Prestel

Although books on Hundertwasser's work abound, few are as satisfying as this luxuriously designed, one of a kind volume that was originally created as an exhibition catalogue. Bound in black linen, foil-embossed, and printed in six colours with impeccable attention to detail, this gem of a book contains ninety-eight colour illustrations featuring a selection of Hundertwasser's graphic works along with critical texts and commentary by the artist. A short introduction, an essay on the artist's graphic work and an up-to-date biography make this an indispensable book for fans of Hundertwasser and lovers of beauty.

Big art for little hands, these enchanting activity books allow young artists to explore the world's masterpieces on their own terms and with plenty of space to color outside the lines.

Created during Alexander von Humboldt's historic expedition to the Americas and Cuba-hailed by many as the scientific discovery of America these intricate and delicately tinted prints record his revolutionary findings as he traveled through jungles, across rivers, and over mountainous terrain. The illustrations in the book give the English and Latin botanical names of the plants and are followed by an exhaustive index. Published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Humboldt's death, this collection of botanical prints contains many works that have never been published before. Internationally renowned botanist H. Walter Lack lends his expertise to a fascinating essay that discusses Humboldt's significant contributions to the world of botany and scientific research. Technically precise, the prints are equally appealing to anyone who appreciates fine art and botanical illustration.

A major figure in contemporary art, John Baldessari is widely considered one of the most influential artists to emerge since the mid-1960s. From his early text-and-image paintings to his more recent photo collages and installations, Baldessari has continued to make art that addresses the social impact of mass culture, often playfully through strategies of appropriation and deconstruction. Baldessari's lifelong interest in language, written and visual, and the interaction between the two, raises questions about the nature of communication and perception. More than 400 illustrations are presented in full colour in this monograph published in conjunction with a major exhibition organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Tate Modern in London. Eleven essays by critics, curators, art historians, and an artist and former student of Baldessari's round out this volume. Few contemporary artists have achieved the range and relevance of Baldessari's oeuvre, which is finally given its due in this elegant retrospective book.

Full-colour illustrations and foldouts of Rothenberg's bestknown early works as well as exciting new paintings afford readers the chance to observe the evolution of Rothenberg's themes. From her earliest horse paintings through her spinning figures of the 1980s and early 1990s to her most recent series of paintings of dismembered puppets, this book highlights key compositional strategies in Rothenberg's work. Michael Auping contributes an essay addressing Rothenberg's painting process and the eclectic influences that have helped shape her figurative and spatial distortions. Barbara Buhler Lynes addresses Rothenberg's work in the context of Santa Fe and the tradition of twentieth-century women artists it has inspired, from Mable Dodge Luhan to Georgia O'Keeffe to Agnes Martin.

For centuries Japanese potters have been turning out porcelain vessels, known for their purity of colour and perfection of form. In contrast, the work of Taizo Kuroda is revered not for its purity or precision, but for the luminous warmth and joyful asymmetry that makes his work both approachable and appealing to the senses. This monograph celebrates Kuroda's most beautiful creations — vessels that transcend their functionality to become works of art. Kuroda's unique approach to glazing, his love of shape and silhouette, and his willingness to let the potter's hands become part of the piece all serve to make his art some of the most revered and sought after in the world.

In the world of furniture and design the name Tim Gosling is synonymous with sophistication, excellence, and craftsmanship. This beautifully produced, generously illustrated volume displays these qualities, which have earned Gosling high praise as well as important public and private commissions. Renowned for his ability to tailor-make a room and its elements to meet the client's individual tastes and needs, Gosling is one of the few designers who involves himself with every aspect of a project. Irresistibly classic and elegant, Gosling's designs have graced yachts, corporate boardrooms, country homes and city apartments. Stephen Calloway introduces readers to Gosling's signature design concepts and reviews the design process, Jean Gomm and Juergen Huber highlight the quality materials that make Gosling's pieces so sought after and timeless. Fans of classic interior design, as well as designers themselves, will find much to inspire and ignite their imaginations.

The Nigerian film industry is the third largest in the world, after those of the United States and India. Nigerian films often deal with the moral dilemmas facing modern Africans today and tell stories familiar to African families: of religion, violence, AIDS, and economic hardship. Much as he did with his previous book, the hugely successful The Hyena & Other Men, Pieter Hugo documents the intense and incredibly colorful world of Nollywood from an unusual angle. His images are staged representations of Nigerian film sets, featuring local actors who recreate themes and characters from Nollywood films: young men in military fatigues; witch doctors, healers and saints; hunters with their kill; prostitutes in their rooms. The result is a series of surreal tableaux rooted in local symbolic imagery. Accompanying the photographs are texts by Chris Abani, whose short fiction piece captures the chaos of the filmmaking process, and an essay by Zina Saro-Wiwa on Nollywood's explosive growth and what it means to Nigerians. Presented in a simple and restrained format, Hugo's gorgeous photographs reveal a little-known phenomenon to a wider audience.

