Книги по истории искусства

An accessible and hugely popular history of art explained through many of the world’s most famous masterpieces

This comprehensive, vibrant book leads you through the world’s iconic images – those that we encounter every time we open a newspaper, visit a gallery, or look at the front cover of a novel

Art: The Whole Story traces the development of art period by period, with the illustrated text covering every genre, from painting and sculpture to conceptual art and performance art. Cultural timelines are there too, to help the reader with historical context.

• The most accessible history of world art ever assembled
• More than 1,100 colour illustrations of iconic pieces
• Covers every genre of art, from painting and sculpture to conceptual art
• Designed in an easily navigable and user-friendly fashion

Written by an international team of artists, art historians and curators, this absorbing and beautiful book will give you insight into the world’s most iconic images.

Masterpieces that epitomize each period or movement are highlighted and analysed in detail. Everything from the use of colour and visual metaphors to technical innovations is explained, enabling you to interpret the meanings of world-famous masterpieces – Mughal miniatures; Japanese prints in the nineteenth century; the colour theories behind Seurat’s remarkable La Grande Jatte; and why Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon was so shocking in its day.

An incredible new volume from PIE books featuring stunning works of graphic art from the early twentieth-century Russian Avant-garde! 

Examples of collage, photography, typography, illustration are shown throughout, accompanied by short descriptions of Russian technological developments in design and printing techniques. 

Avante-Garde Graphics in Russia showcases about 300 works including examples of movie posters, propaganda posters, book designs, fashion and textile designs, ceramic art designs etc. 

About the Author:

Hiroshi Unno was born in 1939 in Tokyo. Unno writes on art, cinema, music, urbanism, novels, flower arranging and more. Unno recent titles released by PIE International - The Art of Fantasy, Sci-fi and Steampunk, Harry Clarke, William Morris: Master of Modern Design, The World of Mucha, A Thousand and One Nights - have gained recognition worldwide.

The Baroque period lasted from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century. Baroque art was the response by artists to the Catholic Church’s demand for solemn grandeur following the Council of Trent, and through its monumentality and grandiloquence it seduced the great European courts. Amongst the Baroque arts, architecture has, without doubt, left the greatest mark in Europe; the continent is dotted with magnificent Baroque churches and palaces, commissioned by patrons at the height of their power. The works of Gian Lorenzo Bernini of the Southern School and Peter Paul Rubens of the Northern School alone show the importance of this artistic period. Rich in images encompassing the arts of painting, sculpture and architecture, this work offers a complete insight into this passionate period in the history of art.

About the author
Victoria Charles is a professor of art history. She has published many different works and is a regular contributor to Art Information, an international guide to contemporary art. A frequent writer of articles for specialist journals and magazines, Victoria Charles has recently taken part in the creation of a collective work: 1,000 Paintings of Genius.
Klaus H. Carl is the author of numerous works on the history of great cities, and is also a well-known photographer of fauna and flora. A teacher by profession, he is currently devoting himself to a monumental History of Art.

Определение «Эпоха барокко», обозначающее набор сложных культурных и художественных проявлений, которые развивались в Европе в XVII веке, все еще является предметом дебатов в среде критиков и историков.

В качестве одного из наиболее часто принятых определений, термин «барокко» характеризует некоторые аспекты искусства XVII века в Европе, с богатым Римом в центре, опровергающие пропорции и статичную гармонию ренессанса, уже подорванные маньеризмом в предыдущем веке, путем использования округлых линий, странного движения форм, дерзкой зрелищности иллюзионизма и театральности. Отражая с новым великолепием явления социальной, политической, научной, культурной и церковной жизни, которые глубоко затронули европейское общество и даже остального мира, искусство барокко зародилось в Италии, где его спонсировали церковь и влиятельные семьи. В то же самое время появление новых покровителей и коллекционеров означало, что оно вторгалось в новые сферы, такие как музыка, литература и театр.

During the baroque period, architecture and the other fine arts were the instruments of a staging of world theater on a grand scale. The baroque art of the popes in Rome, the displays of power and opulence in the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV, and Dutch painting they all reflect different aspects of the underlying tension between pleasure in life and fear of death that was such a prominent feature of the baroque world view. This volume portrays the entire span of the fine arts of the baroque era, from rich splendor to religious asceticism.

