Search results for ""arnoldsche""

Gabriela Koschatzky-Elias writes absorbingly on the life and work of Fritz Maierhofer, one of the most important contemporary Austrian jewellery artists, whose international career took off in late-1960s London. Under the sway of that throbbing city, he had arrived at a conception of jewellery and a language of forms that were distinctively his own. Maierhofer places jewellery on an equal footing with painting, sculpture and architecture. What is crucial to him is the artistic intention rather than the market value of the materials used. Maierhofer keeps coming up with new statements - using acrylic glass and precious metals in the 1970s, pewter and gold in the 1980s and, in the 1990s, aluminium, steel and computer technology while his most recent work features the new material CORIAN®. A new publication in our Art Jewellery Series, this is the first comprehensive monograph surveying Fritz Maierhofer's work from the 1960s to the present. With superlative colour illustrations and texts by a group of distinguished specialists in the field (including Ralph Turner and Graziella Folchini Grassetto). Text in German and English.

Read more less

This book showcases some unusual costume designs from more than two centuries of European fashion history ranging from Neo-Classicism and Biedermeier to the late 20th century and including cutting-edge creations by European fashion designers as well as aspiring young stars on the fashion firmament. These fashion designs show how ideals of beauty change, often defined by prevailing fashions and shaping the female silhouette in spectacular ways. Focusing on the aspect of moulding femininity , texts and more than two hundred illustrations not only trace the basic lines on which fashion history has developed but shed a sharp light on the relationship between the female body and the dress clothing it. Besides numerous historical costumes the book shows creations from fashion designers such as Azzedine Alaïa, Walter van Beirendonck, Comme des Garçons, Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Romeo Gigli, Eva Gronbach, Hermès, Ja! Jungs, Karl Lagerfeld für Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Moschino, Thierry Mugler, Dries van Noten, Paco Rabanne, Darja Richter, Strenesse Gabriele Strehle, A.F. Vandevorst, Vivienne Westwood, and others.

Read more less

The result of an international interdisciplinary research project, this publication is the first comprehensive monograph of a ceramics factory in Lower Silesia, the Feinsteinzeugfabrik Julius Paul &Sohn in Bunzlau, active from 1893 to 1945. A particular challenge for the authors was the fact that no historic source material had survived, all the regional achives and librairies having been destroyed during the war. Only a few original documents, which withstood expulsion and flight, remained for evaluation. After the most thorough and wide-ranging researches, it became possible to reconstruct almost completely the factory''s whole output on the basis of over 6,000 Julius Paul ceramics scattered among more than forty museums, collections and private owners in Poland, Germany, Austria and Holland, and finally to publish the results. This work seeks to trace the history of a small pottery that became a world-famous company. Through comparison of measurements, shapes and de

Read more less

This book represents the first monograph on modern Norwegian photography from the 1970s to the present. It traces recent developments taking place in the four movements in photography: Subjectivism, Abstraction, Post-Modernism and Photorealism. Subjectivism reigned supreme in Norwegian photography until well into the 1980s. It was rooted in the principles that a photograph could not lie and had to reproduce reality. The early 1990s ushered in the dawn of Post-Modernism in Norwegian art. Photographs were no longer viewed as mirroring reality but rather as works whose meaning was context-related. The result of this shift in focus was an array of new possibilities for expression and new themes. The present book also shows the influences Norwegian artists and photographers from other countries exerted on each other, a tendency that also shows up in the many Norwegian photographers active internationally. After being overshadowed for decades by other art forms, photography now plays a major role on the international art scene (galleries, art fairs, public institutions, collectors).

Read more less

Upholstered pieces of furniture are familiar to all of us as more or less constant companions of everyday life. Upholstery is comfortable, it conveys security and promises comfort, it has a specific design, asserts or creates status and tells a (hi)story. We rarely consider its interior. At the same time, a view into the hidden content of chairs and armchairs is a journey into secrets, into lashed and sprung constructions that prove to be unknown masterpieces of craftsmanship. Deep-Seated. The Secret Art of Upholstery explores furniture and its interiors and explains why upholstery is always also a part of cultural and social history. With contributions by Thomas Andersch, Maximilian Busch, Cordula Fink, Thomas Rudi, Stefanie Seeberg, Thomas Schriefers, Xenia Schürmann, and a foreword by Olaf Thormann. Text in English and German.

