TASCHEN Diary Paris 2014About the Series: TASCHEN's Spiral Diaries are beautiful to look at and a joy to use. Every week brings a new picture and a fresh page to fill with your life's events. Useful features include national holidays, year planners, and a lay-flat spiral binding.

Warhol's classic 1950s illustrated books for just $200 In 1950s New York, before he became one of the most famous names of the 20th century, Andy Warhol was a skilled and successful commercial artist. During this time, as part of his strategy to woo and cultivate clients and forge friendships, he created seven handmade promotional books for valued contacts, featuring his own unique drawings and quirky texts and revealing his fondness for-among other subjects-cats, food, myths, shoes, beautiful boys, and gorgeous girls. Decades later, with originals now changing hands for thousands of dollars at auction, TASCHEN presents an immaculate boxed series of these seven books, replicating Warhol's originals as closely as possible down to the format, dimensions, and paper stock. With titles such as Love Is A Pink Cake, 25 Cats Named Sam, and A la Recherche du Shoe Perdu, the series reveals the artist's quirky character as well as his accomplished draftsmanship, boundless creativity, and innuendo-laced humor. The books make delightful play with styles and genres as much as with design, materials, and formats. The lithograph portfolio, A Is for Alphabet, devotes a page to each letter of the alphabet, with illustrations complemented by stumbling three-line verses that tell of strange encounters between man and animal. is at once a Warhol twist on a children's book and a covert celebration of gay love. Wild Raspberries, meanwhile, is a spoof cookbook with a cornucopia of adventurous recipes on 19 portrait-format pages of instructions and illustrations. Little-known, much-coveted jewels in the Warhol crown, these hand-drawn delights are as appealing and original today as they were back in the halcyon days of the 1950s. With an introductory essay by Warhol scholar Nina Schleif as well as contemporary illustrations and photographs of Warhol, this meticulous reprint offers a unique glimpse at a budding genius on the cusp of global fame. Text in English, French, and German

While some architects have a signature style, Renzo Piano seeks to apply coherent ideas to extraordinarily different projects. His buildings impress as much for their individual impact as for their diversity of scale, material, and form. Piano rose to international prominence with his codesign of the Pompidou Center in Paris, described by The New York Times as a building that "turned the architecture world upside down." Since then, he has continued to craft many high-profile cultural spaces, including the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Morgan Library Renovation and Expansion in New York; and, most recently, the Whitney Museum of American Art, an asymmetric nine-story structure in Manhattan's Meatpacking District with both indoor and outdoor galleries. In New York and London, the Renzo touch has also transformed the skyline with the towers of the New York Times Building and the Shard, the tallest building in the European Union. This essential introduction travels from Osaka, Japan, to Bern, Switzerland, and through many cities, structures, and islands in between, to explore the staggering scope of the Renzo Piano repertoire. From the "inside-out" Pompidou to the airy shells of the Tjibaou Cultural Center in Noumea, New Caledonia, this is a thrilling journey through the beauty of architecture, where, in Piano's own words, "each time, it is like life starting all over again."

Issey Miyake's Pleats Please collections were launched in 1993. Made from single pieces of high quality 100% polyester fabric, Pleats Please clothing is innovative in its process: the clothes are first cut and sewn together from fabric that is nearly three times larger than the finished item of clothing, then sandwiched between sheets of paper and hand fed into a pleats machine. From tube dresses to cardigans, skirts, shirts, or elastic-waisted pants: the clothes emerge with permanent pleats. This industrial process allows both texture and form to be created at the same time. Vertical pleating is used to create different effects and architectural shapes.Pleats Please clothes are very functional and practical; they store easily, travel well, require no ironing, can be machine-washed, and dry within hours. Shapes are simple, and the colors and prints diverse (a set of basic colors is available each season, plus seasonal colors and prints). The clothes' simple beauty, comfort, lightness, and ease of care have changed the way many women all over the world dress.For the first time, the story of this revolutionary line of clothing is being told. The concept of Pleats Please Issey Miyake is explored through a vast array of texts and images, tracing its journey from inception, through material development, to its public reception. The explanation of its evolution includes, also for the first time, a section not only revealing the creation of the original thread-but also the pleating process!