For this work, editor Rolf Toman has gathered contributions from seven renowned authors with great expertise in the fields of architecture and art history to work with him. Taken as a whole, they give us a multi-faceted picture of baroque art in all its forms.

After the global hit Ars Sacra, Rolf Toman and his team embark on a journey once more. The Palace of Versailles and St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican are outstanding buildings from this epoch. There are undreamed-of jewels in Europe and America, the New World, waiting for discovery. Magnificent libraries, vaults of science or mysterious gardens, skilled works of porcelain and illusionistic painting, to name just a few aspects of this complex epoch.

With his passion and meticulousness, photographer Achim Bednorz succeeded to get details in front of his camera that cannot even be seen in the original locally. The photographs that are exclusive for this volume are particularly well-presented in their large format. The author Barbara Borngässer wrote her take on Baroque history to fit, and swiftly takes the reader into the Great World Theater, the Theatrum Mundi.

For 500 years, the world's greatest makers of costume jewelry have hidden, anonymous, in the heart of Europe: Gablonz, Bohemia. This groundbreaking, beautiful book exposes the jewels, craftsmanship, technological development, and history of Bohemia. Almost 400 gorgeous color photographs illustrate the area's artistry, its most significant designers and manufacturers and their contributions to the art of jewelry, button, and bead making. Bohemian glass dynasties lasted for centuries, until the middle of the 20th century, when the entire community of German-stock craftsmen was expelled from the area in the turbulence of World War II. Though Gablonz will forever feel the loss of these great craftsmen, their artistry has been meticulously researched and documented by Sibylle Jargstorf for this book.

The way our environment looks, the appearance of everything from housing estates to newspapers, is partly the result of a school of art and design founded in Germany in 1919 and closed down by the Nazis in 1933. This was the Bauhaus, which has left an indelible mark on art education throughout the world. 

Setting everything against a backdrop of the times, Frank Whitford traces the ideas behind its conception and describes its teaching methods. He examines the activities of the teachers – artists as eminent as Paul Klee and Kandinsky – and the daily lives of the students. Everything is described with the aid, wherever possible, of the words of those who were there at the time.

Best of Bauhaus. The definitive reference work in a revised and updated edition

Between two world wars, the Bauhaus School of Art and Design changed the face of modernity. Realized with the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin, this updated edition celebrates the school’s centennial, gathering 550 illustrations across 400 pages, including architectural plans and biographies of key figures like Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, and Marianne Brandt — the ultimate guide.

In a fleeting 14-year period between two world wars, Germany’s Bauhaus school of art and design changed the face of modernity. With utopian ideas for the future, the school developed a pioneering fusion of fine art, craftsmanship, and technology, which they applied across media and practices from film to theatre, and sculpture to ceramics.

This best-selling reference work is made in collaboration with the Bauhaus-Archiv/Museum für Gestaltung in Berlin, the world’s largest collection on the history of the Bauhaus. Some 575 illustrations including architectural plans, studies, photographs, sketches, and models record not only the realized works but also the leading principles and personalities of this idealistic creative community through its three successive locations in Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin. From informal shots of group gymnastics to drawings guided by Paul Klee, from extensive architectural plans to an infinitely sleek ashtray by Marianne Brandt, the collection brims with the colours, materials, and geometries that made up the Bauhaus vision of a “total” work of art.

As we approach the Bauhaus centennial, this is a defining account of its energy and rigour, not only as a trailblazing movement in Modernism but also as a paradigm of art education, where creative expression and cutting-edge ideas led to simultaneously functional and beautiful creations. The handy edition features artists Josef Albers, Marianne Brandt, Walter Gropius, Gertrud Grunow, Paul Klee, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Lilly Reich, and many more.

About the author:

Magdalena Droste studied art history and literature in Aachen and Marburg. From 1980 she worked at the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin, after which she worked as a professor of art history at the BTU Cottbus. She has been responsible for numerous exhibitions and publications across all Bauhaus themes and artists.