Imago Mundi aims to show the world through the unique perspective of the author, who expresses his personal perception of the world through pictograms, ideograms, logos, symbols and signs. This book is an instrument of communication and representation, through which we discover a creative interpretation of the world as seen through abstract signs pictographic textures and repeated designs. These graphic signs and symbols serve to express concepts, ideas objects, places and events of a universal significance, which transcend all cultural barriers. Imago Mundi features images of the everyday, visual representations of daily experiences, which show the author's subjective vision of the world surrounding him and includes more than 1350 pictograms ideograms logos and symbols designed by LSD space.

From turn-of-the-century corsets to the most recent fashion-forward trends, this treasury of photos culled from the Getty Archives encompasses every aspect of the history of fashion. A beautiful gift book formatted as a year's worth of two-page spreads, each day features a stunning photograph facing a detailed caption, a short text, and a memorable quotation, as well as room to note birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates. Immortal designers, their unforgettable creations, the models, legendary film stars, and personalities who bring the clothes to life, and accessories that stand the test of time all contribute to this wide-ranging perspective that will delight and fascinate readers every day, year after year.

This latest volume in a successful series is a tour of the most important Western paintings since the Renaissance. 50 Paintings you should know Spanning seven centuries, this selection of fifty iconic paintings offers readers a crash course in art history while presenting gorgeous color reproductions that are a pleasure to contemplate. Starting with Giotto’s Arena Chapel frescoes and continuing through Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, as well as works by Monet, van Gogh, Cassatt, Cézanne, Dalí, Kahlo, Hopper, Pollock, Rothko, and O’Keeffe, nearly every important painter is represented in this book. It features works that may be familiar to the eye, but whose histories are even more fascinating. Readers will learn about the painters who created them, the reasons for their importance and the places the paintings can be found. As entertaining as it is informative, this beautiful book is the perfect introduction to great paintings that have stood the test of time.

Now available in an attractive flexi-cover edition, this book presents the works that best represent Hokusai's exquisite style and marvelous inventiveness. This volume includes full-color reproductions of drawings and woodblock prints by Japan’s most beloved artist. These landscapes—including his famous views of Mount Fuji— portraits of lovers and kabuki actors, nature and animal illustrations, as well as scenes of daily life in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Japan reveal the artist’s genius for rendering a wide variety of subjects. Matthi Forrer discusses in his essay Hokusai’s life and lasting popularity while placing his work within the context of Japanese society and the work of his contemporaries.

Painter and sculptor Frederic, Lord Leighton is one of the foremost artists of the Victorian classical school. His masterpieces featuring mythological subjects are thought to be the inspiration behind the nineteenth-century craze for all things greek. This monograph includes more than one hundred beautiful reproductions of Leighton's work along with an exploration of the role that classicism played in his paintings. In addition to his art, the book examines the architectural wonders of Leighton House, the artist's opulent Victorian residence in London.

Anyone studying a Van Gogh painting with its heavily articulated brushstrokes, dazzling color, and hypnotic perspective will wonder about the artist who created such masterpieces. Although some details of the Dutch artist’s brief and tragic life have been mythologized into the popular culture, this book takes a deeper look at Van Gogh’s history and oevre. Drawing on Van Gogh’s correspondence, this book allows readers to experience the artist’s life and work synchronistically, with brilliant reproductions of his most famous and lesser-known works. In addition, it provides valuable information about where readers can view Van Gogh’s work in museums throughout the world. Art lovers will find much to discover in this appealing and accessible overview of one of the world’s most compelling figures.

For centuries artists have been expressing their ideas, faith, passion, and rage in three-dimensional works that reflect historical eras, tell stories, reveal mysteries, and even create scandals. Starting from ancient times and continuing through the Classical, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, and Modern periods, this collection introduces readers to the artists and works that make sculpture such an exciting medium to explore. Among the artists included in the book are Michelangelo, Bernini, Rodin, Duchamp, Giacometti, Calder, Moore, Beuys, de Saint Phalle, and Bourgeois. From the Madonna of Essen, the oldest known sculpture of the Virgin Mary, to the sinuous metal sheets that make up Richard Serra's Matter of Time, each work is presented in spreads that offer beautiful photographs, biographical profiles of the artists, historical context, and anecdotal information. Broader texts describe various eras and styles as the book moves chronologically toward the present day, providing an art history lesson for everyone.

In the last decade before his death in 1987, Warhol continued to produce mesmerizing works at an astounding pace. Influenced by the most prominent artists of the 1980s, including Basquiat, Haring, Schnabel, and Clemente, Warhol experimented with a combination of painting and screen printing to develop an extraordinary vocabulary of images that traversed a variety of genres. The result is a remarkable output, collected here in this companion to a touring exhibition organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum. This catalogue delves into the range of works Warhol was creating during his last years, including abstract paintings, collaborations, and his final self-portraits. Essays by Keith Hartley and Gregory Volk and contributions by Bruno Bischofberger, Keith Haring, and Julian Schnabel round out this compelling look at an artist whose most fecund work may have been produced in his last years.

