“Within its 276 pages, you will discover how thousands of years of Chinese history and culture manifest in his designs. Noted author and jewelry specialist Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld takes the reader on an intellectual, art historical, and sensual journey as she traces Yewn’s early career and rise to acclaim” — IGI GemBlog
“A first-of-its-kind art book narrating worldly and philosophical Han Chinese culture in the language of jewellery art.” — Arts & Collections
“A preeminent and harmonious collaboration with text by renowned jewelry historian Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld and artistic direction by trailblazing designer Dickson Yewn results in a one-of-a-kind book, Yewn: Contemporary Art Jewels and the Silk Road.” — Private Air Magazine
Dickson Yewn is the quintessential modern-day literatus. His contemporary jewelry is a crystallization of thousands of years of Chinese material history. Square rings rub shoulders with antique porcelain forms, shapes taken from Ming furniture and the geometric latticework found in Chinese architecture. Yewn focuses on these traditional Chinese motifs, but also understands the significance of different materials. Wood, one of the five elements in Chinese philosophy, is present in most of his collections.
To wear a contemporary jewel by Dickson Yewn is to delve back into China’s works of art and its history, blended with a contemporary twist. This new monograph of his work details the inspiration Yewn has drawn from the Imperial court, exploring its influence on the art of jewelry, from silks, embroidery, painting, architecture and cloisonné enamel to courtesan culture. Beautiful, detailed illustrations and photographs highlight Yewn’s fealty to the artisanal techniques employed by the Imperial courts. Esteemed jewelry writer Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld invites the reader to explore the deeper symbolism behind Yewn’s jewels.
In the story of English architecture, and the history of Cambridge University in particular, Downing College occupies a very special place. Founded in 1800 through the will of the third Sir George Downing, Baronet, it was the first new college to be built in Cambridge for more than 200 years; the first major scheme in the neo-Classical Greek Revival style; and the first instance of the spacious campus plan in collegiate architecture, acting as the precursor to Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia and the American campus universities that were to follow. For the last 215 years the College has been fully committed to the defining style of its original buildings for all subsequent additions to its spacious site in the center of Cambridge, and the story of its architecture is traced from the earliest plans and ideas through to the college of today.
This book starts from the Lucio Fontana exhibition, curated by Enrico Crispolti, that was held from 1 October until 30 November 2009, at Tornabuoni Art Gallery, Paris. The same exhibition is presented again in Arezzo, as ‘Lucio Fontana – Hic et Nunc’, from 6 May until 24 June 2018 at the Municipal Gallery of Contemporary Art, for which this book acts as the catalog. The volume explores, through a selection of approximately seventy works, including sculptures and paintings, the Master’s artistic activity from the 1950s onwards. The critical essays by Enrico Crispolti enrich the text by providing some important insights into the life of Lucio Fontana, his visits to Paris and Milan, during which he continued to have an extensive range of exchanges with artists, architects and intellectuals of his time. Vintage photographs, direct quotations from the artist, and a thorough biography contextualize the art of Fontana in the specific cultural climate in which he lived and help to better understand the evolutionary spirit of this person who, until his death, was driven by a constant creative tension.
Text in English and Italian.
An expert in Pompeian studies and a qualified tourist guide since 2005, Professor De Albentiis has been Professor of Style, History of Art and Costume at the Pietro Vannucci Academy of Fine Arts, which in 2003 awarded him the title of Honorary Academician. In addition to his academic activity, which has also seen him involved as a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bilbao, Thessaloniki, Pontevedra, Córdoba Oporto and Nanjing, De Albentiis also stands out for his activity as a militant critic of contemporary art and as a promoter of sensitivity towards art and history, through his collaboration with various cultural bodies and associations. In this volume, he reconstructs the history of the discovery and excavation of Pompeii, immersing the reader in every aspect of Pompeian civilization. A journey to discover the main areas and spaces dedicated to public and private life in Pompeii before the terrible eruption of 79 AD, which fatally decreed both its destruction and its preservation. The magnificence of Pompeii’s villas, temples and squares is brought to life in this volume, together with an exhaustive analysis of the religious, economic, social, residential and funerary life of its civilization.
