Книги по истории искусства

A revolutionary 'virtual' museum with easy-to-navigate, colour-coded galleries and rooms

Housing the finest art collection ever assembled, this revised, reformatted edition offers the museum experience without the boundaries of space and time, taking the reader on a tour around the world and through the ages. Its rooms and galleries display some 1,600 artworks, selected from the original collection, including paintings, sculpture, photographs, textiles, installations, performances, videos, prints, ceramics, manuscripts, metalwork, and jewel-work.

Visit the world's most comprehensive and compelling museum in a book – from pre-historic times to the present, – over 1,600 artworks created with the expertise of 28 art world curators and historians.

"Unprecedented, unique, and vast in scope... a visually spectacular survey of world art. Destined to delight, inspire, and educate, as well as to become an invaluable, classic art-reference resource, it is very highly recommended." ―Library Journal

About the Authors:

Twenty-eight curators, critics, art historians, and artists contributed their expertise to create this art-lover's ideal museum. They come from such institutions as: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the British Museum, London; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu; the University of California, Berkeley; La Trobe University, Melbourne; the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London; and The Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

For centuries, the art and culture of China and Japan have exerted a particular fascination on the West. Items from Imperial China once filled the porcelain cabinets of European courts, and Japanese painting and woodcarving made their way to Europe in the nineteenth century. The impressive illustrations in this volume present the reader with the unique wealth of art forms in China and Japan, forms which have also exerted tremendous influence on Western art: artful ceramics, woodcarvings, small sculptures and bronzes, porcelains and ink drawings from China; and from Japan, temple districts, imperial villas and Zen gardens, ukiyo paintings of the Edo period, the famed No masques, as well as precious textiles and costumes. These are only a few of the many aspects selected by the authors to convey the wealth and unbelievable variety of artistic forms of East Asia. An illustrated glossary and extensive bibliography complete the book.

A rich celebration of Hanukkah, featuring centuries of extraordinary art and artefacts.

One of the most joyous weeks in the Jewish year is when families gather for eight evenings to celebrate the festival of Hanukkah. Jews the world over mark this holiday of freedom with the lighting of the Hanukkah menorah, while children spin a dreidel and eat sufganiyot and potato latkes. Presents are exchanged, and the story of Hanukkah is retold through songs and prayers. The Art of Hanukkah, through its selection of forty-eight masterpieces of holiday ceremonial and fine art, tells the story of the desecration of the holy Temple, its subsequent reclaiming and rededication, and the miracle of the single, tiny cruse of oil that continued to provide light for eight days.

From individual oil lamps to medieval creations, through the sumptuous flourishes of Baroque decorations to contemporary times, these Hanukkah menorahs reflect the adaptability of Jewish culture throughout the Diaspora. Menorahs, paintings, dreidels — all the wonderful elements of the celebration of Hanukkah from around the world and throughout the centuries have been brought together in this one marvellous book. Clear, insightful, and thought-provoking commentaries make this book a perfect complement to the holiday.

About the Author

Nancy M. Berman was the curator of the Hebrew Union College Skirball Museum from 1972 to 1977. She subsequently became director of the museum in 1977. Her career in Jewish art and culture began at the Jewish Museum in New York, where she was assistant curator of the Judaica Department.

This oversized collector’s edition showcases antique paintings and drawings of birds and animals from the most important natural history collection in France.

An unparalleled collection of the most beautiful—yet scientific—depictions of flora and fauna ever produced, these artworks document three centuries of exploration of the far reaches of the world—a rich visual record harking back to a time when science relied upon painstaking human illustration as the only way to record exotic plants and unknown animals observed during voyages of discovery.

All the artworks included here were depicted on vellum, a high-quality, long-lasting parchment that fell out of use around 1900 when it was supplanted by photography. France’s national collection consists of over 7,000 such artworks and is among the world’s finest. Flora and fauna from every corner of the globe are represented in precisely rendered color and detail.

Sadly, many of the species depicted in these masterful yet hauntingly accurate portraits are now endangered, threatened—or in many cases, already extinct. This volume is both a celebration of the human quest for knowledge and an epitaph for a fast disappearing world—as well as a feast for the eyes for anyone who loves birds or vintage natural history art. This exquisite and timeless book is beautifully presented in a jacketed volume within a slipcase and luxuriously packaged within an illustrated mailer with a handle for portability.

About the Author:

Pascale Heurtel is chief curator and director of libraries and Michelle Lenoir is honorary director of the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris.

