Small China presents Chinese miniatures from 5,000 BCE up to the 15th century. The pocketsize representations of supernatural beings, people, animals, or everyday objects are virtually uncharted in East Asian crafts - even in China, these objects in jade, bronze, ivory, and porcelain are little known.
In 1955 seventy-four original plasters recording sculptures by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) were moved to the old Valsuani foundry in Paris only to reappear in France in 2004. These plasters are now being published for the first time, presenting new documentary and physical evidence regarding their dating following an in-depth analysis into the condition of Degas's waxes at the time of his death. Technical and documentary evidence now proves that as many as half of the serialised "Hebrard" Degas bronzes now held in museum and private collections around the world were in fact cast at the Valsuani foundry in the 1950s and 1960s - long after the Hebrard foundry closed in 1935/36. All of the now cleaned 74 Degas plasters are recorded in full colour illustrations in this scholarly catalogue raisonne.
Upholstered pieces of furniture are familiar to all of us as more or less constant companions of everyday life. Upholstery is comfortable, it conveys security and promises comfort, it has a specific design, asserts or creates status and tells a (hi)story.
We rarely consider its interior. At the same time, a view into the hidden content of chairs and armchairs is a journey into secrets, into lashed and sprung constructions that prove to be unknown masterpieces of craftsmanship. Deep-Seated. The Secret Art of Upholstery explores furniture and its interiors and explains why upholstery is always also a part of cultural and social history.
With contributions by Thomas Andersch, Maximilian Busch, Cordula Fink, Thomas Rudi, Stefanie Seeberg, Thomas Schriefers, Xenia Schurmann, and a foreword by Olaf Thormann.
In the form of The Glove Deutsches Ledermuseum is tracing the varied cultural history of an accessory whose importance is often underestimated. The sheer diversity of this article of clothing is demonstrated by means of selected exhibits, from warming Inuit mittens, boxing gloves, disposable rubber or latex gloves, and Pontifical gloves, to models by renowned designers such as Marc Jacobs and Dries Van Noten.
As a love token, a gauntlet in a duel, or as the insignia of royalty, this highly symbolic accessory and firm component of first courtly, then bourgeois etiquette looks back on a longstanding tradition. Gloves, for centuries an indispensable part of any elegant wardrobe, are currently experiencing a comeback.
Le photographe d'origine russe Max Penson a beaucoup oeuvré à partir des années 1920 en Ouzbékistan, sa seconde patrie, au service de la propagande soviétique. Ce livre présente un ensemble de clichés récemment découverts de cette région du monde très peu connue à l'époque et qui subissait alors un bouleversement sociétal sans précédent.
À la fin des années 1920, un nouveau design célèbre ses premiers succès dans tous les pays nordiques, chacun proposant une interprétation très indépendante du fonctionnalisme. L'accent n'est pas mis sur la forme avant-gardiste, comme c'était le cas en Allemagne, mais sur la solution personnalisée pour une tâche spécifique. Cette publication traite de la réaction des pays nordiques au Bauhaus et au modernisme allemand.
The Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna holds a unique collection of Italian maiolica from the 15th to the 18th century, which is now being published almost in its entirety for the very first time. Maiolica tableware, Italy's luxury export, spread to the courts of northern Europe from the early 16th century. Today, the MAK's holdings from former imperial, ecclesiastical, aristocratic, and private ownership enter into a dialogue with maiolica from well-known Austrian and Central European collections. Timothy Wilson, professor emeritus at Balliol College Oxford and former Keeper of Western Art at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and Rainald Franz, curator at MAK, together with other experts provide an extensive insight into the development of maiolica in its cultural and historical context. Thus a scholarly exploration of one of the best collections of maiolica in the world has now been scientifically examined for the very first time.
- The new monograph on master-ceramist Claude Champy.
- With insights into the artist's studio and mind.
- Champy bans the forces of nature in his pottery.
The Frenchman Claude Champy (*1944) brings together man and the cosmos in his ceramics. In his studio, mechanical, geological, and chemical processes fuse to form a ceramic total work of art-guided by the barely visible yet influential human gesture. Despite the ceramicist wishing to capture the great forces of the universe in his work, he consciously consigns this part to trial and error, to an intentional loss of control, relying instead on the inherent logic of the material and fire. In Stardust Champy permits insights into his studio practice, his more recent artworks, and his work philosophy by providing commentary on his own sculptures and having them contextualized by experts. What results is a personal book on a unique artist, a retrospective on an oeuvre that is as powerful as it is elemental. Text in English and French.
For almost 300 years, pocket watches were important accessories for the nobility and middle-classes. In order to store the watches securely and stylishly, artfully designed stands that matched the wearer's interior were developed and were an impressive reflection of the history of European art and culture from the Baroque to the early 20th-century. The stands ranged from miniature versions of grandfather and mantle clocks to one-off works of art made from wood, ceramic or metal. Until now, research on pocket-watch stands has attracted little attention. This publication provides a first representative overview of some 450 objects from a unique private collection in southern Germany, documenting its wealth of designs, which encompass a large repertoire of Christian, mythological and political themes. Scholarly texts on the history of the objects, their designs, and restoration issues make this an indispensable standard work in this field. Text in English, German and French.
At 92 years old, Danish furniture designer Kai Kristiansen is still at it, practicing the same methods as he did in the 1950s when he set up his design studio. In collaboration with numerous Danish furniture manufacturers, Kristiansen has conceived significant and well-crafted products which remain popular today. Classics of Danish modern design, the furniture of Kai Kristiansen is durable, functional and adaptable - and still in demand globally. Written in conjunction with the designer, Kai Kristiansen: An Industrious Designer is the first overview of his more than 70-year career and prolific output. The copiously illustrated biography reveals how his basic tenets of economy, ecology and common sense influenced the manufacturing processes of the furniture industry outside the spotlight of Copenhagen. Looking back at his life and career, he now tells his own story, sharing his approach, experiences, and visions.
A creative exchange with artists such as the painter Guido Cadorin or the ceramicist and sculptor Hans Stoltenberg-Lerche brought the second generation Toso Brothers to the forefront of Murano glass manufactories at the beginning of the twentieth century. After the Second World War Ermanno Toso and Pollio Perelda were among the most famous designers and continued the production of lavish series in glass, complemented from the 1950s onwards with high-quality one-offs executed mainly in the celebrated millefiori technique. This decoration consists of a multitude of tiny colored discs, known as murrini, which are produced by melting, cooling and cutting bundled canes of glass to form a cross-section pattern. Together with Caterina Toso, renowned Murano expert Marc Heiremans looks back on and reviews the complex history of the famous glass manufactory. Well-informed texts, hitherto unpublished sketches and archive photos make Fratelli Toso Murano an essential reference work for all connoisseurs of glass.
Il aura fallu douze années de recherches minutieuses dans les livres de compte, archives et bibliothèques pour que Marc Heiremans, expert internationalement reconnu dans le domaine de la verrerie de Murano du 20e siècle, reconstitue l'Histoire de cette véritable dynastie du verre qu'est Seguso.
Narcissus Quagliata is considered one of the most significant glass artists, drawing worldwide attention through his spectacular works in public spaces, such as the Taiwan Dome of Light, the largest illuminated glass ceiling in the world, which forms the roof of the subway station in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The construction, composed of float glass, fused glass and mouth-blown Murano glass, stretches across an approximately 30-metre-wide space. His glass dome in the Santa Maria degli Angeli church, built by Michelangelo within the Baths of Diocletian in Rome, is equally well-known. It provides colourful illumination for the famous entry rotunda of the basilica.
