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“When the pre-eminent portrait photographer of the day met the Cockney kid dominating the London film scene, magic was made.” — Australian Women’s Weekly Icons

“Caine, the timeless gentleman.”  — Diego Armes, GQ Portugal

“The engaging images are either black and white or in color and therefore perfectly show all facets of the actor. A wonderful book about a very special and remarkable actor! 5 Stars!” — Lovely Books

“I had to be an actor,” Michael Caine once said. “[…] And of course, you have to remember with me, the alternative was a factory.”

A working-class actor who broke through to stardom, Caine’s screen-time involves standout performances across multiple genres. To this day, he is synonymous with a certain kind of urbane cool. No camera has captured this quality over the decades better than that of his collaborator and long-time friend, Terry O’Neill.

Michael Caine: Photographed by Terry O’Neill offers an immersive visual journey through Michael Caine’s career, immortalizing Caine’s charm both in and out of character. Caine occupies a landmark position in cinema and O’Neill was there from the early days of his stellar career. From the comedy of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to the European drama of Seven Times A Woman; from the miasma of The Magus to the British cult classic Get Carter, this book combines black and white and color images and includes never-before-seen contact sheets.

Featuring the following films: Mona Lisa, Midnight in Saint PetersburgBullet to Beijing, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Blue Ice, Without a Clue, Get Carter, Deadfall, Magus, Woman Times Seven, Funeral in Berlin.

The Green Energy Laboratory (GEL) is a research center for low environmental impact building technologies on the the Minhang Campus of Jiao Tong University in Shanghai. Created in collaboration between the university and the Italian Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea Protection, it was designed and built by the Florentine architectural firm Archea Associati in 2012.

This book features critical essays, technical drawings, photos of the construction site and the completed project, and illustrates the harmony of this structure through its perfect blend of tradition, architectural ingenuity, and sustainability. The GEL building is based around a central courtyard with a retractable roof. The top, or third floor, is recessed in relation to the main block, with a steeply sloped roof to house solar panels. The outer shell of the building’s double skin is composed of terracotta elements designed to form pictograms common in the Chinese language. This landmark project represents a symbol of intercultural cooperation between Italy and China.

Text in English and Italian.

From long lost paintings to ephemeral sculptures; from whimsical performances to iconic public murals; and from independent films to landmark design objects, the surprising and provocative contents of Moving Focus, India have been provided by a varied group of experts. A first of its kind, this book invited 54 artists, curators, historians and writers to each create a list of five works of art, made at any time since 1900, by artists living in India or identifying as part of its diaspora.  

With over 250 individual nominations, including artists whose works have been exhibited at venues as various as Houghton Hall (Anish Kapoor, 2020), the Asia Society Museum, New York (MF Husain, 2019) and the Piramal Museum of Art, Mumbai (SH Raza, 2018), the exercise produced thrilling and unexpected choices across many mediums. Drawing from a wide range of private and public collections, the selections reveal the diversity and inclusiveness of today’s art scene: an art scene that has embraced the progressive changes evident in society at large. In addition to these lists, the book includes reflections on collecting, curating and canon-formation from a range of important voices, by way of a roundtable discussion and a series of essays.  

Spread over two volumes and marked by an innovative and fresh design sensibility, whether you are familiar with modern and contemporary art from the subcontinent or looking for an introduction, Moving Focus, India contains a wealth of information. Lavishly illustrated with over 1,000 archival and freshly commissioned photographs, this book is an important and timely addition to the global art discourse and a key source of reference. 

Nominated artists include Ramkinkar Baij, Chittaprosad, VS Gaitonde, Amrita Sher Gil, Rummana Hussain, Bhupen Khakhar, Nasreen Mohamedi, Benode Behari Mukherjee, Meera Mukherjee, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Gieve Patel, Sudhir Patwardhan, Nilima Sheikh, Jangarh Singh Shyam, KG Subramanyan, Vivan Sundaram, Zarina and many more. 