Read more less

Earl Krentzin (1929–2021) was a virtuoso silversmith who poured his considerable talents into figurative sculpture, creating whimsical theatrical settings in silver with a wry humour. He was an anomaly in the world of modern craft, having more in common with the 16th-century goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini than with his 20th-century peers. This first full scale monograph on the artist offers the breadth of Krentzin’s engaging creations, which he based on his love of toys, movement, and the mechanical arts. Readers will find humour and pathos in his theatrical settings and verisimilitude in every tiny detail, set amidst the burgeoning crafts scene in Detroit. All will discover a modern master who used amusements and daydreams to unlock the imagination.

Read more less

Sculptor Claus Bury (b. 1946) has been enhancing public spaces in Germany for more than four decades with his monumental sculptures, which by now total more than 100. His canon of forms is comprised of geometric basic corpuses, such as squares and cubes, triangles and pyramids, rectangles, rhombuses and segments, which he employs in a contemporary Archaic style oriented on the antique structures of Egypt, Greece and Mexico. Bury's sculptures are almost always accessible, and the contingent changes in perspective do not only thematise the basic requirements of the human experience of form and space; they also articulate people's experience in their surroundings, impressively underpinning Hegel's theory that the world has a 'house character' and that man is fundamentally a domestic creature. A spectacular review of Claus Bury's monumental works in ships, gates, houses, arches, bridges and temples. Text in English and German.

Read more less

Otto Prutscher (1880-1949) was an architect and a designer in all applied arts media, as well as an exhibition designer, teacher and member of all the important arts and crafts movements, from the Secession to the Wiener Werkstätte and the Werkbund. The MAK - Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna - possesses a comprehensive graphic bequest and many significant objects from Prutscher's design oeuvre. Selected examples of Prutscher's creative work document his long-lasting influential role as a designer and artistic adviser for decorative art companies from Johann Loetz to Thonet. The publication conducts an audit of Prutscher's work as a pacemaker of Viennese modernism - over twenty years since the last show in Vienna and seventy years on from his death. Text in English and German.

Read more less

There are many ways to perceive and interpret contemporary craft objects - for instance, as works of representational art in materials like ceramics, glass, textile, metal or wood, or as functional, handmade everyday objects. In this publication, the editors have invited different voices in craft theory to investigate the perception of contemporary craft as a particular discourse and aesthetic vocabulary. According to the editors, contemporary crafts can benefit from being discussed as representations of reality that do not rely on the concept of autonomy. As such, neither do they rely on the conventional dualism between aesthetic objects and everyday things. The authors investigate the possibility to perceive craft objects from perspectives that relate to the aesthetic tradition of materialism.

Read more less

For almost 20 years, the artist and goldsmith Peter Bauhuis has been exploring a technique for which as yet there are hardly any references. Applying experimental curiosity and creative materials research, he has since worked on the simultaneous casting of different metals, plumbing the depths of the materials' limitations. He plays with chance, directing it so that the vessels emerge in ever new variations. As the metals oxidize, gradations of colour emerge on the objects' surfaces, bringing to mind abstract drawings.The Hamburg-based photographer Hans Hansen, regarded as one of the most important product and still life photographers, has taken his own unique look at the objects, staging 18 current vessel works from Peter Bauhuis's Simultanea series.Text in English and German.

Read more less

In the 1950s, a large number of internationally renowned artists created pictures made of ceramic. In 1956, in close collaboration with the artist and ceramicist Richard Bampi, Julius Bissier developed a ceramic work for the University of Freiburg. The abstract composition on a wall in the city centre measures over 19.5 metres long by 2.6 metres high (64 × 8.5 feet). Its restoration and relaunch is occasion to examine more closely the story of its genesis. The distinctiveness of the artwork becomes clear against a backdrop of the cultural politics oriented on France in Freiburg after 1945. Unexpected parallels in contemporaneous ceramic murals by Fernand Léger, Joan Miró, and Victor Vasarely are revealed and make the Freiburg ceramic picture a unique work in the post-war art of Germany. Text in German.

Read more less

Thorvald Hellesen (1888-1937) was a Norwegian avant-garde artist who lived and worked in Paris in the 1910s and 1920s. He and his wife, the French artist Hélène Perdriat, were part of a circle of artists that included Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Constantin Brâncuși, Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, and many others. In his short yet intense life, Thorvald Hellesen created an impressive unique oeuvre, oriented on Modernism, consisting of oil paintings, watercolours, gouaches, drawings, design projects, and textiles. Nevertheless, even in Norway he is only known to a few. With this publication the authors Dag Blakkisrud, Matthew Drutt, and Hilde Mørch have created a written portrait of Hellesen. In addition to classifying him within the history of art, they try to find explanations as to why his artistic practice is only now being considered important and interesting for Norwegian and international art history.