One big slice of cheesecake. Pin-up travels the long road from barracks wall to high art

In the 15 years since TASCHEN released 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 $ 2,000 in 1996 are going for $ 200,000 and more today. Pin-up: drawings, paintings and pastels of an idealized female face and figure intended for public display, was produced between 1920 and 1970, for use on calendars, and magazine covers and centerfolds. The majority of original paintings were discarded by publishers and calendar companies after printing, making the surviving art that much more precious. Today it’s popularity is 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 top 10 artists are profiled in depth. Each chapter opens with a tipped-in reproduction of an original calendar or magazine cover by that artist. The reproduction quality of the paintings, pastels, and preparatory sketches that follow — largely sourced from the original art — invites the viewer to trace the brush strokes, while the exquisite period calendars, vintage prints, and original model photos document 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.

In addition to the chapters on the 10 featured artists, the book includes thumbnail bios and representative art of 85 additional artists, the most complete compendium of pin-up artists ever compiled. All this adds up to a hard-to-beat book on this popular subject.

Carefully curated and beautifully packaged erotic art through the ages – 170 works from the world's most important artists

This carefully curated and beautifully packaged book spotlights nearly 170 works from the world's most important artists, including Titian, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Edgar Degas, Edvard Munch, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Lucian Freud, Louise Bourgeois, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Gerhard Richter, Cecily Brown, Anselm Kiefer, George Condo, and Anish Kapoor.

With its chronological organization, The Art of the Erotic provides insights into human sexuality throughout the ages.

About the Author:

Rowan Pelling is a journalist, broadcaster and commentator on the arts. She has just launched a new middle-shelf magazine, The Amorist, intended for devotees of love and passion. She first rose to prominence as the editor of the monthly literary/erotic magazine, Erotic Review, and has written for a range of magazines and newspapers, including the Independent on Sunday, Daily Mail, GQ and The Spectator. Pelling lives in Cambridge, England.

The Ballets Russes was a phenomenon of the early twentieth century, permeating daily life wherever the company traveled and leaving a lasting impact on dance, theater, and the visual arts. Sergei Diaghilev, impresario from 1909 until his death in 1929, fused the most avant-garde, groundbreaking movements in dance, choreography, art, design, and costume into unique and stunning productions. The work was exciting, and always new, and it stretched the limits of the possible in art. The color, form, and material in costume and set design astonished audiences, transforming every corner of Western culture in the twentieth century.

Fashion and decor designers and visual artists in particular - including Coco Chanel, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Léon Bakst, and Pablo Picasso - found inspiration in the Ballets Russes. Designers and artists moved past old boundaries and created costumes and set designs for these extravagant productions, bridging the gaps between tangible and abstract artistic genres.

The Ballets Russes and the Art of Design explores these revolutionary icons and ideas, illuminating Sergei Diaghilev's profound revitalization of the arts, which continues to influence us today. Ten essays by internationally recognized experts and 200 color and black-and-white illustrations - many from private collections and never-before-published - discuss a broad range of topics, including set and costume designs, graphic design and poster art, photographs and postcards, Diaghilev's presence in the media, and private and museum collections of Ballets Russes treasures.

The Blaue Reiter (“Blue Rider”) group of artists was formed in Munich in 1911 on the initiative of two leading artists of Modernism: Wassily Kandinsky, the pioneer of purely abstract painting, and Franz Marc, the creator of mysterious, abstracted animal pictures. The Russian and the German, together with many other visionary painters in their train, hoped to pursue a new spirit in art. They wanted nothing less than an apotheosis of the spiritual in art. The outbreak of the Great War seemed to put a brutal end to what was at the time the most important avant-garde movement in Germany, but its influence continued unabated and inspired whole generations of international artists to create similar utopias.

Featured Artists: Wladimir Burljuk, Heinrich Campendonk, Robert Delaunay, Alexej Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Alfred Kubin, August Macke, Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter and Marianne von Werefkin.

About the Series:
Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Genre Series features:

* a detailed introduction with approximately 35 photographs, plus a timeline of the most important events (political, cultural, scientific, etc.) that took place during the time period
* a selection of the most important works of the epoch; each is presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and, on the facing page, a description/interpretation of the work and brief biography of the artist as well as additional information such as a reference work, portrait of the artist, and/or citations

In the tradition of his books On Beauty and On Ugliness and The Infinity of Lists, Umberto Eco presents an enthralling illustrated tour of the fabled places that have awed and eluded us through the ages.

"Eco is one of the most influential thinkers of our time" Los Angeles Times

From the epic poems of Homer to contemporary science fiction, from the Holy Scriptures to modern mythology and fairy tale, literature and art are full of illusory places we have at some time believed are real, and onto which we have projected our dreams, ideals and fears. Umberto Eco leads us on an illuminating journey through these legendary lands - Atlantis, Thule and Hyperborea, the Earth's interior and the Land of Cockaigne - and explores utopias and dystopias where our imagination can confront concepts that are too incredible, or too challenging, for our limited real world.

