Искусство

When the final tally of key movers in the plastic arts of this century is compiled, there is no doubt that maestro of movement Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the man who put the swing into sculpture, will be near numero uno. Calder took it off the plinth, gave it to the wind, and left us kinetic playgrounds of the spirit. He operated at the point where Modernity and nature fused, developing an environmental art that changed the medium forever. Visiting his Paris atelier in 1932, Duchamp coined the term "Mobiles" for Calder`s delicate wire and disc pieces, constructions that would soon become immensely popular.

But he didn`t rest on his innovations. Friends with Miro, Mondrian and Leger, Calder also turned his hand to painting, drawing, gouaches, toys, textiles and utensil design. A graphic master who sketched as much in air as in ink, the Sixties and Seventies saw Calder take on the monumental, translating the dynamics of cities into both his Mobiles and "Stabiles". At a time when sculpture was perceived to be the antithesis of movement, Calder unmade gravity and freed the elements in a body of work that is still sending a wind of change through the art world today.

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
* a concise biography

Perfect Panic. Up close and suspenseful with Alfred Hitchcock

Meet the inventor of modern horror. This complete guide to the Hitchcock canon is a movie buff’s dream: from his 1925 debut The Pleasure Garden to 1976’s swan song Family Plot, we trace the filmmaker’s entire life and career. With a detailed entry for each of Hitchcock’s 53 movies, this clothbound book combines insightful texts, photography, and an illustrated list of all the master’s cameos.

The name Alfred Hitchcock is synonymous with suspense — that is to say, masterful, spine-tingling, thrilling, shocking, excruciating, eye-boggling suspense. With triumphs such as Rebecca, Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho, Hitchcock (1899–1980) fashioned a new level of cinematic intrigue and fear through careful pacing, subtlety, and suggestiveness.

This complete guide traces Hitchcock’s life and career from his earliest silent films right through to his last picture in 1976, Family Plot. Updated with fresh images, the book combines detailed entries for each of Hitchcock’s 53 films, an incisive essay that sheds light on his fear-inducing devices, photos of the master at work, and an illustrated list of each of his cameos, together with adding up to a movie buff’s dream.

The editor:

Paul Duncan is a film historian whose TASCHEN books include The James Bond Archives, The Charlie Chaplin Archives, The Godfather Family Album, Taxi Driver, Film Noir, and Horror Cinema, as well as publications on film directors, film genres, movie stars, and film posters.

120th anniversary of his birth, the life and masterpieces by Alfred Hitchcock, a British filmmaker, master of suspense and cinema genius.

“If you make a bomb go off, the audience has a shock that lasts 10 seconds, but if you simply tell them there’s a bomb, the suspense is dragged out and the audience is kept on pins and needles for five minutes” (Alfred Hitchcock).

The supreme representative of the “seventh art”, director of masterpieces, milestone of world cinema, during his long career, Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) made over 50 films, from his debut in silent cinema to 1970s movies that have terrorised entire generations.

Enthralling plots, original editing, brilliance, skilful ability in creating constant tension, frame after frame: these are the ingredients that have made Hitchcock a true icon of cinema history, worshipped and revered by countless admirers who still today imitate and study his innovative techniques.

Through a vast selection of photos and original contents taken from the set of masterpieces like Psycho (1960), Rear Window (1954), Birds (1963), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Dial M for Murder (1954), readers are taken backstage to discover curious details and better understand the life of this master of suspense.

Cartier’s peerless designers have continued to amaze decade after decade - from the 1930s into the twenty-first century - with their fanciful and trendsetting creations. Figurative pieces comprise a significant portion of the house’s collection - a veritable menagerie that includes bejeweled roosters and cobras cohabitating with tigers and angelfish. In addition to whimsical fauna and resplendent flora, Cartier crafted items of precisely mastered abstraction, from virtuoso work in gold to chromatic harmonies ranging from subtle to bold. The second half of the twentieth century was to provide an inexhaustible repertoire of forms for decorative objects and finery. Close-ups of hundreds of Cartier pieces are supplemented with archival drawings, as well as society and fashion photographs. This volume chronicles the rise of a pioneering firm and illustrates the power of constantly renewed styles based on a fine balance between imagination and know-how, creativity and experience. Fashion writer Nadine Coleno situates the emergence of Cartier’s creations in their historical and stylistic context. This volume offers an eloquent tribute to the multiple talents that have transformed the name of a dynasty of jewelers into the universal gold standard in jewelry design.

Numerous high-quality reproductions accompany this in-depth examination of Modigliani's career, from the penetrating psychological studies of his early portraits, through the more stylized images such as the graceful figures with the famous almond-shaped eyes and swan-like necks, to his mature depiction of nudes, which have become symbols of femininity.

