Architects
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Aino + Alvar Aalto: A Life Together
A visual biography of Aino and Alvar Aalto, who designed some of the most iconic objects of the twentieth century
Aino and Alvar Aalto together founded Artek and created some of the most celebrated objects and buildings of the twentieth century. Through letters, documents, drawings, and family photographs, Alvar and Aino’s grandson tells the stories of their life together, in Finland and abroad, drawing on many of the never-before-published letters they sent to each other and to family, friends, and colleagues, until Aino’s death in 1949. The first monograph to specifically examine and celebrate the life and work of Aino and Alvar as a shared endeavour, this personal and intimate look at the unconventional lives of one of the most influential design couples of the twentieth century has been warmly and accessibly written by Aino and Alvar’s grandson, who has drawn on the family’s largely unpublished archive, including personal letters, snapshots, and sketches.
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£75.90£95.00Aino + Alvar Aalto: A Life Together
£75.90£95.00 -
Banksy You Are an Acceptable Level of Threat and if You Were Not You Would Know About It
New expanded 248pp 2019 Edition.
The single best collection of photography of Banksy’s street work that has ever been assembled for print. If that isn’t enough there are some words too. You Are An Acceptable Level of Threat covers his entire street art career, spanning the late ’90s right up to the ‘Seasons Greetings’ Christmas 2018 piece in Port Talbot, Wales. This new edition includes his self-destructing ‘Love is in the Bin’ intervention, which according to Sotheby’s is “the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction.” The groundbreaking ‘Dismaland’ show, his Paris ’68 revisited works, The Walled Off Hotel, Brexit, Cans Festival, Brookyln and Basquiat, as well as new works from Gaza and New York. Also featuring the controversial ‘Cheltenham Spies’ as well as ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, ‘Art Buff’ and the spectacular ‘Mobile Lovers’ which appeared outside Bristol Boys Boxing Club.
248 pages featuring his greatest works of art in context.Read more
£23.50£28.50 -
Breuer
In 1956, TIME magazine called him one of the defining “form-givers of the 20th century.” Today, Marcel Breuer (1902–1981) remains a locus classicus of modernism for architects and designers alike. As a Bauhaus pioneer, even his earliest work was marked by a material restraint; the balance of texture, color, and shape; and a symbiosis of local and global, big and small, rough and smooth.
In this essential introductory monograph, we survey Breuer’s complete career through some of his most influential projects and ideas, from his landmark tubular furniture to the MoMA Research House to his innovation of “binuclear” housing, splitting living and sleeping areas into separate wings. Along the way, we follow Hungarian-born Breuer’s journey to international acclaim, with featured projects from Germany, France, England, Switzerland, and across the United States contributing to his global status as a modernist maestro.
About the series
Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Architecture series features:
an introduction to the life and work of the architect
the major works in chronological order
information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions
a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings
approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts, and plans)
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£11.40Breuer
£11.40 -
Carlo Mollino: Architect and Storyteller
- First-ever monograph on Carlo Mollino as an architect
- Demonstrates Mollino’s prowess in architectural design
- Based on extensive new research and drawing on rich archival material
- Lavishly illustrated with previously unpublished images, plans, drawings, and documents
Today, Italian architect and designer Carlo Mollino (1905-73) is known chiefly for his furniture designs. He is famous also for his erotic polaroid photography of the 1960s, which has been subject of many exhibitions and has lost nothing of its great appeal to the fashion world today. Much less attention has so far been given to Mollino’s architecture, and a comprehensive critical study of his work in this field has been lacking. Yet his built work, although relatively small, constitutes a seminal contribution to modernism that is uniquely marked by a strong relationship with Surrealism.
Based on years of research and drawing on rich archival material as well as on Mollino’s own writings, this new book is the overdue tribute to an extraordinary personality in 20th-century architecture. It features an exemplary selection of his key designs, both built and unrealised, lavishly illustrated with images and reproductions of previously unpublished plans, drawings, and documents. Rounded out with scholarly essays by expert authors, this is a long-awaited addition to the library of architecture lovers, professionals, and scholars.
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£58.50£85.50Carlo Mollino: Architect and Storyteller
£58.50£85.50 -
Eileen Gray: Her Life and Work
The definitive biography, thoroughly updatedOne of the most important designers and architects of the 20th century, Eileen Gray (1878–1976) wielded enormous influence – though often unacknowledged, especially in her lifetime – in a field largely dominated by men. Today, her original furniture sells for dizzying sums and her iconic designs, including the luxurious Bibendum chair and the refined yet functional E.1027 table, are renowned throughout the world.
