Мистецтво

This is a thought-provoking exploration of the masterpieces of sculpture, drawing and decoration of the last Ice Age. Produced between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, this is some of the oldest known figurative art in the world. Looking at these artworks provides a fascinating insight into the earliest modern minds and their capacity to express ideas symbolically through art.

Over 100 objects are featured, including small but exquisite sculptures made from mammoth ivory, engraved drawings, ceramic models, decorated objects and jewellery from the age of the great painted caves. Some are celebrated masterpieces such as the Swimming Reindeer (13,000 years old), the so-called Willendorf Venus (25,000 years old), the Vogelherd Horse (32,000 years old) and the Lion Man (32,000 years old); others are lesser- known treasures from the collections of European museums. The author examines them in a new light, as works of aesthetic – not solely archaeological – interest, and as such forming part of an unbroken continuum of human creativity.

The compelling narrative is also illustrated with a wealth of images, from classical sculpture to twentieth-century painting and even contemporary advertising campaigns, which demonstrate surprising aesthetic parallels between these ancient works and familiar modern pieces.

In this way, Ice Age art will bring home the point that the minds that created these objects in all their diversity and inventiveness were modern minds like our own, capable of highly sophisticated thought and expression.

This work analyzes the evolution of iconic art from its beginning in the Byzantine period, until the time of the Russian Empire. This work is for specialists and students as it is written by one of the world’s leading authorities on early Christian iconography.

Icons are a fundamental element in art history, it is, therefore, crucial to understand how this imagery started and how it evolved through the centuries. As there are very few books on the subject, Icons stands out and is bound to become a reference in the subject.

The Author:

Nikodim Pavlovich Kondakov was an art historian specialised in Russian culture and history. His extensive research on Russian Orthodox culture lead him to become the eminent specialist of Christian iconography. A true man of science, he was often the first to interpret the origin of certain icons.

Sacred paintings of the Christian Orthodox

This historical survey covers some one-and-a-half millennia of Christian imagery and includes descriptions of selected masterpieces

The icons in this book come from the Icon Museum in Recklinghausen, which possesses the most extensive and highest-quality icon collection outside the Orthodox world. Icons do not depict “details” of the earthly world, but rather an unearthly reality. In accordance with their sacred function, the painters had to keep to venerable traditions. This historical survey covers some one-and-a-half millennia and includes descriptions of selected masterpieces, providing a graphic introduction to this fascinating world of images. While the book's historical introduction traces the history of icon painting back to late Antiquity and the early Byzantine period, the examples in the picture section start with a 14th century Russian example and extend from the exquisite 15th century Byzantine icon “St Luke Paints the Mother of God” across the centuries to one from Transylvania (Romania) dating from 1887.

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

Graham Nash, geb. 1942 in Blackpool, war zunächst Gitarrist, Songwriter und Sänger bei den Hollies, bevor er England 1969 verließ und in New York die Gruppe Crosby, Stills & Nash mitbegründete. Nash ist aber nicht nur als Musiker bekannt geworden, er war immer auch als Photograph in der Szene dabei und ist ein ausgewiesener Kenner und leidenschaftlicher Sammler von Photographien. Für unser Buch hat er nun seine Lieblingsphotos aus der inzwischen 50-jährigen Geschichte des Rock und Pop zusammengetragen und mit persönlichen Anmerkungen kommentiert. Hier sind sie alle versammelt – neben Annie Leibovitz’ unvergesslichen Bildern aus ihrer Zeit beim Rolling Stone Magazine natürlich Anton Corbijn, Richard Avedon, Jim Marshall, Mick Rock und Dennis Hopper. In seiner Auswahl gelingt es Nash, auch den Sound der Musikphotographie zum Klingen zu bringen: mit Portraits von Joan Baez und Bob Dylan, Elvis on stage, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison und Kurt Cobain, einer Momentaufnahme seiner früheren Freundin Joni Mitchell, John Lee Hookers Hand und Bob Dylans Händen ... Es sind Bilder, die am Rand von Konzerten entstanden und die Konzentration backstage oder das Abhängen im Hotelzimmer einfangen – alles in allem Rock-Ikonen vom Feinsten.

Illuminated manuscripts are widely recognised as among the most beautiful objects of the western world. This is a book about their making: about the many talents involved in producing the missals, Books of Hours, breviaries and bibles that astonish us still with their richness and beauty. The original illuminated manuscripts were collaborative productions, with different specialists contributing script, initials, borders, illustration, and binding to the work.

