The evocative artistic practice of Clive van den Berg, whose work weaves together themes of landscape, absence, and echoesClive van den Berg (b. 1956, Zambia) - artist, curator, designer, writer and activist - has been working across mediums throughout the course of his prolific career, producing a range of works unified by his enduring focus on five interrelated themes: memory, light, landscape, desire, and the body. Embodied in his lush paintings, mixed-media sculptures, delicate prints, films, and public projects, these themes are bound up with the history of his native South Africa and its ongoing ramifications. He has marked sites affected by Apartheid with human figures formed out of fire, and often depicts the body itself as a landscape, bearing the marks of AIDS. For van den Berg, both the body and the landscape are sites that carry memories and scars and that evoke desires, which he aims to reveal in his work, often through the illuminating power of light. As a visual artist he is interested in both formal beauty and conceptual depth. His extensive body of work ranges in size and format, and includes paintings, prints, multi-media sculpture, landscape installation, and videography. His art is both known and respected Internationally, being included in many public and private collections, and his work has garnered him several major awards and prizes. Clive van den Berg lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Twenty years of images by the acclaimed American photographer, pioneer of color art photography Mitch Epstein (Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1952) is a photographer who helped pioneer fine-art color photography in the 1970s. Focusing primarily on America as a place and an idea over the last five decades, Epstein produced iconic images of his country and immersive, visually arresting stories on the urgent political and cultural challenges America has to face as a nation. American Nature explores the inextricable link between the American landscape and psyche. Published on the occasion of the Turin exhibition, the book presents three seminal series (American Power, Property Rights and Old Growth) and premiers two multimedia works: Clear Cut, a projection of Darius Kinsey's early 20th century photographs of logging in the Pacific Northwest forests of the United States set to a modern soundtrack; and Forest Waves, a multi-channel video-sound installation made in the old growth forests of Massachusetts, which features tonal music performed there by Mike Tamburo and Samer Ghadry. American Nature is an inquiry into the rapacious consumption of resources by American industry and the bold risks that individuals undertake to preserve what is left of precolonial land for future generations. It includes a selection from all three photographic series, Kinsey photographs from Clear Cut and film stills from Forest Waves. Together, they tell the story of the resilience and fragility of the natural world. Also included are essays by acclaimed art historians Makeda Best and Robert Slifkin and curator Brian Wallis, and an in-depth interview between Wallis and Epstein, which delves into the artist's practice, and his evolving artistic and political resolve.
A complete monograph devoted to the Polish master of abstract painting, whose compositions play with minimalist forms and colour Stanisław Fijałkowski (1922-2020) boasts a direct connection to the very origins of the European avant-garde - he was an assistant of Wladyslaw Strzeminski, who in turn had studied under Kazimir Malevich. Throughout six decades Fijałkowski maintained a solely unique idiom of mystical painting, hovering between the abstract and the representational. He also explored the subject theoretically and translated into Polish several important texts, including Wassily Kandinsky's On the Spiritual in Art. Fijałkowski was also an accomplished engraver, with prints in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York and Tate Britain. Even when simplified to black and white his compositions still manage to convey an aura of meditative mystery. The artist had significant international presence in his lifetime - he represented Poland at the São Paulo and Venice biennales, lectured in Belgium and Germany, served as Vice-President of the International Society of Wood Engravers XYLON in Winterthur, Switzerland. This comprehensive monograph is a rare opportunity for the international audience to rediscover an artistic vision of such scope and magnitude. "Longevity allows Fijałkowski to trump the logic of 'isms'," as critic Mark Sadler pointed out in his Frieze review of a 2016 exhibition.
Extensive new monograph of Norwegian artist Frida Orupabo, known for her powerful and thought-provoking collage work. Leading Norwegian artist and sociologist Frida Orupabo gained prominence in the art world for her evocative digital and physical collages. Her work often explores themes of race, gender, identity, family relations, sexuality, violence and the human body. Black bodies, which have been subjected to exploitation throughout history, are often present. Orupabo manipulates images, cutting them out, adding and excluding elements, and then reassembling them, suggesting a phantasmagorical and poignant reworking of representational codes. Frida Orupabo was born 1986 in Sarpsborg, Norway. She lives and works in Oslo. Orupabo is the recipient of the prestigious 2025 SPECTRUM Internationaler Preis für Fotografie and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2023. This richly illustrated catalogue accompanying Orupabo's exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm in 2024 and Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo in 2025, focuses on newly produced works. Alongside an introduction by curators Yuvinka Medina and Owen Martin, and poems by C. LeClaire, original essays by Portia Malatjie, Nina Cramer and Mai Takawira explore the tensions and positions of Orupabo's work both internationally and within a Nordic context.