Read more less

In the 1960s Friedrich Becker began to create the first kinetic jewellery objects, pieces that respond to movements of the body. This documentation is the first survey of this significant artist where all areas of his work are represented'

Read more less

The catalogue Tunnel presents works from 2018 to 2023 by ceramicist Johannes Nagel (*1979). The majority of the objects were formed by the artist’s hands digging into sand to form cavities, negative spaces, which were then molded and revealed using liquid porcelain. By doing this, says co-author Esther Niebel, the artist imprints his own presence in to the objects. In addition to the extraordinary shapes thus created, expressive colours and the painting of the objects play a central role in Nagel’s work. Accompanied by essays, the excavated and cast pieces are presented in full-page photographs in a staccato portrayal of objects and ideas. Text in English and German.

Read more less

James Wilson Morrice: Paintings and Drawings of Venice is the first comprehensive overview of the artist’s images of Venice, Italy. Living in Paris for most of his life, Morrice (1865–1924) was the first Canadian painter to make regular trips to Venice from the mid 1890s to about 1908. This book situates Morrice within the history of Venice and Venetian art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by looking carefully at his more than 100 modernist paintings and numerous drawings of “La Serenissima.” During his lifetime, Morrice’s Venetian pictures appeared in art exhibitions in Paris, London and other European countries, as well as in Montreal and the United States. Constantly cited in exhibition reviews, Morrice was praised for his modernity, and his Venice works have ensured his fame and importance for years to come.

Read more less

Alongside Erasmus of Rotterdam, Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522) is one of the most important European humanists whose works marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era. The year 2022 marks the 500th anniversary of the Pforzheim-born jurist, Hebraist, and religious philosopher’s death, cause indeed for an exhibition and publication to bring jewellery, writings, and language into a stimulating dialogue and to offer new meanings to the titular mystery of signs. At the fore stands the human quest for understanding and tolerance, which has lost none of its relevance today. One particular focal point comprises selected manuscripts and works by Reuchlin, highlighted from new perspectives. An additional emphasis is placed on objects that reflect Reuchlin’s cognitive world through script and symbols from the resplendent collection of the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim [Pforzheim jewellery museum]. With contributions by Jonathan Boyd, Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, Matthias Dall’Asta, Cornelie Holzach, Wolfgang Mayer, Susanne Nagel, Katja Poljanac, Stefan Rhein, Nathan Ron, Isabel Schmidt-Mappes, Pierre Vesperin, and Anja Wolkenhauer. Text in German.

Read more less

With a focus on the women designers of early avant-garde jewellery, this publication paints a fascinating picture of Austrian jewellery production from the 1970s to the present day. The show brings together some 80 jewellery objects, many of which exemplify sculptural and conceptual approaches to jewellery design. Selected works from more recent generations not only highlights references to works of the pioneers but also attests to the developments of a contemporary, vibrant jewelry scene, whose diversity is yet to be discovered. The book’s title refers to the landmark exhibition Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn: Aktuelle Kunst von Frauen (Willful Art: Contemporary Art by Women), which took place at the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts in Vienna in 1985 and is regarded as a milestone in the artistic and social history of women. Text in English and German.

Read more less

Margit Jäschke (*1962) lives and works as an independent artist in Halle (Saale), Germany. It was here in the 1980s that she studied at the Burg Giebichenstein art school under Renate Heintze and Dorothea Prühl. Her work — collage, jewellery, drawings, and objects — celebrates inspiration, the origin of all creativity. She delights her audience with her very unique vision of the 'poetry of things'. The title of her publication is symbolic of her oeuvre: Kairos is the Greek god of the fortuitous moment, who can only be caught fleetingly by his forelock. It is this precious moment that Margit Jäschke seizes, harnessing it to fuel her creativity. Discover this renowned artist’s multifaceted oeuvre, which blurs the boundaries between jewellery, painting, and sculpture. This book accompanies an exhibition of her work that will travel throughout Germany between 2022 and 2024. Text in English and German.

Read more less

Renowned American textile artist and sculptor Gyöngy Laky (b. 1944) was once described as a 'wood whisperer'. Her highly individual, puzzle-like assemblages of timber and textiles helped to significantly propel the growth of the contemporary fiber-arts movement. Laky’s art traverses an extraordinary personal story: Born amid the bombings of World War II, she escaped from post-war, Soviet-dominated Hungary; was sponsored by a family in Ohio, went to grade school in Oklahoma, and went on to study at the University of California, Berkeley. She followed this by founding the Fiberworks Center for Textile Arts in the 1970s and fostering innovations as a professor at the University of California, Davis. This book provides insight into her studio practice, activism, and teaching philosophy, which champions sustainable art and design, original thinking, and the value of the unexpected.

