private collections. The first volume deals with the historical and stylistic background of Du Paquier porcelain: art and architecture in early eighteenth-century Baroque Vienna; furthermore, the history of the porcelain factory, its style and its manifold sources of inspiration as well as Du Paquier’s relationship to Meissen and the role played at Du Paquier by independent porcelain painters and decorators. The second volume places this Viennese porcelain in its cultural context, providing broad-ranging information on court banquet ceremony as well as private pleasures such as drinking and festive dining. Objects used in aristocratic circles are shown along with choice presents of state made to the Ottoman and Russian courts. In addition, this volume contains a new study on the Dubsky Room, the only room still in existence devoted to Du Paquier porcelain. The contents of the third volume include an annotated catalogue comprising approximately 500 objects, scholarly analysis and a chapter on the history of collecting Du Paquier porcelain, an inventory of the Dubsky Room, a bilingual glossary of terms and a complete bibliography. An enclosed CD-ROM contains transcriptions of original documents that have played an important role in the history of the Du Paquier porcelain factory. Text in German
Interactive installation art is an important medium of artistic expression, generated alongside the development of technology and art throughout the 21st century. This book includes a number of interactive installation projects, dedicating particular attention to how designers convey their message.
Instead of accepting information passively, in an interactive installation the audience is encouraged to communicate directly with the art. This book is divided into three parts: immersive installation (environment), experimental installation (technology), and feedback installation (engagement). Featuring examples drawn from 3D-rendered images, photographs and video projects, this book will explain the relationship between art and technology, and explore some of the ways these fields can be combined. It is a high-quality and practical guidebook, to accompany any interactive installation art exhibition.
This book includes a cross-section of projects from outstanding global design agencies such as teamLab, Dem, and Random International. When placed in conjunction with testaments from practising designers, these examples provide a comprehensive introduction to interactive installation art.
Hugely popular in his own day and an enormous influence on Monet, van Gogh and other leading European artists, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 1858) has never lost his appeal. A prolific artist, he produced between 4,000 and 5,000 woodblock print designs. He is particularly renowned for his landscape prints, which are among the most frequently reproduced of all Japanese art in both Japan and the West. Hiroshige’s unusual compositions, humorous depictions of people involved in everyday activities and masterly expression of weather, light and season, are explored in this publication with its especially fine printing and experts’ notations. It is part of a series featuring the depth of the Japanese art holdings at the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford, the world’s first university art museum. The gems of information are numerous, including a page on “how to read a print” — with such as a note on “the censor’s mark,” a detail that only the cognoscenti might recognize. The book adds greatly to the art lover’s knowledge and pleasure.
Contents:
How to ‘read’ a Japanese Print, Preface, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) Woodblock Print Designer, Making a Japanese Woodblock Print, I Views along the Tokaido, II Views of the Provinces, III Views of Edo, IV Views of Mount Fuji, Further Reading.
The Event Design Yearbook was launched six years ago. As always, the best events from the past year are visualized with a wealth of striking pictures and informative texts. This year, the authors have looked for small and large, private and public, cultural and corporate, exceptional and fascinating events, which all distinguish themselves through the idea behind it and its realization. Interviews and theoretical texts accompany the projects, with inspiration and information going hand in hand and providing an insight into the sector. Text in English and German.
Pioneering and exceptional design trends are at the heart of Focus Open 2019. Companies and professional designers from around the world were invited to participate. The publication presents all the award-winning products that persuaded the jury with their exceptional design quality. Award-winners from the fields of, for example, production, medicine, bathrooms, kitchens, interiors, lifestyle, lighting, media, optics, sport, outdoor, public design, architecture and transport are presented and described. It also publishes the results of the ‘Mia Seeger Award’: the prize is awarded to up-and-coming designers who have developed products that ‘serve more than one purpose’. Text in English and German. Also available: Focus Open 2018 ISBN 9783899862812
After his last book Escapes, Stefan Bogner returns to the Alps again with this illustrated book. This time not only did he photograph particular routes, but he looked for the ideal tour through the Alps: 3 countries, 14 passes – the perfect little escape for 4 days.
