Taschen

From the streets of New York to the walls of its most prominent galleries, young graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was catapulted to international fame in his early 20s and died of a drug-overdose at 27. The subject of a feature film by fellow artist Julian Schnabel, Basquiat is one of the most admired artists to emerge from the 1980s art boom. This book explores his short but prolific career.

The Belarusian painter Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is widely regarded as epitomizing the «painter as poet». The worldwide admiration he commanded remains unparalleled by any artist of the century. Chagall’s paintings, steeped in mythology and mysticism, portray colorful dreams and tales that are deeply rooted in his Russian Jewish origins. The memories and yearning they evoke recall his native Vitebsk, and the great events that mark the life of ordinary people: birth, love, marriage and death. They tell of a world full of everyday miracles — in the room of lovers, on the streets of Vitebsk, beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Heaven and earth seem to meet in a topsy-turvy world in which whimsical figures of people and animals float through the air with gravity-defying serenity.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918) is the painter who had the most long-lasting influence on the Vienna art scene after the great era of Klimt came to a close. After a short flirtation with the style of Klimt, his mentor, Schiele soon questioned the aesthetic orientation to the beautiful surface of the Viennese Art Nouveau with his rough and not easily accessible paintings. Many contemporaries found Schiele’s expressive nudes and self-portraits, with their strange movements and morbid colours, to be ugly and even morally objectionable—criticism which culminated in criminalizing the painter as ’obscene’ and resulted in 1912 in an indictment and short jail sentence. However, not even his harshest critics could dispute the artist’s extraordinary drawing talent. This book gives a concise overview of the brief, brilliant career of Egon Schiele.

Today, the painter and graphic artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) is considered as one of the most inspired portrayers of human figures. This physically handicapped scion of the old French nobility was fascinated by life around Montmartre, whose cafes, cabarets, dance halls, and bordellos presented him with the «theater of life.» More than any other artist, Toulouse-Lautrec captured the Belle poque’s pursuit of fleeting pleasure: directly and without flattery, his paintings, lithographs, and posters offer a masterly and timeless image of the age.

This richly illustrated and expert study follows Vincent van Gogh from the early gloom-laden paintings in which he captured the misery of peasants and workers in his homeland, through his bright and colorful Parisian period, to the work of his final years, spent under a southern sun in Arles. Here, at last, he found the light that produced the unmistakable Van Gogh style. At Arles, Saint-Remy and Auvers-sur-Oise, in the feverish burst of creative energy that marked his last two and a half years, he produced the 465 paintings on which his immortality rests. Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) craved recognition during his lifetime but was denied it until after his self-inflicted death. Today he is universally seen as one of the great forerunners of 20th-century painting, and one of the tragic masters of art.

The field of illustration has flourished over the last decade, with professionals working both by computer and by hand. In illustration, the single most challenging and captivating subject has been the portrait, frequently used in editorials, advertising, products, and most recently, being the subject of major exhibitions. The book gathers together the exclusive (and frequently unpublished) portrait work of over 80 illustrators from all over the world, many of whom were featured in Illustration Now!, including Aaron Jasinski, Andr Carrilho, Hanoch Piven, Anita Kunz, Jody Hewgill, and Dugald Stermer. The book also features an index of subjects and an introduction by Steven Heller.

Painting outside the box. The founder of abstract art. The Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), who later lived in Germany and France, is one of the pioneers of twentieth-century art. Nowadays he is regarded as the founder of abstract art and is, moreover, the chief theoretician of this type of painting. Together with Franz Marc and others he founded the group of artists known as the Blauer Reiter in Munich. His art then freed itself more and more from the object, eventually culminating in the First Abstract Watercolour of 1910. In his theoretical writings Kandinsky repeatedly sought the proximity of music; and just as in music, where the individual notes constitute the medium whose effect stems from harmony and euphony, Kandinsky was aiming for a pure concord of colour through the interplay of various shades. Gauguin had demanded that everything must be sacrificed to pure colors. Kandinsky was the first to realise this and thus to influence a whole range of artists. Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features: a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist; approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions; and, a concise biography.