Text in English and Italian.
Midwinter has now become one of the foremost collectibles from the 1950s and is set to follow the path of Clarice Cliff and Susie Cooper pottery in both popularity and price. In the last ten years, 1950s design has been elevated from obscurity, and examples of furniture, fabric and pottery are on display in museums and galleries across the world. Examples of Midwinter pottery have become familiar ‘retro’ images as seen on TV and in the many books on the period. However, Midwinter is much more than just the 1950s – in the 1960s they produced a groundbreaking bestseller in the Fine range designed by David Queensberry. Roy Midwinter designed the quintessential 1970s Stonehenge range and Eve Midwinter the pastel 1980s Style range.
This 3rd edition of the Midwinter ‘bible’ has an additional last chapter bringing the history up to 2011. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in twentieth century design history.
In 1856, just months after Britain and Siam had finalized the historic Bowring trade treaty that would prevent the countries colonization, the violent death of a Siamese official at the new British consulate threatens to scuttle the deal and lead to war. The King and the Consul explores UK and Thai archives to reveal the twists, turns and tensions of this little-known episode that pitted Thailand’s renowned King Mongkut, Rama IV, against the first British Consul, Charles Hillier. The crisis was resolved without war, but not without cost for the participants who suffered unintended tragic outcomes. By examining the background to this tragedy, the book reveals how history has often overlooked the importance of an issue that lay behind it the right of foreigners to own land in the country, and issue that continues to be a thorn in the side of Thailand’s foreign relations to this day.
“The tragic deaths in 1856 of the first British consul to Siam and a Siamese official had an unusual impact on Thailand‘s property law and Britain’s diplomatic presence in the country. This intriguing book could only be written by someone with long residence in Bangkok, through knowledge of Thailand’s property law, and enthusiasm for history. Simon Landy gives us a slice of legal and diplomatic history with close attention to its human dimensions. An unusual and lovely read” – Chris Baker
Important masterpieces in museum collections, such as the paintings by Rembrandt, often have the dubious honor of having undergone numerous conservation treatments in the past. Because of the significance of the paintings, these treatments are generally well documented. For example, The Anatomy Lesson of Dt Nicolaes Tulp has undergone 23 documented treatments, while those of The Night Watch amount to 25. Rembrandt’s paintings are found in major collections all over the world. Every country has its own traditions, developments and approaches to conservation with important restorers having played a key role in the treatment and appearance of Rembrandt paintings. In Rembrandt Conservation Histories, experts address aspects relating to the conservation history of paintings by Rembrandt and other 17th-century Dutch masters, raising awareness of how the appearance and condition of paintings by Rembrandt can be explained in part by their treatment history.
Hiroshige. Nature and the City is the most extensive overview of the career of the famed Japanese print artist, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) in the English language to date. It is based on the largest collection of Hiroshige in private hands outside Japan, the Alan Medaugh collection. The catalogue consists of 500 entries, with an emphasis on urban and rural landscapes, fan prints and prints of birds and flowers. Grouped chronologically by subject, it presents Hiroshige’s interpretation of the urban scenes from his hometown Edo (present-day Tokyo), the great series documenting travel along the famous highways of Japan, and the idylls of nature as represented in his bird-and flower prints. Hiroshige often incorporated poetry in his works and for the first time all textual content is transcribed and translated. Additionally, the catalog pays due attention to the differences between variant editions of his prints. Thus, it provides essential comparative material for every scholar, dealer, and collector.
The book describes the legends and history of each of the beads, their importance, folklores on them, use, price, and so on. The oral history, gender questions, social dynamics, and even inter- as well as intra-tribal relationships of the tribes have been described in detail in the book. The tradition of beads has been imbedded in the lives of the people of north-east from time immemorial. The continuing popularity of beads has led to manufacture of spurious products. Despite the onslaught of globalization even in rural areas, the popularity of beads has not diminished among the people. Beads are also used as a bartering item and usually take the place of money even now. The book describes the economic, cultural, and ritual significance of beads; their historical relation to migration; and popular beliefs, classification mechanism, and ethnic specifications of beads.