A reflection on the relationship between nature, ecology and politics in the catalogue of the Portuguese Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia The publication Greenhouse interweaves texts from artists, curators, as well as theoreticians concerning themes of ecology, identity, history and diaspora in relation to contemporary artistic practices. Created by artist-curators Mónica de Miranda, Sónia Vaz Borges and Vânia Gala, and comissioned by DGArtes (General Directorate of the Arts) in Portugal, it reflects on and manifests the vision of Greenhouse, the official Portuguese representation at the 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Looking at the land as a vector of decolonial thinking and practice, as inspired by the agronomist and leader of the liberation struggle in Guiné-Bissau and Cabo Verde, Amílcar Cabral, the publication brings together historical narratives of liberation. It looks at contemporary decolonial practices, and imaginings of possible futures in the context of the Anthropocene and continued struggles against structural racism and for historical reparations. The texts are interwoven with images from the exhibition that proposes a collective action through the creation of a "Creole garden" inside the exhibition space, which combines sculpture, stage, installation and assembly spaces, to open an area of resistance and freedom for multiple subjectivities. "Creole gardens" blend a wide range of plant species. They are instances of resistance, exercises in freedom. Situated at the intersection between practice, theory and pedagogy, Greenhouse is grounded in four actions: Garden (Installation, Space and Time), LIVING ARCHIVE (Movement, Sound and Performance), Schools (Education, History and Revolution), Assemblies (Public and Communities).
A tribute to Valerio Adami's more than 60 years of artistic research Realized in collaboration with the Valerio Adami Archive, the monograph is published on the occasion of the anthology that celebrates sixty-five years of research by Valerio Adami (1935), a well-known European painter (he lived between France and Italy) recognized as a valid interlocutor by all contemporary philosophers. Valerio Adami is a contemporary Italian painter belonging to the New Figuration movement. His paintings, almost always large format, give a great visual impact, therefore the artist has sometimes been defined as "pop". Behind straightforward images is hidden a more complex narrative: the Adami's artworks are rich in sophisticated visual metaphors, and they include philosophical, literary and mythological concepts, representing the evolution of ideas through the European and Western thought. Valerio Adami is a central figure in the Milanese art scene of the 1960s, very important in the international context, especially in France, from the following decade. Published on the occasion of the anthological exhibition at Palazzo Reale, the monograph presents about ninety works representative of Valerio Adami's long artistic career, a sort of "gallery" of major works, in the old-fashioned manner, yet very modern in linguistic conception. The works come from the artist, who over the decades kept with him the works he considered most significant, from various European museums, prestigious galleries and private collections, and cover the entire time span of his activity, from the first trials of the 1950s to the present.
The first volume of the Catalogue Raisonné dedicated to Mario Schifano's pictorial work explores the artist's 1960s-production. The result of an over fourteen-year research conducted by Archivio Mario Schifano, the publication is divided in four volumes, each dedicated to a single decade. This first volume presents the works the artists created from 1960 to 1969, with over 500 high-resolution pictures and about 300 mainly so-far unpublished photographs from Mario Schifano's personal archive, Achivio Ugo Mulas, and the Camilla and Earl McGrath Foundation. The son of an archaeologist head of the Leptis Magna excavations in Libya, Mario Schifano (1934-1998) carried out his apprenticeship at the Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, and made his artistic debut in 1960 with an exhibition in Rome presented by Pierre Restany; Schifano immediately captured the critics' interest with his mono chrome paintings evocative of the photographic screens that would later incorporate numbers, letters, road signs, and Esso and Coca Cola logos. In 1963 he travelled to the United States for the first time and met Frank O'Hara, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol. His works started to include quotations from the history of Italian art and Futurism. In this period he painted his first Paesaggi anemici and in 1966-1967 he began the Ossigeno ossigeno, Tuttestelle, Oasi, and Compagni, compagni series. Besides his solo shows and his participation in national and international group exhibitions, during the 1960s Schifano also worked on full-length films, directed three exper imental films, and collaborated with a psychedelic rock band. An ideological and existential crisis forced him to isolate in his studio for periods of time during which his production focused on the reinterpretation of the art of Magritte, De Chirico, Boccioni, Cézanne, and Picabia.
