Books in the Basic Art Series series

An unprecedented event in architecture history, the Case Study Houses program gave America new models for residential living. This comprehensive account of the project presents each of the 36 prototype homes through floor plans, sketches, and photographs, and explores how architects like Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, and Eero Saarinen...

Peaking in the 1960s, Pop Art began as a revolt against mainstream approaches to art and culture and evolved into a wholesale interrogation of modern society, consumerism, the role of the artist, and of what constituted an artwork. Epitomized by Warhol's Campbell's soup cans, Pop Art drew on mass-market sources and products as well as the banal...

Meet the artist whose majestic wave sent ripples across the world. Hokusai, master artist and printmaker, is not only one of the giants of Japanese art but a father figure to Western modernism, inspiring a whole new notion of space for artists from Monet to Morisot, Cassatt to Klimt. Spanning erotic books, historical novels, and album prints,...

With his enchanting roster of musicans, roosters, flowers, and floating lovers, Marc Chagall is celebrated to this day as one of the most readily identifiable modern masters and one of the most influential Jewish artists of all time. This dependable artist introduction explores the dreams, tales, colors, and cultural traditions that made up...

William Morris was a polymath designer, writer, artist, and socialist activist, associated with England's Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as well as Arts and Crafts movement. His prolific design work included tiles, embroidery, tapestries, wallpaper, and carpets and championed handcraftsmanship, natural dyes, "art for all", and beautiful patterns of...

A study that follows Van Gogh from the early gloom-laden paintings in which he captured the misery of peasants and workers in his homeland, through his bright and colourful Parisian period, to the work of his final years, spent under a southern sun in Arles. Here, at last, he found the light that produced the unmistakable Van Gogh style.

Joan Miro (1893-1983) is one of the most significant Spanish painters of the twentieth century. His early work clearly shows the influence of Fauvism and Cubism. The Catalan landscape also shapes the themes and treatment of these initial works. This title features a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work.

Features an introduction with approximately 35 photographs, plus a timeline of the several important events (political, cultural, and, scientific).

A leading artist in the High Renaissance, Tiziano Vecelli (1488-1576) was the Venetian school's greatest painter and is one of the best-loved Italian artists. This book examines Titian's evolution, from his early years training under Giovanni Bellini to his later mature work, giving a perspective on the life's work of this legendary painter.

Discover turn-of-the-century Vienna in this exploration of its most important protagonists, complete with sumptuous double-page reproductions across painting, sculpture, architecture, and design, as well as an essay by Rainer Metzger. Marking the centenary of the deaths of masters Klimt, Schiele, Wagner, and Moser, this collection joins the...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) is universally acclaimed and celebrated: museums pride themselves on his paintings, crowds flock to his retrospectives. His work shows art at its most light-hearted, sensual and luminous. This book features a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work.

It was the decade of daring Expressionist canvases, the Bauhaus total work of art, drag balls, Metropolis, and Marlene Dietrich. From cutting-edge kino to crowded jazz bars, come and roam the daring, freewheeling spirit of 1920s Berlin with this vivid cultural portrait of the age through painting, design, fashion, film, and more.