With a focus on the women designers of early avant-garde jewelry, this publication paints a fascinating picture of Austrian jewelry production from the 1970s to the present day. The show brings together some 80 jewelry objects, many of which exemplify sculptural and conceptual approaches to jewelry design. Selected works from more recent generations not only highlights references to works of the pioneers but also attests to the developments of a contemporary, vibrant jewelry scene, whose diversity is yet to be discovered. The book’s title refers to the landmark exhibition Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn: Aktuelle Kunst von Frauen (Willful Art: Contemporary Art by Women), which took place at the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts in Vienna in 1985 and is regarded as a milestone in the artistic and social history of women.

Text in English and German.

To document and preserve an ancient craft tradition in danger of disappearing, Douglas Brooks apprenticed with five master boatbuilders in Japan between 1996 and 2010, building a different traditional wooden boat with each. His research and experiences were presented in his landmark 2015 publication, Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding. This book documents his most recent apprenticeship, building a cormorant fishing boat with 85-year-old master craftsman Seichi Nasu, in Gifu, Japan.

Using trained cormorants to fish has a 1,300 year history in Gifu, and is done at night from special river craft called ubune, literally “cormorant boat.” The boat features an extended bow with pivoting boom from which is hung an iron fire basket to light up the water and attract fish, which are then retrieved by the enthusiastic birds.

Together with Mr. Nasu, then 85, Brooks worked with several volunteers over a two-month period to build the 42 foot craft, a design largely unchanged for centuries. As in his previous publications, readers are introduced to important aspects of traditional Japanese boatbuilding, including design and measurements, workshop and tools, wood and materials, joinery and fastenings, and above all, secrets of the craft.

Say Cheeeeese is the highly anticipated first book by British painter Rachel Jones featuring her explosive new works and an original, collectible insert. The book was published to accompany Jones’ new commission at Chisenhale Gallery, London, in Spring 2022. For this first solo exhibition, she used her signature material, oil pastels, to produce a new body of paintings on canvas and paper. The publication includes a photo essay and commissioned text by poet and artist Anaïs Duplan; Chisenhale Gallery senior curator Ellen Greig; curator and researcher Aïcha Mehrez; poet, essayist, playwright and MacArthur Fellow Claudia Rankine; and curator Yates Norton. The foreword is written by Zoé Whitley, Chisenhale Gallery Director.

“The audience should feel as they come out of this show that they have over-eaten an enormous cream meringue”. Jonathan Miller’s ambition was completely successful, and his Mikado has been revived umpteen times in London and played in LA, Houston, New York and Venice. It brought together some of the finest stage talents of its time, and revolutionized Gilbert and Sullivan. Richard Suart, iconic incarnation of KoKo, Lord High Executioner, celebrates this landmark production in all its variations over the years, with his unmistakeable wit and humor, and deep understanding of the stagecraft of opera and the history of G&S. Over 200 photographs take the reader on a unique journey into the heart of a theatrical masterpiece.

“The subtle forms and modelled curves and planes in a skeleton were to George Stubbs what a symphony is to a musician.” — Oxford Companion to Art

“The most unique thing of its kind ever compiled. This heroic effort, an epic of the eighteenth century, is as great and unselfish a work as anything could be.” — Sir Alfred Munnings

George Stubbs was one of the most original artists Britain has produced, and it is easy to forget how much his success was based on rigorous scientific observation. In 1756 he rented a farmhouse where he erected scaffolding to hold the cadavers of horses as he dissected and drew. After 18 months, Stubbs produced the drawings for The Anatomy of the Horse, which he later etched. The result was sensational. Scientists from all over Europe sent their congratulations, amazed at the perfection of the work. The Anatomy remained a textbook for artists and scientists for over a century, and its strange, spare beauty continues to fascinate.

This edition is taken from the 1853 printing, the last to use Stubbs’ original plates. The full Stubbs’ commentary is included for the veterinarially minded. Extensive texts by Constance Anne Parker and Oliver Kase place Stubbs’ work in the context of his life and times, and of 18th-century medical science.

