City lights and cherry trees
The woodblock prints of Tokyo that captured Europe's imagination
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyo-e tradition. Literally meaning “pictures of the floating world,” ukiyo-e was a particular genre of art that flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries and came to characterize the Western world’s visual idea of Japan. In many ways images of hedonism, ukiyo-e scenes often represented the bright lights and attractions of Edo (modern-day Tokyo): beautiful women, actors and wrestlers, city life, and spectacular landscapes.
Though he captured a variety of subjects, Hiroshige was most famous for landscapes, with a final masterpiece series known as “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” (1856–1858), which depicted various scenes of the city through the seasons, from bustling shopping streets to splendid cherry orchards.
This reprint is made from one of the finest complete original sets of woodblock prints belonging to the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo. It pairs each of the 120 illustrations with a description, allowing readers to immerse themselves in these beautiful, vibrant vistas that became paradigms of Japonisme and inspired Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Art Nouveau artists alike, from Vincent van Gogh to James McNeill Whistler.
Sentence Structures
The architectural treatises which shaped our world
If you’ve ever wondered what goes through architects’ minds when they design buildings, you’ll be happy to know that there’s no shortage of brilliant reading material to satisfy your curiosity. Wading through the archives at your local library may prove fruitful to your endeavor, but it won’t give you the instant gratification that Architectural Theory will.
This book brings together all of the most important and influential essays about architecture written since the Renaissance, copiously illustrated and neatly organized chronologically by country. From Alberti and Palladio to Le Corbusier and Koolhaas, the best treatises by architecture’s greatest masters are gathered here, each accompanied by an essay discussing its historical context and significance. This is the all-in-one, must-have book for anyone interested in what architects have to say about their craft.
The comprehensive overview that will help transform even the most uninformed novices into well-informed connoisseurs!
The End Was Nigh
Awesome apocalyptic visions of the 16th century
The Book of Miracles first surfaced several ago and is one of the most spectacular discoveries in the field of Renaissance art. The near-complete illustrated manuscript, created in Augsburg around 1550, is composed of 169 pages of large-format illustrations in gouache and watercolor, depicting wondrous and often eerie phenomena.
The mesmerizing images deal with both biblical and folkloric tales, depicting stories from the Old Testament and Book of Revelation as well as events that took place in the immediate present of the manuscript’s author. From shooting stars to swarms of locusts, terrifying monsters to fatal floods, page after page hypnotizes with visions alternately dreadful, spectacular, and even apocalyptic.
This volume presents the revelatory Book of Miracles in a new, compact format, making this extraordinary document accessible to everyone. It comes with a translation of the manuscript texts and an essay that gives an introduction to the cultural and historical context of this unique Renaissance work.
Experience vintage children's book illustrations by early Disney artists
In Los Angeles during the 1940s and 1950s, Disney artists popularized illustration for children both on the big screen and in the pages of the Golden Books, a series of affordably priced children's books. These stories distilled the visual language of Disney films and brought historic and contemporary tales to life through compelling and inventive works of art. The selection of material in this book by 7 different artists reflects the variety of stylistic approaches that defined animation and illustration at the Disney studio.
The book begins with an introduction to the artistic milieu that characterized the Disney studio, and each of the 10 stories is illustrated with complete original art and text. Biographies of the artists featured are included in the appendix. This hardcover anthology of vintage illustration will captivate adults and children alike.
The following Disney stories are featured in the book:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, Peter and the Wolf, Once Upon a Wintertime, The Adventures of Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan
May the Force Be with You
George Lucas’s vision of a galaxy far, far away
When Star Wars was released in 1977, everybody who saw and reviewed it considered the movie an exciting, innovative piece of pop culture, a fast-moving, special-effects laden fairy tale in space. The film, and the episodes that followed, created a worldwide phenomenon, a massive success for creator George Lucas’s production company Lucasfilm, his special effects company Industrial Light & Magic, and for the studio Twentieth Century Fox.
Over six movies and 28 years writer, director and producer George Lucas created the modern monomyth of our time, one that resonates with the child in us all.