Rowan Watson’s study is both scholarly and rich in anecdote; he not only brings individual scribes and book dealers vividly to life but throws light on the commercial and religious environments in which they worked, and on the co-operative working practices devised for their production. Having looked at the individual elements of the illuminated page, the author then turns his attention to a sequence of splendid leaves from some of the great illuminated masterpieces in the museum’s collection. He also discusses how early books were marketed and sold, and ends with a look at the survival of illumination after the advent of the printing press and its revival in the nineteenth century at the hands of pioneering designers such as Owen Jones and William Morris.

The illustrations are drawn from the exceptional and largely unpublished collections of the V&A, and the text offers us an entirely new look at the subject, treating illumination as a key to the history of the period, as much as an expression of medieval and Renaissance (and neo-Gothic) styles and sensibility.

The art of likeness. The spectrum of today’s portraiture, from caricature to realism

The field of illustration has flourished over the last decade, with professionals working both by computer and by hand. In illustration, the single most challenging and captivating subject has been the portrait, frequently used in editorials, advertising, products, and most recently, being the subject of major exhibitions. The book gathers together the exclusive (and frequently unpublished) portrait work of over 80 illustrators from all over the world, many of whom were featured in Illustration Now!, including Aaron Jasinski , André Carrilho, Hanoch Piven, Anita Kunz, Jody Hewgill, and Dugald Stermer. The book also features an index of subjects and an introduction by Steven Heller.

The editor:
Julius Wiedemann was born in Brazil, studied graphic design and marketing, and was an art editor for digital and design magazines in Tokyo. His many TASCHEN digital and media titles include Illustration Now!, Advertising Now, Logo Design, and Brand Identity Now!

Since their immigration from Russia to the West in 1987, conceptual artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov have produced magnificent installations in a wide variety of forums: a circus stage, public square, orchestral hall, opera houses, and museums.

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov's themes range from the playful to the utopian, but each reflects the artists' perspective on life in the Soviet Union. The nine projects presented in this exquisitely produced volume allow readers to observe ideas evolving from quickly sketched concepts to full-blown fantasies of enormous proportion.

Drawings, watercolors, plans, models and photographs of the productions themselves are interspersed with commentary about each installation. A lengthy interview with Ilya Kabakov, who was declared one of the "ten greatest living artists" by ARTnews magazine, completes this wonderful compilation of genius at work.

Concepts such as the prodigal son and the good Samaritan can be found in art, literature and everyday expressions in cultures around the world. Images from the Bible contains a beautiful collection of Bible illustrations from the 17th to the 19th century that have been chosen for their beauty and their relevance as illustrations of these shared cultural ideas.

All illustrations are stored on the accompanying CD and are ready to use for printed media and web page design. They can also be used to produce postcards, or to decorate letters, flyers, etc. For the vast majority of applications, single images can be used free of charge.

Concepts such as writing on the wall and the wisdom of Solomon can be found in art, literature and everyday expressions in cultures around the world. Images from the Bible contains a beautiful collection of Bible illustrations from the 17th to the 19th century that have been chosen for their beauty and their relevance as illustrations of these shared cultural ideas.

All illustrations are stored on the accompanying CD and are ready to use for printed media and web page design. They can also be used to produce postcards, or to decorate letters, flyers, etc. For the vast majority of applications, single images can be used free of charge.

This book explores the question of how to paint a realistic picture of something that doesn't exist. It is intended not only for artists interested in fantasy and science fiction, but also for anyone who wants to recreate history, visualize extinct wildlife, or simply tell a story with a picture.

About the Author:

James Gurney is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling Dinotopia book series. He designed the World of Dinosaurs stamps for the U.S. Postal Service and has worked on over a dozen assignments for National Geographic magazine, painting reconstructions of Moche, Kushite, and Etruscan civilizations. He has won the Hugo, Chesley, Spectrum, and World Fantasy Awards. Solo exhibitions of his artwork have been presented at the Smithsonian Institution, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and currently at the Lyman Allyn Museum of Art. He has recently been named a "Grand Master" by Spectrum Fantastic Arts and a "Living Master" by the Art Renewal Center. His most recent book, Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter, was Amazon's #1 bestselling book on painting for over 100 weeks and is based on his daily blog gurneyjourney.blogspot.com. For more information, visit www.dinotopia.com or www.jamesgurney.com

The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is home to one of the world's most important collections of early Netherlandish painting. The origin of those rich holdings can be traced back to 1477, when the Burgundian Netherlands became a Habsburg possession on Mary of Burgundy's marriage to Archduke Maximilian of Austria.
Imperial Treasures. Masterpieces from the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna is the fruit of the outstanding exhibition of the same name at the Groeningemuseum in Bruges. The book is devoted to a unique selection of fifteenth and sixteenth-century masterpieces from the Low Countries in the museum's collection. In a series of essays by leading scholars, it explores the history of the collection and the emergence of the various pictorial genres. The exceptionally early development of history, portrait, landscape and genre painting in the Low Countries laid the foundations for the unprecedented flowering of both Flemish and Dutch painting in the seventeenth century.

