Thames&Hudson

At the Well, produced to coincide with an exhibition of Neo Rauch's (born 1960) new works at David Zwirner in New York, brings together both small and large format paintings that expand the artist's unique iconography of eccentric figures, animals and hybrids within vaguely familiar but imaginary settings. This oversized catalogue-designed in close collaboration with the artist-is anchored by 16 stunning plates and numerous 1:1 details that give viewers intimate access to these compelling compositions. Themes of rebirth and new beginnings abound: Rauch consistently creates characters who appear to be in the process of transformation. At the Well features an essay by art historian and curator Sir Norman Rosenthal, who presents a careful reading of Rauch's new work. The book also includes a reprint of the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale The Young Giant, specifically chosen by Rosenthal to further expand his analysis.

30-Second Religion decants and demystifies the key beliefs, deities, origins, and iconography of the worlds major religions, denominations, and less widespread sects and cults. Whether you wish to understand the key differences between Catholicism and Protestantism, to glimpse the many gods of Hinduism, or to digest a potted Buddhist philosophy, this book is the quickest way to walk the paths and recognize the key signposts of the world's diverse and fascinating faiths. Travelling from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism, and including features on key religious texts, 30-Second Religion offers a revelation of 50 belief systems in less time than it takes to offer up a prayer.

From Chanels coastal couture to Westwoods piratical punk, from Jean Paul Gaultiers beefcake camp to Tommy Hilfigers preppy classics, this is the first and only book to celebrate nautical fashion and all its iconic looks. Nautical style has an enduring sophistication, and this volume is a glorious celebration of its perennial popularity, tracing the history of its trends and impact on the clothes we love. From the beaches of Cape Cod and Nantucket to the yachts of the Italian Riviera and the Cote dAzur, not to mention catwalks everywhere, the nautical look has cut a sartorial swathe for over two centuries. Amber Jane Butchart charts the rise and rise of the nautical influence on fashion over five chapters, each one devoted to an iconic maritime figure. Written in a witty and accessible tone, Nautical Chic is the definitive history of nautical fashion.

Bjork is a contemporary icon whose contributions to music, video, film, fashion and art have influenced a generation worldwide. Here, now, is the ultimate celebration of this multimillion-selling superstar. Designed by top design studio M/M (Paris) as a slipcased world of wonders, this publication which accompanies springs exhibition on Bjork at The Museum of Modern Art is composed of six parts: four booklets, a paperback and a poster. Each booklet contains illustrated texts by, respectively, Klaus Biesenbach, Alex Ross, Nicola Dibben and Timothy Morton, while the poster features artwork of Bjorks albums and singles. The main book focuses on her seven major albums Debut, Post, Homogenic, Vespertine, Medulla, Volta and Biophilia and the personas created for each one. Poetic texts by longtime collaborator, Icelandic poet Sjon, are accompanied by shots of Bjork performing live; multiple stills from music videos made by directors including Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham and Spike Jonze; images of Bjork in breathtaking costumes by designers such as Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan; and shots by star photographers such as Nan Goldin, Juergen Teller, Stephane Sednaoui, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, and Araki. All combine to form an extraordinary visual masterpiece, celebrating the magical world of Bjork.

Every artist, beginner or expert, is inspired by the work of the great artists that have gone before, and one of the most enjoyable ways to learn painting is to study their work in detail. This new series unlocks the secrets of some of the most inspirational painters of all time, revealing their techniques and giving todays artists the confidence and skills they need to take their work to the next level. Paint Like Renoir is the second book in the series, following Paint Like Degas. Oil paint has tremendous versatility, from the dilute and transparent glaze, or wash, through to the thick impasto mark. Renoir employed the whole range of paint qualities and this is one of the most valuable reasons for studying his work.

The revolutionary art and design of the early twentieth century produced textiles, particularly carpets, of extraordinary vitality. First the flourishing Art Deco movement spread bold patterns across Europe and America, before giving way to sophisticated Modernist abstractions influenced by Bauhaus, Cubism, and collage. In just a few decades carpet design was transformed into a showcase of the avant-garde, as legendary artists and designers such as Picasso, Poiret, Gray, Delaunay, and Klee created dazzling, influential works of art still valued greatly today. Beautifully and extensively illustrated, Carpets of the Art Deco Era charts the evolution of carpet design during the period, celebrating the results of a particularly rich era in the decorative arts. An important visual survey for any textile arts shelf, this volume is now available again in a compact, accessible format.

