Search results for ""Five Continents Editions""

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (Ivory Coast, 1923-2014) was a self-taught artist and one of the most relevant international voices of the second half of the 20th century, not only for his visual creation, but also thanks to his contributions to other cultural fields, such as poetry, philosophy, and essay writing. In 1948 he experienced a “revelation”: from that moment on, he called himself “Cheik Nadro” (he who does not forget) and he not only undertook a philosophical research into African reality and the meaning of life, but he also began creating a monumental work of art entitled Connaissance du monde. With pen and coloured pencils on 10x15 cm (3.9x5.9 in) sheets of construction paper, he gave life to a sort of visual encyclopaedia that grew richer by the day. Another especially interesting work by this artist is Alphabet Bété, an alphabet made up of 448 monosyllabic pictograms intended to establish a connection between the European and African cultures and to inspire a sense of brotherhood. These two extremely relevant works, as well as other series of drawings by the artist, are the central nucleus of this volume, which complements the exhibition at the MoMA in New York, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound. Bouabré has been featured in all the most prestigious international venues, from the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, from the Tate Modern in London to the Portikus in Frankfurt. He was also present at the 55th Biennale in Venice, at Documenta in Kassel, and at the Bienal in São Paulo. Text in French.

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This catalogue for an exhibition at the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne brings together an ensemble of found images gathered over the course of several years by gallerist Antoine Gentil and collector Lucas Reitalov. By dint of patience and research they found photographs that had been modified, often by simple (but telling) cut-outs, in addition to more complex images where the original photograph becomes part of a different story. These anonymous photographs date from the late 19th century onwards, and capture the inconspicuous person that one might encounter in a flea market or a secondhand store, along with family photographs that have been condemned to oblivion and are laden with mystery and emotion. Published to accompany an exhibition in Lausanne at the Collection de l'Art Brut Time - dates to be confirmed.

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This book celebrates, by way of a dual narrative, the Italian Cultural Institute in Stockholm, designed and furnished by Gio Ponti to a commission from Carlo Maurilio Lerici. The essays aim to examine the events linked to the commission of the project itself, and to the planning and realisation of the building together with its interior design. The volume contains a selection of images taken from the Institute's historical archive, as well as a new photographic reportage on the architectural and design elements featured in this building. It is well-known that Ponti took a great interest in Sweden (suffice it to think of all the space that was devoted to Swedish design in the pages of the magazine Domus from the early 1950s), yet it is fascinating to learn more and find answers regarding the dynamics that lay behind the making of this structure. Indeed, Gio Ponti managed to surpass the Swedish architect Ture Wennerholm’s original idea, to breathe life into a project where the spaces, albeit organised according to function, succeed one another in a harmonious play of broken lines and different hues. Assisting him in the task were Pier Luigi Nervi and Ferruccio Rossetti. Gio Ponti gave life to a "classical modern" project in which art and architecture merge, proof that he had overcome the limits that were set by the trends characterising that day and age. In so doing, he laid the groundwork for a new course in the cultural relations between Italy and Sweden. Text in English and Italian.

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The Bari people, who settled on the banks of the White Nile, remained closed off from the outside world until the dawn of the 19th century. The earliest contact dates back to the "scientific" expedition commissioned in 1840 by Ismail Pascha, followed by repeated forays by explorers in search of the sources of the Nile during the closing decades of the Ottoman period in Egypt, interspersed with the often competing efforts of slave hunters. This book places the collection of Bari statues known today in the historical context of the Egyptian Sudan, from the earliest contacts with explorers Joseph Pons d'Arnaud and Wilhelm Werne in 1841 to the final stages of the pre-colonial era described by Wilhelm Junker. Many museums founded during the 19th century embarked on a frantic scramble to collect ethnographic objects, relying in particular on explorers, but also on traders and adventurers. This book catalogues the roughly 63 Bari statues that are known today and offers a comprehensive overview of historical sources and current knowledge of the Egyptian Sudan that provide the context for these works, their use and stylistic diversity. Text in English and French.

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Following on from the success of the exhibition Before Time Began, Fondation Opale is taking on a new challenge with a show that juxtaposes contemporary Aboriginal art with prominent examples of contemporary art created in a Western and Asian tradition. This beautifully illustrated catalogue includes more than eighty works by over 54 artists from two separate collections, both of which are outstanding in their own right: the collection of Aboriginal art belonging to Bérengère Primat and the contemporary art collection amassed by Garance Primat. The works play off each other with powerful effect. Insightful pairings suggest an underlying unity, a merging of mankind, heaven, earth, and the whole cosmos. The Aboriginal artists represented include: Rover Thomas, Gulumbu Yunupingu, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Judy Watson, Sally Gabori, Emily Kame Kngwarrey, Paddy Bedford, Nonggirrnga Marawili, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, and John Mawurndjul. The artists working in the Western and Oriental traditions include: Jean Dubuffet, Kiki Smith, Anselm Kiefer, Sol Lewitt, Yayoi Kusama, Giuseppe Penone, and Anish Kapoor. Published to accompany an exhibition at Fondation Opale, Lens - Crans Montana, 14 June 2020 - 4 April 4 2021.