Contents: Preface; Introduction; Diversity of Beads; Folklore and Beads; Trade; Beads and Gender; Beads and the Emerging Realities; Beliefs, Utility, and Values of Beads; Conclusions; Bibliography; Acknowledgements; Index.
Bruges is a city with a fascinating history. Bruges is a city full of people and stories. Bruges is a city like those in the fairy tales…
Historian Paul Van Damme’s book is an ode to the city, its inhabitants and its heritage. This history book reads like a page-turner: city views act as backdrops for wondrous events, homes and squares become the decors for true stories.
Paul Van Damme proves that historical accuracy and engaging storytelling can go hand in hand. This accessible, intriguing book is an ideal introduction for those who visit Bruges for the first time. But it is also a great read for those who frequent the city; even lifelong residents will find charming stories and anecdotes they may never have heard before.
“An important document that should be included in any library of design and architecture.” – Daniella Ohad
“A masterful blend of émigré biography and architecture and design history, proving that the twentieth century fostered more than one modernism.” – Donald Albrecht
Christopher Long, author of seminal monographs on Adolf Loos, Kem Weber, and Paul T. Frankel, turns his attention to the little-known architect and designer Jock Peters, a largely forgotten figure of early Los Angeles modernism.
This visually rich study is also an intimate portrait of an architect who, like too many, struggled to establish a career during the early decades of the 20th century, years ravished by World War I and the Great Depression. Among Peters’s early works in Germany are designs for the Levantehaus and Karstadt department stores, an innovative design dated 1916 for a magnificent glass pavilion, and his work for Peter Behrens after the war, but the architect’s most accomplished and compelling work came after 1922 when he settled in Southern California. Most notable are the strikingly lavish and elegant commercial interiors Peters designed for the iconic Bullock’s Wilshire store in Los Angeles and the tragically forgotten Hollander department store in New York City; both projects brought him international recognition.
The breathtaking scope of his short-lived career includes modern film sets for Famous Players-Lasky, later Paramount Pictures, while working under the legendary art director Hans Dreier; a dynamic sales office for the trendsetting Maddux Air Lines, which later became TWA; and modern residences, including the still extant homes he built for cinematographer Alfred Gilks, who would later win an Academy Award for An American in Paris, and art gallerist and developer William Lingenbrink for whom Peters also designed stores and a vibrantly colorful sidewalk for the Silver Strand beach development north of Los Angeles. Lingenbrink, a major supporter of the burgeoning modernism, also commissioned Jock Peters, alongside Schindler, to design houses for Park Moderne, the legendary avant-garde modernist retreat for artists in Calabasas. Peters also designed the retreat’s Streamline Moderne pump house, clubhouse, and zigzag fountain, which still stands.
This important study on early modernism includes never before published material from the architect’s personal archive, still in family hands. These remarkable and inspiring images-more than 250 historic photographs, etchings, watercolors, and drawings-alongside Long’s insightful narrative, demonstrate how Peters, despite his early death, managed to leave his mark on the modernist landscape in Southern California at a time when the new style was just emerging.
Some years ago the study of arms and armor of the subcontinent reached a plateau where enough was known to allow curators and collectors a veneer of authority when writing and speaking about the topic. This book shows how very thin that veneer was. For political and more recently commercial reasons the cultural history of the subcontinent has been largely expressed through the Mughal experience of India. Whilst it is true that the Muslim Mughals dominated India the empire they ruled was predominantly Hindu. This book reclaims the Hindu contribution to the military culture of the Mughal period. The Rajputs were very closely aligned to the Mughals from the reign of Akbar in the sixteenth century but they retained their own distinctive values. The armory at Mehrangarh helps us to enter an unfamiliar world. A tradition of courage and self-sacrifice was conserved in music and poetry, an ideology so extreme that scholars have struggled to concede its existence. This radical book challenges arms and armor orthodoxy and is essential reading for scholars, collectors and dealers interested in India and its wider culture.
