By Nathalia Brodskaïa
POD ISBN: 9781646991907
215.9 x 270 mm – 200 pages
Born at the dawn of the 20th century, Fauvism burst onto the artistic scene at the 1905 Salon d’Automne with great controversy by throwing bright, vibrant colours in the face of artistic convention. Fuelled by change, artists like Matisse, Derain, and Vlaminck searched for a new chromatic language by using colour out of its habitual context. Freed from the strict technique advocated by the École des Beaux-Arts, they used colour as their main resource, their only standard seen in flat tints, saturating their stunning paintings. The author invites us to experience this vivid artistic evolution that, although encompassing a short amount of time, left its mark on the path to modernity.
By Nathalia Brodskaïa
POD ISBN: 9781683259404
205 x 260 mm – 72 pages
Born at the dawn of the 20th-century, Fauvism burst onto the artistic scene at the 1905 Salon d’Automne with great controversy by throwing bright, vibrant colours in the face of artistic convention. Fuelled by change, artists like Matisse, Derain, and Vlaminck searched for a new chromatic language by using colour out of its habitual context. Freed from the strict technique advocated by the École des Beaux-Arts, they used colour as their main resource, their only standard seen in flat tints, saturating their stunning paintings. The author invites us to experience this vivid artistic evolution that, although encompassing a short amount of time, left its mark on the path to modernity.
By Jean Capart, Elie Faure, Victoria Charles
POD ISBN: 9781683259213
205 x 260 mm – 76 pages
Egyptian art is perhaps the most impersonal that exists. The artist effaces himself. But he has such an innate sense of life, a sense so directly moved and so limpid that everything of life which he describes seems defined by that sense, to issue from the natural gesture, from the exact attitude, in which one no longer sees stiffness. His impersonality resembles that of the trees bowing in the wind with a single movement and without resistance, or that of the water which wrinkles into equal circles all moving in the same direction.
From afar, Egyptian art seems changeless and forever like itself. From nearby, it offers, like that of all the other peoples, the spectacle of great evolutions, of progress toward freedom of expression, of researches in imposed hieratism. Egypt is so far from us that it all seems on the same plane. One forgets that there are fifteen or twenty centuries, the age of Christianity — between the “Seated Scribe” and the great classic period, twenty-five or thirty centuries, fifty, perhaps — twice the time that separates us from Pericles and Phidias — between the pyramids and the Saite school, the last living manifestation of the Egyptian ideal.
By Vincent Arthur Smith
POD ISBN: 9781646991822
215.9 x 270 mm – 256 pages
India, with its extensive and colourful history, has produced an artistic tradition in many forms. Architecture, painting, sculpture, calligraphy, mosaics, and artisan products all display the country’s cultural, religious, and philosophical richness. From Hinduism, with its pantheon of imagery of gods, goddesses, animals, and many other figures, to Islam, with its astounding architecture and intricate calligraphy; the many facets of India have given rise to a fascinating and beautiful collection of artworks.
Featuring incredible images and a text written by a renowned scholar on the subject, this work offers an in-depth look at the masterpieces of India, showcasing this fascinating country and her artists while covering a wide range of styles and techniques.
By Vladimir Lukonin, Anatoli Ivanov
POD ISBN: 9781646991358
215.9 x 270 mm – 256 pages
By Robert Weinstein
POD ISBN: 9781683259268
205 x 260 mm – 72 pages
India, with its extensive and colourful history, has produced an artistic tradition in many forms. Architecture, painting, sculpture, calligraphy, mosaics, and artisan products all display the country’s cultural, religious, and philosophical richness. From Hinduism, with its pantheon of imagery of gods, goddesses, animals, and many other figures, to Islam, with its astounding architecture and intricate calligraphy; the many facets of India have given rise to a fascinating and beautiful collection of artworks. Featuring incredible images and a text written by a renowned scholar on the subject, this work offers an in-depth look at the masterpieces of India, showcasing this fascinating country and her artists while covering a wide range of styles and techniques.
By Vladimir Lukonin & Anatoli Ivanov
POD ISBN: 9781646991341
215.9 x 270 mm – 256 pages
Housed in the Hermitage Museum along with other institutes, libraries, and museums in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union are some of the most magnificent treasures of Persian Art. For the most part, many of these works have been lost, but have been catalogued and published here for the first time with an unsurpassed selection of colour plates.