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The Kuyu are an ethnic group who live in northern Congo-Brazzaville, on the banks of the River Congo, in a part of Equatorial Africa that has remained only marginally influenced by Moslem encroachment and Western colonialism. Kuyu art can be broadly broken down into three styles, the first two — of which there are the fewest examples — are strictly associated with the Kuyu ethnic group, while the third style, which has the largest sculptural component, includes both Kuyu and Mbochi pieces. Among these are a number of statuettes and especially wooden clubs topped with a human head (the most recent being polychrome), known as Kebe-Kebe, which were used in the dance by the same name. This ritual performance has remained faithful to its original function of giving physical expression to the Kuyu cosmogony.

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This is the first book dedicated to Fernando Costa, an eclectic, self-taught artist, born in France to a family that arrived in the country on foot from Portugal while fleeing the dictatorship of Salazar in 1970. Costa dissects enamelled street signs, cuts them up, smoothes them off, and reassembles the pieces by welding them onto large metal plaques to create works of extraordinary originality. The result is striking, as shown in this colourful monograph. Some are figurative, the cousins of Pop Art, infused with a personal element, as they include tragic or comical moments and figures who have influenced the sculptor during his lifetime: the cyclist Tom Simpson, The Beatles, and Josephine Baker. Other works flirt with abstraction derived from Cubism and the mechanical music of Edgar Varèse. All display freedom, movement, energy, and the interplay of primary colours. Whether small in size or imposing triptychs, the works of Fernando Costa achieve a rare feat: imbuing metal with emotion. Text in English and French.

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World War I was called the "war of the camera." While many earlier wars fought after photography's invention were documented by the medium, WWI represented a turning point. One of the most important changes was the way in which both the Allied forces and the Central Powers used photography as a tool: to spy, to provoke and to persuade. The official photographs made during the war were telling in terms of strategies, censorship and the constant need to whip up public support for the cause. In sharp contrast to the political and military uses, the importance of photography for personal use was undeniable. Studio portraits of soldiers and their families and sweethearts were widely popular; personal photo albums created permanent records of lives that were suddenly placed at risk. This volume and the exhibition it accompanies, bring together a diverse and remarkable selection of photographs drawn from international collections to illustrate the many important roles that photography played during the war.

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These intimate portraits lead us deep into the world of the Bori, animists, faith healers and clairvoyants of Niger, and give us a glimpse of their very souls.

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The masks in this book, all presented by two or more images, are accompanied by brief commentaries that offer readers — be they scholars or enthusiasts — an insight into these veritable masterpieces of African art, which in most cases boast an exceptional pedigree, having been included in the most important international collections of extra-European art. Even though the works with which Zhang has chosen to surround himself are not all extra-European, as Marco Riccòmini explains in his introduction, offering a broader framework for the interpretation of Zhang’s esthetic choices, we have chosen to devote this elegant and carefully crafted publication to a specific aspect of African material culture. Text in English and French.

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This volume marks the publishing debut of the Spanish-Argentinian photographer based in Milan, Patricio Reig, and introduces one of the artist’s preferred subjects: the female portrait. Patricio Reig prints and sets his images on special oriental paper, folded over and over, and finally dipped in a bath of coffee and sodium thiosulfate. He has found the result intriguing ever since his very first experiments: fortuitous coffee stains become scars that denote each photograph, and consequently every story they tell. As he himself says: “A portrait is not the recording of a single identity, but rather the layering of many elements. For this reason, the image may be fragmented, pieced back together, or even folded over, and yet it never loses its essence.” Text in English, French and Spanish.

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Long awaited by collectors, scholars, and enthusiasts, this book illustrates the bronze pieces, most of which have never before been published, collected by Syrop during more than 40 years of passionate, attentive, and untiring research. An architect by profession and a collector by instinct, Arnold Syrop was a pioneer for his interest in this particular area of African material culture, developing what Susan Kloman in her introduction calls “one of the best eyes” in the field of African bronze artifacts. As remarked by the author/collector in his preface, these bronzes are for the most part “spiritual in nature,” their function being to protect and give strength to their owner. Text in English and French.

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"Stunning and vibrant, the studio portrait photography of Omar Victor Diop is breathtakingly brilliant." — Amateur Photographer Since 2012, Dakar-born Omar Victor Diop has been hailed by the art world for his stunning, colour-saturated studio photography. His conceptual projects are primarily staged as beautifully costumed portraits and self-portraits, and focus on important historical figures and events from Black history and the African diaspora. In the three projects presented in this book, Diaspora (2014), Liberty (2017) and Allegory (2021), he revisits Black African history in poignant photographs that weave together the past and the present. Text in English and French.

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Pont-Aven has lent its name to one of the most famous schools of painting in modern art and is now automatically associated with Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard. In 1888, in this Breton village in southern Finistère, the two painters set about inventing the features of a completely new style of painting: Synthetism. Breaking with academic orthodoxy and heavily influenced by Japanese prints, they introduced novel aesthetic principles distinguished especially by a belief in simple forms and the use of colour applied in large patches edged by a dark line. This approach further distanced itself from the art that preceded it in its taste for matt tones and the rejection of traditional perspective. This new book reveals to a wider public the important collection that Alexandre Mouradian amassed in only a few years. The collection reflects its creator's great passion for the artists of the Pont-Aven group, as well as others in Brittany and beyond who embraced the new ideas of Bernard and Gauguin without ever losing their individuality. Whether in painting or printmaking, each of these was able to move beyond the imitation of observed reality to express the deepest aspect of his personality: his emotions. The works selected by the collector eloquently show the international reach of what was not strictly speaking a school, in the full sense of the term. Since the private Paris academies were closed during the summer, artists from all over Europe went to Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu to seek inspiration and 'to dare' like Gauguin. Written contributions by Jean-Marie Rouart of the French Academy and the author and art historian Adrien Goetz, are supported by detailed notes on the works by the museum curator Estelle Guille des Buttes, providing invaluable insights into this exceptional collection.