The book begins with Anakin Skywalker as we watch him being trained as a Jedi under Obi-Wan Kenobi, find love with the Queen of Naboo, Padmé Amidala, and ultimately turn to the dark side of his nature and become more machine than man. Years later we follow moisture farmer Luke Skywalker on his journey through a galaxy far, far away, meeting extraordinary characters like the mysterious hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi, space pirates Han Solo and Chewbacca, loyal droids C-3PO and R2-D2, bold Princess Leia and the horrific Darth Vader, servant of the dark, malevolent Emperor.
To achieve his epic vision George Lucas created the space for ground-breaking visual effects and digital technologies that have forever changed the way we make and see visual entertainment.
Super Mario does marvelous Rio
Inspired by the boys and girls from Copacabana
Mario Testino is one of the world’s most successful fashion and portrait photographers, whose images are noted for their freshness and intimacy. Peruvian by birth, Testino has been fascinated by Rio de Janeiro since his earliest summer vacations. "When I was 14, on holiday, and going from my house to the beach and seeing everyone walk everywhere in their tiny bathing suits—the girls and boys were so sexy and carefree and wild—I just could not believe it."
This easy sensuality, sexual freedom and lust for life left a deep impression; Testino has been going back ever since, for work and fun, passion and inspiration. Featuring candid shots of exquisite cariocas baring nubile flesh, including supermodel Gisele Bündchen, MaRIO DE JANEIRO Testino captures the essence of this incomparably seductive city and its sultry citizens. From its breathtaking sunset panoramas, to the throbbing chaos of its world-famous carnival, this is Testino’s love poem to the Brazilian metropolis that captured his teenage heart, and never let go.
A complete reprint of the exquisite illuminated Les premières œuvres de Jacques Devaulx
Five hundred years after the historic French seaport of Le Havre was established, TASCHEN presents a facsimile reproduction of Les premières œuvres de Jacques Devaulx, pilote en la marine, first published by Le Havre-born “Naval Pilot to the King” Jacques Devaulx in 1583. This extraordinary illuminated manuscript, dedicated to the Duke of Joyeuse, collates nautical, astronomical, and cartographic ideas as well as Devaulx’s own extensive notes, observations, and records as a seafarer, hydrographer, cosmographer, and cartographer.
An encyclopedic reference for sailors, as well as a magnificent maritime showpiece for his royal employers, the elaborately annotated and decorated folios are a repertoire of naval and cosmographic tools and techniques, including astrolabes, nautical charts of the Atlantic Ocean, tabular statements of diurnal tides, astrological charts, and measurements for solar altitude. They also gather Devaulx’s volvelles, wheel charts made of rotating parts that are today considered an early example of the paper analog computer. Together, the folios encapsulate the state of knowledge at a time when sailors pushed the limits of sea exploration and offer a glimpse into the practical daily requirements of Renaissance seafaring.
Mustaches and muscles
Back to the days when men were men and sex was carefree
In 1965, Tom of Finland began flirting with the idea of an ongoing character for his panel stories, the ultimate Tom’s Man. He tried out a blond named Vicky—a common male name in Finland—followed by a Tarzan-inspired Jack. Then in 1968 Tom settled on Kake, a dark-haired, mustached leatherman who often wore a tight white T-shirt bearing the motto “Fucker.” Kake lived up to this moniker, a sort of post-Stonewall, hyper-masculine Johnny Appleseed traveling the world on his motorcycle to spread the seeds of liberated, mutually satisfying, ecstatically explicit gay sex. Tom lived out many of his most personal fantasies through Kake, and Kake’s international fans made him the template for what came to be known as the gay clone look of the 1970s. Between 1968 and 1986, Tom published 26 episodes of Kake adventures, most as 20-page booklets.
Tom of Finland – The Complete Kake Comics collects all of these stories in one volume. Return with Kake to the days when men were men, sex was carefree, and everyone wore a big thick mustache.
George Herriman’s classic Krazy Kat: the complete color stories from 1935–1944
The premise is simple: a black cat loves scheming a white mouse who incessantly throws bricks at the cat’s head, which police dog Officer Pupp, secretly harboring a passionate love for the cat, tries to prevent.