Different from Bogner s photographs in Escapes or Curves, where Bogner just presents dreamlike empty streets, Porsche Drive focuses on the journey in Porsche models such as Porsche 906, Porsche 911, Porsche 918 and more. Stefan Bogner drives his own Porsche 911 1970 ST.
Apart from Bogner’s photographs, Porsche Drive offers information on each route and height profile. Thus you can follow Bogner’s itinerary on a long weekend.
Text in English and German.
After his last book Escapes, Stefan Bogner returns to the Alps again with this beautifully illustrated book. This time he not only photographed particular routes, but he looked for the ideal tour through the Alps: 3 countries, 14 passes – the perfect little escape for 4 days. Different from Bogner’s photographs in Escapes or Curves where Bogner presents dreamlike empty streets, Porsche Drive focuses on the journey in Porsche models like Porsche 906, Porsche 911, Porsche 918 and more.
Stefan Bogner also drives his own Porsche 911 1970 ST. Jan Karl Baedeker’s sweeping lyrics make the track even more tangible – almost as if you were at the wheel of your own Porsche. In addition to Bogner’s amazing photographs, Porsche Drive offers information on each route and height profile, allowing the reader to follow itinerary.
Text in English and German.
Wine, whisky or gin tastings are standard, but more and more people wish for a high quality of basic food too. With their interest in brand-new high-quality olive oils, the community of culinarians is about where it was some thirty years ago with wines. Like the ambitious and rebellious young vintners, the young guns back then, today ambitious olive farmers and oil millers create top-quality products by using state-of-the-art techniques and being open to scientific findings.
About ten years ago, these highly aromatic oils that are rich with polyphenol did not exist for lack of the necessary oil mill technology. To help consumers make informed decisions, this book introduces the background of production and cultivation, presents the stars of the scene and a fine choice of exquisite but easy to cook recipes.
Beautifully produced, Desmond Freeman Venice presents more than 50 captioned, black and white and full-color sketches of the architecture of Venice accompanied by quotations from well-known authors, poets and artists. The preface describes the story of how the book came into being, and was developed in addition to information about the artwork methodology. A set of thumbnail illustrations of each of the 50 or so full artworks has been included at the back of the book in the form of an index.
Beautifully produced, Desmond Freeman Venice presents more than 50 captioned, black and white and full-color sketches of the architecture of Venice accompanied by quotations from well-known authors, poets and artists. The preface describes the story of how the book came into being, and was developed in addition to information about the artwork methodology. A set of thumbnail illustrations of each of the 50 or so full artworks has been included at the back of the book in the form of an index.
“Fascinating details of the original pictures and a social history of footwear fashion” VOGUE
In acclaimed photographer Lois Lammerhuber’s pictures, shod feet in the Louvre paintings reveal undreamt-of information about people. The details are not only separate works of art, but also studies on centuries of shoe fashion and an excursion into social history. Almost intimate, the photographs raise the world of feet and footwear to eye level, showing delicate shoes and stout limbs; feet without shoes and shoes without feet. The viewing angle is a special one, not only for art enthusiasts but also for shoe lovers. Raphael, Goya, or Ingres did not produce or design footwear, but they all ‘recorded’ shoes, contributing to a history of footwear and at the same time creating fashion archives of shoes that people stepped out in between 1280 and 1863. In a brilliant discourse, Margo Glantz, an icon of Mexican literary studies, introduces the viewer to original thoughts on painting and footwear design, the history and sociology of shoes. Text in English, German, French & Spanish.
Original, sober, precise, elegant, and captivating: Pop City is different from all other existing city guides. It is pop in its essence, literary in its approach – with detailed information offered up, and attractive design and illustrations. Pop City is aimed at all audiences, from 7 to 77 years old: pop culture fans and curious travellers alike, city lovers and history buffs. It is specifically designed as both an invitation to travel without leaving your seat or as the perfect accompaniment for a weekend or extended stay. This is a seductive city guide that’s practical and pertinent in a pocket format: discover a city in the shoes of a Pop idol without ever looking like a tourist!
