Искусство

For more than four decades, she has been at the forefront of the feminist critique of art history, playing a pivotal role in shaping the course of the discipline. Since completing a doctorate on Gustave Courbet in the early 1960s, she has devoted herself to a lifelong study of the artist, arguably the most radical of all nineteenth-century painters and one of the fathers of modern art.

Now, in this extraordinary volume, Nochlin presents her complete writings on Courbet’s work. Every aspect of his œuvre – from his vast realist depictions of provincial French life, allegorical works and paint-encrusted landscapes to his dark, brooding portraits, sensual nudes and earthy still lifes – comes under her scrutiny.

In a specially written introduction, Nochlin considers Courbet’s lasting impact not only on later painting but also on the practice of art history itself. With essays spanning forty years, Courbet is much more than a monograph on a single artist. It is also the story of the intellectual development of one of our leading writers on the visual arts.

When Gustave Courbet (1819—1877) began his career in the late 1840s, French painting was dominated by two competing styles: neoclassicism, exemplified by Ingres, and romanticism, exemplified by Delacroix. Courbet, a dynamic and boundlessly selfconfident man, proud of his rural origins and guided by his strong Republican beliefs, quickly established a third way. Rejecting the historical and literary subjects of the prevailing styles as too remote from actual experience, Courbet instead depicted scenes of everyday life, particularly among the peasants and the working class, with a naturalism then considered shocking. His paint handling was correspondingly direct: disdaining equally the idealized contours and cool tones of the neoclassicists and the expressive line of the romantics, he laid on his colors almost roughly, often with a palette knife instead of a brush. While Courbet’s brand of realism bears a family resemblance to those of his contemporaries Daumier and Millet, its scope is much broader: his masterworks range from the Burial at Ornans (1850), a heroically scaled depiction of a villager’s funeral, to the very different Origin of the World (1866), a detailed close-up of the female anatomy, and he also painted many straight landscapes, portraits, and still lifes.

This lucidly written monograph from noted art historian Ségolène Le Men provides a new understanding of how Courbet’s life and milieu shaped his vast oeuvre. Le Men organizes her text both chronologically and thematically: while the five chapters correspond to the successive phases of Courbet’s career, each comprises several subsections that discuss individual aspects of his work. This hybrid approach allows Le Men to present an expansive and multifaceted view of Courbet’s realism, emphasizing its evolving relations with the various ideas and artistic currents of its time. With some three hundred stunning color illustrations, including all of Courbet’s most important paintings and many fine examples of his draftsmanship, this is the definitive study of a painter whose spirited pursuit of an independent aesthetic path has led many critics to call him “the first modern artist.”

Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) is the preeminent representative of Realism and the spearhead of a style of painting committed to socially relevant issues. His lifelike portraits defy the artistic convention of idealization. The painter had another side, however: in his portraits, landscapes, drawings, and still lifes, he depicted a contemplative, meditative, inward-looking world, which stood in stark contrast to the fast-paced industrialization of the period. This publication introduces this “other” Courbet, one who, inspired by German Romanticism, succeeded in creating the vision of poetic modern art, as it was later refined not only by Cézanne and Picasso, but also by the Symbolists and Surrealists. His immersion into the depths of a personality, into the remoteness of pristine nature, as well as his thematization and dissolution of matter are reasons why many contemporary artists still make reference to his work.

Unsentimental realism

"I maintain," stated Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), "that painting is clearly a concrete art whose existence lies only in the representation of real and existing objects...." Courbet, who influenced and advised the fledgling Impressionists, was an outstanding representative of a naturalistic realism that highlights the contradictions and inequities in society. Revolutionary were Courbet`s style, with dark hues and heavy brushstrokes, and choice of subject—depictions the life of plain people treated in an unsentimental, down to earth manner. His influence was enormous during his lifetime; he was offered the cross of the Legion of Honor in 1872 but he refused it. A man always at odds with authority, be it artistic or political, Courbet became a member of the Paris Commune and was briefly imprisoned and forced to flee to Switzerland for the final years of his life.

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 colour illustrations with explanatory captions

The author:
Fabrice Masanès is an art historian and art critic, with a doctorate in art history from the Sorbonne. A specialist in painting, he teaches on 19th-century art in Paris, and the history of medieval Paris at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The author of TASCHEN's Courbet, he has written extensively on literature and the visual arts.

Italian Renaissance art is closely intertwined with the development of courts and court culture in much of the Italian territory. The patronage of the ruling families of the small Italian city-states greatly favoured the flourishing of the figurative arts and architecture, but also in music, literature, and theatre.

