Books published by Editions Norma

A comprehensive illustrated dictionary of French Art Nouveau Ceramics.

Chosen for the 59th Venice Biennale, to represent contemporary creation at the Lebanese pavilion Ayman Baalbaki is a Lebanese artist born in Beirut in 1975. He first trained at the Institute of Fine Arts of the university Lebanese school in Beirut, then at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris. Five years after his arrival in France, he received the silver medal in painting at the Francophone Games and then participated in several exhibitions worldwide. Lebanon, France, Great Britain, Argentina, Egypt and Niger are all countries that welcome the works of the artist. His productions of the last 10 years have been compiled through this unpublished work, published in French, English and Arab. The authors endeavor to decipher his paintings and installations, crossed by societal issues specific to Lebanon: war, abortive revolt, political and financial bankruptcy, the tragedy of the port of Beirut or even pandemic. The artist paints anonymous portraits of his contemporaries, which have today become symbols of the Middle East. It represents the city, its buildings, erected, but also in ruins. His art is vibrant, dynamic and textured. Text in English, French and Arabic.

Nudity or obscenity. During the 19th century, eroticism takes on a new place in Western visual culture. This book reviews the major reflections on the theme of nudity in the field of art history and the history of sensibilities. Text in French.

Nicolas Eekman (1889-1973) is a Flemish painter author of an abundant painted work, but also a renowned draftsman, illustrator and engraver, influenced by Cubism, Realism and Flemish paintings of the 16th and 17th Century. Text in English and French.

The only comprehensive monograph on Jean Dunand, key figure in the Art Deco movement, with 2000 works presented. Text in French.

The first monograph on French mid-century modern designer Pierre Guariche, whose innovative lighting and furniture is still popular today. Text in English and French.

The first monograph on Fadia Ahmad, a Lebanese photographer capturing the beauty and poetry that are alive in the streets and the people of Beirut.

Pierre-Emile Legrain (1889-1929) was a French bookbinder, framer, landscape designer, furniture designer, and interior architect. This is the first full-length monograph about him, exploring his life and his creations. Text in French.

First monograph on French industrial designer Michel Buffet, who worked alongside Raymond Loewy and shaped the aesthetic of the '50s, '60s, and '70s.

A lavishly illustrated book on Russian-born architect and artist Andre Beloborodoff, and the first monograph published on his work.

An anthology of the evolution of crafts from 1945 to the present day.

The first comprehensive monograph on Abraham & Rol, legendary designers of the second half of the 20th century, and including an introduction to their largely unknown works of architecture.

The only monograph on Hubert Le Gall, eclectic designer of the 21st century.

The 1960s and 1970s marked a sharp turning point in the history of decoration and furniture. Until that point, the world was confined to national and elitist forms of expression. At the beginning of the 1960s, the sector took its inspiration from Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, Italian and French decoration. Genres were combined in a frenzied desire to live in symbiosis with one's time. The progress of technology strengthened the conviction that the individual had unlimited freedom and aroused the desire to inhabit in a new manner. Forms became rounder, furniture was in sync with a warm, playful, and anticonformist universe. Colours and decorative motifs took on the brilliance and fantasies of Pop Art and psychedelia. The living environment was transformed into a waking dream in which luxurious furniture in original materials and surprising objects were mixed, associated, for the first time, with early furniture. The end of the 1970s marked the advent of a period in which beauty and classic elegance gave way to a host of expressions that were unclassifiable and rejected any hierarchy. The postmodern period had arrived. Composed of a long introduction that provides a synoptic view and 32 monographs that describe its many faces, this book invites the reader to discover an exceptionally creative period and revels through an abundant iconography.

Trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Paris in the atelier of Georges Jeanclos, Elsa Sahal quickly focused on working with ceramics for their sensuality and fragility. Former resident at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, in 2013 (Helena, MT), at Alfred University, New York State College of Ceramics, in 2009-2010 (Alfred, NY) and at the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres (2007-2008), Elsa Sahal has also taught at the Haute École d'Art et de Design in Geneva and at the École Supérieure d'Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg. She experiments in particular with the idea of volume and balance in sculpture, while returning to an exploration of the themes of the body and femininity. Ambiguous, dense, sensual and colourful, her works oscillate between anthropomorphic landscape and the landscaped body, taking up Cézanne's dream of uniting women's curves with the shoulders of hills. Elsa Sahal conceives, kneads and then produces complex and disturbing forms sustained by dense colours and sublimated through enamel. Winner of the MAIF prize for sculpture, in 2008, and the contemporary sculpture prize awarded by the Fondazione Francesco Messina, in 2007, Elsa Sahal has presented her work in one-woman shows and group exhibitions in numerous museums around the globe: at the Bonnefantenmuseum, 'Ceramix, Ceramic art from Gauguin to Schütte', in 2015 (Maastricht); at the MAD Museum, 'Body and Soul, New International Ceramics', in 2013 (New York); at the Fondation d'entreprise Ricard, 'Sculptures', in 2008 (Paris); and at the Incheon Women Artists Biennale, in 2008 (Korea). Text in English and French.

"The truth is, decorative art is equipment, beautiful equipment," Le Corbusier, L'Art décoratif d'aujourd'hui This book traces the history of an encounter between a remarkable invention, half-industrial half-design object, and one of the most famous architects of the 20th century. Created in 1921, the Gras lamp holds a unique place in the history of lighting. A revolutionary design of marvelous simplicity, its original purpose was to meet the needs of the booming manufacturing and retail sectors. The young Le Corbusier, passionate about the challenges of interior lighting, adopted it as his own from the early 1920s on. Thanks to its remarkable functionality, this lamp also perfectly corresponded to his desire to break with decoration and ornament, and the architect went on to utilize it in his studio in the rue de Sèvres in Paris as well as his home. He also placed it in many of the interiors of the houses he designed: the Villa Le Lac (Switzerland), the Villa La Roche (Paris), the Guiette House (Antwerp), the Villa Savoye (Poissy), and the villa belonging to his friend Eileen Gray in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Relying on rich photographic documentation from the period, the book goes through the history of the Gras lamp, its patents and various models, but it also enables the reader to rediscover Le Corbusier's interior designs through the prism of this icon of design, as he was one of this lamp's main promoters in modern times. Text in English and French. Contents: Preface, Antoine Picon; Le Corbusier and "the law of light" Arthur Rüegg; The Lamp and the Architect; Le Corbusier: For daily use; The Studio in the rue de Sèvres; Private homes; A Restoration story; Le Corbusier's Designs; Introduction; Villa Le Lac, "little house," Corseaux near Vevey (Switzerland), 1923; La Roche-Jeanneret house, Paris, 1925; Guiette House, Antwerp, 1926; Villa Savoye, "Clear Hours," Poissy, 1929-1931; Swiss Pavilion, Cité Universitaire, Paris, 1931-1933; Visiting Eileen Gray; Bibliography; Chronology.