These rare and extraordinarily beautiful stones with mineral formations resembling chrysanthemum flowers are for the first time presented in a comprehensive and fully illustrated book. Found primarily in China and Japan, but more recently known from Korea and the western United States, they are regularly exhibited in national shows in Asia, where they are accorded the highest value among natural artistic stones. This scholarly work sets a new standard for books relating to the art of stone appreciation. The authors traveled extensively in China and Japan to bring together historical information with current data; the text is generously illustrated with over 120 full-color photographs of the widest variety of chrysanthemum stone types from all sources, and the most complete set of published references to chrysanthemum stones ever assembled is included.
A remarkable combination of superb artistry, sophisticated design, and a lengthy history of continuous usage sets the masks of the Noh theater of Japan apart from all others. That so little is known outside of Japan about their great beauty and brilliant craftsmanship prompted the author to undertake the two decades of study, research, and writing that has culminated in this work. The result is nearly 800 pages of text and images published in a two-volume boxed edition limited to 1200 copies. Volume 1 consists of an extended treatise on the history of Noh and the evolution of its masks, including mask forms and functions, types and roles, nomenclature and taxonomy, mask carvers and their lineages, signatures, and other markings. It includes plot and character synopses of the plays most often staged as well as others rarely performed, with particulars about the masks used by various troupes for the principal roles. Volume 2 is an album showcasing in full color over 140 of the finest masks of Noh, both ancient and more recent, with detailed information on their creation, character, and significance, as well as photos of their backs showing inscriptions and artists’ signatures. An extensive bibliography, glossary, and index round out this presentation of an exquisite, centuries-old art form. No existing publication on the subject, in either English or in Japanese, remotely compares in scope and depth to the present work.
First published in 1980, James Cahill’s Index is the most comprehensive English-language compilation available on Chinese painters and their works from the late 6th through the mid-14th century. Incorporating the work of Ellen Johnston Laing and Osvald Siren, whom Professor Cahill studied under as a graduate student, the Index includes biographical details of the artists, their style and studio names, where their works are located or have been published, and information on materials, signatures, seals, and inscriptions. An extensive bibliography focuses on reproductions of the works in Chinese, Japanese, and Western publications, making the Index is an essential research tool for all students, collectors, and connoisseurs of Chinese art.
In this follow-up to Visiting China’s Past, Professor Robert Thorp offers a guided tour of historic Beijing. Beginning with early cities that preceded the modern capital, the author introduces Dadu, established by Khubilai Khan in 1267 and known to Marco Polo as Cambaluc. This guide’s focus, however, is the great architectural monuments of the Ming and Qing dynasties (ca. 1421-1912). Altogether, thirty-two sites are explored in detail: the city’s walls and gates; the imperial city and palaces (the Forbidden City); state altars and imperial tombs; Buddhist and Daoist temples as well as mosques; and residences (both princely mansions and courtyard houses) and gardens. A final chapter summarizes developments of the early twentieth century. Each chapter discusses the history and cultural context of these sites, while entries describe the main structures complemented by numerous plans, photographs, and diagrams. Although both chapters and entries “stand alone,” extensive cross-referencing encourages readers to find related information, and each chapter concludes with suggested titles for further reading. A list of suggested walking tours and an extensive bibliography (both English and Chinese) complete the text. Visiting Historic Beijing is an excellent guide for anyone planning to visit Beijing, and a fascinating introduction to Chinese culture through the architecture and urban planning of one of the world’s most magnificent capitals.