A previously unpublished collection of Robert Doisneau's color photography provides a unique opportunity to revisit the early years of one of America's legendary holiday destinations. In 1960, Robert Doisneau was invited by Fortune magazine to cover Palm Springs, the hottest travel destination of the day. Renowned as a playground for the rich and famous, as well as for a silver-haired and well-heeled clientele, it was a world of swimming pools awash with bobbing beehives, martini-fueled parties, and relaxed games of golf, all unfolding against a desert backdrop. There, Doisneau took hundreds of photographs, twenty-three of which were published in the magazine. The rest have been rediscovered in his archives and one hundred are featured here for the first time. Doisneau is best known for his black and white portraits of Parisian street scenes. This rare color collection--which is supplemented with a facsimile reproduction of Doisneau's original Fortune article--offers a new perspective on his photographic legacy. Accompanying these nostalgic images are extracts from the photographer's personal correspondence--small masterpieces of derision and self-derision in which he describes being marooned in the "world capital of winter golf"--and an equally amusing introduction written by award-winning French novelist Jean-Paul Dubois.

In the age of big data and digital distribution, when news travels ever further and faster and media outlets compete for a fleeting slice of online attention, information graphics have swept center stage. At once nuanced and neat, data graphics can distill abstract ideas, complex statistics, and cutting-edge discoveries into succinct, compelling, and masterful designs. Cartographers, programmers, statisticians, designers, scientists, and journalists have developed a new field of expertise in visualizing knowledge. This far-reaching compendium discovers the rich history of the infographic form, tracing its evolution from the Middle Ages right through to the digital era. Curated by Sandra Rendgen, the author behind TASCHEN's best-selling Information Graphics and Understanding the World, the book offers a stunning and systematic overview of graphic communication, gathering some 400 examples across astronomy, cartography, zoology, technology, and beyond. The collection is expansive in culture and geography, incorporating medieval manuscripts and parchment rolls, elaborate maps, splendid popular atlasses, and early computer-based information design. Highlights include Martin Waldseemuller's famous world map, Andreas Cellarius's cosmic charts, and the meticulous nature studies of Ernst Haeckel, alongside many unknown treasures. The author's introductory essay and precise captions detail each work's historical and cultural contexts; the selection is framed by four chapters showcasing the special historical collections of infographic specialists David Rumsey, Michael Friendly, Michael Stoll, and Scott Klein.

In our imaginings of Paris, painter and graphic artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) has no small role to play. In his prints, posters, paintings, and drawings, the artist immortalized the city's Belle Epoque nightlife and put the northern neighborhood of Montmartre on the global map of creative-hedonist hotspots. The son of old French nobility, Toulouse-Lautrec seems to have been drawn early on to visions of a demimonde, centering his attention on the dance halls, cabarets, and brothels of Montmartre and adopting famed dancers and singers as his subjects, most notably Jane Avril. His works include both lively performance scenes and quiet, tender "after-hours" portraits such as The Sofa and In Bed. Stylistically, he mastered both bold graphics, as celebrated in his promotional posters of Jane Avril, and a loose yet evocative sketchwork. Though he died aged just 36, due to complications from alcoholism and syphilis, Toulouse-Lautrec's cultural influence was immense. This introductory book takes a walk through his world of singers, dancers, musicians, and prostitutes to reveal an artist of great humanity, striking figurative skill, and a pronounced sense for the energy and stories of a city.

Since first appearing in Action Comics No. 1 in April 1938, Superman has stood as the pre-eminent symbol of truth and justice. Captivating minds for over 75 years, the Last Son of Krypton has appeared in thousands of comic books, cartoons, TV shows, and movies. His tragic beginning led to a life as an outsider, fighting for his adopted home while securing his standing as humanity's iconic protector and champion. With 192 pages of the best images of the Man of Steel and text by Paul Levitz, author of the Eisner Award-winning 75 Years of DC Comics, The Little Book of Superman is your definitive guide to the biggest Super Hero of them all. All DC characters and elements are trademarks of and (c) DC Comics. (s15)

Court painter to King Philip IV of Spain, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (June 1599 - August 6, 1660) is not only a leading light of the Spanish Golden Age, but among the most celebrated masters in all Western art history. Monet and Renoir, Corot and Courbet, Degas and Dali all hailed his influence. Picasso was so inspired by his masterpiece Las Meninas that he painted 44 variations of it. Velazquez's importance is found particularly in his naturalist approach, in contrast to the more ubiquitous idealized manner of his age. Early works included numerous "bodegones", genre scenes of everyday life in early 17th century Spain, in which warm, rich tones and textures set off the most ordinary of subjects and humble of faces, such as Old Woman Frying Eggs. Later, his portraiture for the Royal Court brought the same naturalism to the highest echelons of society, marking a profound shift in the depiction of royalty with softer, more relaxed poses that offered his subjects a human warmth and character as much as a sense of grandeur. Velazquez's most famous work, Las Meninas, was also painted in the royal court, but in its enigmatic composition raises many broader questions about reality and illusion and the relationship between the painter, painting, and viewer. This fresh TASCHEN Basic Art 2.0 edition introduces Velazquez through key works from throughout his career. From humble genre scenes to the royal portraits, the exquisite Rokeby Venus nude, and the ever-mysterious Las Meninas, we explore his exceptional attention to composition, masterful handling of tone, and his remarkable influence as, in Manet's words, "the greatest painter of all."