Read more less

The term ‘craftsmanship’ is associated with individuality, uniqueness, decorative potential, artistic quality, attention to material and to process. But what does craftsmanship mean today? This exhibition catalogue of nearly 600 pages explores the meaning of craftsmanship in the context of the outstanding collection of the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Frankfurt, Germany) in a monumental survey of 700 items dating from 1945 to the present. Scale reproductions of plates, furniture, cutlery, jewellery and vases highlight their surprising variety of form. In their essays, the ten authors take diverse approaches to the broad terrain of craftsmanship: from the relationship between East Asia and Western ceramics, via the handicrafts of the Romantic period, to the adventure that is arts and crafts today. The title plays on the perceived parallel between the ability of the cactus to survive and thrive in adverse conditions, and the future of the hand-made object in an industrial world.

Read more less

The global porcelain scene is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the International Ceramics Fair and Seminar, which was founded by Brian Haughton and his wife, Anna, in London in 1982. That was just the beginning: further fairs and accompanying symposia on design, jewellery, and antiques in New York and Dubai were to follow, becoming important venues of exchange, not just for trade but for the academic world too. To mark this anniversary, more than 40 renowned scholars were asked to write about selected European ceramics that had been traded in Brian Haughton’s gallery and that he had been particularly passionate about. This publication is a wonderful kaleidoscope of unique ceramics from the 18th and 19th centuries, released as a homage to Brian Haughton, The Man with the Butterfly Tie.

Read more less

Small China presents Chinese miniatures from 5,000 BCE up to the 15th century. The pocketsize representations of supernatural beings, people, animals, or everyday objects are virtually uncharted in East Asian crafts — even in China, these objects in jade, bronze, ivory, and porcelain are little known. Koos de Jong explores their arcane meanings and traces their production and the market for such treasures, which, contrary to official secular and religious art, include those devoted to taboo subjects such as erotica or humour. The miniatures had many different functions, from insignia, fetishes and devotional objects to burial gifts or toys. They could express good wishes or even serve as bribes. A rare glimpse into the everyday life of ordinary people and into Chinese handicrafts from thousands of years ago!

Read more less

Gestural sculptures formed in ceramics are the focus of Erwin Wurm: Dissolution. Wurm’s anthropomorphic ceramic sculptures, their forms oscillating between the ephemeral and the physical, are characterised by performative gestures. They affirm the inherent plasticity of the material clay, recalling the potency of bozzetti, in which artists from the Renaissance onwards were able to give direct expression to their innermost creative ideas. In Dissolution (2018–2020), Wurm sets out in search of a creative process that cannot be completely controlled. “Dissolution” has connotations of disintegration, decay, decomposition, and vanishing boundaries. The sculptures — with their protruding fingers, hands, lips, mouths, breasts, bellies, noses, and ears — force their way out of a clay mass. Text in English and German.

Read more less

For Thomas Putze, performance is a snapshot of a moment, a play on possibilities, and at the same time a well-planned and sophisticated act to captivate the onlooker. Yet above all, it is thinking, drawing, sculpting, and realising with and through the body, which he treats just as relentlessly as all the other materials in his works. He swings through trees, occupies church facades, and submerges himself in mud; frequently without clothing or scantily wrapped in plastic sheeting, he gauges and challenges the physical and thus social space between us bystanders. Thomas Putze typifies the risk of being human, with all its failings and plenty of humour. He not only holds us to account but rather invites us to do this ourselves: to partake in art and to reflect on the performance we call life. Text in English and German.

Read more less

The architecture by Arne Jacobsen and Otto Weitling is of outstanding importance for post-war modernism in Germany. The calibre of their projects, however, has been forgotten. Gesamtkunstkwerke closes this gap in the appreciation of their work with a comprehensive presentation of seven out of eight German projects by the Danish master architects. Jacobsen and Weitling’s Scandinavian functionalism is a reflection of the visions of the former FRG – designs and commissions grounded in democracy, prestige and efficiency. The publication also takes stock of how the legacy of late modernism is being handled. The journey through the architects’ locales leads us to the sea, to model towns and to the intricacies of modernism, prompting a debate in accordance with Otto Weitling: ‘Pros and cons would be a positive sign because a building that isn’t talked about is usually not worth talking about.’ Text in English and German.