When we think of Barcelona, the eclectic art of Antoni Gaudí immediately springs to mind. It is present in every corner of the city. Or we think of the Olympic Ring with the tower designed by Santiago Calatrava; but these are only two aspects of the exquisite beauty of the Catalan capital which has been able to blend old and new in a unique and unpredictable way. The traditional Gothic architecture has a discreet historical flavor, while the buildings that have appeared in the past 10 years reflect modern art trends like Cubism, Neo-plasticism, and Futurism. Named the European capital of innovation in 2014, the city boasts extremely distinctive urban planning because of the unusual bevelled corners on city blocks that provide more open street intersections, with extra space for outdoor cafés and seating, that give the city its particularly sociable community atmosphere.
Florence is aimed at showing how one of the Italian cities most strongly linked with its past, the quintessential symbol of the Renaissance period, conceals a myriad of innovative architecture. Florence is not a static city. It has often been guilty of long delays and a certain lack of courage in assimilating new approaches, but its way of introducing contemporary architecture into a consolidated context, is unique. Changes with great impact began in Florence at the end of the 19th century with the urban planning transformations designed by Giuseppe Poggi. The strongly defined limits of the historic centre became blurred with the demolition of the fortifications and the city was opened up to permit expansion. In the 1930s, the Rationalist design of the Santa Maria Novella Station introduced a new form of architectural expression into the historic center and outskirts of the city. This is the building that begins the itinerary proposed in this guide; a chronological, but also a physical beginning: a starting point for visitors to begin their architectural excursion.
In recent years, Milan has become a metropolis involved in transformations that are well worthy of interest for the architectural and urbanistic experiments that have been carried out. The complex dialectics between innovation and respect for the existing urban form is the distinctive characteristic of the city: recovery of downgraded neighbourhoods, redevelopment of decommissioned industrial zones, technological experimentation, and vertical development are the aspects that mark Milan as a strongly contemporary city. This guide is being launched in answer to a moment of great focus on Milan. As it guides the reader through the wide range of contemporary architectural projects, it emphasizes the unique nature of its complex character. The transformations are still underway and for this reason, it is difficult to foresee how a city of such size will manage to redefine its personal equilibrium: but this too is part of the contemporary nature of Milan.
The influence of Anjou and Aragon, and the traces left by Bourbon, Hapsburg and Napoleonic domination have made Naples a treasure-trove of different styles and periods, rich in original imperfections and extravagance that deserve to be discovered and enjoyed. This guide is aimed at illustrating the structure and unusual aspects of a city in constant artistic ferment, where architecture ranges from ancient aristocratic palaces to the modern futuristic skyscrapers of the business district, the Art Stations of the Naples Metro, the small Art Nouveau houses in the poorer areas in the historic centre; architecture that exists layer upon layer, spreading outwards to the city boundaries. The twenty-year period of Fascism was crucial for Neapolitan architecture: the city was the object of widespread land drainage and reclamation work, resulting in the conclusive isolation of the Angevin Keep, the creation of the new Corsea in the area of the new foundations for the San Giuseppe-Carità district, as well as a large number of building projects in the city centre. The ‘On the Road’ series offers readers a voyage of discovery showing how ancient historical buildings like those of Naples, can cohabit alongside some of the most innovative and contemporary architecture existing today.
A sticker book dedicated to the most powerful Ferrari Sports Cars. Each of the 11 models is represented in two different positions with a short introduction and relevant technical information. 5 sets of stickers are included to complete the various cars. At the end of the book a section is dedicated to the maximum performance power of each car.
Following on from the success of An Opinionated Guide to East London, Hoxton Mini Press are developing a series of ‘opinionated guides’ to aspects of London, each offering concise, highly-curated, insider selections alongside stunning, original photography. Two expert writers, Sujata Burman and Rosa Bertoli of Wallpaper Magazine, have joined forces with architectural photographer Taran Wilkhu to create an unashamedly confident guide to the must-see buildings in London, spanning all the architectural styles: from Art Deco to postmodern, brutalist to futuristic. Over 50 buildings are included alongside four maps with guided city walks. Why buy a guidebook when all information is online? Because people want opinion to cut through the clutter. Contents: Foreword; Introduction; Maps / Walks; Features.