Michael Scuffil Book order (chronological)

This work in the Basic Genre series features more than 35 photographs, descriptions, and interpretations of the featured works, and a brief biography of the artists.

Pleasantly plump With whimsical irony and a style reminiscent of the old masters, Fernando Botero (b.1932) began painting caricatured animals and corpulent bodies with disproportionate heads at a time when his contemporaries were fervently rejecting figurative work in favor of abstraction. More recently he has expanded into sculpture, creating delightful large-scale bronze works portraying the same sorts of voluminous figures he so loved to paint. Like the writings of Gabriel García Márquez or the music of Astor Piazzola, Botero’s work has come to represent modern Latin American culture. About the Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series

In the search for the ""mystery"" that envelops things and organisms, Reni Magritte (1898-1967) created pictures which, taking everyday reality as their starting point, followed a unique, otherworldly logic. He invented an inimitable pictorial language that he used to question our usual comprehension of reality and art. In this book, Jacques Meuris traces Magritte's artistic development from its beginnings until the end of his life, revealing the originality of this great Belgian Surrealist.

The creator of Art Nouveau's greatest beauties Alfons Mucha’s is an art of seduction. His graceful women, delicate colors, and decorative style add up to an unashamed act of temptation. Mucha (1860-1939), whose work is indissolubly linked with the Art Nouveau style, was one of the most fascinating artistic personalities of the turn of the 20th century. He was not only a painter and graphic artist, but also took an interest in sculpture, jewelry, interior decorating, and utilitarian art. His particular talents, however, lay in decorative graphics, which was the basis of his fame and remains so today. This book traces all aspects of his career via biographical and descriptive texts and a wide selection of images.