Elmer Batters (1919-1997) was the grand master of leg and foot art. While others preferred the thrill of an inviting cleavage, the maestro’s eye was on lower things—trim calves, the arch of a foot, the well-made lines of toes and heels. He chose his models with these criteria in mind—and with the obsessiveness of a Zen artist spent his lifetime looking for the perfect leg. Batters started out publishing his photos himself, but from the late ’60s onwards the field was his, and he was the star house photographer of magazines such as Leg-O-Rama, Nylon Doubletake and Black Silk Stockings, to name but a few. This book pays homage to Batters’s great obsession with legs, feet, and toes.

Несомненный успех первого издания стал причиной появления второго сборника эротических фотографий. И это не просто снимки, на которых запечатлено обнаженное тело, это полноценные картины, в которых авторы пытаются постичь секреты женской притягательности. К работе над книгой были привлечены пятьдесят известных фотографов, при этом кадры пятнадцати из них уже появлялись в предыдущем сборнике. Таланты из Германии и Швейцарии, Бельгии и Японии, России и США, Чехии и Италии представили свои снимки на суд читателя. Каждое фото – законченная композиция, в центре которой красота женского тела. Каждый мастер привнес свое видение эстетики обнаженного силуэта, уникальный стиль и принципы работы с кадром. Здесь и откровенно вызывающие снимки от Кимберли Кейн, и свободная женственность от Яна Хронски, и провокационные кадры от Джо Шваба, Андрея Пашиса, Фредерика Фонтенуа, Эрики Симон и других. Эротический портрет современной женщины предстает во всей своей соблазнительной откровенности, сохраняя легкую ауру таинственности. Наряду с цифровой фотографией в книге представлены работы авторов, которые экспериментируют с пленкой, достигая необычных эффектов. Любители жанра Ню смогут получить удовольствие от четырехсот высококачественных полноформатных снимков.

Who took 1970s porn esthetic and made it fashion chic? Terry Richardson. Who made the trailer park trendy and the tractor hat de rigueur? Richardson again. Who's equally at home in «Vogue», «Harper's Bazaar», «Purple» and «Vice»? Our boy Terry. Who uses his fashion money to fund an X-rated website? Yes, Richardson. This book tells his story.

This is a unique survey of photography from its origins until now. From a delivery boy to one of the most important industrialists in American history, George Eastman's career developed in a particularly American way. The founder of Kodak died in 1932, and left his house to the University of Rochester. Since 1949 the site has operated as an international museum of photography and film, and today holds the largest collection of its kind in the world. The continually expanding photography collection contains over 400,000 images and negatives — among them the work of Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Ansel Adams and others — as well as 23,000 cinema films, five million film stills, one of the most important silent film collections, technical equipment and a library with 40,000 books on photography and film. The George Eastman House is a pilgrimage site and a place of worship for researchers, photographers and collectors from all over the world. This volume shows in chronological order the most impressive images and the most important developments in the art of light that is photography. It provides in its huge collection and themes a unique survey of the medium from its origins until now.

One of the hottest areas of contemporary design is clearly landscape architecture. No matter what the architectural style of the moment, the green areas around houses, stadiums or corporate headquarters have taken on a considerable importance, all the more so with the emphasis on ecology and green design. This book deals with this topic.

Turning 80 is not so bad when the occasion is marked by a sweeping retrospective of your life's work. An exhibition of 300 works by Helmut Newton, curated by June Newton and Taschen editor Manfred Heiting, opens on October 30th 2001 at the Berliner Nationalgalerie. This is the catalogue of the exhibition, and features works carefully selected for the exhibition from Newton's entire career, including many images not appearing in Sumo. The catalogue presents an overview of the provocative, groundbreaking photography that has inspired an entire genre.

The great Belgian Surrealist. A sense of the amazing, the surprising, and the ridiculous in Magritte's paintings. It is impossible to overlook the influence of Rene Magritte (1898-1967) on contemporary art. His surrealistic painting turns the usual order of things ironically on its head, thus restoring mystery to a world that has lost its magic. His work typically conveys a sense of the amazing, the surprising, and the ridiculous — but also the unsettling. Without a specific message, Magritte's paintings nonetheless speak to us, creating a connection between opposites on an associative level. Thus a dinner roll can with complete naturalness fly past a barred dungeon opening. In discussing his art, Magritte spoke of 'inspired thoughts': he was indeed a painter-philosopher who thought in pictorial form and moved with seemingly playful lightness in the exalted atmosphere of his own imagination. Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features: a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist; approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions; and, a concise biography.