The excellence of Italian design through 100 vases from the beginning of the last century to the present. What, if anything, sets an "Italian" vase apart from the vast numbers of vases produced worldwide? A vase is both an everyday object and an object that lends itself to a huge variety of interpretations, a field in which Italian designers excel in terms of originality and recognizability (not to mention the inherent "sustainability" of the vase as object, typically made from the most ecological of materials, like clay or silica glass). The intention behind 100 Vases of Italian Design is to analyse and provide a possible response to the concept of Italian style by exploring one of its most common and enduring expressions. Materials, forms, tradition, and innovation unfold before readers' eyes, page after page, helping them seek meaning in the challenge posed by the title: the selection comprises vases - all of which have gone into production, sometimes as a small or very small series - from the past century, from Galileo Chini to Fabio Novembre, spanning the golden era from the 1930s to the 1960s. Introduced by the essays by Marco Meneguzzo and Enrico Morteo on the concept and the history of Italian vases, the book invites the reader to discover 100 years of materials, forms, tradition and invention.
On the occasion of the 60th International Venice Biennale, a new installation and performance video by the internationally renowned visual artist. This volume accompanies the exhibition Kiss and Don't Tell with Maria Madeira's works, curated by Natalie King. Maria Madeira's work represents Timor-Leste in its inaugural pavilion at the 60th International Venice Biennale, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the independence of Timor-Leste. Maria Madeira is one of Timor-Leste's most significant contemporary visual artists working internationally, yet her practice is deeply embedded in local traditions, concerns and histories. For the first ever participation of Timor-Leste at the Venice Biennale, Madeira presents Kiss and Don't Tell, a new site-specific installation utilising local materials such as tais (traditional textile), betelnut, earth and pigments. Her performative installation draws on the collective memories of her foremothers. Responding to the Venice Biennale's overarching theme Stranieri Ovunque-Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Madeira imbues her work with her lived experience of displacement, having grown up in a refugee camp in Portugal with her mother. Maria Madeira was born in Timor-Leste, lived as a refugee in Portugal, studied art, and achieved a Doctor of Philosophy in Australia. Her artistic practice is a bridge between our past and our future. She uses our traditional cloth "tais", betel nut, and the red earth of her village to tell a story that speaks to the world today. Her work has been exhibited in Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Macau, Portugal and Timor-Leste. Her recent exhibition at Fundacão Oriente in Dili, Flowery Talk, celebrated her belief that art and culture are the spirit and soul of a nation.
The Paradiso of The Divine Comedy illustrated by plates from the contemporary artist. This volume presents the full text of the Paradiso/ Paradise beautifully illustrated by Cecco Bonanotte's plates, created in a sophisticated mixed technique that simultaneously exploits the tools of printing and those of drawing. The three volumes revolve around guiding colours: black and red for Hell; gray and silver for Purgatory; cream and gold for Paradise.
The Purgatorio of The Divine Comedy illustrated by plates from the contemporary artist. This volume presents the full text of the Purgatorio/ Purgatory beautifully illustrated by Cecco Bonanotte's plates, created in a sophisticated mixed technique that simultaneously exploits the tools of printing and those of drawing. The three volumes revolve around guiding colours: black and red for Hell; gray and silver for Purgatory; cream and gold for Paradise.
The fascination of the ocean through 150 artworks from 16th century to the presentThe Atlantic Ocean. Art, Myths, Science presents around 150 artworks spanning from the 16th century and until today, which offers unique visions of the North Atlantic Ocean and of how its' cold, dark waters have shaped human practices, lives, and longings over centuries. Mirroring the flow of the oceans, the book highlights the coexistence of species, cultures, and stories. Romantic paintings of stormy seas or ship_x0002_wrecks by artists such as J.M.W. Turner, Peder Balke, J C Dahl, and John Constable, whose work has influenced the collective imagination, are interspersed with more modern outlooks, including vitalist bathing scenes by Edvard Munch and Anna-Eva Bergman's abstract geometric compositions of the coastal landscapes of Northern Norway. Vintage maps from late 1500-1700s that combines accurately drawn coast_x0002_lines with fantastical creatures, are interlaced with contemporary works, including Allan Sekula's seminal photographic documentation of globalized trade and precari_x0002_ous labor at sea in Fish Story (1988-95) and video installations by artists such as Sondra Perry and Joar Nango, the latter featuring a projection screen constructed of halibut stomachs; the artist's contemporary interpretation of the older Sea-Sámi practice of constructing windows of this material.
