Ever since Henry David Thoreau's described his two years, two months, and two days of cabin existence at Walden Pond, Massachusetts in Walden, or, Life in the Woods (1854), the idea of a refuge dwelling has seduced the modern psyche. In the past decade, as our material existence and environmental footprint has grown exponentially, architects around the globe have become particularly interested in the possibilities of the minimal, low-impact, and isolated abode.This new TASCHEN title, combining insightful text, rich photography and bright, contemporary illustrations by Marie-Laure Cruschi, explores how this particular architectural type presents special opportunities for creative thinking. In eschewing excess, the cabin limits actual spatial intrusion to the bare essentials of living requirements, while in responding to its typically rustic setting, it foregrounds eco-friendly solutions. As such, the cabin comes to showcase some of the most inventive and forward-looking practice of contemporary architecture, with Renzo Piano, Terunobu Fujimori, Tom Kundig and many fresh young professionals all embracing such distilled sanctuary spaces.The cabins selected for this publication emphasize the variety of the genre, both in terms of usage and geography. From an artist studio on the Suffolk coast in England to eco-home huts in the Western Ghats region of India, this survey is as exciting in its international reach as it is in its array of briefs, clients, and situations. Constant throughout, however, is architectural innovation, and an inspiring sense of contemplation and coexistence as people return to nature and to a less destructive model of being in the world.

Asia promises multisensory marvels. Whether it's a scorching hot curry, the vivid sounds of a local market, or an expert massage in a haven of feng-shui calm, the world's largest continent offers abundant opportunities to invigorate mind and body. From the futuristic urban metropolis to the pristine island shore, from your own piece of paradise in Bali to palatial splendor in India, this revised and updated TASCHEN collection gathers the finest Asian getaways. Each featured hotel is presented with interior and exterior photographs; pricing, service, and contact information; as well as an atmospheric reading recommendation.

Byzantine empresses, French revolutionaries, and Spanish generals: history's most impressive figures stare boldly out of the canvases in this collection of formidable paintings. Each individual represented in these images radiates with strength and splendor; be they an aristocratic widow in mourning, a murdered politician, or a jovial group of Ukrainian rebels. Authors Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen tease out the stories and secrets of 13 masterpieces by artists including Goya, Titian, Velazquez, and Ilya Repin. Regal, holy, and wise, the men and women in these works will inspire you with their conquests and resilience. TASCHEN reproduces these masterworks in stunning quality, working in collaboration with esteemed art collections all over the world, including in Brussels, St. Petersburg, New York, and Naples. Combining astute analysis with magnified painting details, this book is a unique historical investigation in tribute to the movers and shakers of the past.

Discover a world of decorative ideas with this compendium of history's most elegant patterns and ornamental designs. Once out of print, The World of Ornament brings together the two greatest encyclopedic collections of ornament of the 19th century: Auguste Racinet's L'Ornement polychrome Volumes I and II (1875-1888) and Auguste Dupont-Auberville's L'Ornement des tissus (1877) to provide one lavish, indispensable source book spanning jewelry, tile, stained glass, illuminated manuscript, textile and ceramic ornament. Encompassing classical, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Asian and middle-Eastern, as well as European designs from medieval times through the 19th century, this compilation of cultures and esthetics offers a primary reference for artists, historians, designers and patternmakers, and anyone engaged in decorative design and impact.