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The Mossi people of Burkina Faso have a rich and complex history that is mirrored by the several types and styles of figures and masks they create. They came into being around 1500 A.D. when a large group of horsemen from what is now northern Ghana rode north into the valley of the Volta River and conquered the local farmers. The descendants of the conquering horsemen became the ruling class and used political art in the form of royal figures to validate their authority. Meanwhile the descendants of the conquered farmers became the spiritual class and made masks to represent the spirits of nature. The stylistic diversity of this art mirrors the several geographically divergent peoples who were conquered in 1500 and eventually became the Mossi we know today. Unlike several other West African peoples, the Mossi have not converted to Islam in large numbers, and so they continue creating brilliant art much as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. Until the 1980s there was much confusion about the accurate attribution of Mossi art to the people who created it. This book makes clear that the Mossi have continued to create brilliant art which they use to this day to express ideas about politics and religion.

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A revelatory glimpse into the passions and obsessions of 60 visionary artists through the medium of their personal sketchbooks, treatises, storybooks, grimoires, and journals. This unprecedented gathering of handmade books from the most notable Art Brut artists has been brought together expressly for this publication from both public and private collections. Each volume is showcased in separate chapters featuring the cover and a selection of inside pages, with accompanying commentary. They cover the period from the early 20th century to the present, and include works by Horst Ademeit, Alöise, Giovanni Bosco, James Castle, Henry Darger, Charles Dellschau, Malcolm MacKesson, Dan Miller, Michel Nedjar, Jean Perdrizet, Royal Robertson, Charles Steffen, Oskar Voll, August Walla, and Adolf Wölfli, among others. Text in English and French.

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More than 130 works from the collection assembled by Drs Nicole and John Dintenfass over fifty years. The Dintenfass Collection serves as a model and a source of inspiration for new and seasoned collectors alike. A different slant on collecting which is not actually just buying from dealers. A lavishly illustrated book that traces the origin of a collector's interest in African art and analyses the psychological aspects driving the passions for collecting. The Nicole and John Dintenfass Collection is well known and based on aesthetics, and the works have been reproduced in many publications. They have collected with passion, diligence, depth and rigor monumental sculptures and wooden miniatures, from most regions of Africa. Focusing on pieces of the highest artistic quality, this book shares the collectors' personal point of view about collecting and offers to readers anecdotes that provide an additional insight into this world to future and present collectors in their search for African art. Collecting is a passion that often leads to intimate inner conversations or to emotional experiences with the objects themselves. Moreover many collectors share their unique experience of joy and appreciation with twentieth-century artists who also collected African art and who generously imparted advice, suggestions and support in responding to the collectors' enthusiasm. Thanks to the multiple beautiful and sensitive photographs of each object, the viewer has a chance to form an intimate conversation that creates a connection with those African master carvers that have strongly influenced modern realism, cubism and expressionism.

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The volume accompanying an exhibition at Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, from 8 December 2023 to 28 April 2024 invites us to reflect on the role a face can play in mediating communication through the gaze. We are all aware of how powerful it can be when eyes meet, as well as their crucial role in giving dignity to people through caring. But the face can also be considered from another, almost conflicting, point of view, as a visible surface masking the invisible aspects of the human being: it can either reveal or conceal feelings and emotions, thoughts and concerns... The subject of faces deserves to be explored here in all its anthropological depth. In Art Brut, its production marked as it is by a powerful creative urge, this exploration takes on a singular dimension, with the presentation of works whose figurative content facilitates the encounter with this inalienable aspect of humanity, which becomes somehow inevitable, regardless of the marginality of the social and cultural acknowledgement of the artists. These faces, whether withdrawn or seeking, with their attentive, questioning, communicative, absent, or empty expressions, reflect a manner of relating to the world that interrogates, through a mise en abyme of sorts, our very encounter with humanity.

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Italian and American Art focuses on the period between 1930 and 1980 in particular. By comparing artworks and examining exhibition and gallery policies, political meddling, and figures linking Italy to the United States, a common thread emerges which held two worlds that were literally an ocean apart but in constant touch as they explored each other’s movements contributing to art, from Futurism, Concrete art, and Abstract Expressionism, to Nuclear art, Pop art and Spatialism.