Dalle aigrettes di diamanti adorate da Maria Antonietta alle sontuose parures di coralli e cammei predilette da Paolina Bonaparte. Dai capolavori in micromosaico del Grand Tour ai gioielli sentimentali della regina Vittoria o all¿anello in diamanti con il monogramma dell¿imperatore Franz Joseph, fino alle spille sinuose dell¿Art nouveau. Dai bracciali sofisticati del Déco, allo sfarzo in platino e diamanti della Mode Blanche e alla delicatezza dei bouquet degli anni cinquanta dei grandi gioiellieri: questo volume celebra tre secoli di alta gioielleria, dal 1750 al 1950, racchiusi nello scrigno prezioso della collezione Pennisi. Un viaggio nel tempo e nello stile, che attraversa mode e modi, materiali rari e tecniche millenarie, in compagnia di orafi straordinari e di donne leggendarie, e ci conduce a capolavori dell¿arte orafa dalla bellezza incomparabile.
The official catalogue of the newly opened Cecco Bonanotte Museum in TokyoFew artists have the good fortune, and the privilege, of conceiving, designing, building and organising a museum devoted to their own work: an unparalleled opportunity to tell the story of the dreams, visions, courage, challenges and ideas which guided them along the way, forging their style and bringing their poetry into being. This magnificent challenge is a one-of-its-kind honour for Cecco Bonanotte (1942), but also an immense responsibility, made all the more exciting by the fact that the establishment of a museum devoted entirely to his art has come about thanks to the support and praise of illustrious representatives of his second, adopted homeland: Japan. His ties to Japan date from back in the 1970s, when, as a young artist just starting to gain notice on the international scene, he was invited to take part in exhibitions, in addition to being assigned official commissions, with the crowning recognition arriving in 2012, when he was awarded the highly coveted "Praemium Imperiale". In this extremely valuable publication, which testifies to the importance of a truly exceptional museum project, each individual work of sculpture is examined through the rigorous, sophisticated camera lens of Alessandra Maria Bonanotte, the artist's daughter. Through the use of an original artistic language that combines what Pascal called the "spirit of geometry" with the "spirit of finesse", Cecco Bonanotte creates a richly expressive sculptural world overflowing with a refined, free and sometimes mysterious atmosphere. As has often been noted, Bonanotte's art reflects the "Italian tradition" stretching from Donatello and Michelangelo to Manzù and Fazzini; going even further back in time, we might also glimpse traces of a wide variety of forms from the ancient Mediterranean world.
A wide-ranging monograph of over 100 prints by HockneyDavid Hockney (b. 1937) is renowned for his distinctive paintings, mostly portraiture and landscape, but also for his approach to works on paper and printmaking, mirror ing the vibrancy and diligent indexing seen in his broader body of work. Hockney's prints often showcase a dynamic interplay of color, form, and perspective, reflecting his keen eye for visual storytelling of intimate elements of his own life. Throughout his career he has experimented with various printmaking techniques, including etching, lithography, screen printing, and more recently iPads, each method revealing his diligence in manipulating the medium - without ever experiencing, in his own words, "a feeling of failure." His visual experiments, always surprising in their outcomes, suggest a rich interior and exterior life, captured in telling bits and frag ments, suggesting a montage of quotidian scenes. Like much of his oeuvre, Hockney's prints draw from extensive art historical study of the optical devices of Old Master paintings. Recently, his iPad-based art shows an interest in the changing seasons from his own perch in the English countryside, among other vantage points and geographies of interest. Whether depicting landscapes, portraits of friends, or banal scenes, Hockney's prints exhibit a harmonious blend of traditional craftsmanship and his own distinct playful ness and insight to daily life. The title, Paper Trails, echoes Peter Bürger's writings on visual art's relationship with the "praxis of life." In Theory of the Avant Garde, Bürger saw art's relationship with the lived experience as becoming increasingly atrophied and distinct. In contrast, Hockney's work displays an ever-evolving search for depict ing snapshots of life that capture and celebrate its true essence-its character, its soul.
