Master of the sublime: The essential Impressionist. ... No other artist, apart from J.M.W. Turner, tried as hard as Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) to capture light itself on canvas. Of all the Impressionists, it was the man Cezanne called "only an eye, but my God what an eye!" who stayed true to the principle of absolute fidelity to the visual sensation, painting directly from the object. It could be said that Monet reinvented the possibilities of color. Whether it was through his early interest in Japanese prints, his time as a conscript in the dazzling light of Algeria, or his personal acquaintance with the ... |
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Multilingual Edition (English, French, German). ... The history of the adidas shoe, from its earliest beginnings until today. More than 100 years ago the brothers Adolf ("Adi") and Rudolf Dassler made their first pair of sports shoes. Hundreds of groundbreaking designs, epic moments, and star-studded collabs later, this book presents a visual review of the adidas shoe through almost 200 models. To further develop and tailor his products to athletes’ specific needs, Dassler asked them to return their worn footwear when no longer needed, with all the shoes eventually ending up in his attic (to this day, many ... |
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An Era of the Invincible. The making of household heroes and mythological universes. It was an age of mighty heroes, misunderstood monsters, and complex villains. With the publication of Fantastic Four No. 1 in November 1961, comics giant Marvel inaugurated a transformative era in pop culture. Through the next two decades, the iconic Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the X-Men leapt, darted, and towered through its pages. Captain America was resurrected from his 1940s deep-freeze and the Avengers became the World’s Greatest Super Heroes. Daredevil, Doctor Strange, and dozens more were added to the pantheon, each with ... |
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Anguished art: The tortured talents of a post-Impressionist master. Today, the works of Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890) are among the most well-known and celebrated in the world. In Sunflowers, The Starry Night, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, and many, many paintings and drawings beyond, we recognize an artist uniquely dexterous in the portrayal of mood and place through paint, pencil, charcoal, or chalk. Yet as he was deploying the lurid colors, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms that would subsequently make his name and inspire generations of expressionist artists, van Gogh battled not only the disinterest of ... |
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Filling notebook after notebook with sketches, inventions, and theories, Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) not only stands as one of the most exceptional draftsmen of art history, but also as a mastermind and innovator who anticipated some of the greatest discoveries of human progress, sometimes centuries before their material realization. From the smallest arteries in the human heart to the far-flung constellations of the universe, Leonardo saw nature and science as being unequivocally connected. His points of inquiry and invention spanned philosophy, anatomy, geology, and mathematics, from the laws of optics, ... |
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At the age of six, Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) wanted to be a cook. At the age of seven, he wanted to be Napoleon. "Since then", he later said, "my ambition has steadily grown, and my megalomania with it. Now I want only to be Salvador Dali, I have no greater wish". Throughout his life, Dali was out to become Dali: that is, one of the most significant artists and eccentrics of the 20th century. This weighty volume is the most complete study of Dali's painted works ever published. After years of research, Robert Descharnes and Gilles Neret located painted works by the master that had been ... |
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Henri Rousseau (1844 - 1910) was a clerk in the Paris customs service who dreamed of becoming a famous artist. At the age 49, he decided to give it a try. At first, Rousseau’s bright, bold paintings of jungles and exotic flora and fauna were dismissed as childish and simplistic, but his unique and tenacious style soon won acclaim. After 1886, he exhibited regularly at Paris’s prestigious Salon des Indépendants, and in 1908 he received a legendary banquet of honor, hosted by Picasso. Although best known for his tropical scenes, Rousseau, in fact, never left France, relying on books and magazines for inspiration, as ... |
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Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) is hailed as the most important proponent of the Pop art movement. A critical and creative observer of American society, he explored key themes of consumerism, materialism, media, and celebrity. Drawing on contemporary advertisements, comic strips, consumer products, and Hollywood’s most famous faces, Warhol proposed a radical reevaluation of what constituted artistic subject matter. Through Warhol, a Campbell’s soup can and Coca Cola bottle became as worthy of artistic status as any traditional still life. At the same time, Warhol reconfigured the role of the artist. Famously stating "I ... |
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The 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 ... |
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Multilingual Edition (English, French, German). ... An international guide to award winning packaging design. The field of package design never ceases to expand and innovate, making it one of the most vibrant, competitive, and fast-evolving areas in design today. It is influenced by various factors such as the consumer’s requirements, the ever-increasing marketing demands, evolving environmental policies, and the practice of adhering to the context of cultural aspects and diversity. By developing at such a demanding and rapid pace, package design encompasses many different elements and specialists, including designers, ... |
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In endless odes to the female form, Amedeo Modigliani (1884 - 1920) traced elongated bodies, almond eyes, and his own name into art history. His languid female subjects are as instantly recognizable as they are startling, sensual, and swan-necked. Modigliani's unique figuration corresponded to his own personal idea of beauty, but drew upon a rich variety of visual influences, including contemporary Cubism, African carvings, Cambodian sculptures, and 13th-century painting from his native Italy. Although most renowned for his nude females, he applied similar stylistic techniques to portraits of male artistic ... |
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Atlas d'anatomie humaine et de chirurgie. Atlas der menschlichen anatomie und der Chirurgie. Multilingual Edition: English, French, German. ... We owe a great debt to Jean Baptiste Marc Bourgery (1797 - 1849) for his Atlas of Anatomy, which was not only a massive event in medical history, but also remains one of the most comprehensive and beautifully illustrated anatomical treatises ever published. Bourgery began work on his magnificent atlas in 1830 in cooperation with illustrator Nicolas Henri Jacob (1782 - 1871), a student of the French painter Jacques Louis David. The first volumes were published the following ... |