Although Modigliani led the life of the turn-of-the-century bohemian in Paris, dying at the young age of 35, his restless life is scarcely reflected in his paintings, which are characterized by cool detachment and often archaic austerity. This fascinating study reveals how Modigliani drew his inspiration not so much from the avant-garde movements of the time, as from the artists of the Renaissance and Rococo periods.

Twentieth-century American society wittily and ironically portrayed by a great artist. Norman Rockwell (1894–1978), one of the most popular American artists of the past century, has often been regarded as a simple illustrator and had his work identified with the covers of the Saturday Evening Post. He is, instead, a total artist. An acute observer of human nature and talented storyteller, Rockwell captured America’s evolving society in small details and nuances, portraying scenes of the everyday life of ordinary people and presenting a personal and often idealized interpretation of the American identity. His images offered a reassuring visual haven in a period of epoch-making transformation that led to the birth of the modern American society.

The art of Norman Rockwell entered the homes of millions of Americans for over fifty years, illustrating the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, World War II, and the 1950s and 1960s. His works mirror aspects of the life of average Americans with precise realism and often in a humorous light. The exhibition catalog organized in collaboration with the Norman Rockwell Museum of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, presents well-known and beloved masterpieces like the Triple Self-Portrait (1960), Girl at the Mirror (1954), and The Art Critic (1955) alongside carefully observed images of youthful innocence (No Swimming, 1921) and paintings with a powerful social message like The Problem We All Live With (1964).

The first appearances of graffiti “tags” (signatures) on New York City subway trains in the early 1970s were discarded as incidents of vandalism or the rough, violent cries of the ignorant and impoverished.
However, as the graffiti movement progressed and tags became more elaborate and ubiquitous, genuine artists emerged whose unique creativity and unconventional media captured the attention of the world.
Featuring gallery and street works by several contributors to the graffiti scene, this book offers insight into the lives of urban artists, describes their relationship with the bourgeois art world, and discusses their artistic motivation with unprecedented sensitivity.

The Author
Margo Thompson received her Ph.D. in art history from Northwestern University. She teaches modern and contemporary art at Muhlenberg College.

Her courses in African-American art history and multiculturalism led her to write this book. Her previous research on gender and sexuality in art has been published in journals including n.paradoxa, Genders and GLQ.

An expanded and revised edition of this elegant and definitive volume, which helped establish the ever-growing passion for American Impressionism.

With brilliant scholarship and a wealth of stunning illustrations, American Impressionism provides a vivid summary of the entire art movement, starting with its roots in earlier American art and its relationship to French Impressionism. The first edition was quickly recognized as the most authoritative and penetrating account of the movement, which has continued to grow in popularity since the book's debut. For this new edition, which features 25 additional illustrations, Professor Gerdts has added a fascinating new chapter on Impressionist themes. The volume also includes a thoroughly updated bibliography.

American Impressionism tells how the movement progressed from an avant-garde aesthetic assaulted by critics up to its years of triumph and how the movement developed in diverse ways throughout the country including regional Impressionism in the South, Midwest, and West. All of the masterworks are here, from Childe Hassam's sun-drenched gardens to John Twachtmans snow-silenced landscapes, from Edmund Tarbell's coolly elegant ladies in dim, luxurious interiors to Frederick Friesekes sun-dappled nudes.

The firm of Tiffany & Co. has long been regarded as America's premier maker and retailer of fine luxury goods. This is especially true in the case of jewellery, an area in which the company emerged as an arbiter of taste and style by the mid-19th century. Charles Lewis Tiffany, one of the founders of the firm, was astutely aware of the desire of newly emerged elites for high-style jewels that would rival those owned by European aristocrats. A savy entrepreneur, Tiffany would eventually purchase part of the French Crown jewels for his American clients, selling them along with outstanding diamonds, precious gem-set jewellery, and Swiss-made watches. All would bear the company's mark and by the end of the 19th century, the brand was firmly established.

While Tiffany & Co. lavishly met the luxury needs of America's well-to-do, they also passionately developed an American style, promoting American materials and motifs. Their displays at the International Expositions met with great success, further increasing their reputation in the world-wide market. They were also quick to adapt technological advances, including the raised diamond mount ("Tiffany setting"), new diamond-cutting techniques, and a system of hallmarking. Charles Lewis Tiffany's successors in the 20th century continued to create extraordinary adornments designed by outstanding artists such as Louis Comfort Tiffany, Jean Schlumberger, Angela Cummings, Elsa Peretti, and Paloma Picasso. This book, through a series of original essays, pays tribute to the firm's enduring ingenuity.