Best of Bauhaus. The definitive reference work, now in a compact format

This handy, updated edition explores the Bauhaus School of Art and Design through some 575 illustrations and biographies of its key personalities. Realized in collaboration with the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin, the reference work is now available in Bibliotheca Universalis format, the perfect companion for your next trip to Berlin, Weimar, or Dessau.

In a fleeting 14-year period between two world wars, Germany’s Bauhaus school of art and design changed the face of modernity. With utopian ideas for the future, the school developed a pioneering fusion of fine art, craftsmanship, and technology, which they applied across media and practices from film to theater, and sculpture to ceramics.

This best-selling reference work is made in collaboration with the Bauhaus-Archiv/Museum für Gestaltung in Berlin, the world’s largest collection on the history of the Bauhaus. Some 575 illustrations including architectural plans, studies, photographs, sketches, and models record not only the realized works but also the leading principles and personalities of this idealistic creative community through its three successive locations in Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin. From informal shots of group gymnastics to drawings guided by Paul Klee, from extensive architectural plans to an infinitely sleek ashtray by Marianne Brandt, the collection brims with the colors, materials, and geometries that made up the Bauhaus vision of a “total” work of art.

As we approach the Bauhaus centennial, this is a defining account of its energy and rigor, not only as a trailblazing movement in Modernism but also as a paradigm of art education, where creative expression and cutting-edge ideas led to simultaneously functional and beautiful creations. The handy edition features artists Josef Albers, Marianne Brandt, Walter Gropius, Gertrud Grunow, Paul Klee, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Lilly Reich, and many more.

About the Author:

Magdalena Droste studied art history and literature in Aachen and Marburg. From 1980 she worked at the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin, after which she worked as a professor of art history at the BTU Cottbus. She has been responsible for numerous exhibitions and publications across all Bauhaus themes and artists.

About the Series:

Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!

Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together more than 100 of our all-time favourite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.

Bookworm’s delight — never bore, always excite!

Approximately 400 exquisite paintings, drawings, furniture, decorative objects, and clothing, with commentaries by leading scholars in the field. Biedermeier describes a kind of factual art that very closely corresponds to sensory perception. Its basic characteristics became apparent even before 1800, and up until around 1830 it continued to develop through simplification, the natural beauty of materials, and clarity of form. Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity is an elegant publication concentrating upon a core group of artistic works from this period of time, which were predominated by these formal elements and also gave shape to the new, central European aesthetic vision. More than three hundred examples from all genres of art from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and Denmark are featured: paintings, prints, furniture, glass and porcelain objects, silver, interior decoration, and fashion from the trendsetting, stylish metropolises. This is an attractive presentation of this period’s innovative character, which permitted it to play a pioneering role in the modern era.

This groundbreaking book explores the visual representations of black culture throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.

From blues to rap, from the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner to the video pieces of Keith Piper and Steve McQueen, it draws on the work of hundreds of artists, including Wifredo Lam, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Martin Puryear, Spike Lee, Adrian Piper, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Chris Ofili and Yinka Shonibare.

This new edition provides expanded coverage of film and video, and an additional chapter on the work of artists who have risen to prominence in recent years. Over 180 biographical notes provide a unique reference source.

An expansive collection that introduces the short-lived and ruthlessly creative phenomenon that was Blacklips.

From June 1992 to March 1995, in the midst of the AIDS crisis in NYC, an extraordinary theatrical collective emerged from the queer underground. Blacklips Performance Cult, initiated by ANOHNI and joined by a cabal of fellow artists, drag queens, punks, nightlife veterans and students, performed a new play every Monday night at 1:00 a.m. at the Pyramid Club on 101 Avenue A. Blacklips never courted mainstream attention. However, the group left a sustaining impression within New York's late night subculture by melding hysterical drag, surreal horror, and disconcerting tenderness.

In Blacklips: Her Life and Her Many, Many Deaths, ANOHNI and coeditor Marti Wilkerson lay bare the collective's archives in photographs, scripts, and the assembled ephemera from more than one hundred and twenty original "plays." Featuring images from newly digitized film and video recordings, texts from participants and audience members, and an introduction by Lia Gangitano, this expansive collection introduces to the twenty-first century the short-lived and ruthlessly creative phenomenon that was Blacklips.

