Книги по живописи

In Frida Kahlo, legendary figure-head of new Mexican art, life and art match in an unrivalled way. Her vibrant paintings, mostly self-portraits, are a mesmerizing and unsparing testimony to a dramatic life in a tormented body, to an amazing will to survive, and to an outstanding artistic talent. Our bestselling book, now in a low-price reduced-size edition, juxtaposes the paintings with large-size details revealing the beauty and the abysses of Frida Kahlo’s art.

The Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) is one of the most famous artists of all time. However, while much has been written about Kahlo’s striking self-portraits (of which some 80 are known), her still-life paintings (of which 40 or so are documented) have not been subjected to such close scrutiny until now. In this groundbreaking study, noted Kahlo scholar Salomon Grimberg explores in detail and interprets all of the artist’s still lifes, including some that have come to light only recently. Offering provocative new perspectives on Kahlo’s creative process, and revealing how the still lifes reflected her internal reality and complement her self-portraits, this book represents an indispensable contribution to the literature on an enduringly popular artist.

The only complete study of Kahlo’s still lifes, indispensable to understanding the artist, her internal reality and her work
Offers original interpretations by a leading authority on Kahlo
Includes stunning reproductions of every known still life painted by Kahlo, as well as other relevant works and photographs

110 illustrations, 60 in colour

Sublime stillness

Capturing nature's moody splendor

The solitude of man and the bleak beauty of nature are prominent themes in the work of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), the great romantic painter whose importance and influence have often been underestimated. Now widely considered to be the most important German artist of his generation, Friedrich died in obscurity and wasn’t fully appreciated until the early 20th century. An important precursor to the Expressionists, Friedrich once wrote that an artist must “close your bodily eye so that you may see your picture first with the spiritual eye. Then bring to the light of day that which you have seen in the darkness so that it may react upon others from the outside inwards.”

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

Sublime stillness

Capturing nature's moody splendor

The solitude of man and the bleak beauty of nature are prominent themes in the work of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), the great romantic painter whose importance and influence have often been underestimated. Now widely considered to be the most important German artist of his generation, Friedrich died in obscurity and wasn’t fully appreciated until the early 20th century. An important precursor to the Expressionists, Friedrich once wrote that an artist must "close your bodily eye so that you may see your picture first with the spiritual eye. Then bring to the light of day that which you have seen in the darkness so that it may react upon others from the outside inwards."

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:
Norbert Wolf graduated in art history, linguistics and medieval studies at the universities of Regensburg and Munich, and earned his PhD in 1983. He held visiting professorships in Marburg, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Nuremberg-Erlangen, and Innsbruck. His extensive writings on art history include many TASCHEN titles, such as Diego Velázquez, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Caspar David Friedrich, Expressionism, Romanesque, Landscape Painting and Symbolism.

Sublime stillness. The king of the contemplative landscape

From night skies to morning mists to the much-cited Wanderer above a Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich mastered the emotional and metaphysical experience of nature. This introductory book presents his most important and celebrated works to explore an oeuvre of sublime and haunting impact and a trailblazer of Romantic aesthetics.

The beauty of nature and man’s loneliness are dominant themes in the work of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). The artist often places a small human figure in a broad landscape, as in his famous paintings Monk by the Sea and The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. For a long time the importance and influence of this great Romantic painter were underestimated. When he died, Friedrich had already been forgotten by his contemporaries and was only rediscovered in the early 20th century. Today he is considered to be the most important German painter of his generation and a precursor of Expressionism.

Once Friedrich gave the following advice to an artist-colleague of his who was constricted by academic rules: “Shut your physical eye so that you first see your painting with your spiritual eye. Then bring to light what you saw in the dark so that it has an effect on others, shining inwards from outside.” In other words, concentration and not imitation, essence and not frivolous brushwork.

The author:

Norbert Wolf graduated in art history, linguistics, and medieval studies at the Universities of Regensburg and Munich, and earned his PhD in 1983. He held visiting professorships in Marburg, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Nuremberg-Erlangen, and Innsbruck. His extensive writings on art history include many TASCHEN titles, such as Diego Velázquez, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Caspar David Friedrich, Expressionism, Romanesque, Landscape Painting, and Symbolism.

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 illustrations with explanatory captions

This book explores the connections between French and Russian art from the mid-nineteenth century until the 1920s, a period that witnessed the emergence of some of the most important developments in modern art. It includes outstanding examples of Salon painting, Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism in France and related movements in Russia such as The Wanderers, Constructivism and Suprematism. It documents key episodes in the story of this fascinating exchange. For example, the vital role played by the two great Russian collectors Ivan Morosov and Sergei Shchukin, whose pre-eminent collections of French art were an inspiration to the Russian avant-garde; the ballet impresario Diaghilev's promotion of Russian art in France in 1906; and Matisses' visit to Russia in 1911.

Fast and furious. The action men of modernism

With motion and machines as its most treasured tropes, Futurism was founded in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, along with painters Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, and Gino Severini. With affiliate painters, sculptors, designers, architects, and writers, the group sought to subsume the dusty establishment into a new age of sleek, strong, purified modernity.