In the midst of the realist-leaning artistic climate of the Late Gothic and Early Renaissance, Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516) was more than an anomaly. Bosch's paintings are populated with grotesque scenes of fantastical creatures succumbing to all manner of human desire, fantasy, and angst. One of his greatest inventions was to take the figural and scenic representations known as drolleries, which use the monstrous and the grotesque to illustrate sin and evil, and to transfer them from the marginalia of illuminated manuscripts into large-format panel paintings. Alongside traditional hybrids of man and beast, such as centaurs, and mythological creatures such as unicorns, devils, dragons, and griffins, we also encounter countless mixed creatures freely invented by the artist. Many subsidiary scenes illustrate proverbs and figures of speech in common use in Bosch's day. In his Temptation of St Anthony triptych, for example, the artist shows a messenger devil wearing ice skates, evoking the popular expression that the world was "skating on ice"-meaning it had gone astray. In his pictorial translation of proverbs, in particular, Bosch was very much an innovator. Bosch-whose real name was Jheronimus van Aken-was widely copied and imitated: the number of surviving works by Bosch's followers exceeds the master's own production by more than tenfold. Today only 20 paintings and eight drawings are confidently assigned to Bosch's oeuvre. He continues to be seen as a visionary, a portrayer of dreams and nightmares, and the painter par excellence of hell and its demons.Featuring brand new photography of recently restored paintings, this exhaustive book, published in view of the upcoming 500th anniversary of Bosch's death, covers the artist's complete works. Discover Bosch's pictorial inventions in splendid reproductions with copious details and a huge fold-out spread, over 110 cm (43 in.) long, of The Garden of Earthly Delights. Art historian and acknowledged Bosch expert Stefan Fischer examines just what it was about Bosch and his painting that proved so immensely influential.

From the Land of the Pharaohs. The finest treasures from Ancient Egypt. The art of ancient Egypt that has been handed down to us bears no names of its creators, and yet we value the creations of these unknown masters no less than the works of later centuries, such as statues by Michelangelo or the paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. This book introduces some of the most important masterpieces, ranging from the Old Kingdom during the Third millennium BC, to the Late Period in the 9th century BC. The works encompass sculptures, reliefs, sarcophagi, murals, masks, and decorative items, most of them now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but some occupying places of honor as part of the World Cultural Heritage in museums such as the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Featured works include: Seated statue of King Djoser. Wood relief of Hesire on a dining table. Statue of a scribe made of various materials. Funerary relief of Aschait. Sphinx of Sesostris III. Robed statue of Cherihotep. Reliefs from the Temple at Carnac. Sarcophagus of Queen Hatshepsut. Murals from Thebes. Seated figure of the goddess Sachmet. Statue of Queen Teje. Head of Akhenaten (Amenophis IV). Queen Nefertiti. Golden mask of Tutankhamun. Ramses II from Abu Simbel. Horus falcon made of granite. Stone relief from the temple ambulatory at Edfu.

Wine of plenty

Salvador Dali's epicurean guidebook

Hot on the heels (or lobster claws) of the best-selling Salvador Dali phenomenon, Les diners de Gala, TASCHEN presents the artist's equally surreal and sensual viticulture follow-up: The Wines of Gala. A Dalinian take on pleasures of the grape and a coveted collectible, the book sets out to organize wines "according to the sensations they create in our very depths." Through eclectic metrics like production method, weight, and color, the book presents wines of the world in such innovative, Daliesque groupings as "Wines of Frivolity," "Wines of the Impossible," and "Wines of Light."

Bursting with imagery, the book features more than 140 illustrations by Dali. Many of these are appropriated artworks, including various classical nudes, all of them reconstructed with suitably Surrealist, provocative touches, like Jean-Francois Millet's The Angelus, one of Dali's favorite points of reference over the decades. Dali also included what is now considered one of the greatest works from his late "Nuclear Mystic" phase, The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955), which sets the iconic biblical scene in a translucent dodecahedron-shaped space before a Catalonian coastal landscape. Dali was by this stage a devout Catholic, simultaneously captivated by science, optical illusion, and the atomic age.

The first section is dedicated to "Ten Divine Dali Wines," an overview of 10 important wine-growing regions, while the second develops Dali's revolutionary ordering of wine by emotional experience, instead of by geography or variety. Rather than any prescriptive classification, it's a flamboyant, free-flowing manifesto in favor of taste and feeling, as much a multisensory treat as a full-bodied document of Dali's late-stage oeuvre, in which the artist both reflected on formative influences and refined his own cultural legacy.