Read more less

This monograph presents the Norwegian artist Bente Sætrang (b. 1946) and her forty years of commitment to the medium of textile. Sætrang is known for her intensive investigation of trompe l'oeil drapery, bold textile printing, monumental abstract colour studies, and juicy charcoal drawings. She was Norway's first professor of textile art, and her political engagement and unique knowledge of colour and textile qualities permeate her work. Through essays, poems, interviews, montages, and rich imagery, this monograph sheds light on the different phases of Sætrang's artistic practice and provides an excellent overview of this exciting artistic work. Text in English and Norwegian. Published to accompany an exhibition at Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo (NO), between 22 October and 22 November 2020.

Read more less

Switzerland is well-known for its host of remarkable collections of 18th century European porcelain. Exemplary representatives include renowned collectors such as Dr Albert Kocher and Dr Marcel Nyffeler. A number of these magnificent collections can be found today - as a result of endowments or gifts - in Switzerland's renowned institutions. Today, the 'white gold' from Saxony still fascinates Swiss connoisseurs: this publication is dedicated to their passion for collecting and for exceptional treasures, and is enriched with articles by renowned art historians and porcelain experts. An impressive overview of the gems from the most sumptuous Meissen porcelain of the early period.

Read more less

Under the ambiguous term HUNT (English: the hunt; Estonian: the wolf), Kadri Mälk unites her collection of contemporary art jewellery. As a lone wolf, the Estonian artist and teacher compiled the pieces in her eternal hunt for beauty, mystery and creativity. Since jewellery is designed to be worn, Mälk's fellow artists are not only immortalised in these works; they also pose in portraits alongside their favourite pieces. The jewellery is thus brought to life on the bodies of the collector's friends and companions. Text in English and Estonian.

Read more less

In 1908 Peter Behrens recruited the young Walter Gropius in his architect's office - but threw him out again in 1910. Gestalt und Hinterhalt [Form and Attack] places a tongue-in-cheek focus on relationships among artists that revolved around the Bauhaus and Darmstadt's artists' colony Mathildenhöhe, Germany. We gain insights into the numerous love affairs of Alma Mahler, and follow Herbert Bayer, who set off from Darmstadt to Weimar, and soon toppled Walter Gropius's second marriage. This book narrates the story of Bauhaus in a way never told before - through not only the successes and talents of those involved, but also through their failures and failings. Text in German.

Read more less

In the publication Step by Step. Schuhdesign im Wandel (Shoe Design through the Ages), the Deutsches Ledermuseum in Offenbach am Main presents exceptional designs from its extensive shoe collection of over 10,000 objects: high heels and trainers, slippers and fetish boots all demonstrate how our shoes reflect our culture. They show an awareness of style and of health, strengthen status, express a sense of fashion or act as a political statement. In combining historical exhibits from across the globe and current models, spectacular pairings result that highlight timeless concepts and varying tastes. By means of 2,000-year-old slippers from Egypt, Iranian riding boots from the 17th century and Italian designer shoes, the authors explain how shoes have become what they are today. Where did the flip flop originate? How did the heel develop and how long have we had left and right shoes? All these questions and more are answered in Step by Step. Featuring shoes by Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, Salvatore Ferragamo, Beth Levine, Christian Louboutin, François Pinet, Alexander McQueen, Mary Quant, Roger Vivier, Vivienne Westwood, and many more. Text in German. Published to accompany an exhibition at Deutsches Ledermuseum, Offenbach am Main, between 26 October 2019 and 31 May 2020.

Read more less

Over the past twenty-five years, the Austrian artist Margit Hart has created an extremely diverse oeuvre of contemporary jewellery. Mindscapes, the name of her latest group of works, is synonymous with her ever changing jewellery objects. Since 2009 Margit Hart's work - parallel to her jewellery has extended into abstract photography, resulting in a mutual dialogue between both disciplines. In her Schattenflug [Fleeting Shadows] works, she goes beyond illustrating the purely representational to create imaginary three-dimensional pictorial spaces that immerse us in mysterious worlds of light and shade. This monograph showcases the interplay between both modes of artistic expression in a tangible way. Text in English and German.

Read more less

Sverre Bjertnaes was higly influenced by realistic painter Odd Nerdrum, although he now merges figurative and abstract painting. Mid-career overview of the work of one of the leading contemporary Norwegian artists today. The development of the artist is presented across 14 chapters comprising work and exhibition views. Sverre Bjertnaes is considered one of the leading contemporary Norwegian artists today. He himself often refers to his body of works as a fragmented 'stream of images' collected from art history, vernacular culture and his own life. This authoritative monograph on the artist features his oeuvre from the 1990s to the present day, with more than 200 illustrations. The book presents the full range of Bjertnaes's works, covering painting and drawing as well as sculpture and the tableaux installations he has developed in later years. Bjertnas embraces the conceptual approaches of photorealism as well as merging figurative and abstract painting, and experimenting with the use of new media.