Athanasius Kircher (1602-80) was acknowledged to be the most learned man of his age. By profession a Jesuit priest, he made himself an authority on every subject under (and above) the sun and published the results of his researches in over thirty lavishly illustrated volumes in Latin. His museum in Rome was famous and visited by everybody in the world of learning. Inevitably, his work has been superseded in most areas of study, but he remains a key figure in the history of ideas and in recent years there has been a revival of interest, in which Joscelyn Godwin has played a leading role. But while every other aspect of his thought has been studied, the fascinating engravings with which he illustrated his ideas have been largely ignored. This book fills that gap. It is divided into 15 chapters grouped by the engravings subject; these illustrations reveal his singular mind and the way he was drawn to mysticism and magic.

In 2009, plans by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to transform part of Broadway including Times Square into a pedestrian area caused a sensation, not just in the city but internationally. Urban areas where pedestrians have right of way over vehicles are becoming increasingly important in the modern city and have enjoyed growing popularity since the 1950s. Not only do they increase the quality of life of the residents, they also become an increasingly important locational factor. In general there are two types of pedestrian zones: the first serves primarily as an alternative transit route without cars, while the second is dedicated to shopping and entertainment in the form of traffic-free shopping streets and open pedestrian areas within shopping malls. Based on a careful selection of projects this volume presents the functional and design variety of these popular urban spaces.

The British Museums vast collections include wonderful images of birds from all over the world. Some are primarily decorative, whereas Thomas Bewick and the Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro chose to show birds in realistic detail, going about their daily lives. Other artists concentrate on scientific accuracy. The endless variety of birds, their freedom of sky, land and water, and especially t heir song have also inspired writers through the ages. Each striking image in this beautiful anthology is matched with a poem about the same species. Some were composed by our best — loved writers including Shakespeare, Chaucer and Tennyson and others ha ve been selected from less familiar or even anonymous voices around the world. Now in a fresh new paperback format, this is an irresistible gift for anyone who loves birds.

Cats were first domesticated or, more likely, noticed a warm fireside and chose to domesticate themselves many thousands of years ago. Over the centuries they have performed a useful role as pest controllers, but much more as friends and companions of humans. Cats have always inspired writers and artists. They appear in Egyptian papyri and tomb paintings, in Roman mosaics, in Japanese prints, in Old Master drawings and engravings. At different times and places they have been worshipped, mummified, associated with superstition and black magic, and bred as domestic pets. This delightful illustrated anthology includes a selection of the many poems, anecdotes and quotations about cats which have been written over the centuries: the charming, the funny, the sad, the exasperated, and the heartfelt. In a fresh new paperback format with a selection of new images, this is a n irresistible gift for anyone who likes cats.

Despite living through some of the most dramatic changes of the twentieth century, Stanley Anderson CBE (1884-1966) created a vision of an essentially timeless English rural tradition in his etchings and woodcuts. His training was as an engraver, first on a heraldic engraving apprenticeship with his father and later at the Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths College, London. Anderson became a master of his craft: elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1923. When he later took up woodcutting, he became immersed in a technique that was considered as deeply English as the subjects he depicted. Anderson was a key figure in the revival of engraving in the 1920s. The techniques exacting craftsmanship, intimate scale and indelible sense of historicism were a stark contrast to the modernist explosion. This catalogue raisonne gathers together for the first time the complete uvre of Anderson's prints, from the townscapes of his early career to the fascinating twenty-year study of rural crafts, including hedge-laying, carpentry and barrel-making, that he carried out towards the end of his life, and for which he is best known.

This new edition of BUILDING BERLIN showcases the most interesting 70 new buildings in and out of the German capital by architects working in Berlin. Each project is presented on the basis of informative texts, the most important facts as well as insight.

