Taschen

In the 15 years since TASCHEN published The Great American Pin-up, international interest in this distinctly American art form has increased exponentially. Paintings by leading artists such as Alberto Vargas, George Petty, and Gil Elvgren that sold for $ 2000 in 1996 are going for $ 200,000 and more today. Pin-up, defined as drawings or paintings of pretty girls that stop short of frank nudity, was produced between 1920 and 1970, and much of it was discarded by publishers and calendar companies after printing. Today it's huge, and ripe for an equally huge and truly comprehensive collector's edition. Formidably sized, The Art of Pin-up is an impressive book that will be coveted by casual fans as well as hardcore pin-up collectors. The reproduction quality of the paintings, pastels, and preparatory sketches — largely sourced from the original art — invites the viewer to trace the brush strokes in the full-page reproductions. Each chapter contains exquisite period calendars, vintage prints, and original model photos as well, documenting the artists' creative process. Much of these ephemera were photographed on-site at the historic Brown & Bigelow Company, home to the world's largest archive of vintage pin-up calendars. Following the chapters on the 15 featured artists, the book concludes with an Encyclopedia of Pin-up, featuring thumbnail bios and representative art of 72 additional artists, the most complete compendium of pin-up artists ever compiled. All this adds up to a book unlikely to be equaled on this popular subject.

Life is but a dream: The complete works of the visionary painter Manet called him the greatest painter of all. Picasso was so inspired by hismasterpiece Las Meninas that he painted 44 variations of it. Monet, Renoir, and Degas were heavily influenced by the paintings of Philip IV's grand chamberlain. Francis Bacon famously painted a study of his portrait of Pope Innocent X. Indeed, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (1599-1660) was more than the most important painter of the Spanish Golden Age — he was considered a precursor to the Impressionists over two centuries before that movement came into being. This catalog raisonne brings together Velazquez's complete works — jaw-droppingly reproduced in extra-large format with a selection of delicious enlarged details — with insightful commentary on how his paintings give equal attention to all that they contain. To him, an old woman frying eggs or a buffoon was as important as a Pope or a King. For him, form was subservient to light and color; the brushstrokes were markers to help the viewers reconstruct each picture mentally — concepts adopted vehemently by the Impressionists. Velazquez's greatest talent was creating beauty from the grotesque, imbuing each subject with a human liveliness rarely seen on canvas. In its extensive detail and comparisons, Jose Lopez-Rey's book reveals the development of this vision. Things are or are not, they exist or vanish, in the same way that Calderon felt that life was like a dream. In the work of Velazquez, the language is everything. Thanks to the joint initiative of TASCHEN and Wildenstein, this exceptional publication features new photography of recently restored paintings, published here for the first time.

The Decisive Moment originally titled Images a la Sauvette — is one of the most famous books in the history of photography, assembling Cartier-Bresson's best work from his early years. Published in 1952 by Simon and Schuster, New York, in collaboration with Editions Verve, Paris, it was lavishly embellished with a collage cover by Henri Matisse. The book and its images have since influenced generations of photographers. Its English title has defined the notion of the famous formal peak in which all elements in the photographic frame accumulate to form the perfect image. Paired with the artist's humanist viewpoint, Cartier-Bresson's photography has become part of the world's collective memory. This new publication is a meticulous facsimile of the original book. It comes with an additional booklet containing an essay on the history of The Decisive Moment by Centre Pompidou curator Clement Cheroux.

This volume presents Bruce Davidson's personal selections from his lesser-known color archive. Ranging from a period of fifty-six years and counting, these images are representative of the photographers color career. Assignments from various magazines (Vogue, National Geographic, Life magazine) and commercial projects led him to photograph fashion (early 1960s), the Shah of Iran with his family (1964), keepers of French monuments (1988), the supermodel Kylie Bax (1997), and college cheerleaders (1989). He photographed in India and China, but also at home in New York, in Chicago, and along the Pacific Coast Highway. In 1968, Michelangelo Antonioni invited him to document the making of his film Zabriskie Point. Davidson also continued to pursue personal projects, e.g. photographing the Yiddish writer and Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer (197275), the New York City subway (1980), and Katzs Delicatessen (2004). Often staying on in a country after an official assignment, he documented Welsh coalfields, family holidays in Martha's Vineyard, and travelled through Patagonia and Mexico.