“The subtle forms and modelled curves and planes in a skeleton were to George Stubbs what a symphony is to a musician.” — Oxford Companion to Art

“The most unique thing of its kind ever compiled. This heroic effort, an epic of the eighteenth century, is as great and unselfish a work as anything could be.” — Sir Alfred Munnings

George Stubbs was one of the most original artists Britain has produced, and it is easy to forget how much his success was based on rigorous scientific observation. In 1756 he rented a farmhouse where he erected scaffolding to hold the cadavers of horses as he dissected and drew. After 18 months, Stubbs produced the drawings for The Anatomy of the Horse, which he later etched. The result was sensational. Scientists from all over Europe sent their congratulations, amazed at the perfection of the work. The Anatomy remained a textbook for artists and scientists for over a century, and its strange, spare beauty continues to fascinate.

This edition is taken from the 1853 printing, the last to use Stubbs’ original plates. The full Stubbs’ commentary is included for the veterinarially minded. Extensive texts by Constance Anne Parker and Oliver Kase place Stubbs’ work in the context of his life and times, and of 18th-century medical science.

a+u’s January issue features Caruso St John Architects, led by Adam Caruso and Peter St John. Practicing for more than 30 years, the firm is completing a series of major buildings, such as ZSC Lions Ice Hockey Arena, a competition-winning project 10 years in the making, and Royale Belge, an ambitious renovation of a landmark corporate building. Founded in London in 1990, Caruso St John carefully analyzes the existing situation – be it the sociocultural context or an old building – to create a unique architecture that informs both materiality and detail. The scale of the projects vary but the architecture is always their own, as their design approach, while consistent, responds sensitively to the variations. Caruso St John Architects have approached the 19 works in this issue with the same passion and sensitivity as in Tate Britain’s Millbank Project and Brick House, projects introduced in a+u’s March 2015 issue. Whether the subject is an existing building or a new construction, Caruso St John always questions norms and standards, and by extracting ideas and materials from the existing built environment, the firm embraces “the challenge to reframe the way we see the world around us and change how we define architecture.” (a+u)

Text in English and Japanese.

First edition since 1865, this anthology brings together 80 of Sir John Everett Millais’s finest illustrations. Collected from his work for Trollope, Tennyson, Collins, and the weekly periodicals over most of his long working life, these prints range from visionary romance to comedy of manners. They are some of the finest black and white work of the Victorian era.

Millais was the most precociously talented artist England has ever produced, and the Royal Academy’s youngest ever pupil. When just 19 he founded with six others the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which revolutionized English art. Although Millais soon abandoned the Pre-Raphaelite style, he remained the pre-eminent painter of his period. Not least amongst his achievements was a revival of serious black and white work. His drawings were widely published and led to the creation of a greatly respected English school of print-making. This book, collected by his publisher, shows the wide range of his work.

Visions in Silk presents the first comprehensive exploration of exquisite Japanese fine art textiles from the Meiji era (1868-1912), showcasing the unparalleled treasures from the Khalili Collection of Japanese Art.

This beautifully illustrated volume reveals how Japanese artists and craftsmen ingeniously adapted centuries-old textile traditions to create innovative art textiles that captivated international audiences, won exhibition awards, and served as prestigious diplomatic gifts.

Featuring over 300 spectacular examples, the book examines dazzling works of embroidery, yuzen resist-dyed silk and cut velvet, tapestry, and oshi-e raised silk, ranging from elegant panels, hangings and screens to grand exhibition showpieces. Each represents the pinnacle of artistic collaboration and hitherto unsurpassed technical mastery.

Written by leading international experts, this landmark publication provides unprecedented insight into these remarkable yet understudied treasures. Visions in Silk will enchant anyone interested in Japanese art, textile design, Japonisme, and the cultural transformations that occurred during the Meiji era, when Japan opened to the outside world.

The penthouse is the ultimate iteration of contemporary urban living. As much a state of mind as a location, the word ‘penthouse’ evokes drama, luxury, endless views and lateral space. First emerging a century ago with the dawn of the skyscraper, the penthouse has become the aspirational talisman of the modern global city.

Penthouse brings you inside incredible apartments such as the $200 million One Hyde Park Penthouse in London, Central Park Tower in New York – the world’s highest residential building, the landmark 111 West 57th Street, Dubai’s $135 million Jumeira Penthouse, and the iconic 181 Fremont in San Francisco. But it also surveys a different side to penthouse style – from coastal residences in Miami and the French Riviera to mid-century penthouses in London’s Clerkenwell and the Hollywood Hills.