A monograph on Marina Abramovic's work with crystals, a part of her practice that is still underexploredMarina Abramovic (1946) believes in the power of crystals to store the whole history of the earth and carry and transmit their energy. Thus, crystals are mainly linked to the Transitory Objects - a series of objects that the artist created to embody energy and trigger physical and mental experiences in the public through direct interaction, several installations, and exhibitions. Published on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) Shanghai, the book tells the story of how Marina Abramovic discovered and explored the power of stones and crystals, at first, during her performance The Great Wall of China with Ulay, and later by visiting mines around Brazil. The publication contains her personal theory on crystals and energy, with her draw ings, pictures of her works, and other sources describing Abramovic's vision of crystals and the "crystal meditation" her works aim to inspire. It also contains a spiritual guide, along the lines of The Marina Abramovic method. Instruction cards to reboot your life, communicating with the reader and inspiring actions and meditations
The work of the Swiss artist Hans Josephsohn (1920-2012), one of the great masters of sculpture of the second half of the 20th centuryBorn in 1920 in Eastern Prussia from Jewish parents, Hans Josephsohn left Germany in 1937 and settled in Florence with the aim of studying art. Forced to leave due to fascist racial laws, he moved to Switzerland, which became his adoptive country. Josephsohn's oeuvre has been defined as "existential sculpture": in a time that was strongly characterised by the physical and moral devastation left by World War II, Hans Josephsohn developed a language capable to talk about the fragile relationship of mankind with the surrounding world. He was concerned with representing the human being as a figure in space throughout his life. His sculptures are characterised by an ambivalence of the almost abstract figure whose individuality is secured by its form, material and surface.
Quinze's large-scale site-specific sculptures on the occasion of the 60th edition of La Biennale di VeneziaOn the occasion of the 60th edition of La Biennale di Venezia, Are We The Aliens_, is an immersive exhibition where diverse artistic mediums converge, fusing large-scale site-specif ic sculptures by the Belgian contemporary artist Arne Quinze saturated within an ethereal acoustic environment and soundscapes by the American music producer Swizz Beatz. It also presents for the first time Quinze's large-scale sculptures in glass and ceramic made in collaboration with master craftsmen Berengo Studio and Atelier Vierkant. In parallel with the theme of the Biennale di Venezia 2024, "Foreigners Everywhere", Are We The Aliens_ is an invitation to contemplate our humanity and the growing alienation of our habitat, by proposing unconventional perspectives of self-perception, forging new bonds with our external environment. The book features Quinze's new works including the installation Sonic Levitation (an alumi num sculpture forming a circle, a symbol of perfect harmony), the Impact Glass installation (with pieces handcrafted by internationally renowned glass manufacturer Berengo Studio in Murano), the video piece SIX Testimonials (contemplating humanity's state of alienation), Ceramorphia (a group of large-scale site-specific ceramic sculptures in collaboration with the Belgian studio Atelier Vierkant) and the horizontal bronze sculpture Bronze mirroring nature's cycles and the divine harmony. Arne Quinze (1971) is a Belgian contemporary artist, painter and sculptor. His work involves everything from small drawings and paintings, medium-sized sculptures to large-scale public installations. Starting his career in the 1980s as a graffiti artist, Quinze explores the intricate relationship of human interaction and urban complexity, in correlation with the delicate har mony inherent in the natural world.
The sculptures by renowned Iranian-born artist, whose works engage with such pressing issues as the sublimation of violence by contemporary mediaWorking across a wide range of materials and processes, Aramesh examines simul taneously the history of Western art and contemporary commentary on the politics and history of the Middle East, concocting a unique visual language to address the contemporary conditions of violence and bio-politics. His profound understanding of the history of art, film and literature is ever-present in his artwork, spanning through photography, sculpture, video and performance. As a response to war reportage images from sources such as newspapers, online articles and social media, Aramesh de-contextualises scenes of violence from their origins, exploring the narratives of representation and iconography of subjected body in the context of race, class and sexuality in order to create a critical conversation with the western art history. Reza Aramesh looks at the notion of the historical sublime in art through the filter of contemporary reportage images of violence and horror as portrayed in media and the world of entertainment. His works are characterized by a great knowledge of the history of art, a deep sense of empathy for the subjects he depicts, combined with irrev erence, desire and beauty aimed to wake up our age of tired watching and disinterest. Among his most famous works are the series of limewood sculptures inspired by 17th-century Spanish Christian iconography of martyred saints, Site of the Fall: Study of the Renaissance Garden from a research on reportage images of the Vietnam War and Study of the Head as Cultural Artefacts in which he addressed the sublimation of horror in three marble heads.
