Книги з живопису

Part of a new series of beautiful gift art books, Claude Monet: Masterpieces of Art features all of the popular works of this insightful and experimental artist, from his first inklings as an Impressionist to his later flirtations with Abstract Expressionism. With a fresh and thoughtful introduction to the life and art of one of the most famous artists in the world, the book goes on to showcase his key works in all their glory.

No other artist, apart from J.M.W. Turner, tried as hard as Claude Monet (1840–1926) to capture light itself on canvas. Of all the Impressionists, it was the man Cézanne called “only an eye, but my God what an eye!” who stayed true to the principle of absolute fidelity to the visual sensation, painting directly from the object.

Towards the end of his life and much inspired by Japanese water gardens, Monet spent a great deal of time in his beloved Giverny. Adorned with poppies, blue sage, dahlias and irises, the waters were disturbed only by bamboos and water lilies. His water garden was originally created to satisfy a need to be near water, and to provide a visual feast that could be enjoyed from his house. The pond was fed by the river Ru, and weeping willow and silver birch hung over its edges, caressing the fronds of the greenery and blossoms below. Its famous green wooden footbridge was built across the water and it became the central focus of many of his works. He said, ‘It took me some time to understand my water lilies. I planted them for pleasure.’ and so he began to work on what is probably the most famous series of paintings the world has ever seen.

346 reproductions of woodcuts, arranged chronologically, by the German artist with supplementary information on his life.

Albrecht Dürer was a master in various media, but it was in woodcut design that his creative genius reached its highest expression. Here are all of his extant woodcuts, a collection of over 300 great works containing all the familiar cuts long treasured by the world's art lovers: the celebrated series on the Life of the Virgin, The Apocalypse of John (17 cuts), The Great Passion, St. Jerome in his Study, Samson Fighting the Lion, The Fall of Icarus, The Six Knots, The Men's Bath, St. Christopher, The Virgin in Glory, The Rhinoceros, The Last Supper of 1523, illustrations from Dürer's The Art of Measurement and from his four books on human proportion, and many others, including much little-known material. This book is the only available source for many of these works.
Although sacred subjects predominate (the Holy Family, scenes from Christ's life, crucifixion, etc., the lives of the saints, Old Testament episodes), many other motifs are treated. There are portraits of prominent men of the ages, book illustrations (secular and religious), coats of arms, celestial and terrestrial globes, animals, mythological and historical themes, etc. The plates are arranged generally in chronological order permitting the reader to view the development of Dürer's art. From out of the gnarled figures and landscapes one can see the emergence of an individualistic style and skill unrivaled in this sphere.

An introduction by Campbell Dodgson and a 34-page textual guide to the plates by Dr. Willi Kurth discuss the evidence and controversies surrounding the authenticity of each work, citing the opinions of all the important Dürer scholars; they also furnish the reader with the historical background of the cuts and of Dürer's life and times--from the years of apprenticeship in Nuremberg to the last works of 1520-1528.

All of the woodcuts are reproduced in excellent detail. This book is indispensable for professional art historians and critics. To the layman with any aesthetic interests at all, it will be a source of stimulation and satisfaction that only great art can provide.

About the Author:

Regarded as the greatest of the German Renaissance artists, Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) created a vast body of work that ranges from altarpieces to copper engravings and portraits. Painter, printer, draughtsman, and art theorist, he remains best known for his woodcuts.

Artists featured:

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

Over 500 striking color images display the artwork of 100 contemporary painters from around the world. Their works, in oils, acrylics, and watercolors, range from very traditional pieces representing their mother countries to emerging styles that are new on the world scene. Naïve style painters resurge with a new spark, while others ventured into a more futuristic direction, mixing styles and creating completely unique and innovative canvases. No matter in which direction the artists take their work, each painting is truly exceptional and comes straight from the heart. The painters, from child prodigies to experienced veterans, are arranged alphabetically, allowing readers to view all the work of each artist together. Through this book, readers will travel the world and discover amazing contemporary artists and their important works of art. This book is a must for serious art collectors, enthusiasts, gallery owners, and artists.

Ces réflexions, qui comparent la vie au cottage à une sorte de paradis sur terre, montrent quelle vision idéalisée du bonheur campagnard était enracinée dans l'imagination des auteurs et artistes du XIXème siècle. Ce livre illustre leur vision : des logements pittoresques entourés de jardins luxuriants aux couleurs vives, habités par des paysans dignes et de charmants enfants, tous représentés dans l'éclat doré d'un éternel soleil. le fait que la réalité quotidienne, pour la plupart des paysans ordinaires, n'eût rien d'idyllique, n'a nui en rien à cette fable romantique que nous avons encore d'aujourd'hui plaisir à considérer, reflet peut-être d'une disposition à considérer la campagne comme un univers autre où règnent l'innocence et l'harmonie.

