Pahari paintings from the Horst Metzger collection, now in Museum Rietberg Zurich, are outstanding works by Indian masters who worked in the sub-Himalayan region between 1680 and 1850. This lavishly illustrated catalog of the works, which owes itself to a collaboration, yet again, between Prof. B.N. Goswamy and Dr Eberhard Fischer, is filled both with scholarly authority and poetic utterance. The passion with which Horst Metzger assembled this distinguished collection is matched by the text, for it throws open windows to a world of reflection and delight, close observation and soaring imagination. Together, the two scholars have, in earlier years, authored Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India (1980) which accompanied one of the most celebrated and groundbreaking exhibitions in the field. Three decades later (2011), they were together again – along with Dr Milo Beach – editing and writing for the monumental, two-volume, Masters of Indian Painting: 1100-1900 which served as a guide to another path-breaking exhibition, shown at the Museum Rietberg Zurich and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Contents: B.N.Goswamy: Horst Metzger – The Collector; Catalogue; The Horst Metzger Collection in the Museum Rietberg; Bibliography; Ludwig Habighorst: Horst Metzger – My friend, the Collector.

This beautifully illustrated book offers a sweeping pictorial vision of the Netherlands, with its iconic windmills, canals, and tulips portrayed alongside images of agricultural innovation, dance festivals, Dutch design and modern architecture. The rich history of the stubborn but tolerant Dutch people comes through clearly in the work of photographer Frans Lemmens and his partner Marjolijn van Steeden. Their approach – a photo of the Netherlands every day of the year – has turned this book into a truly unique photo document: a feast for the eyes and an ode to a special and beautiful country.

A multidisciplinary artist of the 20th century, Guy de Rougemont (1935-2021) flourished throughout his career in painting, sculpture, the decorative arts and ceramics, in a constant play on color, line and form. The monumental wrapping of the columns at the Musée d’Art Moderne in 1974, the highly acclaimed paving of the entrance to the Musée d’Orsay in 1986, and the paving of the Ministry of Finance in 1987, as well as the 30-kilometer stretch of the A4 motorway in 1977, are all still making their mark, the result of the artist’s desire to make art part of the lives of passers-by. Guy de Rougemont was constantly reinventing himself, between public and private space, urban and domestic, between Pop Art and Minimalism. Among his most famous works: his cloud table, his colored totems, his serpentine lines, his tapestries for the Mobilier National, his cutlery and other more confidential works earned him a major retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1990. He became an Academician in the painting section in 1997.

Text in English and French.

Everything is black and white. Takamatsu’s hand-painted monochrome images are created using a mixture of watercolor and opaque white pigments in gouache. “White and black metaphorically express the ambiguity of positive and negative, good and evil, race and religion,” the artist writes. After meticulously painting multiple gouache layers, Takamatsu colors each individual pixel of the object a different shade of grey, resulting in an astonishing sense of depth and surrealism. “His hologram-like, female characters look digitized,” writes Hi-Fructose, “though they’re executed entirely by hand.” This extreme attention to detail allows the viewer to experience Takamatsu’s fantastical depictions of Japanese women in an immersive presentation.

“Offers readers a chance to look again at modern British architecture through the eyes of all sorts of experts.” – Architectural Digest
“Very sophisticated and thoroughly researched.” – Bevis Hillier
“An eclectic selection with an unsurprising bias towards Modernism.” – Design Insider

This is a compact guide to Britain’s best buildings of the last 100 years, with an intriguing twist: the choices come from a wide range of experts with strong and sometimes unexpected opinions. The contributors include architects Norman Foster, Piers Gough, Charles Holland and Richard Rogers; critics and historians such as Elain Harwood, Bevis Hillier, Jonathan Meades, Alan Powers, Alice Rawsthorn and Peter York. Everyone involved contributed their ten choices, and all these lists are reproduced at the end of the book. In the main section featuring 75 key buildings, everything selected more than once is illustrated and examined in more detail.

The result is a fascinating cocktail of undisputed greats and genuinely surprising entries. Alongside the work of Wells Coates, Denys Lasdun, James Stirling and John Outram, you’ll find post-War prefabs, Preston Bus Station and the ruins of St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross. Whether you’re after a slightly unorthodox selection of Britain’s finest modern buildings, or just curious about what major architects and critics consider as their favorites, this book is your ideal guide.

