The Divine Proportion
The mysterious formula that rules art, nature, and science
The Divine Proportion reveals a number of simple patterns: It is seen in the seed patterns of fruits, the family tree of bees, the pyramids of Egypt, Gothic cathedrals, Renaissance paintings, the human body, shells ... the list is endless.
Mathematicians use the Greek symbol Φ to represent the Divine Proportion and equate it to a number that is defined by the ratio (1 + √5) / 2 or 1.6180339.... Numbers do little, however, in describing this unique ratio that is found everywhere in nature and for 2500 years has been an aesthetic guide in art and architecture.
Beginning with calculations found on clay tablets in ancient Babylon, the story of Divine Proportion can be traced alongside the history of numbers to the fractals of the digital age. As its many forms unfold we uncover the Golden Rectangle in the Parthenon, Golden Spirals in the human inner ear, a Golden Angle in the petal patterns of a rose, and the Fibonacci numbers in lilies, daisies, pineapples, and in our own DNA.
With its natural balance and elegant beauty, the Divine Proportion is a perpetual reminder that our hope for regeneration and continuity lies in realizing the meaningful and harmonious relationship of all the parts to the whole.
This book deals with the Divine Proportion, a secret code that rules art, nature, and science. It is known by many names: Golden Mean, Sacred Cut and Phi are only a few; and it is not by chance that the Divine Proportion was given its name. It has been called divine because over thousands of years it has been deemed to be so.
When David Hockney discovered the iPhone as an artistic medium, it opened up entirely new possibilities for his art. He made his first digital paintings in spring 2009, describing the morning landscape in broad lines and dazzling colors directly on a display that offered subtle hues as unmixed expressions of pure light. Then in 2010, Hockney started working with an iPad, and the larger screen expanded his artistic repertoire and enabled an even more complex interplay of color, light, and line.
Each image in this book captures a fleeting moment seen through a window in Hockney’s Yorkshire home: from vibrant sunrise and lilac morning sky to peaceful night-time impressions or the sudden arrival of spring. Fascinating details reveal drops on window panes, distant lights in the night, reflections on vases or an abundance of varied window-sill vegetation. In 120 paintings made between 2009 and 2012, selected and arranged by the artist himself, we experience the passage of time through the eyes of David Hockney.
This artist’s book, which first appeared in an exclusive signed edition in 2020, now returns in a wallet-friendly pocket edition. So now is the perfect occasion to heed the advice of the Times critic regarding this book: “If you would like to be given a bouquet by David Hockney, here is your chance.”
The mostly true tale of Stan Lee, the one and only Godfather of Comics. From his childhood in Depression-era New York, to transforming Marvel into the number one comics publisher in the world, to his 21st-century reinvention as Chief Creative Officer of global entertainment company POW! Entertainment, Stan “the Man” Lee stands the test of time as the most legendary name in comicbook history.
Stanley Lieber began working at Timely Comics in 1940 at the age of 17 and found himself at the helm of the bullpen as its top editor just two years later. But it wasn’t until 1961 that he ignited a revolution known as the “Marvel Age of Comics.” With a legendary stable of art partners including Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, and Jim Steranko, Lee unleashed a dizzying cascade of seminal comicbook creations—the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, and the Avengers to name a few. After moving to Hollywood in 1980, he did it again, developing TV and film projects that laid the groundwork for the “Marvel movie.” Stan’s constant cameo presence in these billion-dollar worldwide events was a testament to his influence. As the man behind POW! Entertainment, he became a master of all media—working with rock stars and professional sports leagues, movie mavens and reality TV shows—reinforcing his creative stature the world over.
First published as a signed Collector’s Edition and sold out within a week, the book was written and edited with Lee himself. His tale is told by his successor at Marvel, renowned comics writer, editor, and historian Roy Thomas, who brings “you are there” insights and wide-eyed clarity to key moments of Lee’s journey to pop culture immortality. Featuring hundreds of treasures of comicbook art, intimate photographs sourced straight from his family archives, a foreword written by Lee himself, a novel-length essay and new epilogue by Thomas, and an appendix with complete reprints of Stan’s comics from throughout the decades, this is a titanic tribute worthy of the Man.
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.
Since it was established in 1824, the National Gallery has become a beacon for London's visitors and residents alike. From its inception in John Julius Angerstein's home in Mayfair to its current home in Trafalgar Square, it has expanded both its collection and its footprint to become one of the world's leading galleries. This book features photographic portraits by David Dawson and Mary McCartney in addition to photography of the Gallery by Massimo Listri. It brings together over 200 of the Gallery's paintings, which were made between the 13th and 20th centuries, including memorable masterpieces from both the famous and the forgotten.