In The Book of Legendary Lands the author's text is accompanied by several hundred carefully assembled works of art and literature; the result is a beautifully illustrated volume with broad and enduring appeal.

Translated from Italian by Alastair McEwen

About the Author:

Umberto Eco's first novel, The Name of the Rose (1982), was a huge bestseller which brought him worldwide acclaim. With his subsequent works of fiction, philosophy, literary criticism and semiotics, he has been recognised as one of Europe's finest thinkers. He is currently President of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Humanistici and the University of Bologna. He is also known for his lavishly illustrated anthologies, On Beauty, On Ugliness, The Infinity of Lists and The Book of Legendary Lands.

Handbook of Visual Experience. An exploration of symbols and their meanings throughout history

The Book of Symbols combines original and incisive essays about particular symbols with representative images from all parts of the world and all eras of history. The highly readable texts and almost 800 beautiful full-colour images come together in a unique way to convey hidden dimensions of meaning. Each of the c. 350 essays examines a given symbol's psychic background, and how it evokes psychic processes and dynamics. Etymological roots, the play of opposites, paradox and shadow, the ways in which diverse cultures have engaged a symbolic image - all these factors are taken into consideration.

Authored by writers from the fields of psychology, religion, art, literature, and comparative myth, the essays flow into each other in ways that mirror the psyche's unexpected convergences. There are no pat definitions of the kind
that tend to collapse a symbol; a still vital symbol remains partially unknown, compels our attention and unfolds in new meanings and manifestations over time. Rather than merely categorize, The Book of Symbols illuminates how to move from the visual experience of a symbolic image in art, religion, life, or dreams, to directly experiencing its personal and psychological resonance.

The Book of Symbols sets new standards for thoughtful exploration of symbols and their meanings, and will appeal to a wide range of readers: artists, designers, dreamers and dream interpreters, psychotherapists, self-helpers, gamers, comic book readers, religious and spiritual searchers, writers, students, and anyone curious about the power of archetypal images.

The editor and author:

Drawing upon Carl Gustav Jung's work on the archetype and the collective unconscious, the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS) is a pictorial and written archive of mythological, ritualistic, and symbolic images from all over the world and from all epochs of human experience. The collection of 17,000 photographic images, accompanied by commentary on their cultural and historical context, probes the universality of archetypal themes and provides a testament to the deep and abiding connections of all life.

A little-known and rediscovered illuminated manuscript from the Renaissance is the focal point of this enthralling exploration of Umbrian painting, the role of the Franciscan order, and the artists Bartolomeo and Giacepo Caporali.

The Caporali Missal, a sumptuous and important Renaissance missal—or service book for the priest at the altar—was illuminated by the Caporali brothers for the Franciscan community in the hillside town of Montone, near Perugia, in 1469. This exhibition catalog celebrates this important manuscript, recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art, with exquisite reproductions that bring the illuminated pages to life.

Additional works by the Caporali brothers and relevant art from the museum’s and other collections elucidate the history, style, content, function, and authorship of the missal. Illustrations of a chalice and a paten, a chasuble, and a processional cross enhance the religious and aesthetic context of the manuscript.

A series of essays by eminent scholars examine the influence of Florentine artists on the Caporali brothers and explore the spiritual life of the Franciscan community and the history of the friary at Montone.

Коллекция Петера и Ирене Людвиг одной из первых в мире объединила в своем составе современные друг другу американское и советское искусство. В этом каталоге, изданном к одноименной выставке в Мартин-Гропиус-Бау, организованной к 30-летнему юбилею падения «железного занавеса», впервые сопоставлены живописные произведения из собрания Людвига, которые были созданы по разные стороны стены, разделявшей два лагеря. Это сопоставление показывает, как художники эпохи «холодной войны» реагировали на политические и эстетические вызовы времени и отражали разные представления о свободе человека и общества.

В книге собрано около 150 работ таких художников, как Энди Уорхол, Илья Кабаков, Джаспер Джонс, Эрик Булатов, Джо Бэр, Виктор Пивоваров, Ли Лозано, Иван Чуйков, Джексон Поллок, Наталья Нестерова, Элен Франкенталер.

_____________

The Peter and Irene Ludwig Collection was one of the first in the world to bring together works of US and Soviet art in the time period when they originated. Occasioned by the 30th anniversary of the opening of the iron curtain, in this book, which accompanies the eponymous exhibition at the Gropius Bau, works contained in the Ludwig Collection from both sides of the East-West conflict are compared for the first time. In this dialogue, it becomes apparent how Cold War era artists responded to the political and aesthetic issues of their age and negotiated concepts of individual and social freedom. The volume features some 150 works, including ones by Andy Warhol, Ilya Kabakov, Jackson Pollock, Erik Bulatov, Lee Lozano, Natalya Nesterova, and Helen Frankenthaler.