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Antonio Canova (1757-1822), is considered the greatest Neoclassical sculptor of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This book, the third in the series Canova: Four Tempos, features a collection of sublime black and white photographs of Canova's plaster models taken by photographer Luigi Spina. The full-size plaster models that preceded the production of his marble sculptures played an important part in Canova’s creative process. Included here are his masterpieces The Three Graces and Sleeping Nymph, and the only work Canova made for an overseas patron, George Washington depicted as a Roman potentate. The text is by the well-known Italian art historian Vittorio Sgarbi. Also available: Canova: Four Tempos, Vol. 1, ISBN 9788874399215, and Canova: Four Tempos Vol. 2 9788874399598

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Italian artist Enzo Cucchi (b. 1949), is one of the pioneers of the 20th century trans avant-garde art movement, and was part of a wider international movement of Neo-Expressionist painters. Today he is considered one of Italy’s most productive and innovative artists, and has become a model for the younger generation. His work is notable for its vibrant colour, figuration, and symbolism, with signs, symbols, mixed media, and words which meld into a powerful new aesthetic. His work is presented here in thematic chapters, and includes his ceramics, small bronze figurines, drawings, paintings, and artist books. This volume accompanies the exhibition Enzo Cucchi: The Poet and the Magician that will be held between May and November 2023 at MAXXI in Rome. Text in English and Italian.

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This publication was designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Riace Bronzes. In it, Luigi Spina’s photographic research dialogues with the texts written by Carmelo Malacrino. The photographer here develops a continued narrative, offering a direct comparison between the two sculptures, identified as A and B, exploring interpretations of the physicality of the two subjects as well as the three-dimensional quality of the bronze bodies, often concealed by the two-dimensional appearance of photographic images. Carmelo Malacrino analyses these famous 5th century BC masterpieces from two points of view: as ancient works of art on the one hand, and considering their significance for contemporary culture on the other. He retraces the story of the Bronzes beginning with their discovery in August, 1972, exploring the circumstances of their unearthing, the restoration they underwent, the exhibitions in which they were shown, as well as the impact they have had on the public, both nationally and internationally. Equally relevant is the reinterpretation of these two statues, beginning with their contextualisation in the sphere of ancient Greek art, the related stylistic issues, and the reflection upon the practices and the knowledge possessed by Classical sculpture workshops. This volume will be a pleasant surprise for those of you who love Classical sculpture, for archaeology enthusiasts, and for all those who aren’t satisfied with a quick glance when it comes to admiring a work of art.

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This book, which accompanies an exhibition at the Fondation Baur, explores the intriguing story of porcelain glaze at the end of the 18th century in China, in the 19th century in France, and in the work of two 20th century ceramic artists. Part one investigates the development of opaque glazes for use on porcelain and copper during the 18th century in work from three collections: Alfred Baur’s vast collection of imperial ceramics; the Canton glazes of the Zubov Foundation; and export porcelain from the Ariana Museum in Geneva. The second part begins in France, in the 19th century, at the Sèvres factory, tracing the various journeys to China to bring back samples of colour, analyse them chemically, and tirelessly attempt to reproduce them. The catalogue ends in the present, with the experiments conducted by the American-born artist Fance Franck (1927–2008) on “sacrificial red” and the work on colour carried out by the Austrian ceramist Thomas Bohle. Text in English and French.

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This book, designed and edited by the Italian-Swiss artist Vivianne van Singer, is an ode to Italian sculptor Luciano Fabro (1936-2007), a well-known Informalist artist and one of the founders of the Arte Povera movement. Having been long acquainted with his work and then having met the artist in person, Van Singer reflects upon his untimely death and pays homage to his career in a collection of texts, images, and works. The starting point of the project is a letter Van Singer sent artists, critics, and prominent figures of the art world in which she invited them to submit a work of art or a text exemplifying what Luciano Fabro had represented for them. Among the contributors to this collection: Giovanni Anselmo, Izzo Arcangelo, Gianni Caravaggio, Rudi Fuchs, Von Fürstenberg, Giovanni Lista, Alessandra Lukinovic, Massimo Minini, Giulio Paolini, Margit Rowell, Sarkis, and Ettore Spalletti. Text in English, German, French, and Italian.

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This volume is a continuation of the first instalment of the editorial project Canova | In Four Tempos, ISBN 9788874399215, born in co-edition with the Pallavicino Foundation in Genoa with the goal of collecting in a refined publication the photographic research of Luigi Spina focused on the plaster models by Antonio Canova almost entirely preserved at the plaster cast gallery in Possagno. This project accompanying the four-year Canovian celebrations (2019–2022) is structured in four publications, each focused on a specific nucleus of plaster models. Its aim is to give new dignity to Antonio Canova’s creative process while highlighting the fundamental role of the bronze nails (repères) that made the metamorphoses from plaster model to marble sculpture possible. The first volume is devoted to the dialogue of Myth and Faith, illustrated by Spina with photographs of Cupid and Psyche, Paolina Borghese Bonaparte, Venus and Mars, the Lying Magdalen, Peace, and the Lamentation of Christ, while this, the second volume, revolves mainly around Myth. The sculptures on which the visual narrative focuses are: Dancer with Finger on Chin, Dedalus and Icarus, Theseus Defeats the Centaur, Naiad, Pius VII Praying, Venus and Adonis, and Sleeping Nymph.