Read more less

Gene Koss creates majestic works in glass and steel that require demanding techniques to realise their monumental scale. These massive volumes of glass are married with elaborately engineered steel elements. Koss casts molten glass directly from the hot furnace, working with teams of highly-skilled assistants and rigging together intricate systems for transporting his finished abstract works for display in museums, galleries and public spaces. The artistic works deal with the self-sacrificing work of the American farmers in whose milieu the artist grew up. The first monograph published on the work of this groundbreaking glass artist features Koss's most important achievements and, through insightful essays by curators and critics, places them in historic perspective.

Read more less

Since the 1970s the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich has held culturally significant collections of Heinrich Harrer (1912-2006) and Peter Aufschnaiter (1899-1973). Between 1945 until 1951 both lived in Tibet. Aufschnaiter then worked in Nepal, whereas Harrer undertook numerous expeditions. In the 1960s he travelled to Asia, South America and Oceania. In the artefacts brought back, craft skills as well as social organisational structures and world views from the local communities are represented. They also reflect the viewpoints of the travellers themselves. For this publication all of the Zurich collections have been researched for the first time. 'Starting with the object', moments of encountering and social change as well as historical and cultural developments can be retraced, and the seemingly obvious is thus pieced together into an extended map or knowledgescape. Accompanies an exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich (CH), from 1 July 2018-8 September 2019.

Read more less

2018 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first international symposium of silver jewellery Jablonec '68. Thanks to the liberalisation endeavours as part of the 'Prague Spring', European jewellery artists from East and West came together for a 'summit' at the invitation of the Czech artists' association in Jablonec, northern Bohemia. On the guest list were such renowned names as Anton Cepka, Hermann Junger and Bruno Martinazzi - artists celebrated today as the founders of studio jewellery. The jewellery pieces that developed at that time have remained in the Muzeum skla a bizuterie in Jablonec nad Nisou and to this day have lost nothing of their exceptional and pioneering aura. This publication - which contains a reprint of the original catalogue from 1968 - makes these pieces accessible to a wider audience for the very first time. A document that in a wholly authentic way allows the reader to experience this unique historical moment in the history of the international studio jewellery scene. Text in English and German. Accompanies the exhibition at Die Neue Sammlung The Design Museum, Munich (DE), 10 March-3 June 2018.

Read more less

The publication Beneath the Skin provides an overview of the last ten years of work by the Swiss artist Corina Staubli (b. 1959). It shows the altercation in the tension between exterior and interior worlds and the ambivalence of beauty, the beguiling, the sinister and even the unfathomable. With diverse media - be it porcelain, latex, painting or digital collage - the artist directs a dialogue of opposing sides. The question she always poses is 'how does the clandestine and the unconscious reveal itself in something that is manifest' - and, vice versa, 'how does the external view reveal the internal view'? The book itself is sure to arouse intrigue, as it features a nylon sculpture on the cover! Text in English and German.

Read more less

Ebbe Weiss-Weingart (b. 1923) is one of the pioneers of international studio jewellery. For over seventy years she has enriched the contemporary jewellery scene with her diverse works. Her inception in the 1950s and 1960s with structured surfaces and galvanised sculptured pieces will never be forgotten. Alongside figurative motifs - in particular, her portrayals of humans and animals - she also created pieces with an ironic and quirky touch. In her last phase of creativity, which began in the 1990s, she had a penchant for working with jewellery made from Chinese jade reliefs. Around 200 illustrations of these jewellery objects documents her award-winning work, and along with previously unpublished photographic material, expands on her hitherto unknown accomplishments. Includes, in full, her speech on the occasion of receiving the Gesellschaft fur Goldschmiedekunst's Ring of Honour, which gives an insight into Ebbe Weiss-Weingart's philosophy and working processes.

Read more less

With her unique artistic installations, Madame Tricot - real name Dominique Kaehler Schweizer - displaces the viewer into an illusory world of knitted delicacies. Her smokehouses, refrigerators, counters of sausage and cheese, and platters of vegetables and desserts are full of wit and irony. The knitted human heads and anthropomorphic specimens, on the other hand, confront the viewer with the breaking of taboos and surreal allusions. The installation-like staging represents a balancing act of fine art and virtuosic craftsmanship, and draws on the Eat Art movement of the 1960s. The work of the Swiss artist thus repeatedly awakens associations with the work of Daniel Spoerri, Dieter Roth and Fischli/Weiss. Text in English and German.