George Herriman endlessly plays with the above formula in his legendary newspaper strip Krazy Kat, published from 1913 until his death in 1944. Through his wit, detailed characterization, and visual-verbal creativity, Herriman introduced even the least comically-inclined to the young medium; Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, US President Woodrow Wilson, Jackson Pollock, Charlie Chaplin, Frank Capra, P.G. Wodehouse, Willem de Kooning—all KK fans among many others.
It was thanks to media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, a confirmed fan who gave Herriman carte blanche in his newspapers, that the artist was allowed to freely explore countless absurd and melancholy variations on the theme of unrequited love for years on end. Herriman unabashedly took advantage of this, radically exploring the medium’s potential and pushing all of its formal boundaries; readers had to put up with surreal, Dadaist sceneries, a language that whirled slang, neologisms, phonetic spelling, and scholarly references, and diffuse gender roles—making Krazy Kat probably the first gender-fluid star in comic history.
This volume presents all Krazy Kat color stories from 1935–1944 and a detailed introduction by comic expert Alexander Braun, who illuminates Herriman’s multi-ethnic background and reveals what makes this timeless work of art about a queer cat so extraordinary.
Fashion Dynamite
Mario Testino’s tribute to his greatest muse
Mario Testino is recognized as the ultimate fashion photographer of his generation but his pictures of Kate Moss transcend fashion. The result of three decades of extraordinary friendship, and phenomenal glamour, this iconic collaboration is an intimate insight into the lives and minds of two of the world’s definitive style leaders.
This book follows the journey of this exceptional fashion partnership, from early days backstage at the shows to behind-the-scenes glimpses of the groundbreaking editorials they continue to produce for the world’s most respected magazines. Of the 100-plus images, many photographs have been chosen from Testino’s private archive. They are accompanied by a foreword by Testino and an exclusive essay by Kate Moss.
Frank Frazetta has reigned as the undisputed king of fantasy art for 50 years, his fame only growing in the years since his death. With his paintings now breaking auction records (Egyptian Queen sold for $ 5.4 million in 2019) he’s long overdue for this ultimate monograph.Born to a Sicilian immigrant family in Brooklyn, 1928, Frazetta was a minor league athlete, petty criminal and serial seducer with movie star looks and phenomenal talent. He claimed to only make art when there was nothing better to do – he preferred playing baseball - yet began his professional career in comics at age 16. Strip work led him to the infamous EC Comics, then to oils for Tarzan and Conan pulp covers. Both characters were interpreted by many before him, but as he explained in the 1970s, “I’m very physical minded. In Brooklyn, I knew Conan, I knew guys just like him,” and he used this first-hand knowledge of muscle and macho to redefine fantasy heroes as more massive, more menacing, more testosterone-fueled than anything seen before. As counterbalance he created a new breed of women, nude as censorship allowed, with pixie faces and multiparous bodies: thick thighed, heavy buttocked, breasts cantilevered out to there, yet still, with their soft bellies and hints of cellulite, believably real. Add in the action, the creatures, the twilit worlds of haunting shadow and Frazetta’s art is addictive as potato chips.
Selfies with Rembrandt
The complete self-portraiture
Few devotees of the form can approach Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn’s radical contributions to self-portraiture. Challenging the conventions enshrined by his predecessors, Rembrandt transformed the art into a fully realized medium capable of communicating emotional depth rather than favorably immortalizing one’s likeness in the finest trappings of luxury. With more than 80 works spanning paintings, etchings, and drawings, the Dutchman’s lifelong practice of self-portraiture functions as a means of concretizing that which is fleeting. Across four decades, one constant is particularly striking across media and styles—Rembrandt’s dedication to presenting himself from multiple perspectives, celebrating the multiplicity of the individual and championing the unfiltered portrayal of emotional expression.
Apart from the thematic concerns present within Rembrandt’s suite of self-portraits, the works themselves are rich with technical innovation and experimentation. There is an unmistakable humanity present across the entirety of this oeuvre, each expressive brushstroke and obfuscated feature amounting to an unflinchingly honest characterization of himself, in all his foibles, contrasting states of feeling, and stages of life.
This monograph renders all of Rembrandt’s self-portraits – from his first experimentations at age twenty-two to his final self-portrait painted a year before his death – and stands testament to a life committed to revolutionizing painterly practice both in content and form.