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Aesthetic seduction, superb workmanship, and historical interest are the three central themes in the collection of Fondation Gandur pour l'Art (Geneva), created in 2010 and still expanding. The aim of this first volume is to catalogue the works in the collection, whose decorative aspects are every bit as important as their narrative content. The works are for the most part sculptures - statuettes and ornamental reliefs - although two-dimensional decorations depicting figurative scenes associated with classical antiquity or Christianity are no less important. The periods represented by the sculptural works discussed in this book reflect the scope of the whole collection, which ranges from the 12th to the 18th century. And since the goal of the collection is to document centuries of cultural exchange between France and neighbouring countries, all the works included in the book come from these latter regions. The hybrid styles are closely linked, and this is an aspect of considerable importance, as is the originality certain pieces display and, last but not least, their aesthetic quality. The book is arranged by topic, which brings out the great originality and extraordinary richness of the collection, as well as the extremely varied nature of the subjects, narrative episodes, and figures portrayed. More specifically, the topics are divided into five sections: ancient gods and heroes; biblical and allegorical figures; scenes from the life of the Virgin; episodes from the life of Christ; and saints and intercessors. Each work has its own entry that describes the historical and geographical context in which it was made, analyses its iconographic content, and includes a bibliography and a list of the exhibitions where the work was exhibited.

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This book is the most important monograph devoted to the Swiss artist-photographer Béatrice Helg. It offers a survey of her work from the past twenty-five years, and is accompanied by a poem dedication by Robert Wilson, critical essays by Serge Linarès and Philippe Piguet, and a poem by Sylviane Dupuis. Helg's oeuvre has a singular position within the photographic tradition of "constructed images." Remote from hyperrealist or narrative imagery, her work displays abstract forms and luminous worlds. Drawing on a passion for music and a marked sensitivity to notions of space and time, to architecture, and to the staging of plays and operas, the artist creates monumental spaces in which sculpture, painting, installation, and light interact. As poetic as they are spiritual, her photographs show strangely beautiful universes of shadow and of light. Her work opens onto an infinity - onto a quest for the absolute or a search for inner mystery. Text in English and French.

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European fashion meets Asian traditional clothing. A lavishly illustrated catalogue on Asian textiles from the 1920s. Published to accompany an exhibition at the Baur Foundation in Geneva (details to be confirmed). European fashion was profoundly influenced in the early decades of the 20th century by the style, textiles, patterns and colour combinations of Asian clothing. The discovery of the kimono, in particular, with its loose cut, fluid lines and broad range of decorations, captivated the great couturiers of the period. It enabled adventurous women in the Roaring Twenties to cast out their corsets and social straightjackets, while offering a new, daring kind of elegance with exotic overtones. From the meeting of these two sartorial cultures has sprung an exhibition and this catalogue, in which the drawings of Paris fashion designers are compared with examples of contemporary East-Asian textiles from the Baur Foundation in Geneva. The wonderful garments discussed include the collections of kimonos and other Japanese clothes gifted by Sato Mariko (2008) and Sugawara Keiko (2015), as well as Chinese textiles that are the pride of the Foundation.

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Carlo Zinelli is one of the leading figures in Art Brut. Contains previously unpublished archive material. Lavishly illustrated and published to accompany an exhibition at Art Brut Collection, Lausanne, 7 June - 2 December 2019. Carlo Zinelli, called Carlo (1916-1974), is one of the leading figures in Art Brut, along with Aloïse Corbaz and Adolf Wölfli. The book devoted to him by Collection de l'Art Brut, in Lausanne - the public institution that possesses the largest body of work by the Italian artist - gathers together a series of articles on Zinelli by experts in different disciplines. This makes it possible to give due weight to relatively neglected aspects of a rich and diverse opus, such as Carlo's writings, which mingle with his graphic compositions, well known for their characteristic accumulation of motifs, especially stylised human beings and animals, as well as vehicles. This bilingual book is lavishly illustrated throughout with reproductions of Zinelli's paintings and many photographs, several of which are by John Phillips, as well as previously unpublished archive material. Text in English and French.

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The Farnese Cup: the largest cameo hardstone cup to have survived from the ancient world. A treasured piece that travelled over centuries. A meticulously prepared publication illustrating the Farnese Cup in varying perspectives. A tour de force of a carver's skill and craftsmanship, the Farnese Cup is the largest cameo hardstone cup to have survived from the ancient world. Thought to be made in Hellenist Egypt sometime between 300 BC and 30 BC, the Cup was not an archaeological find but rather a treasured piece that travelled over centuries through many hands from Alexandria to Rome to Constantinople and back to Rome before joining the Farnese Collection now housed at the National Archeological Museum of Naples. The Cup, carved out of sardonyx agate, remains the subject of scholarly debate: what do the enigmatic figures in the inner scene mean? And the terrifying face of the Gorgon on the outside? Why was it made? And in what context? Whatever its inherent meaning, the piece itself is commanding, requiring a close-up view of each hand-carved detail, the balance and impact of the whole, and the subtle variations in the material itself. This book provides that close-up in a series of photographs and varying perspectives that pull back from the delicate infinitesimal cut to the magnificent, perfect whole. There is no better way - in fact no possible way - for the general reader or connoisseur to fully appreciate the Farnese Cup than through the pages of this meticulously prepared publication.