Howard Greenberg has been a gallery owner for more than thirty years. He is nowadays considered one of the pillars of the New York photographic scene. While he is well known as a dealer, his rather private passion as a collector is now revealed for the first time to a larger public. The Howard Greenberg Collection — which has been carefully assembled over the last thirty years — counts around 500 photographs that distinguish themselves by their high print quality. The unique collection reflects Howard Greenberg's diverse fields of interest that range from the modern esthetic approach of the 1920s and 1930s with the works of Edward Steichen, Edward Weston or the Czech School to contemporary photographers such as Minor White, Harry Callahan and Robert Frank. A large part of the collection is dedicated to the humanist photography genre, represented — among others — by Lewis Hine, David Seymour and Farm Security Administration photographers like Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, witnesses of the Great Depression of the 1930s. More than anything the collection illustrates New York's enormous influence on the history of photography in the 20th century: architecture and urban life are reflected in the photographs of Berenice Abbott, Weegee and Lee Friedlander.

Planet on the page: Over 300 historic and contemporary Infographics explaining our remarkable, fragile world Gigantic and frail at the same time, our world keeps changing at high speed. New communication technologies have downsized the distances between far away continents. Data processing and network systems are changing our ways of living and working. Each second social networks are distributing myriads of information and news. Traditional mindsets are constantly being challenged and it is not easy to keep up with this evolution. This book presents a visual atlas of the world, focusing on the first quarter of the 21st century in a broad collection of information graphics, but also presenting many historical graphics from the last 150 years, putting our current situation into perspective. Divided into five big chapters, the book collects a cross-section of data from a variety of fields. How have political and economical weights shifted globally since the beginning of the century? How does the pending threat of climate change shape our thinking? More than 300 historic and contemporary infographics from sources such as Fortune, National Geographic, or The Guardian illuminate not just design professionals, they provide answers for everyone who is eager to understand how our world works. Nigel Holmes, one of the masters of information design introduces the book to the reader, and illustrated with over 20 images the historical essay by Sandra Rendgen frames how we have been looking at our world numbers for centuries.

A mighty history. Marvel from its golden age to the silver screen. From the very first issue of pulp impresario Martin Goodman's Marvel Comics in 1939, the comic book creators of Marvel's Golden Age flipped the traditional fantasy script by placing the inhuman and the invincible into the real world. With the likes of the fiery android Human Torch, vengeful sea prince Sub-Mariner, and pip-squeak-turned-paragon Captain America, Marvel created a mythological universe grounded in a world that readers recognize as close to their own, brimming with humor and heartache. In the early 1960s, this audacious approach launched the creation of heroes who have since become household names-Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Avengers, Thor, the X-Men-the list goes on. Fans still celebrate it as the Marvel Age of comics, an era populated by a pantheon of bickering heroes, misunderstood monsters and noble villains. In celebration of Marvel's 75th anniversary, TASCHEN presents a magnum opus of the most influential comic book publisher today, with an inside look not only at its celebrated characters, but also at the «bullpen» of architects whose names are almost as familiar as the protagonists they brought to life — Stan «the Man» Lee, Jack «King» Kirby, along with a roster of greats like Steve Ditko, John Romita, John Buscema, Marie Severin, and countless others. With essays by comics historian and former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, this book delves into the heart of thousands of costumed characters who continue to fight the good fight in comics, movies. and toy aisles of the world.