For over five generations, National Geographic magazine has dazzled and educated people with its incredible photographs and gripping stories from all corners of the earth. Inspired by our monumental Around the World in 125 Years, this volume curates around 200 captivating images sourced directly from the National Geographic historical archives, including 40 new photographs, that traverse the landscapes, history, cultures, and wildlife of Africa. Our continental journey through amazing Africa ranges from evocative early black-and-white pictures to autochromes, from the golden age of Kodachromes to digital. Along the way, we fly over the misty volcanoes of Uganda in a 1950s plane; follow archaeologists into the cool, musky tombs of Egypt; gaze up at the gleaming skyscrapers of Zimbabwe; admire the ritual masks of the Chokwe tribesmen of Angola; get lost in a labyrinth of alleys and souks in Algeria's old quarters; wonder at the fragile red-tufted flowers of South Africa's Drakensberg mountains; trudge behind Kenyan farmers as they battle clouds of flying locusts; and gingerly spy mountain gorillas enjoying the Rwandan sunshine. Long before the Travel Channel and Google Images, these images celebrated Africa's spectacular landscapes, incredible wildlife, and diversity-but also reflect edgier stories that speak of rural hardship, environmental threats, and the lasting remnants of forced colonization. Leaving no stone unturned, this definitive voyage is in equal parts a breathtaking homage to an incomparable continent, and a unique tribute to the world's most famous photography magazine.

Through ancient wonders, world capitals, and tiny places with infectious personalities, Europe packs some serious travel punches. The world's second-smallest continent makes up for size with its intricate cultures and abundant charms, boasting artistic masterpieces and architectural marvels as much as natural splendor. With 130 expert itineraries from The New York Times's popular 36 Hours column, this updated and revised third edition of the best-selling 36 Hours Europe reveals the continent's brightest gems and best-kept secrets, including 20 new stories. From wine tastings in Burgundy to Flamenco in Seville, from historical Cyprus to easygoing Copenhagen, you'll find the antique and the cutting-edge, the renowned and the unexpected, and all distilled into neat 36-hour schedules, so you can transform your weekends into European adventures. More than 4,500 hours' worth of insightful itineraries to make the most of your stay Practical recommendations for nearly 500 restaurants and over 400 hotels Comprehensive revisions to all 130 itineraries New destinations including Belgrade, the Amalfi Coast, Galway, and more Color-coded tabs for each region Nearly 750 photos 20 new stories Detailed city-by-city maps that pinpoint every stop on your itinerary From Antwerp to Zurich, trust TASCHEN's New York Times 36 Hours series with your next travel adventure.

It's Clobberin' Time!

The family super-team

They debuted in Fantastic Four No. 1 in November 1961, and have gone on to be iconic not only as a team, but as individuals. Reed "Mister Fantastic" Richards, Sue "Invisible Girl" Storm, Johnny "Human Torch" Storm, and Ben "The Thing" Grimm are all iconic heroes, who love and fight with each other as only families can ... and they take down otherworldly bad guys like Dr. Doom and Galactus in the process. More than 50 years, thousands of comics, four animated and four feature films later, they remain one of the most enduring and exciting super-teams in pop culture. With 192 pages of images, and text by Roy Thomas, The Little Book of Fantastic Four is your comprehensive guide to this famous foursome!

"I've always been fascinated by sex, the diversity of practices, the will and perseverance of people to realize their fantasies," says Paris photographer Laurent Benaim. "These moments of pleasure captivate me in all their forms: the beautiful, the ugly. I have no criteria for aesthetic selection, only the expression of human desire interests me." That said, Monsieur Benaim seldom photographs simple desire or simple sex acts. His models, he insists, run the show, bringing their uncommon interests to his studio; he acts only as witness and documentarian, offering his creative encouragement and nonjudgmental camera. He shoots only amateurs, people whose lives range from button-down white collar to transient to circus sideshow. They are young and old, straight, gay and transgender, able bodied, ample bodied and oddly bodied. They have been coming to Benaim's large commercial studio in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil since 1999, first a trickle, then a flood, as word spread that their quirks and obsessions would not just be embraced, but transformed into art, through a painstaking 19th-century print technique little used in the last 100 years. Benaim earned his photographic degree in 1982. He set up shop as a conventional photographer, but at heart was a pictorialist, always searching for ways to defeat photographic realism. In 1991 he saw an antique photo with just the look he sought, and through trial and much error taught himself the gum dichromate process. It's tedious, smelly, and probably poisonous, but Benaim has used it exclusively since 1996, giving his startling sex photos the look of oversized French postcards, printed, perhaps, in the damp cellar of a Belle Epoque whorehouse. The technique softens the extremity of his subject, leading to gallery shows in Paris, Berlin, Milan, Luxembourg, Zurich and, fittingly, at the Kinsey Institute for sexual research in Bloomington, Indiana.Laurent Benaim presents 300 of the photographer's 1,000+ photos in what will be among TASCHEN's most transgressive-and talked about-titles, with an introduction by editor Dian Hanson.