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A Pre-Columbian art lover and noted curator journey into a fine art collection, describing the rich cultural context and artistic merits of each work. Along with 150 full-colour glossy illustrations of the terracotta, earthenware, stone, silver and copper objects, the acclaimed author, explorer and filmmaker Hugh Thomson gives a detailed, exciting narrative, based upon extensive research, of the role art played in the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés and of Peru by Francisco Pizarro. It is rare that a collector takes such a personal, descriptive part in publishing his treasure trove, but in this lavishly illustrated book, Stuart Handler describes why he gathered Pre-Columbian art, what attracted him to the individual pieces, and, from his forty-five years of building art collections in various media and genres, what artistic attributes make these objects outstanding works of art.

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Expressing one of many Luba sub-styles, the tall, standing male figures created by master carvers of the Hemba culture in southeastern Congo since at least the mid-1800s arguably rank among the noblest sculptural depictions of the human figure in sub-Saharan Africa. With their serene gaze and meditative expression, they exude a tranquility and dignity that befits these idealised likenesses memorialising esteemed leaders of the past. Infused with a life-force or vital energy, these spirit-invested objects were able to communicate between the living and the dead. Thanks to their inner power they had the capacity to impact the material sphere by allowing the ancestors to positively influence the well-being of their surviving relatives. In this publication, through the perceptive lens of art photographer Luigi Spina, we discover nine of the most accomplished Hemba creations whose classical style has triggered comparisons with some kouroi sculptures of ancient Greece. Spina's photographic interpretations help us understand why these proportionally balanced and symmetrically conceived ancestral figures have earned the admiration of African art lovers around the world. These personal readings of the beloved Hemba commemorative portraits also confirm why these sensitive renderings of the human anatomy deserve inclusion in the universal history of artistic creativity and a place in André Malraux's 'Museum Without Walls'. Text in English and French.

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Featuring visionary creators from various fields, from art and contemporary dance to architecture and robotics, this lavishly illustrated book reports from the forefront of the crossdisciplinary synthesis that creates new forms of art. The project was initiated by Diana Vishneva, principal dancer for the American Ballet Theater in New York (2005-2017) and the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, and a tireless experimenter known for collaborations that have redefined the future of dance. The book presents interviews with choreographers William Forsythe and Carolyn Carlson; photographer Nick Knight; artists Bill Viola and Olafur Eliasson; architects Toyo Ito and Santiago Calatrava; robotics inventor Raffaello d'Andrea, and other creators who actively stretch the conventional limits of their fields. Included in the volume is a DVD of a film created for this project using state-of-the-art technologies to translate the language of dance into that of cinema.

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Kulango Figurines is designed to introduce various miniature works created by the Kulango in northeastern Côte d'Ivoire, who were formerly vassals of the two kingdoms that inhabited the country (Bouna and Gyaman). Their extraordinarily varied art, which can be both intriguing and disconcerting, is relatively unknown. Their metal sculptures in particular display a strikingly free expressiveness, breaking as they do with the iconographic codes that govern their works in wood. Doing away with immobile remoteness, bodies seem to reinvent movement, sometimes adopting almost choreographic gestures, an airy grace, sinuous lines. Or, in trembling tension, some display unexpected twists and provocative curves, while others stretch out impossibly or offer a chance for virtuoso foreshortening and stylised bodies. Still others are even stranger, like Siamese twins, inseparable triplets, headless figures or figures with one head on two torsos, with one leg or four, webbed feet, outsize arms and hooped bodies. Who are these enigmatic beings whose bulging eyes peer at the invisible? Is the sculpture confined to just these specimens? The range of styles is simply astonishing, the forms beyond imagination. The collection includes over 100 figurines, none of which is over 10cm tall: pendants, amulets, fortune tellers' statuettes or weights for gold. Introduced into our world through the metamorphosis of photography, transfigured by lighting and framing effects, these resurrected works have been revitalised, like apparitions from another world. Text in English and French.

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Published to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Alfred Baur's birth (1865-1951) and the 50th anniversary of the Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, this book presents one of the major collections of Asian art through an opulent selection from the 9000 objects of the arts of China and Japan, today housed in an elegant private mansion constructed in Geneva during the late nineteenth century. Alfred Baur, Pioneer and collector combines the history of the Far East with that of the man who founded the company A. Baur & Co. Ltd. in Colombo (Ceylon) in 1897. Guided by the stunning photographs of Hughes Dubois, readers are led into the museum to discover both the essence of the collection and the life of a man fascinated by the arts of the Far East. Sabre fittings, netsuke, lacquer ware, prints, jades and imperial ceramics: the illustrations show the diversity of the works and the quality of the collection as a whole. The precious Japanese objects, so meticulously worked and of technical perfection, reveal the outstanding skills of Japanese craftsmen, while the simplicity of the forms of the Chinese monochrome ceramics display the contemporaneity of the visionary master ceramists of the Song dynasty.

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The first book devoted to the art of the vast South Seas island groups in the Bismarck Archipelago. This book features stunning, ephemeral creations made with natural materials such as plant fibre, light woods, bark cloth, and tree pith - among the most colourful of the Pacific Island arts. An inspiration to the German Expressionists and the Surrealists, these pieces combine colour, fragility, and a sense of temporal purpose. Essays explore the art history of the region and set the beautifully photographed works in cultural context.