These pages tell the history of painting in the Western European tradition through the National Gallery's collection. You’ll go on a visual journey through the centuries, with works by Duccio, Van Eyck, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Vigée Le Brun, Gainsborough, Morisot, and Matisse, to name just a few. Punctuating this story are contributions by and photographic portraits of 25 cultural figures, such as Frank Auerbach, Alvaro Barrington, Edward Enninful, David Hockney, Kim Jones, Damian Lewis, Sahara Longe, Chris Ofili, Ai Weiwei, Rachel Whiteread, Annabelle Selldorf, and Flora Yukhnovich, among others.
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.
An illustrated edition of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, with photographs by Steve Schapiro
First published in 1963, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time stabbed at the heart of America’s so-called “Negro problem.” As remarkable for its masterful prose as for its frank and personal account of the black experience in the United States, it is considered one of the most passionate and influential explorations of 1960s race relations, weaving thematic threads of love, faith, and family into a candid assault on the hypocrisy of the “land of the free.”
Now, James Baldwin’s rich, raw, and ever relevant prose is reprinted with more than 100 photographs from Steve Schapiro, who traveled the American South with Baldwin for Life magazine. The encounter thrust Schapiro into the thick of the movement, allowing for vital, often iconic, images both of civil rights leaders—including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Jerome Smith—and such landmark events as the March on Washington and the Selma march.
Rounding out the edition are Schapiro’s stories from the field, an original introduction by civil rights legend and U.S. Congressman John Lewis, captions by journalist Marcia Davis, and an essay by Gloria Baldwin Karefa-Smart, who was with her brother James in Sierra Leone when he started to work on the story. The result is a remarkable visual and textual record of one of the most important and enduring struggles of the American experience.
First published as a TASCHEN Collector’s Edition, now available in a pocket-sized Centennial
How well do we live?
Houses at the forefront of innovation from around the world
Peeking behind the scenes of innovative homes, Philip Jodidio illustrates the evolution of today’s global architecture—from Samira Rathod’s House of Concrete Experiments in India to Tetro’s Açucena House in Brazil, which adapts to its natural terrain.
The houses featured in this book may be the first full generation to take advantage of the ubiquity of computing power—from design to fabrication—yet this high-tech approach has in no way diminished their variety and originality. In Italy, Mario Cucinella built TECLA – Technology and Clay, a 3D-printed house created entirely with raw earth. The unique house, printed in 200 hours with 60 cubic meters of natural materials, unveils potential low-cost, environmentally responsible approaches to architecture. In Hyderabad, India, Kanan Modi designed her House of Gardens not only to diffuse and reduce heat within the structure but also to invite the beauty of nature indoors—both essential in the face of rising temperatures and increasing urbanization.
These forward-thinking buildings were designed by capitalizing on technological advances such as video conferencing and 3D printing, fostering inventiveness and imagination, and yielding sustainable, site-specific homes. Atelier Bow-Wow virtually directed the construction of their Peninsula House on the Greek island of Antiporos during the COVID-19 pandemic; Mariko Mori’s Yuputira unifies her artistic and architectural aesthetics; and Anne Fougeron’s Suspension House breathes new life into a remarkable natural setting.
Detailing 59 cutting-edge projects from 25 countries—ranging from Guatemala and Slovenia to Norway and Vietnam—the third volume of the Homes for Our Time series takes readers on an illustrated visit of contemporary architectural gems, discovering the architects who are driving change in the field now, and in the future. These homes are the beating heart of creativity that will inspire architecture for decades to come.
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.
Bettina Is Back
35 years of daring, defiant photography
Since her first photographs in the late ’70s, Bettina Rheims has defied the predictable. From her series on Pigalle strippers (1980) to her cycle on the life of Jesus in I.N.R.I. (1998), from Chanel commercials to Gender Studies (2011), her work has shaken up traditional codes of representation and pushed restlessly at the breaking point between two great human preoccupations: beauty and imperfection.
This Rheims retrospective showcases more than 300 photographs from 35 years of daring, often defiant photography. Personally selected and assembled by Rheims, the collection brings together renowned series such as Chambre close, Héroïnes, and Rose, c’est Paris. Spanning commercial work and artistic series, the retrospective impresses with each turn of the page, as much for the strength of each image as for the thrilling variety of Rheims’s subjects and aesthetics. With equal attention to anonymous subjects cast in the street as to global celebrities including Kate Moss, Madonna, Monica Bellucci, Claudia Schiffer, and Naomi Campbell, the book showcases Rheims’s particular interest in female fragility and strength, and of the magic encounter between model and artist which disrupts codes of so-called eroticism to build up a new image system for womanhood.