In a comprehensive introduction, Vladimir Lukonin, Director of the Oriental Art section of the Hermitage Museum, and his colleague Anatoli Ivanov have broadly documented the major developments of Persian Art: from the first signs of civilisation on the plains of Iran around the 10th century BCE through the early 20th century. In the second part of the book they have catalogued Persian Art giving locations, origins, descriptions, and artist biographies where available. Persian Art demonstrates a common theme which runs through the art of the region over the past three millennia. Despite many religious and political upheavals, Persian Art whether in its architecture, sculpture, frescoes, miniatures, porcelain, fabrics, or rugs; whether in the work of the humble craftsmen or the high art of court painters displays the delicate touch and subtle refinement which has had a profound influence on art throughout the world.
By Vladimir Lukonin, Anatoli Ivanov
POD ISBN: 9781683259299
205 x 260 mm – 72 pages
Housed in the Hermitage Museum along with other institutes, libraries, and museums in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union are some of the most magnif icent treasures of Persian Art. For the most part, many of these works have been lost, but have been catalogued and published here for the first time with an unsurpassed selection of colour plates. In a comprehensive introduction, Vladimir Loukonine, Director of the Oriental Art section of the Hermitage Museum, and his colleague Anatoli Ivanov have broadly documented the major developments of Persian Art: from the first signs of civilisation on the plains of Iran around the 10th-century BCE through the early 20th-century. Persian Art demonstrates a common theme which runs through the art of the region over the past three millennia. Despite many religious and political upheavals, Persian Art – whether in its architecture, sculpture, frescoes, miniatures, porcelain, fabrics, or rugs; whether in the work of the humble craftsmen or the high art of court painters – displays the delicate touch and subtle refinement which has had a profound influence on art throughout the world.
By Maurice Delafosse
POD ISBN: 9781646991723
215.9 x 270 mm – 256 pages
African Art invites you to explore the dynamic origins of the vast artistic expressions arising from the exotic and mystifying African continent.
Since its rediscovery through the colonial exhibitions at the end of the 19th century, African art has been an unlimited source of inspiration for artists who, over time, have perpetually recreated these artworks.
The power of Sub-Saharan African art lies within its visual diversity, demonstrating the creativity of the artists who continue to conceptualise new stylistic forms. From Mauritania to South Africa and from the Ivory Coast to Somalia, statues, masks, jewellery, pottery, and tapestries compose a variety of daily and ritual objects brought forth from these richly varied societies.
By Stephen W. Bushell, Pierre Emmanuel Klingbeil
POD ISBN: 9781683259176
205 x 260 mm – 72 pages
By Gaston Migeon & Henri Saladin
POD ISBN: 9781646992294
215.9 x 270 mm – 256 pages
Islamic art is not the art of a nation or of a people, but that of a religion. Spreading from the Arabian Peninsula, the proselyte believers conquered, in a few centuries, a territory spreading from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Multicultural and multiethnic, this polymorphic and highly spiritual art in which all representations of God were prohibited developed canons and various motifs of great decorative value.
Thorough and inventive, these artists expressed their beliefs by creating monumental masterpieces such as the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Alhambra in Granada, architectural works in which one recognises the stylisation of motifs of the Muslim ceramics. Lively and colourful, Islamic art mirrors the richness of these people whose common denominator was the belief in one singular truth: the absolute necessity of creating works whose beauty equalled their respect for God.
By Michail Uspenski
POD ISBN: 9781646991792
215.9 x 270 mm – 256 pages
If the lovely ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ should, during one of those volcanic throes which threaten her extinction, sink forever beneath the depths of ocean, she would still live for us through the magic brush of Hiroshige.
Gazing at his landscapes, our imagination takes us to a land of rain showers and sunsets – a fairy scene, where the rainbow falls to earth, shattered into a thousand prisms – where water softly flows towards the horizon.
Considered as the last Ukiyo-e master, Hiroshige was able to use the richness of colours to offer the viewer a sparkling vision of legendary Japan, thanks to his meticulous descriptions of well-known places.
By Edmond de Goncourt
POD ISBN: 9781646991808
215.9 x 270 mm – 256 pages
Katsushika Hokusai is without a doubt the most famous Japanese artist known in the Western world since the middle of the nineteenth century.