A fascination for flora. Timeless photos in which plants become sculptures German photography pioneer Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) photographed plants so beautifully, and with such originality, that his work transcends the medium itself. Over more than 30 years, he took thousands of photographs, revealing a formally rigorous talent whose precision and dedication bridge the 19th and 20th-century worlds of image making and bring a distinctly sculptural aspect to a firmly two-dimensional art form. Beautifully but starkly composed against plain cardboard backgrounds, Blossfeldt's images, relying on a northern light for their sense of volume, reveal nothing of the man but everything of themselves. They are still lifes, piercingly final statements on their subject, and have endured owing to their technical brilliance and the ongoing fascination of students and photographers. Like their maker, they are quietly and lastingly effective.

From the first known photograph taken in Los Angeles to its most recent sweeping vistas, this photographic tribute to the City of Angels provides a fascinating journey through the city's cultural, political, industrial, and sociological history. It traces the city's development from the 1880s' real estate boom, through the early days of Hollywood and the urban sprawl of the late 20th century, right up to the present day. With over 500 images, L.A. is shown emerging from a desert wasteland to become a vast palm-studded urban metropolis. Events that made world news including two Olympics, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, and the Rodney King riots reveal a city of many dimensions. The entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood, and its celebrities are showcased along with many other notable residents, personalities, architects, artists, and musicians. The city's pop cultural movements, its music, surfing, health food fads, gangs, and hot rods are included, as are its notorious crimes and criminals. This book depicts Los Angeles in all its glory and grit, via hundreds of freshly discovered images including those of Julius Shulman, Garry Winogrand, William Claxton and many other superb photographers, culled from major historical archives, museums, private collectors, and universities. These are given context and resonance through essays by renowned California historian Kevin Starr and Los Angeles literature expert David Ulin.

Eine fotografische Reise durch die Historie einer Weltstadt Samuel Johnson hat einmal gesagt: „Wenn ein Mann Londons berdrssig ist, ist er des Lebens berdrssig.“ Hunderte von Fotos aus Archiven in aller Welt illustrieren die Geschichte dieser einzigartigen Stadt, ihre Architektur, ihre Wahrzeichen, ihren Stil, ihr Flair – und natrlich ihre unerschtterlichen Bewohner. London mag eine ausufernde, stndig wachsende Metropole sein; doch durch alle historischen Hhen und Tiefen sind der Humor, der Charakter und der Kampfgeist seiner Menschen stets unverndert geblieben. Dieses Buch feiert sie und ihre Stadt. Neben grandiosen Fotografien (viele davon bislang unverffentlicht) wird Londons Geschichte auch durch lebendige Essays, unzhlige Quotes und Verweise auf Filme, Musikalben und literarische Werke erzhlt, in denen oder fr die London eine Rolle spielte.

For a year, Frans Lanting roamed the wetlands and deserts of northern Botswana, living by the rhythms of the water and the movements of the animals as he captured them on film. National Geographic had sent him there on assignment, but what he would take away was much more than a magazine story; it was a seminal and unparalleled collection of photographs depicting an epic world of wilderness and wildlife. As Lanting wrote, “To many who have seen the fate of other wild areas in Africa and elsewhere in the world, the very notion that such a place as Okavango still exists is like a dream.” Living out of vehicles and canvas tents, gliding through swamps, following lions by night—Lanting, armed with his cameras, got up close and personal with some of the planet’s most formidable creatures. The book he published a few years later, Okavango, was a testament not only to the wondrous wildlife of the region, but also to Lanting’s extraordinary courage, skill, and photographic vision. After many publications of Lanting’s work, including Life, Jungles, Eye to Eye, and Penguin, TASCHEN now revisits his original classic which drew critical praise worldwide with this updated and expanded edition of Okavango, further enhanced with all new reproductions and dozens of previously unpublished photos, as well as a new preface by Lanting.