Von Edouard Manets Porträt des Schriftstellers Émile Zola, der inmitten seiner japanischen Kunstfunde hockt, bis hin zu Van Goghs akribisch gesammelten Hiroshige-Drucken - Pioniere der europäischen Moderne machten im 19. Jahrhundert kein Geheimnis aus ihrer Liebe zur japanischen Kunst. In all seiner sprudelnden Sinnlichkeit und Freizügigkeit schreibt man den Trend des Japonismus allein dem Holzschnitt zu, der zunächst Frankreich und später ganz Europa in seinen Bann zog - oft missverstandene, "exotische" Artefakte, die der westlichen Kreativität als Inspiration dienten. Tatsache ist, dass der japanische Holzschnitt ein Phänomen darstellt, zu dem es kein westliches Äquivalent gibt. Einige wegweisende Ideen der Moderne - darunter Karl Marx' Diktum, dass "alles, was fest ist, sich in der Luft auflöst" - wurden im Japan des 17. Jahrhunderts entwickelt und im frühen 19. Jahrhundert erstmals in den Werken von Meistern wie Hokusai, Utamaro und Hiroshige zum Ausdruck gebracht. Dieses Buch lüftet den Schleier dieser beliebten, aber wenig verstandenen Kunstform und präsentiert die außergewöhnlichsten japanischen Holzschnitte in ihrem historischen Kontext. Die hier versammelten Werke reichen von den Anfängen über den Höhepunkt der Entwicklung im Ukiyo-e, den "Bildern der schwebenden Welt", im 17. Jahrhundert bis zum Niedergang und späteren Wiederaufleben der Drucke im frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Dokumentiert wird nicht nur ein einzigartiges Genre der Kunstgeschichte, sondern auch die sich wandelnden Sitten und die kulturelle Entwicklung Japans. Von mystischen Bergen bis hin zu schneebedeckten Pässen, von Samurai-Schwertkämpfern bis hin zu Sexarbeitern in Schaufenstern - dieser Band erkundet jedes Blatt als eigenständiges Kunstwerk und enthüllt die Geschichten und Menschen hinter den Motiven. Wir entdecken die vier Säulen des Holzschnitts - Schönheiten, Schauspieler, Landschaften sowie Vogel- und Blumenkompositionen - neben Darstellungen von Sumo-Ringern, Kabuki-Schauspielern oder Edelkurtisanen - Popstars, welche die "schwebende Welt" bevölkerten und deren wachsende Anhängerschaft die explosive Produktion der Holzschnitte beflügelte. Wir tauchen ein in bedrohlich-obskure Szenen, in denen Dämonen, Geister und Menschenfresser Angst und Schrecken verbreiten und die japanische Mangas, Filme und Videospiele bis heute beeinflussen. Wir erleben, wie technische Meisterschaft und das unfehlbare Auge ihrer Schöpfer diese Werke in ihrer unglaublichen Breite - von Alltagsszenen über Erotik, Kampfkunst bis hin zur Mythologie - vereint und wie Verleger und Künstler mit enormem Einfallsreichtum und Augenzwinkern gleichermaßen darum gekämpft haben, die staatliche Zensur zu umgehen. Ausgehend von der ursprünglichen XXL-Monografie stellt diese Ausgabe die besten erhaltenen Drucke aus Museen und Privatsammlungen weltweit in einem handlichen Format zusammen und bietet ausführliche Beschreibungen, die uns durch diese rasante Periode der japanischen Kunstgeschichte führen.

Influenced by his contemporaries Michelangelo and Leonardo, Raphael Santi (1483-1520) became, in his own right, one of the most important artists of the High Renaissance. This overview traces the life's work of this Renaissance master whose influential work paved the way for the Mannerist and Baroque movements.

This illustrated work takes a look at the wonderful world of post-impressionism through the eyes of Manet (1832-1883), painter and graphic artist.

Meet Gerhard Richter, the German artist who redefined painting. Between abstract works and photography-based paintings, Richter pushes the medium's boundaries and reminds us of its urgency and importance in a world overwhelmed by digital images. This introduction to one of the greatest artists of our time explores his entire career.

Discover some of the finest masterpieces of Ancient Egypt. This catalogue gathers sarcophagi, statues, murals, and other timeless treasures by unknown masters from the Old Kingdom to the Late Period.

Travel from Osaka, Japan, to Bern, Switzerland, and through many cities, structures, and islands in between, to explore the staggering scope of the Renzo Piano repertoire. From the "inside-out" Pompidou to the airy shells of the Tjibaou Cultural Center in Noumea, New Caledonia, this essential architect introduction reveals a restless visionary,...