Window-Shopping through the Iron Curtain presents a selection of more than 100 images of shop windows shot by David Hlynsky during four trips taken between 1986 and 1990 to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Moscow. Using a Hasselblad camera, Hlynsky captured the slow, routine moments of daily life on the streets and in the shop windows of crumbling Communist countries. The resulting images could be still-lifes representing the intersection of a Communist ideology and a consumerist, Capitalist tool the shop window with the consumer stuck in the middle. Devoid of overt branding or calculated seduction, the shop windows were typically adorned with traditional yet incongruous symbols of cheer: homey lace curtains, paper flowers, painted butterflies, and pictures of happy children. Some windows were humble in their simple offerings of loaves and tinned fishes; others were zanily artistic, as in the modular display of military shirts in a Moscow storefront; and some illustrated intense professional pride, such as a sign in a Prague beauty salon depicting a pedicurist smiling fiendishly over an imperfect sole. The photographs are accompanied by essays by art historian Martha Langford and cultural studies specialist Jody Berland, as well as Hlynsky s own account of his time as a flaneur in the shopping plazas of the collapsing Soviet empire a vast ad-hoc museum of a failing utopia that in 1989 began to close forever.

Like its economy and art scene, Chinese fashion is on the rise, with an increasingly prominent international presence. Spurred by a new generation of creative and ambitious designers, and championed by actresses like Fan Bingbing and Zhang Ziyi, as well as China s First Lady, Peng Liyuan, Chinese fashion now walks the runways, not only in Shanghai and Beijing but also in London, Paris, Tokyo, and New York. Fashion China is an important new survey of the top Chinese fashion designers working today, selected for the book by a jury of experts on Chinese fashion that includes supermodel Liu Wen; Director of Harper s Bazaar China, Lucia Liu; and TV host and fashion writer Hung Huang. Profiles of each designer include a description of their styles and an interview with Gemma Williams, exploring their training, inspiration, and technical approaches. These are accompanied by 450 illustrations offering a rich survey of the looks that make Chinese fashion unique. From the opulent couture of Guo Pei to the minimalist ready-to-wear of Uma Wang and the surreal structuralism of Xiao Li, the designers featured here offer an unexpected and enticing combination of tradition and modernity, of Asian heritage and Western influence.

Designers often look to the past to inform their work. In Stencil Type, design gurus Steven Heller and Louise Fili explore the variety and influence of the world s most ubiquitous typographic style, which dates to prehistoric times and has been used on a range of surfaces from street signs, buildings, and bridges to packaging and posters. This expansive sourcebook presents hundreds of international examples of stencil typography from the late nineteenth through the twentieth centuries. The wonderful array of stencil types highlights surprising instances of artistry and ingenuity from a broad range of locations and objects from military, traffic, and transportation to home decoration, mass communication, and street art. And the survey is global, drawing on design from America, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Eastern Europe. An introduction surveys the history and applications of stencil typography, and samples of stencil type are presented in order of their geographic origin.

Fanny is an extended portrait of a young girl's transition from child to woman. Made over a period of 23 years, the images are at once beautiful in their detail of light and identity and also frankly anthropological in their descriptive effect. A naturist since birth, Fanny's comfort with nudity and her natural self has allowed Sturges to draw an engaging portrait of the evolution of a human being with few social distractions. His access to the girl's and woman's character is direct and fascinating. Long known for his extended portraits of children and adolescents, this work is strong evidence of Sturges' permanent commitment to the people in his work.

A chronicle of the key ideas that have shaped the adverts we see everyday, 100 Ideas That Changed Advertising offers a fascinating insight into an ever- changing and fast-moving industry. Arranged broadly chronologically, the book looks at the overnight revolutions, the flashes of inspiration and the long-term evolutions that advertisers have wrought upon their industry. Author Simon Veksner guides us through the key ideas behind these changes, from the development of the first advertising formats and the history of branding, to the creative revolutions of the 1960s and the digital age. Looking forward, the book considers the most recent thinking in reaching new audiences, including the rise of neuromarketing and the latest behavioural economics. Illustrated with hundreds of examples of adverts and explaining their power to inspire, delight and annoy, but above all, to make us buy, the book is an absorbing guide to a turbulent, highly-creative industry.

Every year since 1958 an international jury has convened in Holland under the auspices of the World Press Photo Foundation to choose the finest press photographs of the year. Universally recognized as the definitive competition for photographic reporting, it draws submissions from photojournalists, newspapers, and magazines throughout the world. Publishing the results of the most recent competition, this book contains the most haunting and inspiring photographs from 2014 some 150 pictures selected from more than 100,000 images submitted. These prize-winning works are extraordinary not only for their technique but also because they capture the most powerful, moving, and sometimes disturbing moments of the year.