This monograph covers the full scope of Impressionist painting. It outlines the history of Impressionism in France, addressing not only the work of the acknowledged masters, but also that of such unjustly neglected artists as Bazille, Caillebotte, Berthe Morisot or Lucien Pissarro. The monograph also examines the Impressionist movements that emerged in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, Eastern and South-East Europe, Italy, Spain, Britain and North America. A 64-page "Directory of Impressionism" is appended, containing bibliographies, portraits and biographical data on all 236 artists.

Painting with light and color

On April 15th, 1874, in the Parisian studio of photographer Nadar, was the opening of the first group exhibition that was uninhibited by government interference and the dictates of an official selection committee. This date has gone down in the annals of art history because it marks the birth of the Impressionism. Impressionistic paintings now rank among the most popular works of art and are the pride of any museum or collection worldwide. However, in 1874 the public response to the exhibition, and to Impressionist painting, was not adoration but rather shock and even outrage. The Impressionists and the succeeding Neo-Impressionists were avant-gardist and revolutionary, paving the way for modern art. Present-day viewers, hardly realizing this revolutionary potential, can be content to enjoy the aesthetic of light and color.

Artists featured in detail: Frederic Bazille, Marie Braquemond, Gustave Caillebotte, Mary Cassat, Edgar Degas, Vincent Van Gogh, Armand Guillaumin, Max Liebermann, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Guiseppe de Nittis, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Medardo Rosso, Giovanni Segantini, John Singer Sargent, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Walter Richard Sickert, Alfred Sisley, Max Slevogt, Fritz von Uhde, Federico Zandomeneghi

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

• 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
• approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions

The author:
Berlin-based Karin H. Grimme works as a historian, art historian, and author for museums, exhibitions, and media, focusing on the history of the 19th and 20th centuries and in particular on the history of the Jews in Europe. She is the author of numerous journalistic and academic publications in the press, in broadcasting, and in the multimedia sphere; as author and editor she has produced works on, among other things, the Jewish bourgeoisie in the 19th century.

Luscious dabs of colour and light. Art history’s most delightful movement

Impressionism continues to be one of the most fascinating movements in the history of modern art. It is also the most popular with the general public. Proof of this has been provided in recent years by blockbuster exhibitions of the works of Degas, Gauguin, van Gogh, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Monet, and by record sums realized from the sale of Impressionist paintings.

Despite its popularity and a whole host of publications — the majority of them about the most famous names — many areas of Impressionism are still under-researched. Many “second rank” Impressionists have remained unknown or have sunk into oblivion. This monograph fills the gap, as it explores French Impressionism alongside related art movements that flourished simultaneously in the rest of Europe and North America.

Part 1 deals with Impressionism in France, including Post- and Neo-Impressionism. As well as discussing the most renowned artists, its aim is to introduce others who are still little-known today. Among them are the long underrated Gustave Caillebotte, represented by 17 paintings, and artists such as Frédéric Bazille, Marie Bracquemond, Henri-Edmond Cross, Jean-Louis Forain, Eva Gonzalès, Armand Guillaumin, Albert Lebourg, Stanislas Lépine, Maximilien Luce, Berthe Morisot, Lucien Pissarro, Jean-François Raffaëlli, Henri Rouart, and Victor Vignon.

The eight chapters of part 2 focus on paintings inspired by French Impressionism and produced in parallel in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, the USA and Canada. Rarely did painters in these countries slavishly copy the ideas emerging from France. Instead, most non-French artists found astonishingly original ways of translating them into the artistic language of their native lands.

The editor:

Ingo F. Walther (1940–2007) was born in Berlin and studied medieval studies, literature, and art history in Frankfurt am Main and Munich. He published numerous books on the art of the Middle Ages and of the 19th and 20th centuries. Walther’s many titles for TASCHEN include Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Art of the 20th Century, and Codices illustres.