From its North Sea islands to the Alps, Germany contains a wide range of landscapes and cultures. Angelika Taschen has selected the country’s most inspiring places to stay, including grand hotels, family guesthouses, palaces, an abbey, and glamping tents. Each characterful choice is beautifully photographed and accompanied by insightful texts.
A Voyage to the Red Planet
Uncover the mysteries of Mars in six decades of NASA photographs
Early astronomers, drawn to Mars's fiery glow in the night sky, named the planet after their god of war. In the centuries since, Mars has captivated humankind as a source of endless speculation and a beacon of hope for its potential habitability. Through six decades of NASA’s pioneering research missions, the mysteries of the red planet have been gradually uncovered, revealing a world not so unlike our own that likely once supported life.
See the earliest close-up images of Mars taken by the Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965—the first ever captured of another planet—along with historical illustrations from an era when curiosity outpaced scientific progress. Science and art collide as NASA’s later orbiter missions capture aerial views of ancient riverbeds, polar ice caps, dust storms, vast canyons, and towering volcanoes in an endlessly varied landscape. As they traverse Mars’s rugged surface, NASA’s rovers have operated as mechanical extensions of humankind for the past 25 years, drilling holes, searching for traces of water, and marveling at mountain ranges and panoramic sunsets.
Through hundreds of cutting-edge photographs from NASA's extensive archives, we join their scientists in the ongoing quest to better understand Mars. Essays by NASA’s former Chief Scientist James L. Green and JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning provide an in-depth look at the history of Martian exploration and the challenges of preparing for these groundbreaking missions. Captions by planetary scientist Emily Lakdawalla skillfully illuminate each image's content and technical context, and a foreword by renowned poet Nikki Giovanni and an introduction by curator Margaret A. Weitekamp reflect on Mars’s significance in our cultural imagination.
From a distant enigma to a tangible frontier whose every grain of sand we can now observe, this volume celebrates the extraordinary progress NASA has made, bringing us closer than ever to understanding our neighboring world.
A visual pilgrimage through holy mountains, great pyramids, and golden shrines, Sacred Sites celebrates the ways we transform the world around us through ritual, creativity, and worship. Essays, interviews and more than 400 images explore spaces ranging from ancient temples to modern works of spatial art.
From Edouard Manet’s portrait of naturalist writer Émile Zola sitting among his Japanese art finds to Van Gogh’s meticulous copies of the Hiroshige prints he devotedly collected, 19th-century pioneers of European modernism made no secret of their love of Japanese art. In all its sensuality, freedom, and effervescence, the woodblock print is single-handedly credited with the wave of japonaiserie that first enthralled France and, later, all of Europe—but often remains misunderstood as an “exotic” artifact that helped inspire Western creativity.
The fact is that the Japanese woodblock print is a phenomenon of which there exists no Western equivalent. Some of the most disruptive ideas in modern art—including, as Karl Marx put it, that “all that is solid melts into air”—were invented in Japan in the 1700s and expressed like never before in the designs of such masters as Hokusai, Utamaro, and Hiroshige in the early 19th century.
This volume lifts the veil on a much-loved but little-understood art form by presenting the most exceptional Japanese woodblock prints in their historical context. Ranging from the 17th-century development of decadent ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world,” to the decline and later resurgence of prints in the early 20th century, the images collected in this edition make up a record not only of a unique genre in art history, but also of the shifting mores and cultural development of Japan.
We discover the four pillars of the woodblock print—beauties, actors, landscapes, and bird-and-flower compositions—alongside depictions of sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors, or enticing courtesans—rock stars who populated the “floating world” and whose fan bases fueled the frenzied production of woodblock prints. We delve into the horrifying and the obscure in prints where demons, ghosts, and otherworldly creatures torment the living—stunning images that continue to influence Japanese manga, film, and video games to this day. We witness how, in their incredible breadth, from everyday scenes to erotica, the martial to the mythological, these works are united by the technical mastery and infallible eye of their creators and how, with tremendous ingenuity and tongue-in-cheek wit, publishers and artists alike fought to circumvent government censorship.
This edition compiles the finest extant impressions from museums and private collections across the globe, accompanied by descriptions to guide us through this frantic period in Japanese art history.
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