In search of lost time. For over thirty years, photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) traveled the length and breadth of North America, seeking to record in words and images the traditional life of its vanishing indigenous inhabitants. Like a man possessed, he strove to realize his life's work, which culminated in the publication of his encyclopedia The North American Indian. In the end, this monumental work comprised twenty textual volumes and twenty portfolios with over 2000 illustrations. No other photographer has created a larger oeuvre on this theme, and it is Curtis, more than any other, who has crucially molded our conception of Native Americans. This book shows the photographer's most impressive pictures and vividly details his journey through life, which led him not only into the prairies but also into the film studios of Hollywood.

Designing private homes offers architects more freedom than corporate projects to express their ideas and try out new concepts. This title rounds up 100 of the world's most interesting and pioneering homes from the past decade, featuring a host of talents both new and established, including John Pawson, Richard Meier, Shigeru Ban, and Zaha Hadid.

Three legends. Monroe by Mailer and Stern. Now TASCHEN has paired Mailer's original text with Bert Stern's photographs from the legendary Last Sitting — widely considered the most intimate photographs of Monroe ever taken — to create a fitting tribute to the woman who, at the time of her death in 1962, was the world's most famous, a symbol of glamour and criticism for an entire generation. But though she was feted and adored by her public, her private life was that of a little girl lost, desperate to find love and security. Mailer's Marilyn is beautiful, tragic, and complex. As Mailer reflects upon her life — from her bleak childhood through to the mysterious circumstances of her death — she emerges as a symbol of the bizarre decade during which she reigned as Hollywood's greatest female star. This book, conceived by Lawrence Schiller, Mailer's collaborator on five works, combines the author's masterful text with Stern's penetrating images of the 36-year-old Marilyn. Photographed for Vogue magazine over three days at the Bel-Air Hotel, Marilyn had never allowed such unfettered access, nor had she looked so breathtakingly beautiful. Six weeks later, mysteriously, she was dead. In this bold synthesis of literary classic and legendary portrait sitting, Mailer and Stern lift the veils of confusion surrounding Monroe — the woman, the star, the sex symbol — and offer profound insight into an iconic figure whose true personality remains an enigma even today. First published in as a TASCHEN limited collector's edition, this book is now available in a popular hardcover version, published on 50th anniversary of Bert Stern's Last Sitting and of Marilyn Monroe's death, August 5, 1962.

How to live well? This is a diverse and inspiring selection of interiors from around the world. This special edition rounds up the creme de la creme of today's most exceptional and inspiring interiors around the world. Making stops in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, this painstakingly picked and sumptuously photographed selection of 100 homes represents TASCHEN's favorite ways people are decorating their dwellings these days.

Fifty years of Bond, James Bond Bond, James Bond. Since Sean Connery uttered those immortal words in 1962, the most dashing secret agent in the history of cinema has been charming and thrilling audiences worldwide. Armed with guns, gadgets, and beautiful women, the impeccably British character created by author Ian Fleming has starred in 24 films, played by 7 different actors over five decades. To celebrate 50 years of this innovative franchise, the producers opened their archives of photos, designs, storyboards, and production materials to editor Paul Duncan, who spent two years researching over half a million images and 100 filing cabinets of documentation. The result is the most complete account of the making of the series, covering every James Bond film ever made, beginning with Dr. No (1962) and ending with the upcoming Bond 23, including the spoof Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983). The stunning imagery is accompanied by an oral history recounted by over 150 cast and crew members, relating the true inside story of how the Bond films were made. Containing previously unpublished photography and artwork, as well as production memos from filming, this book is a comprehensive tribute to the legend of James Bond.

Home sweet home. This is a remarkable photographic exploration of life on earth. In the year 2000, world-renowned wildlife photographer Frans Lanting set out on a personal journey to photograph the evolution of life on earth. He made pilgrimages to true time capsules like a remote lagoon in Western Australia, spent time in research collections photographing forms of microscopic life, and even found ways to create visual parallels between the growth of organs in the human body and the patterns seen on the surface of the earth. The resulting volume is a glorious picture book of planet earth depicting the amazing biodiversity that surrounds us all. Lanting's true gift lies beyond his technical mastery: it is his eye for geometry in the beautiful chaos of nature that allows him to show us the world as it has never been seen before. From crabs to jellyfish, diatoms to vast geological formations, jungles to flowers, monkeys to human embryos, LIFE is a testament to the magical beauty of life in all its forms and is one of Lanting's most remarkable achievements.