The book starts with an introduction by Marco Folin, the volume's editor, on the critical issues of court art and its historiography, followed by an important essay on the historical and geographical framework of Renaissance Italy, illustrated by 18 especially-made maps, useful to understand the complexity and fragmentation of the country in the 15th century. The role of princely patronage in the development of music and literature is then examined: from the place of the humanists at court to the link between music and propaganda, from the first theatrical representations to the rise of the printing press and the publication of the most famous Renaissance books: Castiglione's Book of the Courtier and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.

The second, longer part of the volume, is arranged geographically and covers the entire peninsula, giving attention not only to the major courts, such as Milan, Mantua, Ferrara, Urbino, papal Rome, Naples and the crypto-court of the Medicis in Florence, but devoting chapters to the minor courts spread around northern and central Italy, from the Paleologues rulers of Montferrat to the Malatesta court in Rimini, from Carpi under the Pios to the Orsinis' rule in Bracciano.

The main chapters are enriched by texts focused on particular aspects of Renaissance culture and politics: the courts of the cardinals and the southern barons, the patronage of the condottieri, the specificity of Venetian state-commissions, etc.

The essays are written by well-known Italian scholars - such as Franco Piperno on music, Rinaldo Rinaldi on literature, Alessandro Cecchi on Medicean Florence and Alessandro Angelini on the papal court in Rome - and are accompanied by a rich and accurate iconography, showing not only famous masterpieces but also lesser known works of art and architecture.

The book is completed by an annotated bibliography for the various chapters and by an index of names and places.

John Knoll was 14 years old when the first Star Wars film (Episode IV) came out in 1977, and it changed his life. By the time the first prequel, The Phantom Menace, was released in 1999, he was its visual effects supervisor — in charge of all special effects — a position he held through Episodes II (Attack of the Clones) and III (Revenge of the Sith). With Knoll as tour guide, this deluxe addition to Abrams’ 365 Days series provides the single most comprehensive collection of Star Wars images, including breathtaking 360-degree panoramic shots of sets and models, as well as concept art, props, film stills, and memorabilia.

The only book that covers all six films, Star Wars: 365 Days is Knoll’s spectacular survey of the visual world created by those films. It shows us George Lucas and his crew creating their universe on location and in the studio — in pages dense with imagery and information, documenting a remarkable sustained creative effort by hundreds of devoted filmmakers and craftsmen.

About the Author:

John Knoll is visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic, a three-time Academy Award nominee for his visual effects work, and co-creator of the world-changing digital image-processing program Photoshop. This is his first book. He lives in Marin County, California.

From the earliest times, crowns have served as symbols of religious position and as signifiers of rank. Throughout the centuries and from culture to culture, crowns have varied in shape, material, usage and symbolism.

Crown Jewellery gives us an overwhelming overview including many photos of the actual crowns and regalia of the world. This publication highlights the evolution of crowns, different types and forms and their origins, and the precious materials used to make them. Royal events and ceremonies such as weddings, coronations, and funerals are abundantly illustrated with extraordinary photos. In addition to royal ceremonies, the spiritual and religious ceremonies of ordinary life are also highlighted in this abundantly illustrated publication.

TASCHEN 25 - Special edition!

The history, theory and practice of Cubism, the 20th century's first avant-garde art movement

Pioneered by Picasso and Braque, Cubism was the first avant-garde art movement of the 20th century. Heavily influenced by the stark power of African and Native American art and sculpture, it deconstructed conventions of viewpoint and perspective, revolutionizing painting and western art in general. With its flattened, geometric shapes, overlapping, simplified forms and fragmented spatial planes, Cubism became one of the most influential and far-reaching movements in modern art. This book explains the history and theory behind Cubism, examining the work of its prime movers, and those whose work built upon it.

Featured artists: Pablo Picasso, Edmond Fortier, Paul Cézanne, George Braque, Henri Le Fauconnier, Jean Metzinger, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Henri Laurens, Salvador Dalí, Brassaï, Robert Delaunay, Raymond Duchamp-Villon

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

Pioneered by Picasso and Braque, Cubism has been described as the first avant-garde art movement of the 20th century. With inspiration from African and Native American art and sculpture, its practitioners deconstructed European conventions of viewpoint, form, perspective to create flattened, fragmented, and revolutionary images.

Picasso’s celebrated painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is typically regarded as the original cubist work, with its radical fracturing of objects and figures into distinct areas, corresponding to multiple different viewpoints. Cubism thereafter developed two distinct trends: Analytical Cubism, which continued to interweave perspectival planes in muted blacks, greys and ochre, and later Synthetic Cubism, characterised by simpler shapes, brighter colours, and collage elements such as newspaper.

This book presents the prime protagonists of Cubism, with work from artists including Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, and Robert Delaunay.