When 22-year-old American photographer Blake Wood moved to London in 2007, a mutual friend introduced him to Amy Winehouse. After winning five Grammy Awards for her 2006 album Back to Black, the celebrated singer with the sultry and emotionally raw voice was at the height of her celebrity, but struggling with her wayward partner and the scrutiny of constant media attention. Bonding personally and creatively, Wood and Winehouse developed a close friendship and would become inseparable for the next two years. From images of Winehouse performing in Paris to playing drums at her home studio in Camden Town, London, from lovingly composed portraits of her at ease on St. Lucia to carefree vamping for the camera, this is an intimate visual diary of the soul diva at a time when she was one of the most celebrated voices on earth. The story of this profound emotional collaboration is told through the lens of her confidant in 85 color and black-and-white photographs, most of them never published before, that reveal their mutual love, trust, and respect. With text by acclaimed pop culture critic Nancy Jo Sales, discover a rare and lighter side of this much-missed icon, totally at ease in front of her friend's camera; a typical young London girl enjoying life to the fullest.

Bring the unique vision of Christo and Jeanne-Claude to your wall with this set of 16 ready-to-frame prints, featuring historic highlights of their oeuvre, as well as photographs and sketches from Floating Piers.Included artworks: Wall of Oil Barrels, 1961-62 Wrapped Coast, 1968 Valley Curtain, 1970-72 Running Fence, 1972-76 Surrounded Islands, 1980-83 The Pont Neuf Wrapped, 1975-85 The Umbrellas, 1984-91 Wrapped Reichstag, 1971-95 Wrapped Trees, 1997-98 The Gates, 1979-2005 Over The River, 2012 The Mastaba, 2012 The Mastaba, 2014

From Snow White to Cinderella, Rapunzel to Rumpelstiltskin, the Brothers Grimm bequeathed a canon of stories which have become literary and childhood classics. The most widely read story collection after the Bible, their magical tales are stalwarts of early learning and imagination, listed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register as a vital part of our history and culture. This new edition of The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm brings to life 14 of the most beloved Grimm stories, including classics such as Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Hansel and Gretel. In a unique design format, each featured tale is paired with a different illustrator, bringing special pictorial splendor to each story. Featured artists include such masters of pictorial invention as Kay Nielsen, Walter Crane, and Viktor Paul Mohn, as well as many new discoveries. Historic and contemporary silhouettes-many commissioned especially for this anthology-further animate the tales, dancing across the page like delicate black lace. The book also contains a foreword on the Grimms' legacy and brief introductions to each fairy tale. For adults and children alike, this beautiful compilation brings the eternal magic of the Grimms' stories to the heart of every home.The following fairy tales are featured in the book:The Frog Prince, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, The Brave Little Tailor, Cinderella, Mother Holle, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, The Star Coins, Puss 'n Boots, The Golden Goose, The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

You asked, we listened. Hot on the heels of our best-selling flat-display bookstand, we've worked with our bookbinder to develop the next must-have. These stands display your book upright, closed, or open to leaf through, allowing you to proudly showcase your favorite tome without damaging or straining its spine. Made of solid, glass-like acrylic, these are available in three sizes custom-made to carry our entire catalogue. Whether it's a big-and-bold Collector's Edition or one of our Basic Art volumes, an XXL-sized monograph or a compact Bibliotheca Universalis: all TASCHEN books deserve the royal treatment.Size L: Can accommodate up to our XL seriesAlso available: Size M: Fit for Bibliotheca Universalis, Basic Art series, and all regular titles Size XL: For all of our XXL-sized giants, including Collector's Editions (even enclosed in their clamshell box!)