All the following contributed a list of their favorite buildings: John Allan, Stephen Bates, Keith Bradley, Peter Clegg, Nigel Coates, Richard Hywel Evans, Kathryn Ferry, Jenny Fleming, Norman Foster, Piers Gough, John Grindrod, Ivan Harbour, Claire Harper, Elain Harwood, Birkin Haward, Simon Henley, Bevis Hillier, Charles Holland, Owen Hopkins, David Jenkins, Owen Luder, Jonathan Meades, David Nixon, Stefi Orazi, James Perry, Alan Powers, Alice Rawsthorn, Richard Rogers, Jonathan Sergison, Anne Ward, Peter York, Paul Zara.

My Sweet Home captures Okhla, a neighborhood in South Delhi, from the perspective of 20 children who live there. The children have written and created art about their homes, terraces, mosques, and the villages that their families come from, in a workshop conducted by the authors. This volume brings to light the many stories from this teeming, thriving corner of Delhi, often bypassed in common discourses on the city. This book also tries to resolve the many misunderstandings that people have of the place as a Muslim ghetto, through the experiences of some of its younger residents. These stories and drawings reflect the relationships that the children have with their neighborhood, prompting an intangible connection between the reader across region, religion, and nationality, to bring them closer to this misunderstood, misrepresented community.

Biophilic Visions: The Conceptual Works of Ward | Blake Architects represents a large cross-section of the firm’s work, from its beginnings to the present day. While most monographs showcase built work, Biophilic Visions explores Ward | Blake Architects’ unbuilt projects, giving them a new life in print. These 24 projects are testament to the quest architects face in pursuing designs to fruition and keeping the concepts alive in the face of economic, socio-cultural, and architectural adversity.

Based in Wyoming, Ward | Blake Architects works across the United States and beyond. Each of its projects are carefully designed for its location, rich in materials and detail, and embedded with the firm’s approach to biophilic design. Paying attention to views, natural daylighting, healthy materials, and mechanical systems, the architects create buildings and spaces that are not only respectful toward nature and their extraordinary settings, but also to the health and wellness of their occupants.

Biophilic Visions is an invaluable source of thought and creative ideas for those who appreciate modernist design, biophilic solutions, and ingenuity. Illustrated with architectural renders, elevations, and plans, each project is accompanied by an insightful description of the design process and solutions, and the architects’ re-evaluation of the unbuilt work. 

Costume jewelry is commonly understood to mean fashionable yet affordable adornments made from non-precious material. Originating in in mid-1700s France with the rise of the bourgeoise, the earliest ‘costume jewelry’ mimicked fine jewelry styles. Since then, costume jewelry has always been evolving. From Victorian sentimentalism to the mass-produced ornaments available today, costume jewelry has developed into an artform in its own right. An encyclopedic study of its history is long overdue. Flush with expert information, identification tips and historical anecdotes, Adorning Fashion explores the development of costume jewelry across the past four centuries. The styles of each era – Victorian, Edwardian, Arts & Crafts, Jugenstil, Art Nouveau, and each decade of the twentieth century – are given individual attention. Production methods are also explained in depth. Alloys and gilded electroplating can mimic silver and gold, while the refraction index of treated glass can, to the untrained eye, be mistaken for diamond.
Adorning Fashion discusses the contributions of a remarkable roster of designers and innovators, including Kokichi Mikimoto, Arthur L. Liberty, Carlo Giuliano, René Lalique, Elizabeth Bonté, the Castellani brothers, Jean Fouquet, Jean Després, Fulco di Verdura, Jean Schlumberger, Salvador Dalí, Miriam Haskell, Lina Baretti, Countess Cissy Zoltowska, Line Vautrin, Kenneth Jay Lane, Francisco Rebajes, Diane Love, Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels, Paco Rabanne, Yves Saint Laurent, Napier, Haskell, Trifari, Brania, Bulgari, Versace and more.

The revolutionary artist and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) has come into the spotlight in recent years. The life and work of this German-born woman, who would later settle in the Netherlands, has been studied internationally by entomologists, botanists and historians and are a source of inspiration for contemporary artists and writers. In 2016, Lannoo Publishers, in collaboration with the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, republished her masterpiece ‘Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium’ as a facsimile. This well-illustrated book assembles the most recent scientific knowledge about this remarkable woman. The authors examine, among other things, Merian’s pioneering work on the reproduction and development of insects, the methods and materials she used for her work, her remarkable journey to Suriname, her network of family, friends and patrons and her widespread influence on the history of art and science. Her work is compared to that of early modern and contemporary artists and scientists.

