Книги з живопису

An accessible guide to the finer details of 100 masterpieces of Western art

Great works of art cannot be fully understood in a single encounter: to revisit and reconsider art again and again throughout one’s life is to be richly rewarded with an ever-deepening appreciation and insight. Similar benefits come from analysing a work of art in detail.

Art in Detail: 100 Masterpieces spotlights the finer points that even connoisseurs may miss, casting light upon minutiae that a quick glance will almost certainly fail to reveal. These include subtle internal details, such as hidden symbols. Expert commentary reveals the technical tricks employed by the artist to achieve particular effects, such as the placement of the subject, the lighting and the style of brushstrokes.

The book also looks at the themes and external and personal factors influencing the creation of an artwork – everything from the broad socio-economic context in which the artist operated, to personal, individual circumstances at the time of the work’s creation, which are often of great relevance.

The book examines 100 works of art down the ages, from Giotto’s 14th-century fresco Adoration of the Magi, to a twenty-first-century pastel by Paula Rego. It approaches each work not only, to quote Matthew Arnold, ‘as in itself it really is’, but also as part of a tradition that links the oldest work of art to the most recent, as artists pass a metaphorical baton down through the ages.

About the Author:

Susie Hodge is an art historian, author, artist and journalist with more than 100 books to her name. She has an MA in the History of Art from Birkbeck, University of London, and is a Fellow of the RSA. She has twice been named the No. 1 art writer by the Independent.

“The Devil holds the strings which move us!” (Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil, 1857.)

Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer… the Devil has many names and faces, all of which have always served artists as a source of inspiration. Often commissioned by religious leaders as images of fear or veneration, depending on the society, representations of the underworld served to instruct believers and lead them along the path of righteousness.

For other artists, such as Hieronymus Bosch, they provided a means of denouncing the moral decrepitude of one’s contemporaries.
In the same way, literature dealing with the Devil has long offered inspiration to artists wishing to exorcise evil through images, especially the works of Dante and Goethe.

In the 19th century, romanticism, attracted by the mysterious and expressive potential of the theme, continued to glorify the malevolent. Auguste Rodin’s The Gates of Hell, the monumental, tormented work of a lifetime, perfectly illustrates this passion for evil, but also reveals the reason for this fascination. Indeed, what could be more captivating for a man than to test his mastery by evoking the beauty of the ugly and the diabolic?

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) possessed the rare ability to transform unconscious compulsions into figurative, human-like forms that seem to evoke the raw emotions that bore them. Mixing realism and abstraction, Bacon delves deep beneath the surfaces of things, opening up the human body to reveal the chaos that lies within and struggling with all that is inexplicable. Erotic and grotesquely beautiful is the work of this legendary painter whose haunting, distorted figures have inspired entire generations of painters who seek to emulate his highly original style.

The author:
Luigi Ficacci studied Art History in Rome under Giulio Carlo Argan. He is curator at the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica in Rome and lectures at different Italian universities. The focal points of his research work are the issues raised by 17th and 18th century and contemporary Italian art.

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

Форми почуттів. Людське тіло в стражданнях

Френсіс Бекон (1909–1992), значною мірою самоучка як художник, розвинув унікальну здатність перетворювати внутрішні та несвідомі імпульси на фігуративні форми та надзвичайно клаустрофобні композиції.

Здобувши популярність у період після Другої світової війни, Бекон обрав людське тіло як номінальний об'єкт свого зображення, але об'єкт, спустошений, спотворений та розчленований, щоб корчитися та голосити від інтенсивного емоційного змісту. З розмахуючими кінцівками, порожнечами та пухлиноподібними наростами, його захопливі, часто гротескні портрети є стільки ж роздумами про випробування та травми людського існування, скільки й дослідженнями характеру. Ці нав'язливі форми також були одними з перших в історії мистецтва, що зображували відверто гомосексуальні теми.

Ця книга знайомить з еротичним, тривожним, незабутнім доробком Бекона, трансформаційним корпусом робіт, який часто наслідують, багато аналізують і, перш за все, відчувають.