The magic of Venice through the stunning images by the great photographerDiscover Venice anew through the lens of Michael Kenna. This stunning book offers an in-depth exploration of the British virtuoso's black-and-white masterpieces, most of which are reproduced with the same format as the original prints. Kenna's practice is characterised by long exposure times, which can last up to several hours, thus revealing unseen details within the Venetian landscape. His lens captures a wide array of subjects: mist-shrouded chapels and attics, falling stars above bell towers, palace arches, laundry threads, gondola prows, bridges, garden statues, twisted poles emerging from the black lagoon and reminiscent of ancient figures. Michael Kenna's photographs skilfully play with light, shadow, and reflection to show the poetic inten sity of Venice. From solo exhibitions in prestigious museums to retrospectives that span continents, this compilation of Venetian imagery adds a new chapter to Kenna's illustrious career. It stands as a testament to his unparalleled ability to capture the timeless allure of Venice, offering viewers a unique and immersive experience through the lens of an exacting master.
The first comprehensive international exploration of the contemporary Korean artist's illustrious careerChoi Jongtae stands as a key figure in South Korea contemporary art scene. His pro found impact on Korean contemporary sculpture has played a pivotal role in the modernization and nativization of religious sculpture within the country. This sumptuously illustrated monograph stands as the first comprehensive internation al exploration of Choi Jongtae's illustrious career, spanning from the late 1960s to the present day. The volume unfolds as a visual feast, showcasing Choi Jongtae's diverse and compelling body of work. This collection, encompassing both sculptures and paintings, becomes a testament to his unique artistic language. Choi's creations not only bear the mark of his Christian inspiration but also exude an unmistakable Eastern flair, providing viewers with an immersive experience that transcends cultural boundaries. The volume is enriched with a series of inspiring images showcasing his studio, his artistic process, and highlights from some of his most distinguished exhibitions. These visuals provide readers with a comprehensive glimpse into the world of this master.
The treasures of Renaissance art in The National Museum - Sultanate of OmanIn 1970, guided by the unifying vision of the late Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who reigned for almost 50 years, Oman made a dramatic shift to a new era of peaceful, purposeful modern development. This period is known as the "Renaissance". This remarkable era has seen the establishment of modern state institutions and inte gral infrastructure, the enhancement of national security, the introduction of modern systems of law to protect human rights and ensure equal opportunity for all Omani people, and the building of strong foreign relations. Characterised by a deepening and strengthening of national unity and identity, and an abiding belief in the generous mission of Islam, the Renaissance era has been one of the most influential epochs Omani history. The Renaissance Gallery commemorates the Renaissance era together with other key elements of Oman's history under the al-Busaid dynasty, and onto Oman's Revived Renaissance under His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik. Located in the heart of Muscat, The National Museum is the Oman's flagship cultural institution, showcasing the Sultanate's cultural heritage from the earliest evidence of human settlement in the Oman Peninsula through to the present day. The total area of the building is 13,700 sq m, including 4,000 square metres for 14 permanent galleries, each covering a different aspect of Oman's cultural heritage.
The treasures of Renaissance art in The National Museum - Sultanate of OmanIn 1970, guided by the unifying vision of the late Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who reigned for almost 50 years, Oman made a dramatic shift to a new era of peaceful, purposeful modern development. This period is known as the "Renaissance". This remarkable era has seen the establishment of modern state institutions and inte gral infrastructure, the enhancement of national security, the introduction of modern systems of law to protect human rights and ensure equal opportunity for all Omani people, and the building of strong foreign relations. Characterised by a deepening and strengthening of national unity and identity, and an abiding belief in the generous mission of Islam, the Renaissance era has been one of the most influential epochs Omani history. The Renaissance Gallery commemorates the Renaissance era together with other key elements of Oman's history under the al-Busaid dynasty, and onto Oman's Revived Renaissance under His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik. Located in the heart of Muscat, The National Museum is the Oman's flagship cultural institution, showcasing the Sultanate's cultural heritage from the earliest evidence of human settlement in the Oman Peninsula through to the present day. The total area of the building is 13,700 sq m, including 4,000 square metres for 14 permanent galleries, each covering a different aspect of Oman's cultural heritage.
