Serge Bramly Book order

Over 130 of the greatest depictions of the kiss in art are accompanied by insightful commentary in this handsome volume. The depiction of the kiss has held special significance throughout the history of art, from classical antiquity to the present. A symbol of erotic passion or maternal love but equally of betrayal and death, the kiss represents one of the greatest legendary motifs. Spanning the ages and the globe, this volume explores the emphasis placed by certain cultures and artists on "the meeting of lips." From Hayez’s medieval kissers to Klimt’s iconic symbolist painting, and from Ingres’s Francesca and Paolo to Picasso’s ethereal cubist couple, this book explains the passionate undertones of the world’s greatest masterpieces. The evocative text is illustrated by works ranging from Hokusai to Cindy Sherman via Mary Cassat, Brancusi, and Lichtenstein.

In X'Mas, 55 young girls below the age of 20 are posing nude, or almost nude, for the first time. All are very pretty, but they do not yet know their own power of seduction. They have been promised Christmas: it is like a rite of passage, a moment of unreality in which the person does not know what the outcome will be. The smiles of the festive season can hide many fears and already some regrets and disappointments. In work carried out during the year 2000, in these 62 photographs Bettina Rheims represents three phases in the coming-of-age of a young girl: The first shows the background of a young girl's own environment, the pinks and blues of junior theatre. The second incorporates a projected backdrop that is between cinema and nightmare and grasps at the dreams and potential of the future. In the third nothing is left, except a person -- a woman in a white box where the ribbon has been cut to reveal that it is the true self that is the real gift.

The artistic collaboration of photographer Bettina Rheims and writer/art critic Serge Bramly began in 1991 with Chambre Close, which Schirmer/Mosel is publishing for the first time. It lives off the stimulating contrast between text and images. The cultivated literary tone of Monsieur X's fictional "confessions" is set against photographs that speak a far clearer language. Bettina Rheims has a command of this language, which tells of female eroticism and exhibitionism as no one else does.

Cet ouvrage est une réédition numérique d’un livre paru au XXe siècle, désormais indisponible dans son format d’origine.