Про серію:

Кожна книга із серії Basic Art видавництва TASCHEN містить:

- детальний хронологічний виклад життя та творчості митця, що охоплює його культурне та історичне значення
- стислу біографію
- приблизно 100 ілюстрацій із пояснювальними підписами

Realist of the unreal

French-German painter Count Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (1908-2001), known as Balthus, shocked the Parisian art world in 1934 with his dreamy, sensual, Neo-Classical portraits of nymphets at a time when Surrealism and abstraction were de rigueur. As a provocateur, Balthus was often scorned; as an artist, he was widely embraced as a prodigy. In response to critics of his realist style, Balthus said: "The real isn’t what you think you see. One can be a realist of the unreal and a figurative painter of the invisible." His erotic, poetic paintings live on as examples of the best figurative work of the modern era.

The author:

Gilles Néret (1933–2005) was an art historian, journalist, writer and museum correspondent. He organized several art retrospectives in Japan and founded the SEIBU museum and the Wildenstein Gallery in Tokyo. He directed art reviews such as L'Œil and Connaissance des Arts and received the Elie Faure Prize in 1981 for his publications. His TASCHEN titles include Salvador Dalí: The Paintings, Matisse, and Erotica Universalis.

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 Baroque period in painting and sculpture, stretching from the late 16th century to the early 18th century and occurring between the Mannerist and Rococo movements, was marked by richness, drama, and grandeur. Stylistically complex yet intensely engaging, Baroque art commonly combined dramatic lighting effects and theatrical compositions with great movement and energy. Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, Rembrandt, and Rubens are among the artists most commonly associated with the Baroque movement.

Artists featured: Francesco Albani, Caravaggio, Valentin de Boulogne, Jan Breughel the Elder, Annibale Carracci, Anthonis van Dyck, Adam Elsheimer, Georg Flegel, Luca Giordano, Guercino, Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Jacob Jordaens, Willem Kalf, Giovanni Lanfranco, Charles Le Brun, Johann Liss, Claude Lorrain, Batolomé Esteban Murillo, Nicolas Poussin, Mattia Preti, Rembrandt, Guido Reni, Jusepe de Ribera, Hyacinthe Rigaud, Peter Paul Rubens, Jan Stehen, Hendrick Terbrugghen, Georges de la Tour, Diego Velázquez, Willem van der Velde the Younger, Jan Vermeer, Simon Vouet, Francisco de Zubarán

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

Ten in One: The Impressionists
A special edition gathering TASCHEN’s Basic Art monographs on ten Impressionist masters

A must-have for any art buff, this definitive who’s who of Impressionism gathers 10 monographs from the Basic Art series for the price of three. Precise texts and impeccable reproductions guide us through the life and works of Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Rousseau, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, and van Gogh.

“These seductive books have slick production values, excellent illustrations, and smart texts. Each one is a fast-food, high-energy fix on the topic at hand.” – The New York Times Book Review

With blockbuster exhibitions, record-breaking auction prices, and packed museums, Impressionism remains close contender for the world’s favorite period of painting. Its favorite subjects — from dappled harbor scenes and summer days to vibrant Parisian salons and gardens — brim with optimism and joie de vivre. The works once dismissed as unfinished or imprecise are now beloved for their atmospheric evocation of time and place, as well as the stylistic flair of rapid brushstrokes upon canvas.

The lives and oeuvres of Impressionist pillars Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Rousseau, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, and van Gogh are each explored in-depth in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series. Now, this volume combines all 10 monographs into one for the price of three.

What we take for granted today — the relativity of perception depending on the viewer, lighting mood, or location to the object — was then the inspiration for some of the finest paintings in art history. Consider Monet’s 30+ variations of the Rouen Cathedral, Cézanne’s dazzling experimentation with color, Gauguin’s primitivist innovations, or Manet’s scandalous nudes: rarely has a single genre produced so many brilliant artists in such a short time.

Since 1985, TASCHEN’s Basic Art series has published some 200 individual volumes, making it the world’s most successful art-book series. Each title contains an extensive text on the artist’s life and work, a detailed biography, and some 100 high-quality color illustrations with explanatory captions. With Ten in One, TASCHEN now presents ten Basic Art monographs in one volume. A must for every art lover!

This book gathers ten Basic Art monographs into one volume featuring:

- Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Rousseau, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, and van Gogh
- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of each artist, covering their cultural and historical importance
- approximately 1,000 illustrations with explanatory captions

Ten in One: The Impressionists
A special edition gathering TASCHEN’s Basic Art monographs on ten Impressionist masters

A must-have for any art buff, this definitive who’s who of Impressionism gathers 10 monographs from the Basic Art series for the price of three. Precise texts and impeccable reproductions guide us through the life and works of Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Rousseau, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, and van Gogh.