About the series

Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Genre series features:

- approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions
- a detailed illustrated introduction plus a timeline of the most important political, cultural and social events that took place during that period
- a selection of the most important works of the epoch, each of which is presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and with an interpretation of
the respective work, plus a portrait and brief biography of the artist

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon: five young women that changed modern art forever. Faces seen simultaneously from the front and in profile, angular bodies whose once voluptuous feminine forms disappear behind asymmetric lines—with this painting, Picasso revolutionised the entire history of art. Cubism was thus born in 1907. Transforming natural forms into cylinders and cubes, painters like Juan Gris and Robert Delaunay, driven by Braque and Picasso, imposed a new vision upon the world, in total opposition to the principles of the Impressionists. Spreading quickly in Europe, Cubism developed rapidly in successive phases that brought art history into the 20th century, which would be filled with dramatic movements, from the futurism of Boccioni to the abstraction of Kandinsky, from the suprematism of Malevich to the constructivism of Tatlin. Linking the core text of Guillaume Apollinaire with the studies of Dr. Dorothea Eimert, this work offers a new interpretation of modernity’s crucial moment, and permits the reader to rediscover, through their biographies, the principal representatives of the movement.

All wristwatches are true ‘micromarvels’ of engineering, yet some models have such enduring appeal that they attract the attention of collectors, investors and regular wearers alike. Now available in paperback for the first time, Cult Watches is a lavishly illustrated account of the world’s most popular classic timepieces – the top 30 that have achieved cult status, from the Rolex Submariner and the Tissot Banana Watch to the Ingersoll Mickey Mouse watches and the ‘quartz revolution’ Swatches. Watch-industry expert Michael Balfour introduces the great watchmaking innovators, sets their horological masterpieces in context and discusses their legacies. With future contenders for the status of cult watch also considered, this is a lively and informative history of some of the most sought-after and desirable watches ever produced.

• The first book devoted to the wristwatches with the most dedicated following
• Each model and its brand is profusely illustrated with both historical and contemporary images, for ready reference
• An elegantly produced book that will appeal to watch enthusiasts, collectors and investors worldwide

 

Cutting Edges documents the new heyday of collage in current art and visual culture. Today’s artists, illustrators, and designers are increasingly drawn to this artistic technique by the challenges of seamlessly melding traditional craftsmanship with skilled computer montage. They are not only composing a wide variety of visual elements, but are also deliberately omitting, deleting, and destroying them. This book is an inspiring collection of these unique examples of contemporary collage.

The visualization of sound presented in book form and accompanied by a CD-ROM by Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai

Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai both work at the cutting-edge of contemporary electronic music and sound art. In 1999, the two artists initiated the joint project cyclo., which is devoted to the visualization of sound. In their shared work, they generate new hybrid forms of audiovisual art and expand the possibilities of digital technology.

The project's first publication is cyclo. id, a book and included CD-ROM that offer a multimedia and interactive documentation of the audiovisual material that Nicolai and Ikeda have collected, researched, and created since they began working together. The featured images are formed by the metering of sound bits that have been selected by the artists with meticulous care according to their acoustic and illustrative potential.

Latest and greatest. The prestigious annual for creative professionals

Here comes the 2012 edition of the highly-coveted annual from D&AD featuring the year’s best creative work. The D&AD awards panel judges over 20,000 works from design studios, advertising agencies, branding consultancies, film production and photographic agencies, digital media pioneers, and other creative firms from all over the globe. Winners receive the legendary D&AD Yellow Pencil Award - or in the case of exceptional and outstanding work, the rare Black Pencil Award. This review of the winners serves as a one-stop-shop for everything that’s hot in the field. Anyone interested in creativity, communication, design, or advertising cannot possibly be without the D&AD Annual!

Featuring the latest D&AD award-winning work in the fields of:
Art Direction, Book Design, Branding, Digital Advertising, Digital Design, Direct, Film Advertising Crafts, Graphic Design, Illustration, Integrated & Earned Media, Magazine & Newspaper Design, Mobile Marketing, Music Videos, Outdoor Advertising, Packaging Design, Photography, Press Advertising, Product Design, Radio Advertising, Spatial Design, TV & Cinema Advertising, TV & Cinema Communications, Typography, Writing for Advertising and Writing for Design.

TASCHEN 25—Special edition!

Dadaism: the forerunner of conceptual art

A precursor to Surrealism, the Dada movement stressed the absurd and unpredictable, the illogical and chaotic, lashing out against traditional esthetics and upending artistic conventions. Emerging from the artistic and intellectual milieu of Zurich during World War I, it signaled a re-evaluation of art's cultural relevance in the shadow of industrialized war. Jean Arp, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray were among the most famous proponents of Dada, creating works that dared viewers to expand their notions of what might be considered art. This book explains the impulses and theories that gave rise to Dada, the forerunner of conceptual art.

Featured artists: Max Ernst, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Johannes Baader, Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann, Kurt Schwitters, Johannes Theodor Baargeld, Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Tristan Tzara, Man Ray

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