The life and work of the greatest Renaissance artist
Unmatched in his ingenuity, technical prowess, and curiosity, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) epitomizes the humanistic ideal of the Renaissance man: a peerless master of painting, sculpture, cartography, anatomy, architecture – and more. Simultaneously captivating art historians, collectors, and the millions who flock yearly to admire his works, Leonardo’s appeal is as diffuse as were his preoccupations. His images permeate nearly every facet of Western culture – The Vitruvian Man is engraved into millions of Euro coins, The Last Supper is considered the single most reproduced religious painting in history, and the Mona Lisa has entranced countless artists and observers for centuries.
This updated edition of our XL monograph is an unrivaled survey of Leonardo’s life and work, including a catalogue raisonné of all paintings. Through stunning full-bleed details, we experience every measured brushstroke, each a testament to Leonardo’s masterful ability.
An expansive catalog of nearly 700 of Leonardo’s drawings further illuminates the breadth of his pursuits. From diagrams of intricately engineered machines to portraits of plump infants, they stand reflective of his boundless and visionary technical imagination, balanced with a subtle and perceptive hand, capable of rendering quotidian moments with moving emotional timbre.
For the new edition, Frank Zöllner has written a new preface in which he considers the latest scholarly findings on Leonardo’s oeuvre and takes a critical look at the much-discussed painting Christ as Salvator Mundi, sold at auction for the record sum of around 400 million euros. Numerous illustrations have been replaced by new photographs.
An epic pictorial history of the City by the Bay
Starting with an early picture of a gang of badass gold prospectors who put this beautiful Northern California city on the map, this ambitious and immersive photographic history of San Francisco takes a winding tour through the city from the mid–nineteenth century to the present day.
Enjoy eye-catching views of the city’s most enduring landmarks and symbols: the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, the picturesque trams that wind up and down the famously steep hills, the popular waterfront, its beautiful bay, and its spectacular cityscapes and vistas. San Francisco’s counterculture movements that shaped our collective consciousness are also featured prominently: the beats of North Beach, the hippies of Haight-Ashbury, the gay communities of Castro, and the Black Panthers of neighboring Oakland. Some of the city’s most famous residents also make appearances: Robin Williams, The Grateful Dead, Angela Davis, Janis Joplin, Sylvester, and Allen Ginsberg, among others.
This book features hundreds of newly found images from dozens of archives including museums, universities, libraries, galleries, private collections, and historical societies, from 19th-century daguerreotypes to mid-century Kodachromes to 21st-century digital pictures. Master photographers include, among others: Stephen Shore, Imogen Cunningham, Fred Lyon, Steve Schapiro, Minor White, Dorothea Lange, Albert Watson, Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, William Claxton, Fred Herzog, Ansel Adams, Jim Marshall, and many local shooters. Also includes introductory essays and captions by Bay Area–based author Richie Unterberger and a “Best of San Francisco” books, music, and movies section and biographies of the photographers. Tony Bennett famously sang, “I left my heart in San Francisco,” and this meticulously researched and conceived portrait will equally inspire and make you fall in love with the spirit of the City by the Bay.
Pin-up travels the long road from barracks wall to high art
Since TASCHEN released The Great American Pin-up, international interest in this distinctly American art form has increased exponentially. Paintings by leading artists such as Alberto Vargas, George Petty, and Gil Elvgren that sold for $ 2,000 in 1996 are going for $ 200,000 and more today. Pin-up—drawings, paintings, and pastels of an idealized female face and figure intended for public display—was produced between 1920 and 1970 for calendars, magazine covers, and centerfolds. The majority of original paintings were discarded by publishers and calendar companies after printing, making the surviving art that much more precious.
This attractively priced edition showcases the top 10 names in the game. Each chapter opens with a reproduction of an original calendar or magazine cover by that artist. The reproduction quality of the paintings, pastels, and preparatory sketches that follow—largely sourced from the original art—invites the viewer to trace the brushstrokes, while the exquisite period calendars, vintage prints, and original model photos document the artists’ creative process. Much of these ephemera were photographed on-site at the historic Brown & Bigelow Company, home to the world’s largest archive of vintage pin-up calendars.
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