As a painter Lukas Salzmann is committed to representationalism while creating art-historical and media-related references in many of his works. He overpaints photographic templates, thus freeing the images from their functional fixedness. Deploying vehement brushwork and powerful handling, he dissolves content that is seemingly unequivocal and converts it into a polysemy that valorises the mystical as much as it does the obvious. Salzmann’s atmospherically dense pictures open up emotional spaces for viewers, leading them into a state of oscillation between recognizability and recondite unidentifiability, in which the transformative powers of painting can develop their full impact.
In the Viewer’s Eye – the Unknown comprises Lukas Salzmann’s oeuvre from 1995 to 2018 and includes an accompanying essay by scholar Rudolf Velhagen, which locates the painter’s work in its art historical context. Lukas Salzmann, born 1960 in Dusseldorf, lives and works in Zurich and Wetzikon.
Text in English and German.
Clay is back: the age-old craft of ceramics is being embraced by a new generation of urban makers and collectors. This book explores the contemporary revival of pottery, focusing on six inspiring cities, their history and their makers. Twenty-eight passionate ceramicists in New York, London, Tokyo, Copenhagen, Sydney and São Paulo introduce us to their work, their studios and their inspiration. Includes a practical and updated source list of places to discover and buy handmade ceramics in the six cities featured. Third and updated edition.
In the dark days of 1940, at the onset of the Battle of Britain Churchill’s ‘Few’, the brave fighter pilots who battled over the skies of Southern England, found a haven in the White Hart Inn in Brasted, where they could escape the traumas of war for a few hours.
The landlords Kath and Teddy Preston were there to share in the hopes and fears, the elation and sorrow of the men who lived their lives on the edge daily.
Inn of the Few is a tale of those precarious days, an insight into life at the White Hart and its famous visitors. The book includes fascinating anecdotes and archive photographs and documents of a momentous time in history, in which local lives gained national significance.
This book celebrates the extraordinary talent of Raphael, 500 years after his death.
This is the story of an unequaled master whose figure has surpassed that of other leading figures of the Renaissance. His talent grew with astonishing rapidity, starting with the years of training at the workshop of his father Giovanni Santi: in 1500, at only 17 years old, he was already defined ‘magister’.
The author leads us into the folds of the extraordinary story of Raphael, studded with masterpieces that have become cornerstones in the history of art, and helps us to understand his timeless talent through new comparisons and explanations. The deep knowledge and the profound passion of the author make reading the book exciting and unforgettable.
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.
Jewelry and the universe are bound together not just in the Ancient Greek sense of the word ‘cosmos’; the sun, moon and stars invariably also found their way into representative forms of art jewelry around the world. While magical, mythological and religious references stood mainly at the forefront of ancient and non-European cultures, over the course of recent history it was on decorative grounds that jewelry pieces with cosmic motifs became so coveted. Whether Köchert in Vienna, Fabergé in St Petersburg or Lalique in Paris, the great jewelers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were all inspired by heavenly forms. Today, interest in celestial bodies remains unbroken among contemporary internationally celebrated jewelry artists. With his new, richly illustrated book, the long-standing head of the Jewellery Museum Pforzheim presents for the first time a comprehensive review on the star motif in jewelry – from Ancient Egypt to the present day.
Text in English and German.
The Grand Tour, a journey of culture and amusement across Europe, was a common practice from the 17th century to the first quarter of the 19th century. This book, then, reviews the stages of a tour that has left its mark on European culture. The opening essay, by Nicholas Foulkes, reviews the significance of the Grand Tour for international culture, especially British culture. Next, Fernando Mazzocca reviews its artistic coordinates, while Attilio Brilli explores some of the more obscure but intriguing aspects of the Grand Tour, with an intriguing selection of literary excerpts, a lively travel anthology. Accompanying the texts is a carefully curated selection of images, with works by many of the leading artists of the period.