Resolutely independent and frequently underappreciated, Gray evolved from a creator of opulent lacquer furniture into a pioneer of the modernist principle of form following function. Remaining separate from major schools or movements such as Bauhaus and De Stijl, she developed her own distinctive take on the forms and materials favoured by fellow International Style designers such as Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Mies van der Rohe.
This definitive new edition of the biography by Peter Adam, one of the few people close to Gray during her reclusive later years, is a uniquely intimate survey of her life and work. Comprehensively updated and illustrated with material drawn from Gray’s personal archives – correspondence, journals, photographs and architectural sketchbooks – it tells the full story of her life from aristocratic beginnings in Ireland, through the extravagance of Art Deco-era Paris, relationships with lovers, male and female, and her productive years in southern France. It reveals fresh details about her elegant, largely overlooked paintings; tense exchanges with Le Corbusier; and the fate of E.1027, the home that she designed and furnished herself, and which set a new standard for radically modernist living.
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£21.80£28.50Eileen Gray: Her Life and Work
£21.80£28.50 -
Ernest Gimson: Arts & Crafts Designer and Architect
An authoritative and insightful study, surveying the life and work of “the greatest of the English artist-craftsmen”This study of the renowned designer-maker Ernest Gimson (1864–1919) combines biography with analysis of his work as an architect and designer of furniture, metalwork, plaster decoration, embroidery, and more. It also examines Gimson’s significance within the Arts and Crafts Movement, tracing the full arc of his creative career, ideas, and legacy. Gimson worked in London in the 1880s, joining the circle around William Morris at the Art Workers’ Guild and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. He later moved to the Cotswolds, where he opened workshops and established a reputation for distinctive style and superb quality. Gimson’s work influences designers today and speaks directly to ongoing debates about the role of craft in the modern world; this book will be the standard reference for years to come.
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£47.50 -
Gaetano Pesce: The Complete Incoherence
The definitive volume on Gaetano Pesce’s incomparable life and career, as told in the artist-designer’s own words
In a category all his own, Gaetano Pesce is widely considered one of the most important, and elusive, creative figures of the last half century. Bridging numerous key art and design movements, while never belonging to any of them, Pesce’s singular practice has remained steadfastly provocative, defying convention, utility, and good taste.
Glenn Adamson, the acclaimed curator and writer, conducted the wide-ranging interview with Pesce on which this book is based, drawing out new stories and insights, as well as providing an introduction that thoroughly contextualizes Pesce’s unique position in contemporary art and design. As postmodern design has become increasingly desirable, interest in Pesce has grown with renewed exhibition activity and critical attention, and his work has become even more valuable and collectible.
In this long overdue summary co-published with Salon 94, Pesce looks back at his incomparable and wildly inventive career, recounting his life and practice in his own words.
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£55.20£66.50Gaetano Pesce: The Complete Incoherence
£55.20£66.50 -
Gaudí: From Nature to Architecture
God s architectGaudí s ravishing symbiosis between built environment and natural world
From the towering Sagrada Família to the shimmering, textured facade of Casa Batlló and the enchanting landscape of Park Güell, it s easy to see why Antoni Gaudí (1852 1926) gained the epithet God s architect . With fluid forms and mathematical precision, his work extols the wonder of natural creation: columns soar like tree trunks, window frames curve like flowering branches, and ceramic tiling shimmers like scaly, reptilian skin.
With this outstanding attention to natural detail, his inspirations from both neo-Gothic and Orientalist aesthetics, and a lifelong commitment to Catalan identity, Gaudí created a unique brand of the Modernista movement which transformed, and defines, Barcelona s cityscape.
With seven of Gaudí s projects listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, this book introduces the architect s extraordinary vision and unique legacy, exploring the influences and the details which allow his buildings to impress, inspire, and amaze, one century after their construction.
About the Series:
Each book in TASCHEN s Basic Architecture series features: an introduction to the life and work of the architect
the major works in chronological order
information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions
a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings
approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts and plans)Read more
£12.50£14.30Gaudí: From Nature to Architecture
£12.50£14.30 -
Get Your Shit Together: David Shrigley
Get Your Shit Together is the first book that exclusively features recent artwork in color by beloved British artist David Shrigley. This volume celebrates Shrigley’s absurd, deadpan sensibility through both his signature drawing style and accompanying text. Organized by chapters with titles such as Stupid, Nonsense, Dirt, Fear, Paranoia, Love, and Self Delusion, this collection is sure to delight die-hard Shrigley fans and new ones alike. This is the largest-format book to date on Shrigley’s prolific work, and features design details such as a ribbon marker with one of his mordant sayings printed on it, as well as hand-written, humorous essays throughout.Read more
£23.80£28.50Get Your Shit Together: David Shrigley
£23.80£28.50 -
John Craxton: A Life of Gifts
Uplifting and engaging, this story recounts the life and career of a rebellious 20th-century British artistBorn into a large, musical, and bohemian family in London, the British artist John Craxton (1922–2009) has been described as a Neo-Romantic, but he called himself a ‘kind of Arcadian’. His early art was influenced by Blake, Palmer, Miró, and Picasso. After achieving a dream of moving to Greece, his work evolved as a personal response to Byzantine mosaics, El Greco, and the art of Greek life.
