Prestel

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

Few buildings rivet our attention like skyscrapers. As the race to build higher and higher continues, these symbols of success and economic power dominate and reshape urban skylines across the globe. Opening with Chicago's Reliance Building, built in 1894, and closing with plans for the London Bridge Tower, scheduled to be completed in 2011, eye-catching two to four page spreads in this up-to-date and comprehensive volume capture over fifty of the world's most important skyscrapers. Each building is breathtakingly photographed and an accompanying text offers intriguing historical details, notes on construction, and engineering feats. Tracing the evolution of these magnificent structures, Skyscrapers illustrates their significance not only in architectural history, but also as a reflection of humankind's most competitive and optimistic urges.

With the opening of the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, an incomparable private collection of artworks from six centuries returns to its original home. Masterful paintings, sculptures, and furniture are displayed in the Liechtenstein Palace, famous for its Baroque architecture and sumptuous gardens. A visit to the museum is a journey through time from the Baroque to the Biedcrmeier eras.

Focusing on buildings designed by Bauhaus members from 1919 to 1933, this book features some 65 famous and lesser-known building projects in Germany, Vienna, Barcelona, Prague and Budapest by architects including Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Arranged chronologically, Bauhaus offers informative commentary and site plans along with photographs, taken especially for this book. Engels' photographs show many buildings in their newly restored conditions and reflect the full range of Bauhaus architecture, one of the most influential schools of architecture in the twentieth century.

This text chronicles the evolution of graffiti via images that had not been intended for everyday people to see, focusing on the works of New York City writers active from 1970s until the mid-1980s.

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

A fascinating visual guide, Pictopia provides a source of inspiration for design professionals and amateurs. The images included in Pictopia cover a multitude of subject areas, such as war, peace, animal rights, racism, life and death, represented in more than 400 royalty-free illustrations, offering suggestions as to how to express today's social issues and discussions through the creative process alone.

Lets you communicate your ideas in an effective way by offering more than 900 different silhouettes, consisting of figures and objects from various jobs, pastimes, attitudes and situations. This book is suitable for both an amateur and professional in the visual arts.

Known for his intense and lyrical style, the Austrian Expressionist Schiele was also a gifted writer. This selection of the artist's poetry and letters gracefully intertwines his powerful words with his indelible images. Elegantly designed with special paper and unique typography, this book emulates a personal journal. Interspersed with sixty sketches, drawings and paintings, Schiele's poems and letters illustrate his artistic and personal struggles and passions. Many of the artworks are referenced in or parallel his writings, thereby enhancing the reader's experience of them. Elisabeth Leopold adds her commentary to this sumptuous presentation that will leave readers with a deeper appreciation of Schiele's creative genius. This title is published in cooperation with the Leopold Museum, Vienna.

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.

One of the most celebrated living artists in Latin America, Botero has gained international fame capturing the whimsy of life by painting corpulent and comical figures. His wideranging subject matter is deeply rooted in his South American heritage and includes portraits, bordello scenes, nudes, bullfights, landscapes and still lifes. The paintings and drawings collected in this book provide a comprehensive overview of the artist's work in these media and fascinating glimpse into his unique artistic world. The book also includes an introduction that discusses Botero's place in contemporary art, a fascinating interview with the artist, biographical notes as well as six short stories by the artist, rounding out this compelling book on Botero's paintings and drawings.

This rare glimpse into North Korean society is the first book of its kind: a riveting collection of state-sponsored propaganda posters that presents the unique graphic sensibilities of this little-known country. Seldom seen by the outside world, North Korea’s propaganda art colors the cities and countryside with vibrant images of brave soldiers, happy and well-fed peasants, and a heroic and compassionate leader. More than 250 of these posters are collected here for the first time, showing the wide range of North Korean propaganda art. Hand-painted pieces of art, these posters display the latest political slogans that are repeated in newspaper editorials, government declarations, and compulsory study sessions throughout the country. A collection that will appeal to artists and graphic designers as well as those interested in this closed society, this book may not represent the reality of North Korea, but rather a vision of the country as promoted by its regime and depicted by its state-sponsored artists.

Now available in a sleek and nicely priced new format, this book reveals why Giorgio Morandi is considered one of the most accomplished painters of his generation. Throughout his long career, Morandi focused on still lifes and landscapes that captured the simple beauty of light and form. While his contemporaries struggled with the intellectual turmoil and aesthetic experimentation of the twentieth century, Morandi remained faithful to the subjects that fascinated him most: bottles, vases, and jugs, and the view out his studio window in Bologna. This richly illustrated volume brings together more than one hundred of his most important works. Grouped according to technique — paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings — each aspect of his work is given thoughtful consideration by scholars who explore Morandi’s genius for composition, his serene palette, and his expertise as a draftsman.

This book focuses on a world-renowned architectural firm that has contributed to China’s recent architectural boom. The architectural practice founded in 1965 by Meinhard von Gerkan and Volkwin Marg has become one of the largest, most wide-ranging and most influential in the world, and has garnered numerous international awards. Since the early 1990s von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) has been a major contributor to China’s extraordinary architectural development, designing and realizing hundreds of projects throughout the country. These projects, collected in this book for the first time, display the incredible range and talent that has made the firm so successful. From office buildings, train stations, trade fair grounds, research centers and sports complexes to concert halls, the world’s largest museum, and an entire city with a housing capacity of 800,000 inhabitants, each project outlined here includes comprehensive pictorial materials, plans, and explanatory texts. With all eyes on China as a center for cutting edge architecture, this stunningly designed volume is certain to attract the attention of those interested in the latest architectural trends.