Instead of focusing on the designers that have made their marks in the past decades, this original and inspiring portrayal of style icons features the unforgettable faces and bodies that helped propel designers into the limelight over the years. Organized by timeless style sensibilities that reflect distinctive fashion identities, the book features a wide array of fashion icons, including sophisticates such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Audrey Hepburn, it-girls like Edie Sedgewick and ChloA Sevigny, bombshells like Marylin Monroe and Brigitte Bardot, and eccentrics like Bjork and Grace Jones. Each fashion icon is given her own generous two-page spread. Beautiful photographs illustrate how the subject personifies a certain quality of style, and fascinating texts discuss her influence and unique contributions to the world of fashion. This engaging and endlessly appealing celebration of style will please fashionistas of all ages and tastes.

What better way to learn about art than to create your own masterpiece alongside another, find hidden details that add to an understanding of the artwork, read fascinating stories about how the piece came to be created, or take an entertaining quiz that leads to a deeper appreciation of the technique and theme. Modeled after Prestel's successful A Year in Art series, this beautifully produced activity book introduces children to many of the world's greatest artworks — ranging from African masks to European paintings and modern art. Hands-on projects are sure to spark children's imaginations while imparting important knowledge that will serve them well as they grow older. The book is perfect for all kinds of drawing and the exquisite reproductions will impress kids of all ages. Whether used at home or in a classroom, this engaging and enriching book will delight children, their parents, and teachers with its endless opportunities to create and learn about art.

Featuring fashion icons and images culled from the Getty archives, this book presents brilliant photos of designers and their creations, top models and movie stars, royalty and rock n' roll legends. 365 spreads-one for each day of the year — feature full-page, four-colour photographs along with fascinating fashion trivia. There is plenty of room for noting important dates, scribbling notes, or recording thoughts. The high quality reproductions and paper makes this book suitable for a well-dressed desk or a coffee table. Best of all it reminds us that the best fashion is ageless and timeless.

Continuing the story which began with the groundbreaking 'Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers', Sacha Jenkins and David Villorente bring us never-before-published blackbook drawings from the years 1985 to 2005.

This highly readable introduction to the abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky reveals why he remains one of the most influential and imitated artists. This book explores all facets of Kandinsky s life and career, from his radical work as the founder of the Blue Rider group and his escape from Weimar Germany to Paris, to his stormy love affair with the painter Gabriele Münter and his many friendships with leading artists of his generation. Color reproductions of Kandinsky s works are presented alongside photographs that document the tumultuous world he inhabited. Tracing the arc of Kandinsky s artistic development from his early landscapes and experiments with impressionism to his emergence as a pioneer in the field of abstract expressionism this beautifully designed volume celebrates Kandinsky s work through the lens of his extraordinary life.

When Niki de Saint Phalle died, the world lost not only an artist of enormous passion, but also a remarkably creative woman whose work and life were inextricably linked. Throughout her forty-year career Saint Phalle explored female roles in society and myth, basing many of her disquieting and joyful depictions on personal experience. The full range of Saint Phalle's oeuvre is paid glorious tribute in this retrospective volume, which also features new images and an extended biography. Chronologically arranged, this updated book takes readers from the visceral and controversial shooting paintings and her playfully voluptuous nanas to the impressive installations and wonderfully elaborate sculpture gardens such as the Tarot Garden in Tuscany, the Sun God in San Diego and the Stravinsky Fountain in Paris. In addition to nearly a hundred color and black and white photographs of Saint Phalle's work, the artist's own comments and sketches are interspersed throughout the book, providing an integral framework for understanding and appreciating her unusual talent.

Tracing Miro's career, this book begins in the 1920s with the artist's introduction to surrealism, cubism, and dadaism, and the flowering of his friendships with Picasso, Braque and other influential artists and poets. It moves on to his creation of an iconographic pictorial style, which reached maturity in the 1940s and forever distinguished Miro from his contemporaries. Nearly one hundred of his greatest works reproduced in this book display the artistic range of this lyrical painter, whose brilliant use of color, line and shape resulted in haunting compositions. Fascinating photographs depict the artist at various stages of his life and perceptive essays about his work round out this exciting perspective of the world as portrayed in Miro's art.

This lively portrait of the artist and his environment helps readers become acquainted with the life and times of Jan Vermeer. With only 37 known works, Vermeer's oeuvre affords readers an opportunity to become intimately acquainted with his paintings and with daily life in seventeenth-century Holland. Here readers will learn about the Golden Age of Dutch artistry, the culture and community of Delft, and how Vermeer revolutionized the style and content of portraits and still-lifes. Written in an engaging, journalistic style and including full-color reproductions, this volume will give readers a glimpse into Vermeer's private life and the inspirations behind his paintings, giving insight into a genius whose work continues to intrigue us today.