Michael Hulse is a distinguished translator from German, bringing a vast range of literature to readers. His work spans from canonical German authors to Nobel laureates, demonstrating a broad command of literary styles and voices. He is particularly recognized for his renderings of W. G. Sebald's profound narratives, skillfully capturing their unique melancholic tone and intricate prose. Hulse's translations are celebrated for their precision and deep engagement with the source material, ensuring that the spirit and artistry of the original works are vividly conveyed.
The complete van Gogh Vincent van Gogh's story is one of the most ironic in art history. He lived an unhappy and difficult life during which his work received almost no appreciation—finally killing himself by a bullet to the chest, so great was his despair—and is now widely considered one of the most important painters of all time, his works fetching record prices of tens of millions of dollars at auction. This comprehensive study of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) represents a rarity in art a detailed monograph on his life and art combined with a complete catalogue of his 871 paintings. This volume also reproduces most of van Gogh's paintings in color for the first time.
An introduction to the life and work of twentieth-century Russian artist Marc Chagall, discussing his cultural and historical importance, and including a chronology and over one hundred color illustrations with explanatory captions
This collection features lucid narratives that explore family dramas, global warming, and poignant dialogues with Death. Set against diverse backdrops including Mexico City, New York, and the Peloponnese, the poems intertwine themes of spirituality, art, and the beauty of nature, offering readers a captivating journey through various landscapes and experiences.
The book explores themes of loss and belonging, reflecting on the author's relationship with his parents and childhood experiences. It delves into the historical influences of England and Germany on his identity, while ultimately discovering a sense of home through the transformative power of love.
Though he died aged 36, Toulouse-Lautrec's influence was immense, immortalizing the nightlife of the Belle Époque and putting the Paris neighborhood of Montmartre on the global map of hedonist-creative hotspots. Walk through his world of singers, dancers, musicians, and prostitutes and discover an artist of great humanity, figurative skill, and...
""Hindering the artist is a crime,"" wrote Egon Schiele in 1912. At the time he was in prison for disseminating immoral drawings. Throughout his work the note of defiance, provocation, and rebellion was sounded. Schiele's favorite subjects were female nudes and self-portraits, and he worked at his art with furious commitment, though it was not until shortly before his early death that he began to win real recognition. Today, with Oskar Kokoschka, he is seen as the most important of the Austrian artists who came after Klimt. This study examines the life and work of Egon Schiele through all the major oil paintings and many of his erotic drawings.
The creations of Jeff Koons (born 1955) are at once immediately accessible and eloquently art historical. From basketball tanks to flower puppies, his instantly recognizable work frolics with banal imagery as much as it integrates cultural references such as Surrealism and Pop Art. Koons’ art revels in visual pleasure, but also in the power to affront. He has made his name as much for stainless-steel rabbits as he has with his sinister sculpture of Michael Jackson, or his sexually explicit photographic series with then-wife Cicciolina. The result is mega-artist status. An indisputable king of contemporary visual culture, Koons is lauded by collectors, institutions, and the public alike. With landmark works and concise texts by Katy Siegel, Hans Werner Holzwarth, and Eckhard Schneider, this book offers the complete Koons at a glance, introducing an art world giant from his early inflatable flowers through to today. 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 Art series a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions
"The definitive introduction to the scope and range of Picasso's work." The Times, London "I wanted to be a painter, and I became Picasso," declared Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) in an apt survey of a triumphant career. He had good grounds for the confidence palpable in his statement, for in the history of 20th century art, his name stands out over all the others. In Picasso's paintings, drawings, lithographs, ceramics, and sculptures, he was tirelessly inventive and innovative, exhibiting an aesthetic bravado that kept him one step ahead of his contemporaries. From subject matter to new forms and techniques to new media, Picasso got there first. The Spanish artist's enormous output, from the eight-year-old's beginnings to the late work of a man of ninety-one, is surely one of the most diverse and creatively energetic in the whole history of art, and it is no exaggeration to see him as the genius of the century. Carsten-Peter Warncke's study is a thorough review of Picasso's entire oeuvre, from the early Blue and Rose Periods, through the analytic and synthetic cubism and classicist phase all the way up to the art of the old savage Picasso. Our study of Picasso, the most exhaustive record of his work to date, contains almost 1500 illustrations, from his earliest drawings to the master's very last painting. Extensive bibliography section as well as illustrated section about Picasso's life and work Index of Names
Cleverly crafted, the collection features short stories that blend storytelling with literary documentation. Each piece, only a few pages long, explores diverse themes, from the virtues of the Devil to the complexities of love and power. Kluge's mastery of compression allows him to create vivid worlds in just a paragraph, akin to Kafka and Kawabata. The stories are organized into five chapters, addressing topics such as the cosmos and the conflict between knowledge and feelings, with precise details that provoke thought and reflection.
'That's brutal violence on a defenceless person, and quite unnecessary, declares Sophie, and she pulls with an audible tearing sound at the hair of the man lying in an untidy heap on the ground. What's unnecessary is best of all, says Rainer, who wants to go on fighting. We agreed on that.' It is the late 1950s. A man is out walking in a park in Vienna. He will be beaten up by four teenagers, not for his money, he has an average amount ? nor for anything he might have done to them, but because the youths are arrogant and very pleased with themselves. Their arrogance is their way of reacting to the maggot?ridden corpse that is Austria where everyone has a closet to hide their Nazi histories, their sexual perversions and their hatred of the foreigner. Elfriede Jelinek, who writes like an angel of all that is tawdry, shows in Wonderful, Wonderful Times how actions of the present are determined by thoughts of the past