A luxury, fabric-bound edition with over 200 stunning images, Penthouse is a journey told through interviews with leading penthouse interior designers alongside insights from real-estate leaders Sotheby’s International Realty and Knight Frank. Penthouse is this generation’s definitive survey of lateral style and sky-high living.

What sort of home would you create for yourself if you could build whatever you wanted—if money, as they say, were no object?

Over the course of his firm’s 30-year history, American architect Mark P. Finlay has been in the privileged position of helping clients answer that very question. This first reprint and revised edition of Country Houses: The Architecture of Mark P. Finlay, originally published in 2018, showcases the dream homes Finlay has designed for some of America’s wealthiest and most sophisticated families.

The renowned architect and interior designer works in the United States’ most storied pastoral locations, including the South Carolina lowlands, Virginia horse country, coastal New England, and the Rocky Mountains. Whether historic restorations or ground-up builds, Finlay’s attention to detail and focus on fine craftsmanship make the magnificent homes look and feel as if they’ve lived on their sites for centuries.

This beautifully presented monograph offers gorgeous photography of 12 superbly designed country residences. Each home is accompanied by an intimate, detailed architectural account that conveys Finlay’s skill and passion for creating residences that telegraph a distinct sense of place and a unique appreciation for their owners’ aspirations.

One of the most famous works of classical antiquity, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, has profoundly influenced Western art from antiquity to today. Since the Renaissance, its stories have been a key source of inspiration for artists. Ovid recounts the lives of gods, mythological figures, and mortals, all undergoing dramatic transformations. Among the most striking are Daphne turning into a laurel tree to escape Apollo, Jupiter seducing Io in the form of a cloud, and the sculptor Pygmalion falling in love with his own creation – a statue of Galatea brought to life.

The exhibitions at the Rijksmuseum (February 2026) and the Galleria Borghese (June 2026), as well as the accompanying catalogue, showcase the vast artistic legacy inspired by Ovid across time and media. Sculptures by Bernini and Rodin stand alongside paintings by Titian, Poussin, and Rembrandt, while works by 20th and 21st-century artists are also included.

With text contributions by Frits Scholten, Francesca Cappelletti, Bart Ramakers, Claudia Cieri Via, Lucia Simonato et al.

“A history of cool.” — Airmail

“Without a doubt she is the great reference of photography in the Hip Hop Culture, with photos that are already the history of contemporary culture of the 20th century.” — Staf Magazine

“In over 240 pages, the book encapsulates the spirit of history-making generations and their influence on fashion and wider visual culture.” — The Luupe

Covering four decades of photography, this book serves as a stunning snapshot of Beckman’s significance in the world of art, photojournalism, music, fashion, and popular culture – but most prevalently, it’s a testament to her unique ability to extract beauty from the outliers of society. With written contributions from Beckman’s peers including academia’s Jason King, Chair of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music & Vivien Goldman Author & Professor at NYU; journalists Vikki Tobak, and co-founder of PAPER, Kim Hastreiter; visual artist Cey Adams; music legends Sting, Run DMC, Paul Weller, Salt-n-Pepa, Belinda Carlisle, and Slick Rick; and fashion’s Dapper Dan, Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri, Levi’s Chad Hinson – Rebels: From Punk to Dior showcases Janette Beckman’s influence in her realm.

In addition to publishing five books, Janette Beckman’s work has been exhibited in galleries worldwide and is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Museum of the City of New York, and the British National Portrait Gallery. She is represented by the Fahey Klein Gallery.

This book accompanies a major exhibition in the Ashmolean Museum on the early work of internationally acclaimed German artist Anselm Kiefer. It focuses on his paintings, drawings, photographs and artist books created between 1969 and 1982, in the private collections of the Hall Art Foundation. Anselm Kiefer: Early Works is the first institutional show and publication in the UK dedicated to Kiefer’s early practice. The book introduces themes, subjects and styles that have become signature to Kiefer’s work, while providing a more intimate and complementary context for his large-scale installations that he is best known for today. The early works are accompanied by three recent paintings from the artist’s own collections and White Cube, chosen by the artist himself.