Originally published in 1958, «The Americans» was part of a series of books that presented foreign countries through words and pictures. Frank personally supervised this latest edition that features a new cover as well as digitally enhanced images.

This book presents a complete survey of one of the key moments in the history of the Spanish court portrait, a period spanning the years 1650 to 1680. In 1650 Vel?zquez was in Rome, where he depicted members of the papal court with a new freedom of approach, while the following year saw his keenly awaited return to Spain, where he returned to the conventions of the court portrait. From that point onwards and until his death in 1660, Vel?zquez devoted most of his efforts to satisfying a growing demand for portraits of the Spanish royal family. These images were used for both family and diplomatic purposes, given that Philip IVs children with his last wife, Mariana of Austria, were essential elements in the strategic creation of political alliances across Europe. These last ten years of Vel?zquezs career constitute a period with a marked and distinctive personality. His sitters were now primarily women and children rather than men, a difference that was accompanied by changes in the density of the pigment, the pictorial handwriting and the colour range, which became wider and richer. In terms of artistic achievement and social advancement, this decade marks the peak of Vel?zquezs career, with Las Meninas as his great masterpiece.

This exhaustive sourcebook book presents the most eye-catching and important pieces from an array of more than 100 of the world's fashion designers. Covering both contemporary and classic designs — from historic houses such as Sophie Hallette, masters of lace, to the edgiest work by Christopher Kane and Giles Deacon — it sets a new benchmark in the world of fabric design. Alphabetically arranged by designer, around 1,300 images illustrate the huge variety of swatches. Marnie Fogg introduces each fashion house and guides the reader through their particular approach to textile design and production. These include the great fabric designers of our time: Barbour, Bruce Oldfield, Marimekko, Paul Smith, Basso & Brooke, Mary Katrantzou, Christopher Kane, Sonia Rykiel, Ann Louise Roswald, Tata Naka, Eley Kishimoto, Hussein Chalayan, and others. With unprecedented access behind the scenes of some of the most important manufacturers, the final section of the book displays informative step-by-step photographs of the working techniques behind both modern and classic fabric manufacturing.

Roger Ballen is one of the most original image makers of the twenty-first century. Asylum of the Birds showcases his iconic photographs, which were all taken entirely within the confines of a house in a Johannesburg suburb, the location of which remains a tightly guarded secret. The inhabitants of the house, both people and animals, and most notably the ever-present birds, are the cast who perform within a sculptural and decorated theatrical interior that the author creates and orchestrates. The resulting images are compelling and dynamic, existing somewhere between still life and portrait. They are richly layered with graffiti, drawings, animals, and found objects. In a world where photographers seek to avoid definition, Roger Ballen is a true original who not only defies genres, but has defined his own artistic space as well.

Today's menswear designers must understand the history of fashion to come up with new and innovative ideas. Filled with inspiration for designers and students alike, The Fashion Resource Book: Men is a collection of research essential to the study of men's fashion. The book is divided into three sections, each structured as a series of detailed case studies. The first section investigates the research process in the work of such designers as Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, and Yohji Yamamoto, among others. The second section is on research and inspiration, including street style and uniform, and the influence of established companies. The third section presents detailed case studies of particular garments, including parkas, trench coats, and denim jackets.The follow-up to the hugely successful The Fashion Resource Book, this volume is sure to become required reading in fashion classes and home libraries alike.

Henri Cartier-Bresson's work embraced art, politics, revolution, and war. But more powerful than any of these overarching themes was his evident concern for the human individual at every social level. This lavishly illustrated monograph — published to accompany France's first major retrospective since the photographer's death in 2004 — traces Cartier-Bresson's development as a photographer, activist, journalist, and artist. In addition to some of Cartier-Bresson's best-known photographs, included here are many seldom seen or unpublished images and some rarities in color as well as black-and-white. From his earliest photographs in Paris in the 1920s and Africa in the 1930s, Cartier-Bresson's capacity to conjure coherence and harmony out of a chaotic world appears effortless and innate — a deep-centered attitude rather than a merely learned technique. His observations of the effects of poverty and revolution around the world led directly to his pioneering photojournalism and to his co-founding of Magnum Photos. He became renowned for his penetrating portraits of the most prominent figures of his time, becoming, in the words of his biographer Pierre Assouline, the eye of the century.