Read more less

The Vessantara Jataka is the tale of Buddha's last life, before he was reborn as the historical Buddha 2,500 years ago. In this earlier existence as Prince Vessantara he demonstrated evidence of the highest virtue that constitutes an enlightened man: generosity. Vessantara gave away everything dear to him - in the climactic scene of the story, even his wife and children. In North-East Thailand the Vessantara tale is celebrated annually as Bun Phra Wet. Pha Phra Wet - 'Vessantara cloths' - form the visual framework for this festival; they are hand-painted scrolls, which can reach lengths of up to one hundred metres. Devotion presents, for the very first time, a selection of six full-length Vessantara scrolls and explores a contemporary multimedia celebration of an ancient Buddhist text.

Read more less

The unique wire model collection of the Swiss collector Edmond Remondino documents an early phase of a craft that today enjoys international renown with collectors and researchers. In the 1970s and 1980s the models evolved from real prototypes such as race cars from the Rally du Burundi; today, as then, the extraordinary aesthetic, alternating between minimalism and comic-type exaggeration, captures the imagination. However, these cars, planes and helicopters, often referred to as 'recycled art', are in no way assembled from rubbish. In Burundi old tin cans and metal wire are considered an important basic material in handicraft. Interdisciplinary essays discuss the works of the self-taught working engineers in terms of their skillful production and the history of Burundi as well as from an industrial design viewpoint, showing completely new aspects of a genre of African art that is now more than forty years old. Text in English and German.

Read more less

The publication for the 18th Silver Triennial documents the results of the international competition for current trends in the silver scene announced by the Gesellschaft fur Goldschmiedekunst e.V. and the Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau. Renowned silversmiths and metal designers who are active across the globe as well as up-and-coming artists present their ideas for pitchers, bowls, tumblers, cutlery, candelabras and accessories. A top-class jury Paul Derrez, Galerie Ra, Amsterdam; Dr Wolfgang Schepers, retired director of the Museum August Kestner, Hanover; and Bruno Sievering-Tornow, master silver- and goldsmith, and specialist teacher at the Staatliche Zeichenakademie Hanau selects the best of the best from 2016.

Read more less

'Oishii!' - 'Delicious!' is the most common word in Japan to describe food. Expressing culinary taste goes hand in hand with the social and cultural identity of those eating it. Hence food is much more than nutrition; rather it is tied to all areas of human life and illustrates the various aspects of a society and its culture. Against this backdrop renowned authors devote themselves to Japanese food and drink culture. How is rice cultivated? How do you catch bonitos? What is the secret to good sake and how did green tea become a lifestyle product? Hitherto partly undisclosed treasures from the Linden-Museum Stuttgart and valuable examples from home and abroad draw attention to the rich material culture of food and drink in Japan. Text in German.

Read more less

Tsha-tsha are terracottas, or unfired earthenware figures, in the form of cast-sculptured stupas/choerten (reliquaries) or reliefs, which are decorated in a variety of religious motifs in bas-relief or half-relief. These votive offerings in earth or loam are produced by hand by believers or monks with models (casts) and serve many different purposes in every day religious life. With the depiction of over 360 objects, this book offers an outstanding review of the diverse manifestations and the extensive iconography of these exceptional ritual objects from the Buddhist cultural sphere. Text in German.

Read more less

Jewelry designed by Ute Eitzenhofer is intrinsically complex and contradictory. Her designs range from playful, sensual, reassuring, to dark, angry, provocative and brutal. Intrinsic beauty and its value to society is a recurring theme of her work. The jewelry she creates is autonomous, it makes a statement; created not for an abstract display case, these are strong artifacts that become complete, that find some meaning, only when worn on the body. The narrative Eitzenhofer strives for is one of social criticism, her designs are perceived as opulent yet reflect a certain image or concept inherent in the modern world. She has consistently challenged and explored the themes of freedom, time, sensuality and worth in her work. This volume is a collection of designs that range from her earlier creative work to the last ten years; thought-provoking, imaginative and often extreme, this is jewelry as a social statement, rather than an accessory. Contents: Cornelie Holzach - A Walk; Wilhelm Lindemann- A Summon to Think for Yourself; Marjan Unger- Elegant but also Malicious. Text in English and German.