Art historians, artists, curators and experts of Kiefer’s art from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Britain and the US have contributed 46 original texts on individual works, organized in a chronological structure. An illustrated chronology at the end of the book compiled by Stephanie Biron from the Hall Art Foundation provides an overview of the artist’s early practice and life, to contextualize the works.

The book begins with Kiefer’s iconic Occupations and Heroische Sinnbilder series, created in 1969 and 1970, which Kiefer views as his first serious works. Kiefer was among the first generation of German post-war artists to directly confront the country’s troubled past and identity. Full of complex references to German socio-political history but also to culture, literature and his personal life, Kiefer’s early works carry a unique iconography, linking classic ideas of great art with a distinctive understanding of concrete artistic materiality. The landscapes in his watercolors are historically charged; hand-written words on paintings are closely linked with poetry well known to most German viewers; motifs and symbols point at Nazi ideologies and a collective feeling of guilt.

Mixing Roman and medieval roots, Chichester sits at the heart of a storied landscape where South Down hills dotted with idyllic hamlets ripple back from a shoreline mixing wild dune-backed beaches with old-school seaside resorts. Reminders of smuggling and war add spice.

But a thrilling thread of modernity runs through this slice of West Sussex too. Chichester’s modernist Festival Theatre provided the foundation for London’s National Theatre, while masterpieces of contemporary architecture that draw admirers from around the world include Sea Lane House in East Preston and The White Tower in Bognor Regis.

Evocative ancient memorials abound. Chichester is blessed with the only English cathedral visible from the sea, while England’s largest castle rises above the ravishing – and cosmopolitan – riverside town of Arundel. Ancient yew trees mark the burial spots of Viking warriors in an idyllic Downland spot. And it’s a land vibrant with creative imprints: poets, painters, composers, from Blake and Keats to Joyce and Chagall.

This guidebook takes you exploring through Chichester and its surroundings to find incomparable natural beauty, hidden secrets, astonishing history, art of all kinds, and much more. 

This book is put together like a jewel and contains a carefully chosen selection of around 100 West African combs from one of the world’s largest and finest private collections of sub-Saharan African art. Featuring a hitherto unseen assortment of pieces assembled over a period of more than 60 years, the book also includes an authoritative analysis by Alain-Michel Boyer, who approached this rarely addressed theme in what was his final work, begun almost ten years ago.

As well as offering us valuable insights into the cultures that produced these miniature sculptures (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria), he explores the way the form itself is approached. These creations transform what is in principle a plain accessory and in the effort to attain pure beauty, they display an aesthetic awareness that raises the adornment of the body to the level of fine art.

This study of the wooden Serpent figures/headdresses of the Baga people of Guinea is a collaboration by the author, as an art historian, with many contributions from diverse perspectives, including scientists preeminent in their fields, Robert J. Koestler, Roy Sieber, Dennis William Stevenson, Mark T. Wypyski, and Peter J. Zanzucchi.

The text begins with a thorough exploration of the ethnological and art historical evidence for the Serpent masquerade among the Baga of Guinea, bearing an immense wooden serpent figure on top of the head representing a python. Never witnessed or photographed by an outsider, it disappeared in the 1950s along with most ritual performance after an Islamic jihad instated strict prohibitions against indigenous religions. The ritual context is followed by an in-depth analysis of the Serpent masquerade figures now extant in collections in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, as well as other representations of the python in the ritual art of the region. The final sections present the arguments, as a debate, between interested persons in the arts, including art historians, dealers, appraisers, collectors, and curators, and the scientific examinations by specialists in botany, chemistry, physics, entomology, and conservation concerning one particular Serpent figure in question.

The jarring emptiness following the loss of a loved one, the expansive out-of-body sensation of sensual touch, the lassitude of melancholy and the ecstatic receptivity to sunshine. His ability to capture and convey sensation and feelings through the materials of art, places the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944) at the forefront of European art at the turn of the last century.