Futurism's place in art history is as ambivalent as it is important. The movement pioneered revolutionary methods to convey movement, light, and speed, but sparks controversy in its glorification of war and fascist politics. Their frenzied, almost furious, canvases, are as remarkable for their macho aggression as they are for their radical experimentation with brushstrokes, texture, and colour in the quest to record an object moving through space.

With key examples from the Futurists prolific output and leading practitioners, this book introduces the movement that spat vitriol at all -isms of the past and, in so doing, created an -ism of their own.

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

Inspired by the development of Cubism, the Futurist movement was founded in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, along with painters Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, and Gino Severini. The school, which celebrated technology and the mechanical era, was comprised of painters, sculptors, designers, architects, and writers. Motion and machines were two main themes of this movement, which attacked the bastions of establishment and sparked controversy by its glorification of war and support of Fascism. Experimenting with movement, and speed, and abstract light and colour, the Futurists developed approaches and techniques that were revolutionary at the time, and in retrospect, one can see that the Futurists influenced other avant-garde art movements, most notably Russian Constructivism.

Artists featured: Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Carlo Carrà, Tullio Crali, Fortunato Depero, Gerardo Dottori, Leonardo Dudreville, Virgilio Marchi, F.T. Marinetti, Enrico Prampolini, Luigi Russolo, Antonio Sant'Elia, Gino Severini, Mario Sironi, Ardengo Soffici

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

A Frenchman in Tahiti. Gauguin’s search for pristine originality and unadulterated nature

After starting a career as a bank broker, Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) turned to painting only at age twenty-five. After initial successes within the Impressionist circle, he broke with Vincent van Gogh and subsequently - when private difficulties caused him to become restless - embarked on a peripatetic life, wandering first through Europe and finally, in the search for pristine originality and unadulterated nature, to Tahiti.

The paintings created from this time to his death in 1903 brought him posthumous fame. In pictures devoid of any attempt at romantically disguising the life style of the primitive island peoples, Gauguin was able to convey the magical effect that both the landscapes and life of the natives - their body language, charm and beauty - had on him. Wearying of his reputation as a South Sea painter, Gauguin finally determined to return to France, but died of syphilis on the Marquis Islands before his departure.

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

A Frenchman in Tahiti

After starting a career as a bank broker, Paul Gauguin (born 1848) turned to painting only at age twenty-five. After initial successes within the Impressionist circle, he broke with Vincent van Gogh and subsequently, when private difficulties caused him to become restless, embarked on a peripatetic life, wandering first through Europe and finally, in the search for pristine originality and unadulterated nature, to Tahiti. The paintings created from this time to his death in 1903 brought him posthumous fame. In pictures devoid of any attempt at romantically disguising the life style of the primitive island peoples, Gauguin was able to convey the magical effect that both the landscapes and life of the natives — their body language, charm and beauty — had on him. Wearying of his reputation as a South Sea painter, Gauguin finally determined to return to France, but died of syphilis on the Marquis Islands before his departure.

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:
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, Picasso, Art of the 20th Century, and Codices Illustres.

Einzige lieferbare Monografie zu Leben und Werk des großen französischen Erneuerers der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts auf dem deutschen Buchmarkt.

Das Werk von Georges Braque (1882–1963), dem bedeutenden Wegbereiter der Moderne, ist viel komplexer und aufregender, als dies die bisherige kunstwissenschaftliche Literatur oft vermuten ließ: Die starke Betonung der Verbindung des Künstlers mit Picasso und die Gleichsetzung seines Werkes mit dem Kubismus haben seine Bedeutung nur unzureichend beschrieben, auch wenn seinen bahnbrechenden kubistischen Arbeiten eine außerordentliche Stellung eingeräumt werden muss.
Der retrospektiv angelegte Band bietet eine profunde Neubewertung des gesamten Œuvres von Georges Braque. Mit über 80 Gemälden und zentralen druckgrafischen Arbeiten wird die Einzigartigkeit seines malerischen Abenteuers umfassend veranschaulicht: Braque im Umkreis der Fauves, Braque – der Methodische, Braque als Erfinder des Papier collé , Braques Anleihen bei der Dekorationsmalerei, in der er ausgebildet wurde, Braque als Meister des modernen Stilllebens und nicht zuletzt Braque – der »lyrische Konstrukteur«.

A new, multifaceted examination of Georges Braque’s complete oeuvre, whose complexity has yet to receive its due.

Georges Braque (1882–1963), one of the major pioneers of modernity, produced work that is much more complex and compelling than art historians have often led us to believe: the strong emphasis on his close association with Picasso and the equation of his work with Cubism have not done sufficient justice to his relevance, even though his pioneering Cubist works ought to be accorded extraordinary status.
This retrospective offers a profound re-evaluation of Braque’s complete oeuvre. Featuring about eighty paintings and key prints, this volume takes a comprehensive look at his unique adventures: Braque among the Fauves; Braque, the methodical artist; Braque as the inventor of the papier collé; Braque’s appropriations from decorative painting, in which he was originally trained; Braque as master of the modern still life; and last but not least, Braque, the “lyrical constructor.”