TASCHENs Paris, Portrt einer Stadt fhrt uns durch eine, wie Goethe es formulierte, „Weltstadt, wo jeder Gang ber eine Brcke oder einen Platz an eine groe Vergangenheit erinnert und wo an jeder Straenecke ein Stck Geschichte sich entwickelt hat“. Die Historie von Paris wird anhand bedeutender Fotografien nacherzhlt, von Daguerres frhen Inkunabeln bis zu aktuellen Aufnahmen — eine berbordende Bestandsaufnahme des Wandels, ein gewaltiges Panorama von mehr als 600 Seiten und 500 Fotografien. Dieses Buch vereint Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Monumentales und Alltgliches, Architektur und Mode. Aufnahmen weltberhmter Fotografen, aber auch Bilder von Unbekannten fangen die besondere „Pariser Atmosphre“ ein. Mit jener speziellen Poesie, die diese Stadt und ihre Bewohner bis heute vermitteln. Nicht zufllig haben sich daran ber die Jahrhunderte hinweg unzhlige Schriftsteller und Knstler inspiriert.

The French company Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie arose in the 18th century from the collaboration between Philippe Victoire de Vilmorin—a grain and plant merchant and connoisseur—and his father-in-law, Pierre Andrieux, Botanist to the King. The Vilmorins, though only producers and merchants on the Paris market, contributed enormously to the botanical and agronomic knowledge of their time. Their first catalog, comprising all kinds of seeds for kitchen-garden vegetables—including legumes, salad plants, flower seeds and bulbs—appeared in 1766. It was followed by a series of Publications priodiques in which the quality of the botanical and horticultural information was equaled only by the illustrations. By the mid-19th century, the firm had become the most important seed company in the world—active in production, trade, and scientific advances, thanks largely to Louis de Vilmorin’s crucial research into selection and heredity in the 1850s.

When she was in her early sixties, Leni Riefenstahl began traveling frequently to the African continent, where she has worked on various film and photography projects over the last half century. Her favorite destination was in Sudan, where she lived with and photographed the Nuba tribespeople, learning their language and becoming their friend. The Nuba were a loving and peaceful people who welcomed Riefenstahl as one of their own. Her images of the Nuba, as well as of the Dinka, Shilluk, Masai, and other tribes, are gathered in this monumental book. Riefenstahl remembers her experiences in Africa as the happiest moments in her life. Her beautiful, skilled photographs represent a landmark in the extraordinary career of the 20th century’s most unforgettable artistic pioneer.

In June of 1938, Action Comics debuted with a new kind of comic book character on its cover: A costumed man with two identities, who possessed extraordinary strength and powers, a man able to protect the public when ordinary measures would not do. He was not the first super hero, but the Man of Steel would become the prototype for all super heroes thereafter. Superman's story, and those of Batman, Wonder Woman, and hundreds of other DC Comics characters are all told in «The Golden Age of DC Comics». The single most comprehensive book on the subject, this volume traces the company's first decades, from its pulp origins up to the comic book burnings of the McCarthy '50s in over 400 pages bursting with comics, art, comics, photographs, and more comics. Plus an exclusive interview with legendary Sgt. Rock/Hawkman artist Joe Kubert! TASCHEN's series on «DC Comics» explores the origins of comics' most enduring legends and the behind-the-scenes stories of the men who created them, era by era. Expanded from the Eisner Award — winning XL book, «75 Years of DC Comics», this new series hits the shelf at a reader friendly size with essays updated by author Paul Levitz and over 500 new images across five volumes. Thousands of covers and interiors, original illustrations, photographs, film stills, and collectibles have been reproduced using the latest technology to bring the story lines, the characters, and their creators to vibrant life, making this an invaluable reference for comics fans.

The Life and Art of Edward Weston Few photographers have created such a legacy as Edward Weston (1886–1958). After a decade of successfully making photographs with painterly soft-focus techniques, Weston became the key pioneer of the school of precise and sharp presentation, dubbed «Straight Photography». Through the 1920 s, '30 s, and '40 s, Weston was a major force in pushing forward the art of photography. His photographs are monuments of sensual realism, perfectly composed images of stillness that sear with passion and intensity. Whatever the subject, be it a vegetable, landscape, shell, or naked body, Weston's lens captures the essence of its life force, the fundamentals of its form.