Read more less

A key, a safety pin, a balloon, a propeller, a voltmeter - these unexpected objects in art jewellery rewrite the world of the Norwegian "jewellery engineer" Sigurd Bronger. He carries over his fascination for machines and instruments in humorously constructed jewellery pieces, and transforms natural materials and everyday objects into meticulously executed, complex and ingenious constructions. In his Oslo "Laboratorium Mechanum", Bronger works on his witty "carrying devices" - brooches, pendants, and rings with balloons, sponges, eggs, even his mother's gallstones, or with medical equipment, which have a greater positive effect on the mind than on the physical well-being. An established feature of his work, which symbolically marks the entrance into Bronger's world, is the key. This current publication offers such a key; a review of over thirty years of his creative work: from Bronger's experiments with materials and constructions in the struggle with the avant-garde Dutch art jewellery to his attempts in fathoming out states of expansion and emptiness in jewellery. He revolutionised contemporary creative jewellery work in such a way, not just in Norway, where to this day he still finds new forms of expression at the interface of jewellery, art, design and engineering. With works from the 1980s to the present day, this book will carry you off into the humorous world of the decorative engineering art of Sigurd Bronger, one of the most significant Norwegian jewellery artists today. Text in English, German & Norwegian.

Read more less

Whereas the Western world views dolls as children's toys - apart from a few adults with a passion for collecting them - in South Africa dolls are part of a tribe's cultural heritage. They are not toys but objects that are laden with associations and the ritual and religious beliefs of a community. African dolls are seen as mediators between the natural and the supernatural; they were created in a great variety of materials and used for ritual, spiritual and healing purposes. All dolls in this collection come from a Zulu household in Msinga, a tribal region in the former province of Natal, today KwaZulu-Natal, on the eastern coast of South Africa. Made by women of the tribe between 1987 and 1994, they document the end of an agrarian-oriented population and the development towards a modern industrial society in South Africa. In numerous interviews with the women of this tribe, the author captured the meaning and the content of this collection, which has been passed on over many generations from mothers to daughters. Text in English & German.

Read more less

Ulla and Martin Kaufmann have developed their aesthetic agenda together. The techniques used by gold and silversmiths are the focal point of their work and represent the basic thematic focus of their tableware, jewellery and cutlery. It rests on their exploratory approach to materials and the diverse possibilities it provides for expression. Ulla and Martin Kaufmann have been working in their own studio in Hildesheim for nearly forty years. The two artists have thus acquired unique skills over years of experience especially the knowledge of the properties of silver and gold, their materials of choice. This profound knowledge is an essential part of the indissoluble union of design and execution. The connotations are always dual: the form of objects stems from practical considerations; is, therefore, close to ideas of functional design. At the same time, individual expression born of the artists' mastery of their craft and their exacting aesthetic standards surrounds these pieces with the aura of works of art. This book reveals the secrets and beauty of the stunning pieces made by Ulla and Martin Kaufmann. In showcasing these objects, it establishes their aesthetic permanence as timelessly practical works. This book is published to accompany the exhibition of the same title at the Neues Museum, Staatliches Museum fur Kunst und Design in Nurnberg (starting on 18th March 2010), the Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus in Hanau (starting on 15th August 2010) and the Grassi Museum in Leipzig (starting on 17th November 2010).

Read more less

This new publication from the Swiss art theorist Peter Stohler unites solo and group interviews with five women artists, who for various reasons no longer live and work in their native countries. With questions relating to the importance of their origins, their migrant status, their role as women working in art and the effect of their (in some cases traditional) training in art on their work, Peter Stohler proceeds like 'tomography', exposing section by section layers, which - viewed as a whole - reveal what is special about each artist's work as well as the links between them. Peter Stohler has discovered what they all have in common: a refusal to be distracted by the trend towards working on an individual oeuvre, an approach which might, in the positive sense of the term, be called 'anachronistic' in the context of the contemporary art scene. Photographs by Judith Schonenberger (b. 1977 in Zurich, lives in Bern), who took them during the interviews, complete the book. Interviewed artists: Katja Loher (Video, b. 1978 in Schaffhausen, CH, lives in New York), Joulia Strauss (Conceptual artist, b. 1974 in St Petersburg, lives in Berlin), Jung-Yeun Jang (painter, b. 1968 in Seoul, lives in Basel), Nicole Ottiger (painting/drawing, b. 1968 in Cliftonville, UK, lives in Lucerne and Zurich), and Irina Polin (photography, b. 1975 in Moscow, lives in Berne).

Read more less