This book reveals the collection presented at Ajuda Royal Palace in Lisbon (Royal Treasure Museum), that has been recently renovated, and where is displayed this unique collection with particular significance for a country with a nine-century history. Over the time, from the 17th century until the 20th century, the Braganza Royal Family has collected precious jewels and works of art intensively, often through relations with other important European families, but also through royal gifts. Finally displayed in a monumental permanent exhibition, each object in this collection witnesses the history of a leading country, as well as the story of the people who have worn or conserved these highlights of decorative art.

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.

Recounts the history of this famous Staffordshire factory and its products; nineteenth century transfer-printed wares,1920s and 1930s Art Deco patterns, tube-lined designs by Charlotte Rhead, flower jugs and popular transfer prints of today including Calico.

The images presented in this book take us to the heart of India’s rich folk traditions. The display of paintings accompanied by recited or sung commentary has been a part of that heritage since very early times, as attested by references and legends in Sanskrit sources, such as the Harsacarita, a 7th century work by Banabhatta. Known as ‘patacitras’ (or ‘patas’ for short), these illustrated narratives are painted on rectangular fabric, paper, or scrolls. They are a type of performed art that reaches out to audiences, mostly in India’s rural provinces. They convey the artists’ responses to legends and social themes from varied social and cultural bases. This book focuses on a particularly powerful set of such paintings from the Bengali-speaking region of eastern India, which depict events from the Ramayana in the form of scrolls that can be rolled out as the story unfurls. The vividly colorful images presented in this book occupy a special niche in the history of Indian art. They are remarkable because they are not only aesthetically beautiful, but also act as pictorial translations of a text that has been part of Indian culture for years, often used as their source of moral guidance. Especially astounding is that these ‘patas’ by Bengali folk painters diverge so often from the magisterial Ramayanas of adikavi ‘First Poet’ Valmiki. They leave out important parts, and import into the Rama saga episodes from local narrative caches. Following conventions of both art and storytelling, these portrayals constitute what is now recognized as a tradition of rural counter-Ramayanas, which express alternative alignments of ethical judgment. Contents: Foreword – 9, Preface – 13, Ackowledgements – 15, Introduction – 17, The Narrative Tradition of Indian Painting and the Ramayana – 29, The Bengali Patuas: History, Background & Style – 41, Songs of the Patuas – 51, The Ramayana of the Bengali Patuas – 63, Book I – 70, Book II – 81, Book III – 83, Book IV – 92, Book V – 95, Book VI – 98, Book VII – 116, Summing up – 128, References – 131, Index – 135

“As a result, the book should provide fresh, in-depth insight into this seminal Rollie.” — Robb Report

“The latest release from Rolex is one for die-hard fans and to many many’s surprise, it’s not a watch.”— HypeBeast

“We haven’t gotten our hands on a copy of Submariner yet, but the prospect of Foulkes writing combined with access to Rolex’s archives has me excited.” — Hodinkee

“This book is not just for those who love watches but also for anyone fascinated by stories of innovation, design, and cultural influence.” — The Subdial

For the first time, Rolex has authorized a wide-ranging account and full history of the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner watch, in the first of a series taking a deep dive into the watches of the iconic brand. Oyster Perpetual Submariner. The Watch That Unlocked The Deep, written by author, editor, and watch expert Nick Foulkes, is published by global design authority, Wallpaper*, which brings its sharp, cinematic eye to the project, creating new and original photography in collaboration with Rolex to run alongside testimonies from renowned witnesses to the Submariner’s illustrious 71-year history, including marine biologist Sylvia Earle, photographer David Doubilet, and aquanaut Dr Joe MacInnis – further highlighting the role this iconic timepiece continues to play in the exploration and protection of the marine environment.