Open your notebooks, sharpen your pencils, and get ready for a history lesson like none you've ever experienced. You're about to learn everything you could ever want to know about the world history of men's magazines-not magazines about sports, not fashion, not hunting or fishing or how to build a birdhouse in ten easy steps, but those titillating periodicals embracing the subject dearest to all heterosexual men's hearts and other body parts: the undraped female form.

Open house. Tour the world's most exceptional recent homes. This third installment in our popular «Architecture Now! Houses» series includes 60 of the most dramatic new residences around the world. See the extraordinary House Turtle designed by the artists Carten Holler and Marcel Odenbach in Biriwa, Ghana; visit Tadao Ando's dramatic House in Monterrey, Mexico, or take off to see the Flight of Birds House in the Azores by Bernardo Rodrigues. More than any magazine or website, this new book allows you to explore the most beautiful and spectacular houses, both inside and out. These private worlds, designed by some of the most talented architects of the moment, suddenly open their doors to you for a private tour. As in all the «Architecture Now!» books, the houses are presented with photos and drawings, but so too are the architects, with their project lists and their addresses for those who may be tempted to ask Shigeru Ban to design an 800-square-meter house on a cliff in Sri Lanka for them (Villa Vista). But even if the budget for such extravagance is lacking curiosity will surely bring you to plunge into «Architecture Now! Houses 3».

Figures of inspiration. This is a history of an art form in all its possible manifestations. Ranging from ancient to contemporary sculpture, this book is the first study of the history of sculpture to present such an original and comprehensive approach. Taking the sculptures out of the museum context (and thus off of their proverbial pedestals), this volume presents a completely new view which affords enlightening comparisons between eras and genres. This remarkable work is indispensable for art lovers of all tastes and disciplines.

How green is your blueprint? This title looks at architecture as sustainable technology. The ecological impact of new construction, once a secondary concern, has become a crucial issue. Badly designed buildings guzzle natural resources and pollute their surroundings; in an era of rocketing energy costs and environmental degradation, the need for a sustainable, energy-efficient architecture is paramount. This book features the architects, artists and firms pioneering a new green architecture, and examines the emergent aesthetics.

After the revolutions of the 60s, the world of design and architecture became an increasingly exciting and fast-moving hotbed of ideas, rife with vehemently opposing schools and movements. In many ways it was a more extreme era for design than the previous decade. This volume spotlights the futuristic, experimental aesthetic of the 1970s.

Includes works in Amsterdam or Inner Mongolia by architects as famous as Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel, or as little known to the general public as Carla Juacaba from Brazil. This title is illustrated with A-Z entries such as: current and recent projects, biographies, contact information, and websites.

With each volume, a brand new collection of contemporary interiors from around the world. An interior is the perfect synthesis of personality and zeitgeist; it is a living work of art, a cultural artifact, and the object of ceaseless curiosity. Highly sensitive to this phenomenon, our «Interiors Now!» series tracks the constantly evolving and multifaceted fabric of contemporary interior design around the world. Each new volume--destined for casual readers and professionals alike--brings together a fresh and inspiring collection of homes that best demonstrate variations on the theme of how to live well in the current design climate.

Celebrated German polymath Fritz Kahn (1888-1968) was a doctor, educator, and popular science writer. Among his most notable achievements was the development, with the help of professional illustrators, of creative visualizations to explain complex scientific ideas. In the 1930s, the Nazis banned and burned his books; to escape from his pursuers, he emigrated to Palestine, France, and finally the USA, where he successfully continued to publish more books. This monograph, featuring 350 illustrations with extensive captions, brings together a selection of his most fascinating work. Three original texts by Fritz Kahn are accompanied by an introduction by Steve Heller and an essay about Kahn's life and oeuvre. Kahn's pioneering work — a veritable visual language in the field of information graphics — remains highly influential today, not only for those interested in the natural sciences, but also for those who are curious about ways to express complex ideas visually.