Landscapes / seascapes in the arts Books
Taschen GmbH Hiroshige & Eisen. The Sixty-Nine Stations along
Book SynopsisThe Kisokaidō route through Japan was ordained in the early 1600s by the country’s then-ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu, who decreed that staging posts be installed along the length of the arduous passage between Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto. Inns, shops, and restaurants were established to provide sustenance and lodging to weary travelers. In 1835, renowned woodblock print artist Keisai Eisen was commissioned to create a series of works to chart the Kisokaidō journey. After producing 24 prints, Eisen was replaced by Utagawa Hiroshige, who completed the series of 70 prints in 1838. Both Eisen and Hiroshige were master print practitioners. In The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaidō, we find the artists’ distinct styles as much as their shared expertise. From the busy starting post of Nihonbashi to the castle town of Iwamurata, Eisen opts for a more muted palette but excels in figuration, particularly of glamorous women, and relishes snapshots of activity along the route, from shoeing a horse to winnowing rice. Hiroshige demonstrates his mastery of landscape with grandiose and evocative scenes, whether it’s the peaceful banks of the Ota River, the forbidding Wada Pass, or a moonlit ascent between Yawata and Mochizuki. Taken as a whole, The Sixty-Nine Stations collection represents not only a masterpiece of woodblock practice, including bold compositions and an experimental use of color, but also a charming tapestry of 19th-century Japan, long before the specter of industrialization. This TASCHEN XXL edition revives the series with due scale and splendor. Sourced from the only-known set of a near-complete run of the first edition of the series, this legendary publication is reproduced in the finest quality, bound in the Japanese tradition and with uncut paper. A perfect companion piece to TASCHEN’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, it is at once a visual delight and a major artifact from the bygone era of Imperial Japan.Trade Review“A masterpiece of Japanese woodblock prints, an exquisitely designed illustrated book.” * Kulturzeit *“An incredible ticket to travel.” * L’Express *“Spectacular views, local delicacies, hot spring baths, and other more carnal pursuits.” * The New York Times *
£121.68
Taschen GmbH Friedrich
Book SynopsisThe beauty of nature and man’s loneliness are dominant themes in the work of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). The artist often places a small human figure in a broad landscape, as in his famous paintings Monk by the Sea and The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. For a long time the importance and influence of this great Romantic painter were underestimated. When he died, Friedrich had already been forgotten by his contemporaries and was only rediscovered in the early 20th century. Today he is considered to be the most important German painter of his generation and a precursor of Expressionism. Once Friedrich gave the following advice to an artist-colleague of his who was constricted by academic rules: “Shut your physical eye so that you first see your painting with your spiritual eye. Then bring to light what you saw in the dark so that it has an effect on others, shining inwards from outside.” In other words, concentration and not imitation, essence and not frivolous brushwork.
£13.50
Scheidegger und Spiess AG, Verlag Tom Haller - Nuggets: American Landscapes
Book SynopsisSwiss photographer Tom Haller has gained wide recognition for his work in portraiture and reportage. Less well known, but equally arresting, are the landscapes Haller has produced during his travels throughout the United States over the course of nearly three decades. His photographs of America - of prairies, mountains, roads and the buildings lining them, motels, stadiums, shops, and abandoned cars - display a traveller's detached, inquisitive, perspective, with Haller directing his gaze at subjects while simultaneously depicting both the promise of these landscapes and the limits to the dreams they inspire. Tom Haller - Nuggets compiles a selection of his American landscapes that reflect the state of the country and the feelings and experiences of its people. Taking Haller's images as his starting point, Christian Seiler draws on his own extensive travels throughout the United States to explore the artist's intentions and the mood of the country as a whole. Text in English and German.
£45.00
Cannibal/Hannibal Publishers Hans Broek
Book Synopsis“Broek’s work’s got attitude.” – Marlene Dumas “In combining extremes, Broek homes in on our zeitgeist." – Wilma Sütö The central theme in the oeuvre of Dutch artist Hans Broek (b. 1965) is landscape. He often paints locations where history has left an indelible mark, manifesting his belief that art should jolt you awake. He finds inspiration all around the world: a telegraph pole under a dark, cloudy Spanish sky; modern bungalows on the outskirts of LA; melting ice caps in Greenland; and wind-blown, rainy landscapes on the Atlantic seaboard in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. His series of paintings that depict prisons, dungeons, cell doors, plantations, and seats of colonial power funded by slavery - ‘guilty architecture’ where injustice was witnessed without intervention - serve as moving, silent witnesses to the ugly history of the Dutch slave trade. With contributions by Edo Dijksterhuis, Dominic van den Boogerd, Wilma Sütö and the artist himself. This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition. Text in English and Dutch
£41.25