Time in a bottle; this is a collection that explores the unlocking of history through the identification of its unique seals, using crests and coats-of-arms as the ‘keys’ towards identifying the original owner. This three-volume collection examines the evolution of the sealed bottle from the 1640s to the late 1800s and provides a detailed description to accompany each entry, supported by numerous photographs, including the number of examples known, their condition, and the collections where the bottles and detached seals are held. The laying down of wine to improve its quality and longevity related to the social history of the day, the design of the bottles, their evolution and manufacture, are a reflection of the individuals who ordered and used the bottles at home or in the private gentlemen’s clubs, much influenced by the historic events of the 17th through to the 20th centuries. Wine consumption has a place in cultural history; these collected bottles existed at times of incredible upheaval and social change. From the early colonial settlements of the New World, into the slave markets of Richmond, VA, New Orleans, Charleston, SC, and Philadelphia, and with the plantation owners who amassed vast wealth and prestige as a result of this trade. In the taverns and coffee houses of London, alongside the bear baiting and cock fighting to be found across the River Thames in Southwark, in the cellars of the Oxford colleges and Inns of Court, these sealed bottles give much information on the early drinking habits of the aspiring and upwardly mobile, and the established aristocracy. Contents: Volume One: Dated Sealed Bottles 1650 – 1900 Volume Two: Undated Sealed Bottles 17th Century; Undated Sealed Bottles 1700 – 1900; Crests and Coats of Arms, pre-1700 identified; Crests and Coats of Arms, pre-1700 unidentified; Crests and Coats of Arms, post-1700 identified; Crests and Coats of Arms, post-1700 unidentified Volume Three: Chapter One: What is a Sealed Bottle? Chapter Two: Sealed Bottles from the Seventeenth Century; Chapter Three: Sealed Bottles from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries; Chapter Four: Heraldry and Sealed Bottles; Chapter Five: Sealed Bottles from the West Country; Chapter Six: Sealed Bottles from Wales; Chapter Seven: Sealed Bottles associated with the American Colonies; Chapter Eight: Sealed Bottles in Major Public Collections; Chapter Nine: Building a Collection; Chapter Ten: Price Guide and Price Trends

“I could have written Herring: A Love Story out of a longstanding fondness for the fish. But I did not have the historical details, the art and the artifacts that resulted in this fascinating book by Daniel Rozensztroch and Cathie Fidler. The New York Times
A long childhood friendship of authors, Daniel Rozensztroch and Cathie Fidler was the beginning of Herring: A Love Story, which traces the history and iconography of the cherished herring. Both from traditional Jewish families, Daniel, an avid collector of the herring containers that were used to marinate and serve herring, and Cathie, a researcher who has put together a unique documentation of herring iconography – vintage stamps, posters, postcards, and engravings. Also included are advertisements, paintings by famous artists, and easy-to-make traditional recipes. Discover the history and influence of herring as told through the eyes of two passionate collectors.

Chikankari is one of India’s finest traditional embroideries, evoking Lucknawi culture and the elegant courts of the Awadh Nawabs. Chikankari appeared in Lucknow in the late 18th century and its exquisite aesthetic and craftsmanship has sustained the tradition to this day, through changing patronage and market trends. Chikankari is not just embroidery. The style is based on a creative blend of delicate embroidery, and impeccable dressmaking and sewing techniques; these components come together to create art that is legendary for its elegance and finesse. This beautifully illustrated book showcases unknown gems from personal and public collections, and brings to life the history of this unique craft tradition. Various chapters describe the mysterious origins of the craft, the range of costumes, the inspirations behind common Chikankari motifs, the time-honored elaborate production process, and the bewildering array of stitches that raised this craft to its status as a truly exceptional art form.

Will Ukraine ever be an EU member? Why don’t we have a European army yet? Does crisis make the EU stronger? The European Union has great influence on the lives of its citizens. That situation can prove to be controversial. Decisions made by the EU often lead to misunderstanding and resentment. Aside from these controversies, it is clear that the Union today, is the result of a myriad of choices by policy makers throughout the years. A better understanding of these choices and of the recent history of the EU allows us to better grasp its impact, and offers insight into why certain subjects are harder to place. Why Europe? offers a historical as well as thematical insight into the development of the European Union. Drawing from six questions that put main events, key figures as well as the defining moments of the past 70 years in the foreground, this book lays out the essence of European integration.

This book offers a privileged journey through the geography and history of Italian and international figurative culture kept at the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, with works spanning a chronological period from the 13th to the 20th centuries. The Pinacoteca, born within the Enlightenment culture as a testimony to the progress of the human spirit, remains today a dynamic and lively instrument of civilization. The book reconstructs the patronage and provenance of the paintings and the way in which they were received; it specifies their technical data, as well as introducing comments and in-depth studies.

In addition, the rich illustrative apparatus leads to continuous comparisons and new explorations.