150 illustrations

Realism is a monolithic, lockstep, strictly governed method of painterly visualization shattered into nuances of interpretation. Where you paint can make you a Regional Realist. What you paint might label you a Genre Realist, or who you paint classifies your work as Portrait Realist - or maybe a Portrait Regionalist Realist if you paint Native Americans in the West, or sea captains on the East Coast.
Of the variations cited, there are even further nuances that mock the concept of “American Realism” as an
all-embracing style. What remains are American Realist artists, each facing subject matter that is part of the fabric of the American scene. The result of their efforts is determined by the filtering of their perceptions through their individual intellects, skill sets, training, regional influences, ethnic influences and basic nurturing. If there is any binding together it is within the tradition of Realist Art in the United States, which accepts such a range from Winslow Homer's poetic watercolors of the 1860s to the haunting minutiae of Andrew Wyeth and melancholy light of Edward Hopper in the 1950s and 1960s.
This book presents a cross-section of American Realist artists spanning more than 100 years of art. It begins as some artists struggle with the influences of Europe and other home-grown painters bring their nineteenth-century American scenes to life, and ends as today's generation of Realist painters co-exist with American Modernism and absorb this new freedom into the latest incarnation of their art.

Visual culture - art, advertising, architecture, cinema, television, cartography, video, the internet, and images of science - has shaped American national identity more than that of any other country. Covering the period from the late nineteenth century to the present day, the book explores how visual culture has at once transformed and consolidated the image of the United States.

American Visual Culture presents both an analysis of the diversity of American visual media and a critical introduction to the study and interpretation of visual culture.

Thematic chapters - on American urban and rural landscapes, icons, popular culture, art and photography, as well as on crime, anxiety and sex - describe the cultural, intellectual and historical context. Throughout, these themes are discussed in conjunction with clear and concise explanations of key visual theories and methodologies

400 illustrations

This is a practical reference book introducing basic materials and processes for a range of traditional, non-traditional, widely used and lesser-known media. It explores the process of drawing and painting and includes the techniques of encaustic, egg tempera, fresco, oil, watercolour and acrylic. The aim of the book is to show that artistic processes are not, in themselves, difficult. Each technique is given its own chapter and students are encouraged to work through the technique from scratch, encountering the work through preparation of the wood panel or canvas, the mixing of pigments and the application of the paint. Illustrated throughout with historical and contemporary examples of works and with photographs of studio practice, each chapter is accompanied by exercises that encourage the student to explore the creative possibilities of each method.

In 1920, a well-known illustrator compiled hundreds of his preliminary studies of costumed models. He photographed them and produced two portfolios that offer a revealing look into an expert's technique. Students in need of suggestions and assistance related to figure drawing will find here exactly the sort of help they seek — the position of the body in walking and sitting, the pose of a hand and position of an arm, facial expressions of every variety, and a host of other postures and attitudes.

This new edition marks the first time Arthur Keller's Sketchbook has been made available since its original publication. Although it features no descriptive text, the energy and expressiveness of its studies will instill in art students and professionals a higher appreciation of the rendering of the draped figure. In addition to its appeal to fine art enthusiasts and seekers of art instruction, this volume will also serve as a source of inspiration for fashion designers and costumers.

106 colour and duotone plates

Centered around one of India’s greatest painters, Amrita Sher-Gil, this book introduces the Sher-Gil family of artists to the European public. An early 20th-century pioneer photographer, a female painter merging European Modernism with native traditions, and today’s leading video artist, “the Kahlos of India” finally receive their due recognition in the Western world.

Many initiatives to support women were begun in the late 1800s, but the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) is one of the few that remain. This initiative was born from the desire of three women – Princess Helena, Lady Victoria Welby and Lady Marian Alford – to popularise the lost art of ornamental needlework and place it on a par with other decorative arts, such as painting and sculpture. Their other, yet no less important goal was to provide employment for women compelled to earn their own livelihood. Though women are no longer so limited in occupational options, the RSN has been keeping traditional embroidery techniques alive for a century and a half. 

Published to coincide with the RSN’s 150th anniversary, this book will tell the story of the RSN from its founding in 1872 to the current day. It will highlight key people, royal and other special commissions, the changing fortunes of the school as fashions changed and the approach to teaching hand embroidery, as well as bringing attention to the role and position of the RSN historically and today, associating with everyone from society ladies and theatre impresarios in the late 19th century to working with fashion designers Patrick Grant, Nicholas Oakwell and Alexander McQueen, and architects in the 21st century.

About the Author:

Dr Susan Kay-Williams has been chief executive of the Royal School of Needlework since 2007. She is also a curator and archivist. She has spent a lot of her spare time researching the RSN’s history because she believes more of its remarkable history needs to be known. In her own right her research interest is in the history of dyes and textile dyeing. She published The Story of Colour in Textiles in 2013 (Bloomsbury).

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Пролистать книгу An Unbroken Thread: Celebrating 150 Years of the Royal School of Needlework