This book tells his adventurous story for the first time. At turns exciting, funny, and poignant, the saga is enlivened by Craxton’s ebullient pictures. Ian Collins expands our understanding of the artist greatly―including an in-depth exploration of the storied, complicated friendship between Craxton and Lucian Freud, drawing on letters and memories that Craxton wanted to remain private until after his death.
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£12.90£23.80John Craxton: A Life of Gifts
£12.90£23.80 -
Modern Architecture A–Z
With more than 280 entries, this architectural A–Z, now part of our Bibliotheca Universalis series, offers an indispensable overview of the key players in the creation of modern space. From the period spanning the 19th to the 21st century, pioneering architects are featured with a portrait, concise biography, as well as a description of her or his important work.
Like a bespoke global architecture tour, you’ll travel from Manhattan skyscrapers to a Japanese concert hall, from Gaudí’s Palau Güell in Barcelona to Lina Bo Bardi’s sports and leisure center in a former factory site in São Paulo. You’ll take in Gio Ponti’s colored geometries, Zaha Hadid’s free-flowing futurism, the luminous interiors of SANAA, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s unique blend of Scottish tradition and elegant japonisme.
The book’s A to Z entries also cover groups, movements, and styles to position these leading individual architects within broader building trends across time and geography, including International Style, Bauhaus, De Stijl, and much more. With illustrations including some of the best architectural photography of the modern era, this is a comprehensive resource for any architecture professional, student, or devotee.
About the series
Bibliotheca Universalis ― Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!
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£16.42Modern Architecture A–Z
£16.42 -
Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this “gratifying, generous, and lush” true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times).
Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting — not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come.
Gutsy and indomitable, Lee Krasner was a hell-raising leader among artists long before she became part of the modern art world’s first celebrity couple by marrying Jackson Pollock. Elaine de Kooning, whose brilliant mind and peerless charm made her the emotional center of the New York School, used her work and words to build a bridge between the avant-garde and a public that scorned abstract art as a hoax. Grace Hartigan fearlessly abandoned life as a New Jersey housewife and mother to achieve stardom as one of the boldest painters of her generation. Joan Mitchell, whose notoriously tough exterior shielded a vulnerable artist within, escaped a privileged but emotionally damaging Chicago childhood to translate her fierce vision into magnificent canvases. And Helen Frankenthaler, the beautiful daughter of a prominent New York family, chose the difficult path of the creative life.
Her gamble paid off: At twenty-three she created a work so original it launched a new school of painting. These women changed American art and society, tearing up the prevailing social code and replacing it with a doctrine of liberation. In Ninth Street Women, acclaimed author Mary Gabriel tells a remarkable and inspiring story of the power of art and artists in shaping not just postwar America but the future.
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£17.90£19.00 -
Phantom Architecture
’60 fantastical structures described and illustrated in this colourful and highly entertaining book.’ The Sunday Times
‘If you can’t think of a present for the armchair architect in your life – well, problem solved’ The Daily Telegraph
‘These ghostly architectural echoes entrance the reader.’ The Field
‘This is a lavishly illustrated book of wonder for the dreamer in your life’ The Metro
A skyscraper one mile high, a dome covering most of downtown Manhattan, a triumphal arch in the form of an elephant: some of the most exciting buildings in the history of architecture are the ones that never got built.
These are the projects in which architects took materials to the limits, explored challenging new ideas, defied conventions, and pointed the way towards the future. Some of them are architectural masterpieces, some simply delightful flights of fancy. It was not usually poor design that stymied them – politics, inadequate funding, or a client who chose a ‘safe’ option rather than a daring vision were all things that could stop a project leaving the drawing board.
These unbuilt buildings include the grand projects that acted as architectural calling cards, experimental designs that stretch technology, visions for the future of the city, and articles of architectural faith. Structures likeBuckminster Fuller’s dome over New York or Frank Lloyd Wright’s mile-high tower can seem impossibly daring. But they also point to buildings that came decades later, to the Eden Project and the Shard.