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A wonderful world of hope, metaphors and ideas, which in spite of the time that has passed is very similar to the world we live in now. Archaeological objects offer outstanding opportunities to explore the way people conceived life in past ages. Their study demonstrates that subjects such as fertility, myths, rituals and cosmogony are embedded in all man-made artefacts, as they have always been part of daily human life. Even when creating artefacts for individual use, we have adopted imaginative and ingenious ways to represent and convey a message, a narrative that is a facet of our personal and social identity. That's why the amulets presented in this outstanding catalogue hold secrets: memories of deeds, lands and sacred representations. Objects used as offerings are full of life: the warrior recalls his heroic condition during his long mortal journey; the deceased person, who travels to the other world equipped with his objects of power, arrives satisfied and disposed to be generous toward his descendants, who receive fertility and well-being in return. The choice of materials is a fundamental aspect of such objects. The use of metals, for example, is etched into the language of social communication, whereas the vital force that moves the universe is found immersed to a large degree in magical materials like fired clay, the product of extensive chemical transformation, or shell, a product of the sea, its brilliance a sign of spirituality, or imperishable gold, which is the embodiment of the Sun itself, ductile and able to express extraordinary religious ideas. This catalogue introduces us to this world of magic, life and death. Text in English and Spanish.

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A major new monograph on the Cuban artist Agustín Fernández. 'As a painter I use a realist technique, but the emblems I invent are not real. They are purely imaginative... Painting is a thing of the mind. My realism is not nature, or landscape, or still life, but the psychological world.' - Agustín Fernández. At the time of his death in 2006, Agustín Fernández (b. 1928) ranked among Cuba's most outstanding artists. Defying simple categorisation, today his work is most recognisable for its ambiguous and precariously balanced forms, erotic overtones, surreal juxtapositions, and metallic palette. This superbly illustrated book is the first comprehensive study of Fernández's work, and includes contributions by renowned critic Donald Kuspit and a team of experts. Fernández's work has been exhibited throughout Europe and North and South America, and is represented in major museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His work found a wider audience when one of his larger paintings was featured in the 1980 Brian de Palma film, Dressed to Kill.

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Front cover image The Art of Daily Life Portable Objects from Southeast Africa Constantine Petridis, with an essay by Karel Nel In stock 9788874395781 Paperback with flaps 5 Continents Editions Territory: World excluding Italy Size: 285 mm x 240 mm Pages: 112 Illustrations: 150 colour RRP £20.00 Features 78 exceptional works - many never published before - drawn from the Cleveland Museum of Art, the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., and a large number of American private collections The arts of southeast Africa embrace astounding diversity and limitless inventiveness in materials, forms, and styles. Small and portable in nature - snuff containers, pipes, headrests, staffs, clubs, beer vessels, beaded garments - they were created by semi-nomadic pastoral peoples and primarly intended for daily use. Whether figurative or abstract, carved out of wood, ivory, or horn, or made of cloth, glass beads, or clay, most of these works were much more than exquisitely designed functional objects. Some signalled status, gender, or age; others served as symbolic intermediaries between the world of humans and the realm of the ancestors.

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Mountains have been a central defining theme in Switzerland, as they have elsewhere in the world. This has fascinated artists and, since the earliest invention of the medium, photographers. Today mountain chains are seen differently than they once were, recognized as having an unsettling fragility in the face of their occupation by humans. What remains of the myths linked to mountains? Are mountains still a source of inspiration for today's artists? How do perceptions of them shift as their populations disappear, and cultural references are increasingly centred on an urban existence? High Altitude provides some of the answers to these questions. This book is a companion to the Swiss photography festival, Alt. +1000, held in Rossiniere in the foothills of the Alps. "High Altitude" features works by contemporary photographers who record mountains in their various and multiple states: spectacular, sublime, domesticated, constructed (even artificial!) and frightening. Artists from around the world, many of whom live far from a mountainous environment, celebrate and challenge deeply rooted myths, and individually interpret this elusive landscape. In addition, well-known photographer Olaf Otto Becker, renowned for his views of Greenland, created a portrait of a natural park close to Rossiniere. Becker's work is breathtakingly beautiful, but its beauty nonetheless reminds us that nature is being radically modified by climate change.

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Over the centuries, craftsmen have applied their creativity and technical skills to exploit the generous resources of Nature to marvellous effect. In this case they have employed seeds, leaves, flowers and fibres from the plant world, along with feathers, plain or iridescent shells, teeth, and fur from the animal kingdom to fashion objects of astonishing beauty, enhanced with the addition of elements in iron, copper, silver, and gold. Such materials have always provided the basis for magnificent headdresses of all varieties, including hats, caps, crowns, and headbands. In time, as the conditions of trade and pilgrimage routes improved, rare materials and manufactured products spread all over the globe, as well as new knowledge, techniques, and methods of fabrication. Each class of individual sported a distinct type of headdress: initiates and adults, hunters and warriors, religious dignitaries and healers, rulers and notables; unmarried girls, married women, and young mothers. In each case the author explains their opulence and symbolism to the reader.

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The story of Japanese design, told through works selected from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Japanese designers' special ability to combine aesthetic tradition with contemporary visual culture and material innovation has created a distinctive and exceptionally successful design industry in Japan, which has produced such divergent icons of modern design as Sori Yanagi's Butterfly Stool, the Sony Walkman, the Honey-Pop Armchair by Tokujin Yoshioka, and the Toyota Prius. This book traces the development of Japanese design from the country's craft revival in the early twentieth century to the extraordinary objects of high technology that have been a specialty of Japanese designers since mid-century. Paola Antonelli's lively introduction provides an overview of Japan's design culture; an essay and timeline by Penny Sparke illuminate the masterpieces of modern Japanese design that are superbly reproduced in the volume's plate section.