“These seductive books have slick production values, excellent illustrations, and smart texts. Each one is a fast-food, high-energy fix on the topic at hand.” – The New York Times Book Review

With blockbuster exhibitions, record-breaking auction prices, and packed museums, Impressionism remains close contender for the world’s favorite period of painting. Its favorite subjects— from dappled harbor scenes and summer days to vibrant Parisian salons and gardens — brim with optimism and joie de vivre. The works once dismissed as unfinished or imprecise are now beloved for their atmospheric evocation of time and place, as well as the stylistic flair of rapid brushstrokes upon canvas.

The lives and oeuvres of Impressionist pillars Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Rousseau, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, and van Gogh are each explored in-depth in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series. Now, this volume combines all 10 monographs into one for the price of three.

What we take for granted today — the relativity of perception depending on the viewer, lighting mood, or location to the object — was then the inspiration for some of the finest paintings in art history. Consider Monet’s 30+ variations of the Rouen Cathedral, Cézanne’s dazzling experimentation with color, Gauguin’s primitivist innovations, or Manet’s scandalous nudes: rarely has a single genre produced so many brilliant artists in such a short time.

Since 1985, TASCHEN’s Basic Art series has published some 200 individual volumes, making it the world’s most successful art-book series. Each title contains an extensive text on the artist’s life and work, a detailed biography, and some 100 high-quality color illustrations with explanatory captions. With Ten in One, TASCHEN now presents ten Basic Art monographs in one volume. A must for every art lover!

This book gathers ten Basic Art monographs into one volume featuring:

- Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Rousseau, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, and van Gogh
- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of each artist, covering their cultural and historical importance
- approximately 1,000 illustrations with explanatory captions

The outsider inside. From the streets to the galleries: the artist who turned the institution upside down

From the streets of New York to the walls of its most prominent galleries, young graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was catapulted to international fame in his early 20s and died of a drug overdose at 27. The subject of a feature film by fellow artist Julian Schnabel, Basquiat is one of the most admired artists to emerge from the 1980s art boom. This book explores his short but prolific career.

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

The present publication is dedicated to the expressive self-portraits by Jean-Michel Basquiat and covers his lifelong intensive study of the self. In Basquiat’s œuvre the self-portrait, one of the major subjects of art history, occupies a central position that has not been examined to date.

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s self-portraits are regarded as being among the most important of his radical creative works. In addition to some 50 specific portraits of himself, we can also see his series of likenesses of African-American men as concealed reproductions of the artist. Not least because Basquiat, who was affected himself by everyday racism, identified with his heroes, saints and martyrs as he portrayed them. Thus his major topics from identity, discrimination and prejudice to capitalism, the market and oppression are all to be found in these key works.

Max Beckmann (1884-1950) found his central theme in the loneliness of the twentieth century man, threatened by catastrophe and torn between materialism and freedom of mind and spirit. His early pictures showed the influence of Impressionism, with a preponderance of biblical, historical, and allegorical themes. World War I made a deep impression on him: somewhere between Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), the succinct forms and hard contours in his memorable paintings and graphic works showed man at the limit of physical and mental endurance. Later, the harshness and severity of his style softened and his colors became more radiant, but the monumentality remained. Theater, circus, and music hall became parables of human existence.

Beckmann’s work is concerned with the fundamental conditions of human existence and the tragic entanglement of the human being dependant on the whims of gods, sexuality, and society. His relentless search for knowledge, his uncompromising commitment to the picture, and his belief in the power of its form and color give his work its distinctive, fascinating character, and have earned him a high-ranking place among the artists of the twentieth century.

This monograph features more than 180 images of works from 1907 to 1950, including many of Beckmann’s famous self-portraits and triptychs (such as Temptation of 1936/1937). Biographical essays cover his war years, the twenties in Frankfurt, his exile years in Amsterdam, and his emigration to the United States where he died; additional material includes photographs on which many of his paintings are based, several exhibition shots, and images from other artists as Pablo Picasso, Eugène Delacroix, Max Ernst, and Edvard Munch that visualize Beckmann’s inspirations and context.

Розкішне свято книги, «Фріда» дозволяє читачеві поринути у світ цього шанованого художника, як буквально, так і метафорично.

Через низку послідовних вирізаних сторінок ми захоплюємося: ми проходимо через аспекти її життя, мистецтва та творчого процесу, досліджуючи теми, які її найбільше надихали, такі як кохання, смерть і материнство.