Diego Rivera (1886-1957) is a loud presence on the art historical stage. With devout political principles and a turbulent romantic history, he was at once husband and paladin of Frida Kahlo, advocate and adversary of Stalin's Soviet Union, and liberator and traitor of Leon Trotsky. Vibrant, graphic, and often monumental, Rivera's paintings carry the same live political and passionate charge as his personal biography. Fusing European influences such as Cubism with a socialist ideology and an exaltation of Mexico's indigenous and popular heritage, he created a new iconography for art history and for his country. He became one of the most important figures in the Mexican mural movement and won international acclaim for his public wall paintings, in which he presented a utopian yet accessible vision of a post-revolutionary Mexico. In 1931, Rivera was the subject of MoMA's second ever monographic exhibition. This book explores the unique blend of influence and ideology which secure Rivera's place as both a unique and a universal painter, bound to the particular turbulent experience of early 20th century Mexico, and yet preoccupied with subjects such as revolution and class inequity which continue to speak to us today.

When is a house ecological? Does the use of natural materials and solar cells on the roof make a building an example of "green" architecture? Perhaps even Antoni Gaudi and Frank Lloyd Wright designed "greener" buildings than most contemporary architects, whose low-energy houses scarcely differ outwardly from traditional ones.James Wines puts up the various - and often irreconcilable - concepts of environmentally-friendly architecture for discussion, making a case for an architecture that not only focuses on technological solutions, but also tries to reconcile man and nature in its formal idiom. Among the examples of contemporary ecological architecture presented are works by Emilio Ambasz, Gustav Peichl, Arthur Quarmby, Jean Nouvel, Sim Van der Ryn, Jourda and Perraudin, Log ID, James Cutler, Stanley Saitowitz, Francois Roche, Nigel Coates and Michael Sorkin.

Man Ray (1890-1976) was a polymath modernist, working in painting, sculpture, film, printmaking, and poetry. But it was his work in photography, with nude studies, fashion work, and portraiture that saw him pioneering a new chapter in the history of camerawork and art. With a wide-ranging collection of both his famous and lesser-known works, this monograph gives a vivid overview of Man Ray's multifaceted practice and photographic legacy. It traces Ray from his artistic beginnings in New York through to his central role in the Parisian avant-garde, where he featured in the first Surrealist exhibition with Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Andre Masson, Joan Miro, and Pablo Picasso and produced such now iconic works as Noire et blanche and Le Violon d'Ingres. Through numerous examples of still life, portraiture, and beyond, we see how Ray constantly experimented with new techniques, pushing photography out of its documentary domain into ethereal, poetic expressions through multiple exposure, solarization, and the particular brand of photograms he wittily termed "rayography."

The Book of Miracles first surfaced only a few years ago and is one of the most spectacular discoveries in the field of Renaissance art. The near-complete illustrated manuscript, created in Augsburg around 1550, is composed of 169 pages of large-format illustrations in gouache and watercolor, depicting wondrous and often eerie phenomena. The mesmerizing images deal with both biblical and folkloric tales, depicting stories from the Old Testament and Book of Revelation as well as events that took place in the immediate present of the manuscript's author. From shooting stars to swarms of locusts, terrifying monsters to fatal floods, page after page hypnotizes with visions alternately dreadful, spectacular, and even apocalyptic. This volume presents the revelatory Book of Miracles in a new, compact format, making this extraordinary document accessible to everyone. It comes with a translation of the manuscript texts and two essays that give an introduction to the cultural and historical context of this unique Renaissance work.