Some of those unbuilt wonders are buildings of great beauty and individual form like Etienne-Louis Boullée’s enormous spherical monument to Isaac Newton; some, such as the city plans of Le Corbusier, seem to want to teach us how to live; some, like El Lissitsky’s ‘horizontal skyscrapers’ and Gaudí’s curvaceous New York hotel, turn architectural convention upside-down; some, such as Archigram’s Walking City and Plug-in City, are bizarre and inspiring by turns. All are captured in this magnificently illustrated book.
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£7.60£23.80Phantom Architecture
£7.60£23.80 -
Philip Guston: A Life Spent Painting
An authoritative and comprehensive survey of the life and work of the visionary and influential painter Philip Guston.Driven and consumed by art, Philip Guston painted and drew compulsively. This book takes the reader from his early social realist murals and easel paintings of the 1930s and 1940s, to the Abstract Expressionist works of the 1950s and early 1960s, and finally to the powerful new language of figurative painting, which he developed in the late 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on more than thirty years of his own research, the critic and curator, Robert Storr, maps Guston’s entire career in one definitive volume, providing a substantial, accessible and revealing analysis of his work.
With more than 850 images, the book illustrates Guston’s key works and includes many unpublished paintings and drawings. An extensive chronology, illustrated with photographs, letters, articles, publications and other ephemera drawn from the artist’s archives and other sources, contextualizes Guston’s life and provides in-depth coverage of his life at home, his work in the studio, his relationship with fellow artists and his many exhibitions.
Guston was able to speak about art with unrivalled passion and fluency. In celebration of this, the book features Guston’s own thoughts on his drawings and his great heroes of the Italian Renaissance.
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£48.60£57.00Philip Guston: A Life Spent Painting
£48.60£57.00 -
R. B. Kitaj: Confessions of an Old Jewish Painter. Autobiography
After many years of rumours, R. B. Kitaj’s Confessions of an Old Jewish Painter is finally available in its first publication ever. A jewel among artist’s autobiographies, it relates his passionate life as a seafarer and book trader, his splendid rise and bitter fall in the British art scene.Read more
£39.40 -
Saarinen
The creator of the ubiquitous Knoll “Tulip” chairs and tables, Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) was one of the 20th century’s most prominent space shapers, merging dynamic forms with a modernist sensibility across architecture and design.
Among Saarinen’s greatest accomplishments are Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport, the very sculptural and fluid TWA terminal at JFK Airport in New York, and the 630 ft. (192 m) high Gateway Arch of St. Louis, Missouri, each of them defining structures of postwar America. Catenary curves were present in many of his structural designs. During his long association with Knoll, Saarinen’s other famous furniture pieces included the “Grasshopper” lounge chair and the “Womb” settee. Married to Aline Bernstein Saarinen, a well-known critic of art and architecture, Saarinen also collaborated with Charles Eames, with whom he designed his first prize-winning chair.
With rich illustration tracing his life and career, this introduction follows Saarinen from his studies across his training all the way to his most prestigious projects, and explores how each of his designs brought a new dimension to the modernist landscape.
About the series
Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Architecture series features:
an introduction to the life and work of the architect
the major works in chronological order
information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions
a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings
approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts, and plans)
Read more
£11.40Saarinen
£11.40 -
Technical Lands: A Critical Primer (The Critical Primers)
Technical lands are spaces united by their “exceptional” status―their remote locations, delimited boundaries, secured accessibility, and vigilant management. Designating land as “technical” is thus a political act. Doing so entails dividing, marginalizing, and rendering portions of the Earth inaccessible and invisible. An anti-visuality of technical lands enables forms of hypervisibility and surveillance through the rhetorical veil of technology. Including the political and physical boundaries, technical lands are used in highly aestheticized geographies to resist debate surrounding production and governance. These critical sites and spaces range from disaster exclusion and demilitarized zones to prison yards, industrial extraction sites, airports, and spaceports. The identification and instrumentalization of technical lands have increased in scale and complexity since the rise of neoliberalization. Yet, the precise theoretical contours that define these geographies remain unclear. Technical Lands: A Critical Primer brings together authors from a diverse array of disciplines, geographies, and epistemologies to interrogate and theorize the meaning and increasing significance of technical lands.
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£25.60£26.60 -
The Lloyds Building: 0000 (Architecture in Detail)
This illustrated volume covers one of the best-known examples of High-Tech architecture: the Lloyds building in London. Built between 1979 and 1986, it epitomizes the concern of its architect, Richard Rogers, with total flexibility and overt technical imagery. Described by one observer as a “mechanical cathedral”, its 300 foot silver and glass structure stands out among the surrounding city office blocks. An icon of modern architecture, the building has become a tourist attraction as well as an architectural landmark.Read more
£39.40