Vices or virtues: drinking and smoking provided marketers with products to be forged into visual feasts. In this lush compendium of advertisements, we explore how depictions of these commodities spanned from the elegant to the offbeat, revealing how manufacturers prodded their customers throughout the 20th century to imbibe and inhale. Each era's alcohol and tobacco trends are exuberantly captured page after page, with brand images woven into American popular culture so effectively that almost anyone could identify such icons as the Marlboro Man or Spuds MacKenzie, figures so familiar they could appear in ads without the product itself. Other advertisers devised clever and subliminal approaches to selling their wares, as the wildly successful Absolut campaign confirmed. Even doctors contributed to a perverse version of propaganda, testifying that smoking could calm your nerves and soothe your throat, while hailing liquor as an elixir capable of bringing social success. Whether you savor these visual delights, or enjoy inhaling and wallowing in forbidden pleasures, you will certainly be thrilled by this exploration of a decidedly vibrant-and sometimes controversial-chapter of advertising history.

In a revolt against rationalism, Romanticism sought to return to nature and the belief in the goodness of humanity, with the artist considered to be a profoundly individual creator. Beginning in the early 19th century, Romantic ideals developed largely in opposition to the traditions of Greco-Roman antiquity, and advocated an open-ended and progressive-that is, modern-view of the age. Yet Romantic artists, searching perhaps for unattainable ideals, also looked back to the late medieval and Renaissance periods for nostalgic themes of Judeo-Christian heritage; drawing from these, they believed that a politically and intellectually enlightened utopia could be achieved. Romantic styles and subjects varied widely throughout Europe and America, ranging from tranquil contemplative scenes to spectacularly staged events, and it is precisely this diversity that lends Romantic art its fascination and lasting influence. This volume gathers an essay situating the genre across different regions, crisp painting reproductions, and detailed interpretations of 31 crucial pieces to offer a comprehensive introduction to Romanticism.

The Kama Sutra gives detailed instructions on how to spank it. Contemporary Italians touch it for luck before placing a bet. Americans are having it cosmetically enhanced at rates approaching breast enlargement surgery. The female butt, tush, culo, or derriere has always inspired awe, fantasy, and slavish devotion. Curiously, its primary purpose is functional rather than aesthetic: butts balance our bodies while running, according to biologists. But ask any pygophiliac-as fundament fans are clinically termed-and you'll get the same answer: female hindquarters exist to please the eye, the hands, and parts south. Sir Mix-a-Lot said it all when he proclaimed, "My anaconda don't want none, unless you've got buns, hun." All of this valuable insight, as well as some 400 photos from 1900 to 2008, were included in TASCHEN's original The Big Butt Book, released in 2010. Now, that same content is compressed and reconfigured into TASCHEN's popular Bibliotheca Universalis format, with some new photos thrown in just for fun. You'll still find works by Elmer Batters, Jean-Paul Goude, Ralph Gibson, Richard Kern, Jan Saudek, Ed Fox, Guido Argentini, and Sante D'Orazio, of butts ranging from petite Pam Anderson's to sumptuous Serena Williams's, all contextualized by interviews with porn icon John (Buttman) Stagliano, filmmaker Tinto Brass, and butt queens Buffie the Body, Coco Austin, and Brazil's Watermelon Woman, but in a portable size, at an affordable price. What could be more bootylicious?