Interestingly, Munch’s artistic exploration of perception, and his persistent questioning of the objectivity of vision, intersect with ideas that matured within the fields of psychology and experimental optics at the time.

Edvard Munch: Inner Fire examines these connections, demonstrating his continuing exploration of the conditions of sight. The essays in this catalogue examine this phenomenon while also probing a lesser-known aspect of the artist’s work: Munch’s relationship to Italy.

The first essay, Lasse Jacobsen’s ‘Edvard Munch. Italian Impressions’, explores this connection explicitly, as part of a general overview of Munch’s life and work.

The second text, ‘Reflections in Munch’s Inner Eye’ by Patricia G. Berman, charts the art historical context of Munch’s exploration of experience’s subjective dimension. Emil Leth Meilvang’s ‘Seeing without Sight. Munch’s Vision’, on its part, explores the relationship between Munch’s artistic development and simultaneous developments within the perceptual sciences. Edvard Munch. Inner Fire includes essayistic pieces by authors Melania G. Mazzucco and Hanne Ørstavik: ‘I am a Romantic’ and ‘Who Am I’. Each demonstrates Munch’s continuing ability to light the inner fires of other artists.

Mixing Roman and medieval roots, Chichester sits at the heart of a storied landscape where South Down hills dotted with idyllic hamlets ripple back from a shoreline mixing wild dune-backed beaches with old-school seaside resorts. Reminders of smuggling and war add spice.

But a thrilling thread of modernity runs through this slice of West Sussex too. Chichester’s modernist Festival Theatre provided the foundation for London’s National Theatre, while masterpieces of contemporary architecture that draw admirers from around the world include Sea Lane House in East Preston and The White Tower in Bognor Regis.

Evocative ancient memorials abound. Chichester is blessed with the only English cathedral visible from the sea, while England’s largest castle rises above the ravishing – and cosmopolitan – riverside town of Arundel. Ancient yew trees mark the burial spots of Viking warriors in an idyllic Downland spot. And it’s a land vibrant with creative imprints: poets, painters, composers, from Blake and Keats to Joyce and Chagall.

This guidebook takes you exploring Chichester and its surroundings to find incomparable natural beauty, hidden secrets, astonishing history, art of all kinds, and much more. 

Tong Jun was an outstanding architect and architectural educator in contemporary China. He was widely considered an all-round talent in theory, creation, writing and painting in Chinese architecture. He had a deep foundation in ancient Chinese literature, and studied Chinese classical poetry since childhood. While studying at the University of Pennsylvania, he won many awards in the national architectural student design competition. He has left behind many works and manuscripts on landscape, architecture, and architecture history, sculpture history, and painting history that have enlightened and educated many generations. However, there are few records about him. This book recollects the last 20 years of his life, and introduces the reader to the very real and vivid practitioner that was Tong Jun.

Kashmir: A Journey Through History will appeal to the armchair traveler and history buff. Neither an academic tome nor a guidebook, it describes how Kashmir – ringed by snow-capped peaks – has attracted pilgrims and Sufis, armies and traders, travelers and adventurers, over the centuries, who embraced the crisp mountain air, a world away from the soaring heat of the Indian plains.
Weare creates engaging story lines that capture the passage of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic influences which have shaped Kashmir’s rich cultural history. The book traces the journey of the region from its ancient times to the present, with chapters highlighting periods in history, such as the role of the Mughal Emperors who created over 700 resplendent gardens and patronized the fine pashmina shawls that were to grace the palaces of India and Europe. The Treaty of Amritsar signed by the British East India Company and Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu, in 1846, created the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir – a state forged more through political ambition than cultural design. It was a time when Kashmir became part of the Great Game, where intrepid British explorers kept a watchful eye on the state’s borders.
In October 1947 Kashmir’s political future came to a head when Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession to India. Since then Kashmir has been subject to decades of instability along with years battling insurgency as it continues on its long walk to normalcy. 
Featuring over 120 inspiring images and packed with nuggets of information, Kashmir: A Journey Through History takes the reader on a fascinating voyage through a land that has inspired poets and emperors, writers and explorers, through the ages.