Between the pleats Issey Miyake's iconic line of innovative garments. Issey Miyake's Pleats Please collections were first launched in 1993. Made from single pieces of high quality 100 per cent polyester fabric, Pleats Please clothing is innovative in its process: the clothes are first cut and sewn together nearly three times larger than the finished garments, then individual pieces are hand fed into a heat press sandwiched between two sheets of paper. From tube dresses to cardigans, skirts, roll-necks, or elastic-waisted pants: the garment emerge with permanent pleats. This industrial process allows both texture and form to be created at the same time. Vertical pleating is used to create varying effects and architectural shapes. Pleats Please clothes are very functional and practical; the garments store easily, travel well, require no ironing, can be machine-washed, and dry within an hour. Shapes are simple, colors diverse (a set of standard colors is available each season, plus seasonal colors and prints). The clothes' simple beauty, comfort, lightness, and ease of care have changed the way many women all over the world dress. For the first time, the story of this revolutionary clothing is told in a book. A wide array of texts and images explore the fundamental concept of Pleats Please Issey Miyake, tracing its journey from inception, through material development, to public reception, including the making of the original yarn — revealing the pleating process for the first time!

La belle vie: impressionism's most joyful paintings. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) is universally acclaimed and celebrated: museums pride themselves on his paintings, crowds flock to his retrospectives. His work shows art at its most light-hearted, sensual and luminous. Renoir never wanted anything ugly in his paintings, nor any dramatic action. I like pictures which make me want to wander through them when it's a landscape, he said, or pass my hand over breast or back if it's a woman. Renoir's entire oeuvre is dominated by the depiction of women — again and again he painted these faunesses with their pouting lips (Mallarme) and invented a new image of feminine beauty and sensuality. A prolific painter — he made several thousand works in his lifetime — he is perhaps the most beloved of the Impressionists. About the Series: Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features: a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist; approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions; and a concise biography.

This is a must-have architecture bible. It deals with a century of great buildings and their creators. This is the be-all-end-all reference work for architecture in the 20th century. From Frank Lloyd Wright to Antoni Gaudi to Frank O. Gehry to Shigeru Ban and all the best stuff in between, it's all here. The chronologically organized chapters put it all into perspective, illustrated by hundreds of large-format photos as well as a plenitude of drawings and floor plans. The biographical appendix covers all of the century's greatest architects, including today's new talents. This edition brings our classic title up to date with more color photos, more architect biographics, and new insights on recent architectural trends and movements.

Human alter-reality. The essential overview of Neo Rauch's art. Bursting with radiant and unsettling juxtapositions, Neo Rauch's paintings are wormholes into worlds of startling psychological power and cultural collisions. His scenes involve the viewer in a history that is at once mythic, intimate, and present. Through a deep consideration of philosophy, art history, literature, and his own dreamscape, Rauch's paintings depict the precipices of progress and the struggles of communication. Electrified by their rich palettes, Rauch's fragmented landscapes and timeless characters dance between pop and baroque, social and psychological, graphic and painterly. Born in Leipzig in 1960, Rauch learned his trade behind the Iron Curtain. His influences and interests were shaped by personal hardship and the tumultuous changes of East Germany after the Wall fell. In the late 1980s, having finished his studies at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig under Arno Rink and Bernhard Heisig, he explored diverse approaches to painting in dialogue with works he encountered by Francis Bacon, the New Wild painters, and the pre-Renaissance painters he saw during his travels in Italy. By 1993, he had arrived at the unique style of intertwining figuration and abstraction that characterizes his oeuvre and has brought him international attention and respect. This monograph is the most inclusive collection of Rauch's work to date. It offers a generous range of his writings that illuminate the personal, symbolic, and formal complexities of world. Wolfgang Buscher's open and sensitive account of a walk through Rauch's neighborhood reveals the painter's compassion and modesty. Harald Kunde tracks Rauch's stylistic development through its main semantic threads and historical influences. Gary Tinterow draws from his work on Rauch's exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum to offer the reader a guide to the symbols that form the painter's extensive mythology. These essays complement Rauch's work with nuanced insights while allowing the images room to speak on their own. Within this atlas, readers will discover the rich density and enigmatic openness of Rauch's paintings. This is the unlimited edition based on the limited first edition.