Très beau choix de 56 huiles et aquarelles - complété de 16 détails - de A. C. STRACHAN, D. WOODLOCK, E. K. JOHNSON, E. A. ROWE, Haynes KING, Henry John Yeend KING, H. ALLINGHAM, J. W. USHER, K. BARNARD, M. B. FOSTER, W. LANGLEY.

Ce bel ensemble de scénes de la vie rurale est accompagné de poésies et de textes de R. L. STEVENSON, D. H. LAWRENCE, D. WORDSWORTH, W. H. DAVIES, J. CLARK, O. WILDE, F. THOMPSON, C. BRONTË, C. DICKENS, G. ELIOT...

Illustrations: 300 en couleur

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) est un artiste dont l’art met en jeu le rapport entre l’homme, assoiffé de renommée, et l’œuvre, plus de 1000 peintures aujourd’hui conservées dans les plus grands musées. C’est pourquoi une approche chronologique et thématique a pleinement son sens. C’est autour de lui que se met en place la figure de l’artiste moderne, telle qu’on la retrouve par exemple chez Picasso au xxe siècle, à partir d’une œuvre qui se décompose par périodes : sa ville natale d’Ornans, Paris et les débuts de la « gloire », les voyages (Normandie, Montpellier) et l’attrait de la mer, l’engagement politique au moment de la Commune et, enfin,  l’exil en Suisse où il mourra. Tout au long de son existence, il a provoqué le scandale, le débat, jusqu’à la mise à l’encan. Mais, à côté de son œuvre peint, que complètent dessins et lithographies remarquables, sa correspondance constitue une source essentielle pour aborder le peintre, ses élans, ses rejets et, parfois, ses contradictions.

On a l’habitude de figer Courbet dans une seule étiquette, celle du réalisme. Sans se limiter à cette vision réductrice, la thèse de ce livre est de reconsidérer la place de Courbet dans l’histoire de l’art du xixe siècle, à la croisée des « ismes » qui se mettent alors en place – du romantisme au réalisme, puis au naturalisme et à l’impressionnisme, et même au symbolisme...

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.”

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.

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

Picasso called Dalí "an outboard motor that's always running." Dalí thought himself a genius with a right to indulge in whatever lunacy popped into his head. Painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker, Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was one of the century's greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics—and was rewarded with fierce controversy wherever he went. He was one of the first to apply the insights of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis to the art of painting, approaching the subconscious with extraordinary sensitivity and imagination. This lively monograph presents the infamous Surrealist in full color and in his own words. His provocative imagery is all here, from the soft watches to the notorious burning giraffe. A friend of the artist for over thirty years, privy to the reality behind Dalí’s public image, author Robert Descharnes is uniquely qualified to analyze Dalí—both the man and the myth.

Picasso called Dalí “an outboard motor that’s always running.” Dalí thought himself a genius with a right to indulge in whatever lunacy popped into his head. Painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker, Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was one of the century’s greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics - and was rewarded with fierce controversy wherever he went. He was one of the first to apply the insights of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis to the art of painting, approaching the subconscious with extraordinary sensitivity and imagination. This lively monograph presents the infamous Surrealist in full color and in his own words. His provocative imagery is all here, from the soft watches to the notorious burning giraffe. A friend of the artist for over thirty years, privy to the reality behind Dalí’s public image, author Robert Descharnes is uniquely qualified to analyze Dalí - both the man and the myth.

As one of the foremost painters of the 20th century, Dalí overturned the art of the previous century and directed contemporary art toward its present incarnation.

As irrational as he was surrealist, this genius diverted objects from their original meanings, plunging them into the acid of his constantly churning imagination. A megalomaniac and an artist who above all understood the force of marketing and publicity, Dalí disorients his viewers in order to draw them into his world. On his canvases, images and colours crash together to express and mock certain ideas, creating a subversive eroticism that taps into the subconscious of the avid voyeurs that we are.

The author, Eric Shanes, explores the twists and turns of Dalí’s mad genius, commenting on the masterpieces of the painter so as to show the diversity and scope of his talent, leaving the reader blown away and bewitched by this Prince of Metamorphosis.

This work opens up the sweet, mad universe of this genius and invites us to let ourselves be overcome.

The infamous surrealist. A genius with a right to indulge in whatever lunacy popped into his head

Picasso called Dalí "an outboard motor that's always running." Dalí thought himself a genius with a right to indulge in whatever lunacy popped into his head.

Painter, sculptor, writer and film-maker, Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was one of the century's greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics - and was rewarded with fierce controversy wherever he went. He was one of the first to apply the insights of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis to the art of painting. Dalí brought extraordinary sensitivity, imagination and concern for precision to bear upon submerged levels of consciousness.

This lively biography presents the infamous Surrealist Dalí in full colour and in his own words. His provocative ideas are all here, from the soft watches to the notorious burning giraffe. And the fantastic phenomenon that was Salvador Dalí is grasped entire and placed in his various contexts.

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:
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.