A thoroughly engrossing thematic study of the representation of the face on objects and in works of art from all cultures and throughout history

From sacred totems to playful caricatures, the face is the most revealing subject in the history of art: it defines our human identity. But how have different cultures depicted the face, and why has it been so central to artistic expression all over the world?

Debra N. Mancoff explores the depiction of the human face through the full range of objects and works of art in the collection of the British Museum, and discovers how the face subtly conveys the full spectrum of human emotion. The book is arranged thematically, and each chapter begins with a brief introduction before depicting faces in various visually led pairings and groupings. Some of the juxtapositions speak for themselves; others are explored through brief narrative captions. Many pairings raise a smile; others are surprisingly affecting. This book will both fascinate and delight the reader, offering insights into experiences that we all share as human beings and that our faces inevitably reveal.

Contents List

Introduction • 1. Birth & Childhood • 2. Love & Beauty • 3. Everyday Life • 4. Faith & Ritual • 5. Rulers & Warfare • 6. Identity & Disguise • 7. Death & the Afterlife

About the Author

Debra N. Mancoff is an art historian and a Scholar-in-Residence at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Her publications include Van Gogh’s Flowers, Monet’s Garden in Art, John Everett Millais: Beyond the Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood, Flora Symbolica: Flowers in Pre-Raphaelite Art, Danger! Women Artists at Work, Fashion in Impressionist Paris and many other titles on the history of art. She lectures regularly at many of the major museums in the US and Great Britain.

Buxom bombshells. Pictures from an age when eroticism was still innocent

They've been exciting generations of men, on calendars and covers, as centrefolds or even on playing cards: pin-ups. What started as an exercise in oils was soon taken up in various media - pin-up mascots graced the fuselages of American fighters, and became an essential feature of the male world of garages and barracks. And the age of political correctness hasn't ended their appeal.

This book tells the tale of a genre as utterly American as the paintings of Edward Hopper, describing its origins and development in detail and showcasing the most important artists. With over 500 illustrations, The Great American Pin-Up is a comprehensive studies of the genre.

The authors:

Charles G. Martignette was an art dealer and collector of original paintings by 20th century American illustrators and artists. His gallery in Hallandale Beach, Florida, housed the world’s largest collection of commercial illustration art. As of 1975 he published numerous articles about magazine, advertising, calendar, pulp, paperback, glamour and pin-up art. Paintings from his collection have been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution as well as many other American and European museums. Charles G. Martignette died in 2008 in Hallandale, Florida.

Louis K. Meisel, owner-manager of one of the oldest galleries in New York’s Soho, has published several books and articles on contemporary art. In addition to art, he collects pin-up work.

_____________

Посмотреть книгу  1000 Pin-Up Girls

Посмотреть книгу  Gil Elvgren. The Complete Pin-ups

The Book That Changed the World. A complete reprint of the revolutionary Gutenberg Bible “B42”

The printing press has been called the greatest invention of the second millennium. Published in Mainz around 1454, the Gutenberg Bible was the first major Western publication to be printed with movable metal type, ushering in a whole new age of knowledge distribution through mass-produced books.

Before Gutenberg, woodcut printing and early forms of movable type printing had been mastered in Asia, but had yet to reach Europe. Instead, each book had to be copied by hand in a long, labor-intensive process. Not only did Gutenberg’s innovation of mechanical movable type significantly speed up production without sacrificing quality, it irreversibly enriched public knowledge, pioneering mass communication and allowing people to access ideas and participate in discussions like never before. When it comes to radical revolutions in media, the Gutenberg Bible is up there with the Internet.

This facsimile edition derives from one of the very few surviving complete vellum Latin originals worldwide; the Göttingen Library edition, one of the most valuable books in the world, listed in the UNESCO Memory of the World program. All 1,282 pages of this artistic and technological masterwork are included, along with a companion book written by Stephan Füssel, Gutenberg-Chair at Mainz University, introducing Gutenberg, his transformative influence, and two important documents of the time: the Göttingen Model Book which was used to illuminate the Göttingen Library edition and the only surviving notary document by Ulrich Helmasperger, which records the history of this unique invention and its product, the Gutenberg Bible.

The author:

Stephan Füssel is director of the Institute for Book Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, and holder of the Gutenberg Chair at the same university. He has published prolifically on the early days of printing, the sale and publication of books between the 18th and 20th centuries, and the future of communications.