Reflecting the artistic expression of an isolated civilisation, the works of Hokusai, one of the first Japanese artists to emerge in Europe, greatly influenced the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists painters, such as Vincent van Gogh.
Considered during his life as a living Ukiyo-e master, Hokusai fascinates us with the variety and the significance of his work which spanned almost ninety years and is presented here in all its breadth and diversity.
By Edmond de Goncourt
POD ISBN: 9781646991815
215.9 x 270 mm – 256 pages
If sensuality had a name, it would be without doubt Utamaro. Delicately underlining the Garden of Pleasures that once constituted Edo, Utamaro, by the richness of his fabrics, the swanlike necks of the women and the mysterious looks, evokes in a few lines the sensual pleasure of the Orient. If some scenes discreetly betray lovers’ games, a great number of his shungas recall that love in Japan is first and foremost erotic.
Beyond the joys of the city, he explores the sobriety of nature with an equal simplicity, evoking evening snows and the evanescence of the moon. With unparalleled finesse his brush reveals in just a few strokes all the refinement of the Kano- school.
Edmond de Goncourt, by bringing the beauty of the Japanese master’s art into light, invites the reader to discover the world within these artworks whose codes and nuances appear at first glance elusive. Through its selection of magnificent prints, this introductory work summons us into the reposeful garden of Aphrodite while discovering, or rediscovering, Japanese art.
By Hans-Jürgen Döpp
POD ISBN: 9781646991686
150 x 220 mm – 96 pages
L’acte d’amour fige le visage en une expression indéfinissable, d’une exceptionnelle intensité. Chaque femme, chaque homme connaît alors un instant de bonheur absolu, qui s’inscrit dans ses yeux, sur ses lèvres. Une onde de plaisir vient ponctuer la transformation du désir en orgasme.
Dans ces moments, où la violence des sens s’exprime, une personne nouvelle apparaît au regard de l’autre.
A l’aide de gravures anciennes, l’auteur, Hans-Jürgen Döpp traque l’explication du mystère qui mène à la plénitude.
By Catherine Noppe, Jean-François Hubert
POD ISBN: 9781646995820
215.9 x 270 mm – 272 pages
Since the foundation of the Au Lac kingdom three centuries ago – famous for their bronze drums and their magnificent artilleries – until the works of the painters from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Indochina, created in Hanoi in 1925, the arts of Vietnam have been marked by its profoundly original cultures and the fusion between Asia and the Occident. The modern Vietnamese civilization has therefore inherited a very rich and multifaceted history.
By Stephen W. Bushell
POD ISBN: 9781646996377
215.9 x 270 mm – 256 pages
As the centre of Far-Eastern art, China has always fascinated Westerners, who take an interest in its religious leaders and savants as much as in its artists. Sophisticated and mysterious, Chinese art has persistently developped for 10,000 years through unequaled talent, which long ago established its artistic preeminence. Admired and imitated by all, today Chinese paintings and porcelain are the timeless reminders of a decadent past which continues to astound people around the world. Dealing not only with architecture, sculpture and painting, but also with bronze and porcelain, this text offers a complete panorama of Chinese arts and civilisation until the fall of the Empire in 1911.
By Jean-François Hubertt
POD ISBN: 9781646996360
215.9 x 270 mm – 232 pages
In the 5th century, the Champa kingdom held sway over a large area of today’s Vietnam. Several magnificent structures still testify to their former presence in the Nha Trang region. Cham Sculpture was worked in a variety of materials, principally sandstone, but also gold, silver and bronze, and primarily illustrated themes from Indian mythology. The kingdom was gradually eroded during the 15th century by the inexorable descent of the people towards the south (“Nam Tiên”) from their original base in the Red River region. The author explores, describes and comments on the various styles of Cham sculpure, drawing on a rich and as yet largely unpublished iconographic vein.
By Marco Polo
POD ISBN: 9781646995851
215.9 x 270 mm – 256 pages
The most famous travel story of the Middle Ages has never lost its charm. A story of true wonder, Marco Polo’s experiences as well as the reported myths transport us to the heart of Central Asia, China, Indochina, and the Indian Ocean. The original manuscripts were accompanied with illustrations realised from the few descriptions made by the traveller. The various illustrations found here will send the reader through the footsteps of Marco Polo, on the path to discovering the distant lands as we know them today.