As a boy, Tom's first crush was a strapping young farmhand who worked the fields around his family home. Finland is a land of tough physical men, catching fish in the icy sea; cutting logs in the endless forests; threshing oats, rye, and barley on the farms. Tom, a more sensitive boy, admired these rough men and their distinctive clothing, designed for protection and utility. He later said, "When I was young, leather was worn by people who worked outside because it was warm. All the men who wore leather, they were the type of men which I adored." When he began to draw he celebrated these early idols, improving their wardrobes with tight jeans, faded T-shirts, and thigh-high beak-toed Lappish boots. It was a young logger in this gear who appeared on the spring 1957 cover of Physique Pictorial, introducing Tom to the world. In the decades to follow Tom added truckers, repairmen, construction workers, circus roustabouts, and the American cowboy to his roster of working-class heroes. Though just sexual fantasies for him, his portrayal of blue-collar lovers helped working class gays accept their true selves.The Little Book of Tom: Blue Collar traces Tom's fascination with working men in one compact and affordable package. A brawny lineup of multi-panel comics and single-panel drawings and paintings is set alongside archival and contextual material, including historic film stills and posters, personal photos of Tom, sketches, and Tom's own reference photos.

As urban living intensifies in density and numbers, the city landscape expands both outwards and upwards. Architects and urban designers craft new and experimental structures while also investigating existing buildings for potential reinvention or expansion. In particular, the roof of a building, once a perfunctory structural element, is now a city space in and of itself, beloved for the capacity to eke out further room for living or to craft inspiring refuges away from the bustle of the metropolis.

This international selection of urban rooftops catalogs a new urban dimension. Through over 50 bars, restaurants, temporary art installations, and gardens, it testifies to the variety of intelligent and exuberant designs that grace city summits from Sydney to Hong Kong, Oslo to Chicago. Whether it s the panoramic views, the exposure to the elements, or a slight giddiness that comes with height, we see just how the roof has nurtured not only architectural invention but a whole new facet and thrill to city living.

Just like its predecessors Tree Houses and Cabins, Urban Rooftops features both brilliant photography and bright, contemporary illustration. As with all books in TASCHEN s architecture series, it also celebrates both the established and the rising talents of the industry. Featured artists in this movement towards the skies include Pritzker Prize winners Norman Foster and Shigeru Ban, Jeffrey Inaba, Julien de Smedt (JDS), and landscape designers such as Ken Smith and Vladimir Djurovic.

Text in English, French, and German

German photographer Reinhart Wolf (1930-1988) had a particular eye for architecture. In 1979, he turned his lens to some of the tallest buildings in the world, taking several trips to New York to photograph its most sky-soaring assets. With texts by Edward Albee and Sabina Lietzmann and an interview with Andy Warhol, TASCHEN's reprint of Reinhart Wolf - New York is both a nostalgic homage to the 1970s spirit of the city and a superb example of architectural photography. From Gothic detailing to the sleek surfaces of the International Style, Wolf's portfolio spans the city's dizzy stylistic reach but captures all buildings with the same infectious love and awe. The Chrysler Building tower shimmers in a gray dawn light, the Empire State Building glows against a stormy sky, and the Flatiron Building basks in late afternoon sun. Though the last three decades have seen dramatic transformation to the skyline, not least after the events of 9/11, this book is testimony to New York's enduring wonder. Surveying these grand, tall, proud structures, Wolf captures not just feats of engineering or marvels of ornamentation, but also, in particular, the magnetism of this city soaring towards the sky.

Founded in 1928 as a "living diary" by the great Milanese architect and designer Gio Ponti, domus has been hailed as the world's most influential architecture and design journal. With style and rigor, it has reported on the major themes and stylistic movements in industrial, interior, product, and structural design. This fresh reprint of domus's coverage of the 1940s brings together the most important features from a decade of destruction and reconstruction. Even amid the bombing raids inflicted on Milan, domus continued to publish through much of the war, charting the design zeitgeist, while managing a successive turnover of editors and editors-in-chief during Ponti's "interregnum" between 1941 and 1948. The pages from this period record reports and features on modern industrial design and furniture, new prefabricated houses, American academic architecture, the building projects of Carlo Mollino, Gian Luigi Banfi, Franco Albini, and Giuseppe Terragni, as well as the postwar flowering of Organic Design.domus distilled Seven volumes spanning 1928 to 1999 Over 6,000 pages featuring influential projects by the most important designers and architects Original layouts and all covers, with captions providing navigation and context New introductory essays by renowned architects and designers Each edition comes with an appendix featuring texts translated into English, many of which were previously only available in Italian A comprehensive index in each volume listing both designers' and manufacturers' names