Since 1908 readers have been finding respite from the vagaries of everyday life in the pages of novels published by Mills & Boon. Now part of the Harlequin group, the world's largest romance publisher, the company has published thousands of titles each with its own distinctive jacket art. Part of a centenary celebration, this collection of some two hundred Mills & Boon covers offers a fascinating visual record of how our perceptions of romance, love and drama have evolved over the years. With titles such as «Romance Goes Tenting», «Egyptian Honeymoon» and «Beware the Beast», these novels' contents have changed dramatically as women defined their roles in the 1920s and 1930s; searched for heroes during World War II; strove for careers in the 1950s; engaged in free love in the 1960s; yearned for sexual emancipation in the 1970s and 1980s; and, ultimately learned a lot about self-reliance while waiting for Prince Charming to show up.These social transformations are reflected in the covers, chronologically arranged as full-color plates. An introduction charts the changing themes of the novels and explores the reasons behind the enduring popularity of the romance novel.

Imagine 365 masterpieces of art from around the world at your fingertips. That's what readers will find as they turn the pages day after day to discover a full-page exquisitely reproduced painting, artifact, photograph, drawing, print, or sculpture from every culture and epoch imaginable. Further enhancing these pages are suitable quotations to ponder, surprise, and delight. Opposite the color illustrations, this generously proportioned volume offers plenty of space to record birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates as well as personal notes and reflections. The range and quality of the pieces featured here will satisfy the aesthetic appetites of the most discerning appreciator of art and will offer inspiration every day of the year.

This dynamic introduction to the world's greatest photographers from the inception of photography to today bears proof of the magic of the camera. From Felix Nadar to Nan Goldin, each of the photographers featured here represents an important aspect of photography's evolution. The artists are represented in double-page spreads that include reproductions of their most important works, concise biographies, informative sidebars, and a timeline that extends throughout the volume. The result is a fascinating overview of the way photographers continue to push the limits of their genre, offering the audience new ways of seeing and understanding our world.

For four decades, gmp has been designing and constructing buildings around the world. Their projects run the gamut from homes, hotels, museums, theatres, concert halls and office buildings, to commercial centers, hospitals, research and educational facilities and transportation stations. Covering more than 200 of these projects, this impressive volume offers a chronological retrospective of gmp's oeuvre. Highlights include innovative renovations to airports in Stuttgart and Hamburg, designs for the reconstruction of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, and the Rhein Energie Football Stadium in Cologne. With work completed across the globe, the gmp group has established itself as a major force in the world of architecture. This stunning book is a fitting tribute to their accomplishments.

The Aga Khan is one of the most ardent patrons of architecture and historic preservation in the world. Since inheriting his title as spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, usually known as Ismailis, fifty years ago, he has fostered and commissioned numerous structures and restored a multitude of buildings from Asia to Africa. The prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture, first given in 1980, recognises projects that benefit the Muslim world for their excellence in contemporary design, community improvement and development, restoration, re-use and area conservation. This new anthology presents award winning projects that have taken place over the past 25 years from universities and historic restoration programmes that bear the Aga Khan's name to religious centres, museums and development efforts in more than twenty countries. Through the Aga Khan Development Network, the Aga Khan occupies a unique place in the world of architecture and this book reveals the range and breadth of his activities.

Big art for little hands — this new Klimt Colouring Book in Prestel's new Colouring Book range is a beautifully produced scribble book. With plenty of space to colour outside the lines, the book is also designed to give kids an early interest in some of the great masters. Sections of Klimt's masterpieces are there to inspire children's creativity, whatever their age.

The fifty buildings presented here in chronological order represent the most compelling, intriguing, and awe-inspiring structures from all over the world. Along with the Pyramids of Cheops, the Parthenon, and the Colosseum, readers will learn about other masterpieces such as the Hagia Sophia in Turkey; Cambodia's Temple Complex at Angkor Wat; the Potala Palace in Lhasa; and the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Each entry features full color photographs of the structure along with informative text presented in a dynamic format. Readers can find basic information about each building's artistic relevance, style, and contextual history while timelines and sidebars offer additional notes about architectural periods and techniques.

As an avant-garde artist of the twentieth century, painter Paul Klee's work defies classification. What is indisputable, however, is its originality and brilliance. Taken from the artist's most prolific years, 1917-1933, this book presents works that Klee never intended to sell. More than 100 colour plates reveal Klee's chromatic genius and wide stylistic range. Along with an indepth biography, the book features three essays, which examine Klee's versatility, place him in context with his contemporaries, and discuss his process for cataloguing his works. The result is a unique and far-reaching exploration of one of the twentieth century's most important and admired artists, at the most fecund stage of his career.

The book includes one hundred colour plates accompanied by in-depth descriptions, as well as numerous black-and-white photographs of the masks as they are used in religious and secular ceremonies. An introductory text by renowned scholars describes how the masks are made, examines their significance in African culture and offers insight into the universal practice of masquerading. A unique contribution to the literature on African art, this book is also a wonderful introduction to countless fascinating, age-old spiritual traditions still practised today.

The now global phenomenon of graffiti was first captured in New York by a professional photographer, Jon Naar, in early 1973. The Faith of Graffiti, the first and most celebrated book about this controversial new art form, reproduced just over forty selections from the hundreds of photographs he took. Now more than one hundred thirty never-before-published pictures from that landmark body of work, together with a selection of key photographs from The Faith of Graffiti, are brought together in a book destined to become a classic in its own right. Presented full-frame, at high resolution, and with meticulous attention to the original color, this book brings to life the gritty, exciting New York of the early 1970s and the raw visual power of early graffiti. These photographs recall a time when subway cars and tenement walls seemed to explode overnight into bursts of color and energy. Today these ephemeral works survive only in Naar's masterful photographs. Sacha Jenkins, an authority on graffiti's history, places these pictures within an emerging youth culture that now reaches into every corner of art, fashion, and entertainment.