The most complete and advanced publication to date on the artist's practiceOne of the most emblematic and mysterious protagonists of the return to painting during the 1980s, Alberto Abate (Roma, 1946-2012) belonged to those brave artists who went against the tide, inspired by historians like Maurizio Calvesi and Italo Mussa, fleeing from the avant-garde experiences of the period that were considered guilty of being closed off to their own repetitiveness. In his figurations, which soon followed an independent path with respect to the other "Anachronists" - as Edward Lucie-Smith, among others, pointed out - two vocations emerge and intertwine: on the one hand the learned painter and, on the other, a the orist of aesthetics. Edited by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi, arranged chronologically and divided according to the different types of cycles found in the very vast practice of the artist, the Catalogue raisonné of Alberto Abate constitutes a new privileged perspective and overview of his entire career, from which emerges not only the extraordinary wealth of works that made him famous around the world but also the great variety of different themes that constantly characterise his activity. Thus the publication analyses the mythological themes that distinguish his works from the 1980s to symbolic and skilfull narrations that offer multiple levels of interpretation in the 1990s, up to a dialogue between figures and geometric forms of a consolidated Cubist-Futurist and Neoconstructivist tradition.
A New Look at mid-twentieth century Color Field paintingThis book casts new light on mid-twentieth century Color Field painting from the perspective of the artists¿ ambitions for the future of abstract painting. Color Field became a convenient, albeit imperfect term to describe paintings in which vast areas of color appear as the dominant force. Color Field was not an art movement, rather it was a cohort of likeminded artists. While the American Abstract Expressionists cleared a path for this postwar generation to forge ahead with abstract painting, their achievements also challenged artists such as Frank Bowling, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Larry Poons, Frank Stella and Alma Thomas, to create abstraction anew. Experimenting with non-traditional painting mediums and methods, as well as these artists¿ probing of the conventions of painting led to unprecedented works. The book¿s title Glory of the World takes its cue from the writings of Frank Stella on the influential artist and teacher Hans Hofmann whose glorious and exalted abstract paintings, produced solely through the straightforward manipulation of pigment, set a high bar for this generation¿s aspirations.
A house, a life. Discovering Giovanni Segantini in a spectacular photographic book on the artist's house in Maloja.Maloja is a small Swiss alpine village at 1817 metres, in the midst of an extraordinary landscape of which Giovanni Segantini wrote in a letter when he arrived: "I have begun to possess these places, which are a true mine for my art". Here stands Casa Segantini, built in 1886 and still owned by the family, which has preserved numerous period photographs, documents and original furnishings, including the famous Bugatti furniture. In front of the Segantini family chalet there is a small wooden round building, the so-called Atelier Segantini, built in 1898. Here, in fact, the artist never painted, preferring to paint en plein air, immersed in nature and in contact with his beloved mountains. It was rather his studio, in which he kept a valuable library. Designed by the artist himself, the 70-meter in diameter studio is a true-to-scale wooden model of the Engadin Pavilion, constructed for the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. It was designed to display a huge picture of the Bergell and Engadin countryside on its 220-meter long wall, but the work remained unfinished.
Thirty years after Ayrton Senna's death, a tribute to the beloved and unforgettable championAyrton Senna was one of the greatest Formula 1 champions of all time, considered by many even the best of them all. In 2024 it will be thirty years since his death, an anniversary that will be remembered around the world because few sportsmen have entered and remained in legend as much as he did. Published in collaboration with the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile on the occasion of the major exhibition to celebrate the 30-year anniversary since the unforgettable champion's death, the book retraces the emotional spirit of the exhibition and presents a great variety of materials (cars, memorabilia, documents, publications, photographs and films), focusing on two aspects: the sporting history of the Brazilian champion and the "man", both documented through people, events, behind-the-scenes facts and thoughts that marked his life and career. The book traces the career of the great champion, from go-kart, which saw him growing as an absolute talent, to the Formula 1 cars with which he entered the hearts of fans. And again, the secret Senna, the one less known to the general public, with materials and testimonies that reveal a less obvious aspect of the champion, up to the final part dedicated to the post-Senna era, with the process to reconstruct the truth about his tragic death.