About the Author:

ANOHNI is a visual artist, musician, and playwright who spent her twenties performing music and staging plays in late-night clubs and experimental theatres in New York City. She formed her music group Antony and the Johnsons - named in memory of trans activist Marsha P. Johnson - in 1998. After releasing the group’s self-titled first record in 2000 and touring around the world with Lou Reed as a backup singer, her second album, I Am a Bird Now (2005), was awarded the Mercury Prize in the UK. ANOHNI has since released The Crying Light (2008), Swanlights (2009), the live album Cut the World (2012), and HOPELESSNESS (2016), a collaboration with Hudson Mohawke and Daniel Lopatin. She curated the 2012 Meltdown Festival at the Southbank in London, and has performed her music with symphonies in venues including the Royal Opera House in London, Teatro Royale in Madrid, Sydney Opera House, the Olympia in Paris and Radio City Music Hall. ANOHNI’s visual installations, performances, and plays have been presented by institutions including Kunsthal Nikolaj in Copenhagen, Bielefeld Kunsthalle in Germany, MoMA, the Whitney Museum, The Kitchen NYC, Aarhus 2017 Capital of Culture, and the Barbican. She scored Valentino’s Spring collection presentation “Anatomy of Couture” in Milan in February

Florence s golden child. The Early Renaissance master

During Sandro Botticelli's lifetime (1444/45-1510), the influence of his art scarcely reached beyond his native Florence, and following his death, he was soon forgotten, to be rediscovered only in the 19th century by the Pre-Raphaelites. Since then, Botticelli has ranked among the greatest Renaissance artists. In the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, paintings such as Primavera and The Birth of Venus are among the foremost attractions for tourists and art lovers. Botticelli s captivating figures of women, his intimate portrayals of the Madonna and Child, and the angelic beauty of his adolescents are famous the world over today. The artist s life and work are explored in this thoughtful and beautifully illustrated study.

About the series:

Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:

- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

Treasures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Eight centuries of European applied arts

When Kunstwerke und Geräthschaften des Mittelalters und der Renaissance (1852–1863) was published, what purchasers in fact bought was a small printed museum of unusual treasures. With 216 hand-coloured copperplate engravings, the publication gives a comprehensive overview of applied arts in Europe from the 9th to the 16th centuries. The objects presented comprise furniture, metalwork, jewellery, tapestries, and works of bookbinding. Carefully selected masterpieces such as the gilt Corvinus goblet, an enamelled saltcellar, and medieval ivory combs are depicted, along with a decorative sword, now lost.

The editor Jakob Heinrich von Hefner-Alteneck (1811-1903) was head of the Royal Cabinet of Prints and Drawings in Munich and later director of the Bavarian National Museum. His work helped influence the creation of new museums of art and design – the South Kensington Museum in London (today the Victoria and Albert Museum), founded in 1852, being the very first – in which artists could study the hand-crafted masterpieces of earlier epochs.
Although the co-editor Carl Becker (1794-1859) commissioned various artists to make drawings of the historical originals for Kunstwerke und Geräthschaften, the signatures on the plates show that most of the illustrations stem from the hand of artist Jakob Heinrich von Hefner-Alteneck and he can, therefore, be considered as the work’s main draughtsman; considering that Becker died before the completion of the work, the most influential figure behind it was undoubtedly Hefner-Alteneck. Before his collaboration with Becker, Hefner-Alteneck had previously published Trachten des christlichen Mittelalters (Costumes of the Christian Middle Ages).

With their publication, Jakob Heinrich von Hefner-Alteneck and Carl Becker gave expression to the 19th century’s revived interest in the art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. By selecting masterpieces from public and private collections, and reproducing them faithfully in pictures, they created a document of artistic quality in itself, which also provides evidence of works which have since been lost.

With this new edition, which includes a commentary, TASCHEN is making an important publication accessible once more, giving a glimpse of the treasure chambers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This complete reprint was created on the basis of an original copy in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart.

The author:

Carsten-Peter Warncke studied art history, classical archaeology, and literature in Vienna, Heidelberg, and Hamburg, and received his doctorate from the latter in 1975. He is a professor of art history at the University of Göttingen.