Уривки з особистих щоденників Фріди Кало чергуються з поетичними роздумами Себастьяна Переса, щоб надати свіжого розуміння та емоційної глибини, тоді як приголомшливі твори Бенджаміна Лакомба майстерно передають символізм і сюрреалізм її мистецтва.

Zeitgeist. The roaring twenties in Berlin

It was the decade of daring Expressionist canvases, the Bauhaus total work of art, drag balls, Metropolis, and Marlene Dietrich. From cutting-edge kino to crowded jazz bars, come and roam the daring, freewheeling spirit of 1920s Berlin with this vivid cultural portrait of the age through painting, design, fashion, film, and more.

It was the decade of daring Expressionist canvases, of brilliant book design, of the Bauhaus total work of art, of pioneering psychology, of drag balls, cabaret, Metropolis, and Marlene Dietrich’s rising star in theater and silent film. Between the paroxysms of two world wars, Berlin in the 1920s was a carpe diem cultural heyday, replete with groundbreaking art, invention, and thought.

This book immerses readers in the freewheeling spirit of Berlin’s Weimar age. Through exemplary works in painting, sculpture, architecture, graphic design, photography, and film, we uncover the innovations, ideas, and precious dreams that characterized this unique cultural window. We take in the jazz bars and dance halls; the crowded kinos and flapper fashion; the advances in technology and transport; the radio towers and rumbling trams and trains; the soaring buildings; the cinematic masterworks; and the newly independent women who smoked cigarettes, wore their hair short, and earned their own money.

Featured works in this vivid cultural portrait include Hannah Höch's The Journalists; Lotte Jacobi’s Hands on Typewriter; Otto Dix's Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden; Peter Behrens's project of the Alexanderplatz; and Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel, starring Dietrich as cabaret performer Lola Lola. Along the way, we explore both the utopian yearnings and the more ominous economic and political realities which fueled the era's escapist, idealistic, or reactionary masterworks. Behind the bright lights and glitter dresses, we see the inflation, factory labor, and fragile political consensus that lurked beneath this golden era and would eventually spell its savage end with the rise of National Socialism.

The editor

Rainer Metzger studied art history, history, and German literature in Munich and Augsburg. In 1994, he earned his Ph.D. on the subject of Dan Graham, and subsequently worked as a fine arts journalist for the Viennese newspaper Der Standard. He has written numerous books on art, including volumes on van Gogh and Chagall. Since 2004, he has worked as Professor of art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe.

1,400 drawings in colour plus 100 illustrations in colour and black and white.

The Norwegian painter Bjørn Ransve (b. 1944) is one of the best-known contemporary Scandinavian artists. Very few painters indeed express themselves so brilliantly in two dimensions on a sheet of paper, thematically, technically and formally. His work is a dialogue that embraces art history enthusiastically, one that is deeply rooted in art history yet articulates something new and relevant to our times.

While still a student, he began to do figurative drawings, switching to abstraction before ultimately returning to the figurative although he never returns to precisely where he left off. Instead he is continually blending in new elements he has seen and recognised along the way. Consequently, his most recent work represents a sophisticated synthesis of elements from worlds which at first might seem virtually irreconcilable. This volume presents Bjørn Ransve’s drawings from all periods of his work. In themselves they provide a survey of his œuvre as a whole since drawings always accompany his paintings and prints – not merely as sketches or designs but as autonomous works of art in their own right, with both familiar and unfamiliar motifs and techniques. Moreover, the book provides a comprehensive text on Bjørn Ransve’s drawings, with the various groups of motifs studied in detail – when they appear and in what sequence and how they comment on each other – and fits them into the art historical context.

Hiëronymus Bosch was painting terrifying yet strangely likable monsters, often with a touch of humour, long before computer games were invented. His works are assertive statements about the mental illness that befalls any man who abandons the teachings of Christ.

With a life that spanned 1450 to 1516, Bosch was born at the height of the Renaissance and witnessed its religious wars. Medieval traditions and values were crumbling, paving the way to thrust man into a new universe where faith had lost its power and much of its magic. Bosch set out to warn doubters of the perils awaiting all and any who lost their faith in God. His favorite allegories were hell, heaven and lust. He held that everyone had to choose between one of two options: either heaven or hell.

Bosch brilliantly exploited the symbolism of a wide range of fruits and plants to lend sexual overtones to his themes, which author Virginia Pitts Rembert meticulously deciphers to provide readers with new insight into this fascinating artist and his works.