Printmaker, landscape painter, and cofounder of Der Blaue Reiter ("The Blue Rider"), Franz Marc (1880-1916) left an exceptional legacy in German Expressionism. His work absorbed influences including Paul Gauguin, van Gogh, Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Robert Delaunay to galvanize a new vocabulary of form and color. Especially keen on depictions of animals, Marc's work began emphasizing cubist, semiabstracted shapes; frenetic, whirling compositions; and in his paintings, a new vocabulary of color. Marc located spiritual values in different shades. Blue was spirituality and masculinity. Yellow depicted femininity and joy. Red hues correlated to anger and violence. It was with his friend and peer Wassily Kandinsky that Marc founded Der Blaue Reiter, a loose band of artists connected by a shared interest in woodcuts and prints, the symbolic values of color, and spontaneous approaches to painting. The group was short-lived, dissolving with the onset of the First World War-which would also claim Marc's life in 1916-but it set an Expressionist standard that would flourish for decades. In this new edition in TASCHEN's popular Basic Art series, we meet this pivotal figure of German art and explore his short but hugely accomplished career, which at once defined an era and set an enduring point of Expressionist reference.

A critical observer of American societyAndy Warhol (1928-1987) is recognized today as the most important exponent of the Pop Art movement. He overturned the traditional understanding of art and placed in its stead a concept that retracts the individuality of the artist.
Warhol was a critical observer of American society, exposing his compatriots' consumerism in his paintings ("Campbell" and "Brillo" series), as well as their fascination for sensational journalism. In 1963 Warhol founded his "Factory" in New York, literally a manufactory of ideas and work, which influenced film in the 1960s, published the influential magazine "Interview" in the late 1970s, and also produced Warhol's own artwork: Warhol conceived the idea, and a "worker" in his factory carried it out.
The work remained (consciously) unsigned--a fact which nevertheless did nothing to diminish Warhol's reputation. He once complained that rich New Yorkers would willingly hang his "Electric Chain" in their living rooms--as long as its colours co-ordinated with the wallpaper and draperies.About the Series:
Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features: a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions a concise biography

One of the leading lights of the Impressionist movement, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) remains a towering figure in art history with enduring public appeal. Sun-kissed, charming, and sensual, his work shows painting at its most lighthearted and luminous, while championing the plein air and color innovations of his time. Renoir's oeuvre was prolific, with some several thousand works in his lifetime. Much influenced by forerunners such as Courbet, Degas, Manet, Delacroix, he worked with contemporary peers such as Monet to explore fresh uses of color and brushwork, rendering texture and depth with different-hued daubs. Drawn to intimate and tender human scenes, his subjects include lovers, mothers, and numerous nudes. As his career progressed, Renoir investigated different styles and techniques, shifting away from the feathery Impressionist touch to a more robust, classical corporeality, sometimes called his "Ingres period," and later to monumental pieces such as The Bathers. From the abundant output of his lengthy career, this essential artist introduction selects key Renoir works to explore his innovations in the art of painting, as much as his traditions in pursuit of beauty, harmony, and the female form.

Sensual and softly surreal, the nude photography of Ralph Gibson frames the female form both organically and graphically, referencing art history while also innovating in the arena of erotic imagery, at once summoning visceral sensation and calling out for tactile attention. Thumb through this exquisite tribute to the contours and curves of womanhood and experience the intimacy of the photographic lens. Reviving TASCHEN's sold-out Collector's Edition, this tribute gathers the best of Gibson's exquisite nudes alongside some of his most recent works in an accessible, revised format, complete with a fresh in-depth interview by Eric Fischl. Strikingly graphic, meticulously composed, and loaded with subtle provocations, the master photographer's mysterious, dreamlike images pay homage to greats such as Man Ray and Edward Weston, while continually pursuing new frontiers."A photographer once said that beauty in women is endless. Perhaps it was I who said it. [...] I love photographing women and could say that the form of the female body is absolute and perfect." -Ralph Gibson

Martin Luther's Bible, first printed in 1534, was not only a milestone for the printing press, but also a momentous event in world history. A UNESCO world heritage masterpiece, Luther's translation from Hebrew and ancient Greek into German made the Bible accessible to laypeople and gave printed reference to a whole new branch of Christian faith: Protestantism. In this meticulous two-volume reprint, TASCHEN presents a complete facsimile of the Luther Bible. Based on a precious copy of the original and printed in color, it reveals the multilayered splendor of this publication, showcasing the meticulous script, elaborate initials, and exquisite color woodcuts from the workshop of Lucas Cranach. In an accompanying booklet, Stephan Fussel, director of the Institute for Book Sciences at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, adds his expertise to the publication with detailed descriptions of the illustrations, as well as an introduction exploring Luther's life and the seismic significance of his bible.