Murano glass production at the prestigious Venetian event from the 1910s to the 1930s Devoted to the presence of Murano glass at the prestigious Venetian event, this new title in the "Le Stanze del Vetro" series examines the period from 1912 to 1930 (from the 10th to the 17th edition of the Biennale) through a carefully chosen selection of 135 works, many of which very rare, from prestigious museums and private collections. During this period, Murano glass gradually made its way into the Biennale spaces; first, through the artists choosing to use this extraordinary material for their works, then thanks to the opening of the Applied Arts event which was held in various rooms, together with the so-called Fine Arts, in the Palazzo dell'Esposizione until 1930. It was not until 1932, following the construction of a new pavilion, that glass and the applied arts had their own dedicated venue in the Giardini. In the 1910s, it was mostly glass designed by artists such as the Norwegian-born sculptor and ceramist Hans Stoltenberg Lerche, the Murano decorator Vittorio Toso Borella, the painters Vittorio Zecchin and Teodoro Wolf Ferrari and the wrought-iron artist Umberto Bellotto. After the interruption due to the war, since the 1920s, alongside some of these artists, glassworks began to appear at the Biennale that presented autonomously their best production or with the collaboration of external designers. Among them were the furnace of Giacomo Cappellin and Paolo Venini, V.S.M. Cappellin Venini e C. and the Vetreria Artistica Barovier. Edited by Marino Barovier and Carla Sonego, the result of careful bibliographic research and an in-depth documentary investigation in the Biennale Historical Archive, the volume illustrates with period photographs, drawings and documentary material what was exhibited at the Biennale in a period that marked the entry of so-called minor art into the world of major arts, officially consecrating the artistic value of Murano's avant-garde production.
The first comprehensive monograph on the work of Lena Herzog, the Russian-born conceptual and multidisciplinary photographer and artistThis first comprehensive monograph on the work of Lena Herzog is an exhaustive review of three decades of activity, described in essays by professors Silvia Burini and Giuseppe Barbieri of Ca' Foscari University in Venice. Lena Herzog's undaunted and engaging look spans over boundaries and chasms between different levels of life, time, and memory. Her work investigates the universal mystery of being human, from the Cabinets of Wonder and Curiosities of the 18th and 19th centuries to the hollowed out rock formations atop of tepuis in Amazonia, from the deep rituals of the West to the emptiness of nameless lands in the Far East. The various portfolios, here transversally arranged, provide a fascinating cartography of our time and history. Through innovative experimentation, Lena Herzog fuses Renaissance engraving practices, early techniques of developing and printing photographic images, and cutting edge virtual reality and immersive technologies. In her latest projects, she confronts and denounces the extinction of thousands of languages and foretells the possible and final collapse of the planet. These are images between shadow and light, which, as in Goya, pursue the truth of things, gestures, and faces, and in which we find echoes of her childhood phantoms at the foothills of the Ural Mountains.
The critical role that silk played during the Safavid period (1501-1736).With their sumptuous surfaces, original designs, and technical sophistication, luxury textiles played a critical role in the social, cultural, religious, and economic life of Safavid Iran (1501-1722). Used for clothing, furnishing, and movable architecture, fabrics also functioned as important symbols of power and as ubiquitous forms of artistic expression. In the seventeenth century, they became the most lucrative economic commodity in Iran and were exported by land and sea to both Europe and the East, generating tremendous wealth and prosperity for the Safavid Empire. This beautiful book from the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, tells the story of silk during the reign of Shah 'Abbas I and how the production of luxury fabrics and floor coverings transformed Iran's fortunes in the 17th century. By employing the most talented designers and bringing the industry under state control, Shah 'Abbas built a flourishing silk economy that fuelled an era of rich artistic development and cultural exchange. Fashioning an Empire captures this moment in time, showcasing masterpieces from the period complemented by manuscript illustrations and portraits depicting how the silk fabrics were worn by the elite of Iranian society. With over 70 images including stunning detail shots, the book also features essays and catalogue entries by experts in the field exploring the social and political context for the works and the skill involved in their creation.
Prenumerera på vårt nyhetsbrev för att få fantastiska erbjudanden och inspiration för din nästa läsning.
Genom att registrera dig accepterar du vår personuppgiftspolicy.