Master of Horror. Discover HR Giger’s arsenal of fear

Discover HR Giger’s inimitable universe in this definition introduction to the master that gave expression to the collective horrors and fantasies of our time. From his childhood fears to Alien, Giger personally guides us through his multifaceted career with intimate autobiographical essays, detailed reproductions and designs, and a foreword by Timothy Leary.

Swiss artist HR Giger (1940–2014) is most famous for his creation of the space monster in Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror sci-fi film Alien, which earned him an Oscar. In retrospect, this was just one of the most popular expressions of Giger’s biomechanical arsenal of creatures, which consistently merged hybrids of human and machine into images of haunting power and dark psychedelia.

The visions drew on demons of the past, harking back as far as Giger’s earliest childhood fears as well as evoking mythologies for the future. Above all, they gave expression to the collective fears and fantasies of his age: fear of the atom, of pollution and wasted resources, and of a future in which our bodies depend on machines for survival.

From surrealist dream landscapes created with a spray gun and stencils to album cover designs, from guillotine-like sculptures to self-designed bars, Giger personally guides us through his multi-faceted universe in this definitive introduction to a master of horror. Detailed reproductions and designs and a foreword by Timothy Leary complement Giger’s intimate autobiographical texts.

The artist:

HR Giger (1940–2014) was a Swiss painter, sculptor, and designer, who combined surrealist influences and dark fantasies to create his very own biomechanical universe. He first received acclaim in the 1960s with his airbrushed fantasies of post-apocalyptic creatures and landscapes and rose to fame through high profile movie work, most notably the creation of the monster in Alien, which won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. HR Giger was named in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2013.

About the series:

Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. 

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 illustrations with explanatory captions

Throughout his long career, Morandi focused on still lifes and landscapes that captured the simple beauty of light and form. While his contemporaries struggled with the intellectual turmoil and aesthetic experimentation of the twentieth century, Morandi remained faithful to the subjects that fascinated him most: bottles, vases, and jugs, and the view out his studio window in Bologna. This richly illustrated volume brings together more than one hundred of his most important works. Grouped according to technique paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings each aspect of his work is given thoughtful consideration by scholars who explore Morandi's genius for composition, his serene palette, and his expertise as a draftsman.

Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), an Italian painter and printmaker renowned for his simple yet stunning still lifes, is also famous for his legendary reputation as a recluse, an artist who resided in a world bound by the walls of his Bologna studio.

Giorgio Morandi: The Art of Silence is the first and only study in English to cover Morandi's career in its entirety as well as in the sociopolitical and cultural context of Italian art. Janet Abramowicz, Morandi's former teaching assistant, takes the reader through half a century of Italian art history and its most significant movements - Futurism, Pittura Metafisica, Valori Plastici, Strapaese, Novecento - most of which have received scant attention from English-language scholars.

Abramowicz shows how Morandi worked in close proximity to mainstream contemporary European art and tells the story of his relationship to the Fascist politics and patrons of his time, illustrating how his connections to this period were muted after the fall of the regime in post-World War II Italy in an effort to establish the artist as apolitical. Morandi was the only Italian modernist to emerge from Fascism unscathed.

An important new addition to scholarship on twentieth-century Italian art history, this book features many rare and previously unpublished images and will fascinate admirers of Morandi and his quietly transcendent work.

A magnificently illustrated study of the greatest painter of the early Renaissance.

Vasari famously wrote that Giotto "recovered the true method of painting, which been lost for many years before him," and indeed he is traditionally considered a founder of the Italian Renaissance. Producing a series of commissioned works for the church and upper classes in his native Tuscany and surrounding regions, Giotto changed the course of European art by breaking away from the rigid, stereotyped figures of the Byzantine and Giotto medieval traditions. His innovation was to give his characters natural movement and expression. His great fresco cycles, such as the lives of the Virgin and Christ in the Scrovegni (or Arena) Chapel, Padua, are populated with realistic depictions of three-dimensional figures; secondary characters, both comic and tragic, display the range of the painter's wit and invention. And Giotto's treatment of perspective was just as revolutionary as his approach to the human form. The dramatic power of his scenes is heightened by the convincing illusionistic spaces in which he places them.

In this authoritative survey of Giotto's life and work, Professor Francesca Flores d'Arcais draws on an impressive range of sources, from fourteenth-century documents to the most recent art - historical investigations. Her research leads her to important re-attributions of Giottesque paintings and to new conclusions regarding the execution and dating of both famous and lesser-known works. This second edition also includes a discussion of the earthquake of September 29, 1997 that damaged the frescoes of the Upper Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi - some of which are attributed to the artist in the early phase of his career - and the restoration effort that followed.

More than three hundred illustrations, most in full color and some on double gatefold pages, reproduce all of Giotto's important frescoes in exquisite detail, as well as his moving crucifixes and jewel-like polyptychs. These illustrations are based on new photography of Giotto's paintings, many of which have recently been restored to their original brilliance, making this the definitive monograph on the greatest of trecento masters.