This is the first work to explore fully the history, art, and craft of the Japanese hanging scroll, or kakejiku, from its ancient Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese origins, through its introduction to Japan as early as the sixth century AD, to its role in the modern Japanese art world. It is proof of the scroll’s timeless qualities that it remains a fixture in traditional Japanese rooms, and continues to inform the design of modern interiors. Part 1 traces the scroll’s fascinating journey from an obscure religious artifact to a popular work of art, covering: the origins of the handscroll as a vehicle for Buddhist texts during the Nara period (710 784); the popularity of the vibrant picture scrolls of the opulent Heian period (794 1185); the rise of Zen-inspired hanging scrolls during the Kamakura period (1185 1333); their rich diversification during the Muromachi and Momoyama periods (1336 1600); and their incorporation into the “alcove,” or tokonoma of Edo period (1600 1867) households. Part 2 is dedicated to the scroll’s artistic features: the structure of both hanging and handheld scrolls; their complex array of classes and subclasses, formats, and dimensions; their exquisite and often costly materials; traditional handling and display; and methods of storage and preservation. Part 3 describes the age-old process by which scrolls are still made by Japanese craftsmen, including: material selection (tori-awase); backing textile and paper sections urauchi); careful assembly into the complete scroll (tsuke-mawashi); use of the drying board (kari-bari); and the finishing stage of mounting (shiage).
This comprehensive work will be of interest to all connoisseurs and collectors of East Asian scroll art as well as craftspeople engaged in the mounting and presentation of text and images.
As some American artists began to eliminate people and remove extraneous details from their compositions, they often employed neat, orderly brushwork or close-up, unemotional photography. Artists as diverse as Patrick Henry Bruce, John Covert, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand and Arthur Dove navigated European and American avant-garde circles, picking and choosing new ideas and methods. Inspiration ranged from cubism and machine parts to new technologies, and they found ways to bring order to the modern world through extreme simplification.
For them, abstraction involved absence and presence – the evacuation of human beings but also the desire to depict something that would not otherwise be visible or to render visible unseen natural processes like the passage of time, sound waves, or weather patterns. Their artworks provide a new context for the precisionist works in the subsequent sections and point to modern ideas about what art could be. How does a crisp painting technique relate to an aesthetic of absence?
The Jewish Journey tells the history of the Jewish people from antiquity to modern times through 22 objects from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, brought together here for the first time. Many of the objects are little-known treasures and all 22 have remarkable stories. Spanning 4000 years of history and covering 14 different countries, the objects trace the evolution of Jewish life and culture from its earliest beginnings in Ancient Mesopotamia through time and space to the modern day.
There is no city in history more evocative than Troy. Since the famous poet Homer wrote his Iliad and Odyssey in the 8th century BC, many others have studied, reinterpreted, sung about and laid claim for themselves to the city, the war between the Greeks and the Trojans, and the famous Wooden Horse. Troy became a legendary lieu de mémoire, and thus a city of poetry, painting, opera and film. But Troy actually existed as well: in 1871 the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found the remains of the city while excavating in Turkey. Archaeologists have exposed the city’s history since the end of the 19th century. Troy. City, Homer and Turkey presents the latest insights and discoveries relating to both the historical and the legendary Troy. Contents: The story of Troy The archaeology of Troy Troy and its neighbours Homer and Troy Troy in the Graeco-Roman world The Renaissance of Troy Schliemann and the rediscovery of Troy Homer and Troy in modern Turkey Eternal Troy
This book – researched and authored by recognized rum expert Pascal Kählin – offers a comprehensive overview of a wide range of different rums and the most important places of production around the world. The evolution of rum is closely tied to the cultural history and prevalence of sugar. As a comprehensive guide, Rum – Rhum – Ron discusses and classifies different rum brands and portrays important distilleries in image and texts, detailing their history, local variations and particularities. This ‘atlas of rum’ tells rum’s story and its rise from sailor’s drink to collector’s item – a compendium for experts and anyone with an interest in spirits.