A style of his own: The colorful work of a truly avant-garde painterIn the course of his short life, German painter August Macke (1887--1914) combined inspirations from extremely different sources into a unique and personal style. Macke was engaged with the world, closely following the development of abstract art and at the same time feeling tied to the Blauer Reiter movement of Munich. Macke developed a "flat" yet ornamental style, but always remained true to objective representation. His cheerful scenes of parks, zoos, and promenades with shop windows are filled with bold yet harmonious colors. Their brilliance reached its zenith in 1914 when he traveled with Klee and Moilliet to Tunis and became acquainted with the light of the African sun.About the series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

This fresh overview of Tadao Ando's oeuvre spans from his beginnings in 1975 to today. Based on the massive XXL edition, this accessible volume sheds light on the Modernist master through photographs and architectural drawings, and includes such new projects as the Shanghai Poly Grand Theater and the Clark Center at Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Abstract action: The splattered oeuvre of a cultural iconThe rebel hero of Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock (1912 1956) careened through his life like a firework across the American art landscape. Channeling ideas from sources as diverse as Picasso and Mexican surrealism, he rejected convention to develop his own way of seeing, interpreting, and expressing.Pollock s most famous works are his drip paintings, where he dripped and poured household enamel paint over the canvas with a variety of instruments, from sticks to syringes, hardened brushes to broken bits of glass. The splattered results pulsate with energy, replacing the refinement of easel and brush with something altogether more immediate, vivid, and physical. To evade the viewer s search for figurative elements in his paintings, Pollock abandoned titles and identified each work with a neutral number only.Notoriously reclusive and volatile, struggling with alcoholism, married to fellow Abstract Expressionist Lee Krasner, and killed in a car crash aged just 44, Pollock is as much a compelling celebrity icon as an artistic pioneer. This essential artist introduction explores both his work and his fame to understand masterpieces of the modernist story, and the making of a cultural icon.About the series: Each book in TASCHEN s Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions"

Edward Lear may be best known for his nonsense verse, but in his early years he excelled as an illustrator of birds and reptiles. This set of 42 hand-colored lithographs, originally entitled Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, was the finest achievement of his relatively brief career as a natural history draftsman, before failing eyesight led him to concentrate on his writing. During Lear's time, live parrots were rare and much sought-after, bought and sold for large sums by wealthy amateurs of natural history, and prized by 19th century European aristocracy for their astonishing plumage and mimickry of the human voice. Naturally, fine drawings of them were also highly prized. One of the first collections entirely dedicated to the species, Parrots includes African, Australian, and American parrots bred by eminent ornithologists such as Sir William Jardine and Prideaux John Selby, who sponsored Lear, inspiring and directing his work. Unlike other avian illustrators who often worked with stuffed birds, the young and prodigiously talented Lear (1812-1888) made his drawings from live parrots, capturing their expressions and movements in remarkably lifelike illustrations. The new medium of hand-colored lithography facilitated the vivid elegance of Lear's work. This exquisite collection was originally reproduced in only 175 precious sets and sold by subscription to Britain's most eminent scholars and wealthy collectors of living parrots. The Psittacidae established Lear as a celebrated illustrator, and professor of drawing to the young Queen Victoria. With a brief zoological introduction and written descriptions of each bird, this title revives TASCHEN's XL-sized edition to a more accessible, optimized format, bringing Lear's parrots back to life for all to admire.

Until May 2017, Robert Crumb was simply lauded as the greatest underground artist. Then his cover drawing for the 1969 comic Fritz the Cat sold for a record $ 717,000, the highest price ever realized for any comic, and concepts of under- and aboveground went out the window. Now everything Crumb is fast increasing in value; the perfect time for R. Crumb Sketchbook, Volume 3: Jan. 1975-Dec. 1982. Combining volumes 5 and 6 from the second R. Crumb Sketchbook boxed set, and produced directly from the original artworks now belonging to an ardent French collector, this is one big 444-page Crumb feast for way less than his rare originals. Among the hundreds of subjects included are Crumb's move to rural California, his marriage to Aline Kominsky, the birth of daughter Sophie, as well as further adventures of Mr. Natural, mischievous Snoids, Arcade comics strips, political discontent, existential angst, huge powerful women, geeky little guys, Mao Tse Tung, Mick Jagger and moral outrage, all wrapped up in a quality hard cover featuring front and back illustrations newly hand-colored by Crumb himself.