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This image-filled book features outstanding works of Luba art from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Major themes addressed include the role of visual and performance arts in Luba traditional politics; the symbolism of the female image and why 'the king is a woman' for Luba; the instrumentality of royal insignia in politics, problem-solving, and healing; and the use of art objects in the creation and transmission of historical knowledge in both the Luba heartland and its peripheries. Case studies from the authors' long research among Luba, Tabwa, and related peoples of Congo will illuminate the complex philosophical underpinnings of Luba through visual expression.

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Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), one of the most important followers of Jean-Louis David, was a pivotal figure in nineteenth-century painting and played a key role in the development of French art. After starting his career as a faithful admirer of the neoclassical style of David, Ingres turned into an extraordinarily eclectic artist, painting in a variety of styles reflecting diverse aesthetic positions during the course of a career lasting over fifty years. His inventive painting, which often flirted with linear abstraction, and the visual harmony he was able to give the most various subjects, often fell foul of the critics and the general public, as they deliberately ran counter to the fashion of the period. This monograph includes a detailed biography of the life he led in the artistic circles of Paris and Rome. It places his oeuvre within the context of the artistic movements of the nineteenth century, from his youth during Napoleon's rule right up until the Third Republic. The commentary follows the way his paintings managed to bridge the gap between the expectations of the public and his own aims as a painter. His drawings, portraits, and particularly his nudes are shown to be extraordinarily modern in their approach.

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Building on the extended fieldwork of numerous researchers since the 1950s, this text offers a unique window into the dynamic performance contexts of both masquerade and architecture in Central Africa. Although many societies in the Congo were once renowned for vibrant masquerades and architectural sculpture, these phenomena have only been studied as living traditions among a handful of peoples, most notably the Pende. Building on the extended fieldwork of numerous researchers since the 1950s, this text offers a unique window into the dynamic performance contexts of both masquerade and architecture in Central Africa. As much as possible, it privileges Pende voices and seeks to understand the inter-relationship between ritual practice and aesthetic form. Attentive to history, the text also shows these artistic practices have responded (sometimes unpredictably) to both colonial and post-colonial pressure. Lavish illustrations feature both iconic and hitherto unpublished masterworks, which have been selected to evoke the full range of Pende expression.

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This book completes the survey of the Indian scene, begun by the various exhibitions held in Paris, London, New York and Tokyo, which were devoted to contemporary urban art and its world renowned stars, such as Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher. The Indian tribal art, a new field of exploration of contemporary art' - Le Monde. India's cultural richness makes it an endlessly fascinating country. India is known for its profusion of sacred art reaching back several thousand years, but we are less aware of the fact that over 60 million Indians come from the several hundred miscellaneous tribes with which the country is studded. The Indian government has done more than any other to preserve and give visibility to its tribal and popular art and since 1976 the Indian authorities have regularly accorded the great names in tribal art the same status as those in the modern art that has followed independence. These are India's 'other Masters', as the title of an exhibition held in New Delhi in 1998 put it. At the instigation of the great modern painter and guru Jagdish Swaminathan, the year 1982 saw the inauguration in the very heart of India of the Bharat Bhavan, the first museum to give an equal standing to contemporary artists from both dominant and minority cultures. The groundbreaking historical figures among these other masters, such as Jangarh Singh Shyam and Jivya Soma Mashe, who were present in the historic exhibition Magicians of the Earth (Centre Pompidou, 1989), are enjoying a burgeoning international reputation. Their works are now on display in the great private collections, from the Devi Art Foundation to the Fondation Cartier, and the international press, ranging from the New York Times to Le Monde and including The Hindu, have celebrated these artists' imaginative range. India astonishes once again through its extraordinary capacity simultaneously to provide a stage for all the best examples of contemporary art generated by its diverse cultures, whether they be dominant, minority, global, local, urban or rural. Like contemporary art, India is itself multi-faceted. One word, manifold cultures.

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Kifwebe masks are ceremonial objects used by the Songye and Luba societies (Democratic Republic of Congo), where they are worn with costumes consisting of a long robe and a long beard made of plant fibres. As in other central African cultures, the same mask can be used in either magical and religious or festive ceremonies. In order to understand Kifwebe masks, it is essential to consider them within the cosmogony of the python rainbow, metalworking in the forge, and other plant and animal signs. Among the Songye, benevolent female masks reveal what is hidden and balance white and red energy associated with two subsequent initiations, the bukishi. Aggressive male masks were originally involved in social control and had a kind of policing role, carried out in accordance with the instructions of village elders. These two male and female forces acted in a balanced way to reinforce harmony within the village. Among the Luba, the masked figures are also benevolent and appear at the new moon, their role being to enhance fertility. Although the male and female masks fulfil functions that do not wholly overlap, they do have features in common: a frontal crest, round and excessively protruding eyes, flaring nostrils, a cube-shaped mouth and lips, stripes, and colours. Art historians and anthropologists have taken increasing interest in Kifwebe masks in recent years.

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