Situated just south of St Petersburg, the Russian imperial residence of Tsarskoye Selo is now more than three hundred years old. Occupied by the Nazi forces in 1941, Tsarskoye Selo saw its treasures plundered and many of its interiors left derelict. This book deals with this imperial residence.

Drawing inspiration from tradition, Coco Chanel was never the slave of everyday formulas or mere market values. This book presents her work from the direct re-creations of the 1932 Collection to the newest interpretations of comets and stars, plumes and feathers, and Chanels signature flower, the camellia.

Travelling through the history of art from the 15th till the 20th century, The Unfinished Painting is an ambitious survey of works of art by Old and Modern Masters including Van Eyck, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Rubens, David, Manet, Cezanne, Matisse and Mondrian that have remained deliberately or unintentionally unfinished, and that are usually marginalized in traditional art history. They remain incomplete for various reasons: illness or death of the artist; political turmoil forcing him to flee; disagreements with the commissioner or dissatisfaction with the artistic result. However, from the 16th century onwards, artists started to use the non finito as a tool of expression. Unfinished pictures therefore gained a certain reputation in the romantic era, when they were thought to offer the spectator a glimpse of artistic genius. In the 20th century, these paintings were discovered by cubists, expressionists and abstract painters who were fascinated by their rough and incoherent appearance, often unaware of their history. This book follows the creative process of some fifty such paintings, offering a new perspective on the history of Western Art.

Andrei Tarkovsky was a Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor and film theorist. He directed the first five of his seven films Ivans Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, Mirror and Stalker in the Soviet Union, but left for Italy in 1982, where he shot Nostalghia. His last film, Sacrifice, was produced in Sweden in 1985. His work is characterized by spirituality and metaphysical themes, very long takes, an absence of conventional dramatic structure and plot, and his own distinctive style of cinematography. He is today considered one of the 20th centurys most important filmmakers. This book collects film stills and documentary photographs from each of the films, exploring the cinematographic side to his oeuvre.

Tim Walker is one of the most visually exciting photographers of our time. This book showcases many of his most dazzling images his daydreams turned into photographs, dating from around the last seven years of his career. Some of the biggest names in fashion and contemporary culture are here: Alber Elbaz sporting a pair of rabbit ears; Agyness Deyn in the sand dunes of Namibia; Alexander McQueen and a memento mori of skull and cigarettes; Helena Bonham Carter poised with Ray-Bans and a Diet Coke; Stella Tennant in a pink cloud among the rhododendrons of an English country garden The singer and musician Kate Bush contributes a foreword and Walker himself an afterword, as well as illuminating his pictures throughout with personal observations. This exceptional and beautifully designed overview of a career caught in mid-flow reveals just how much one mans singular vision has influenced contemporary tastes in fashion, beauty, glamour and portraiture.

For many years respected gallerists Peter MacGill, Rudolf Kicken and Edwynn Houk have been collecting Aleksandr Rodchenko's photographs.

Pamela Todd's book celebrates William Morris' genius, presenting a thorough overview of his life and career, while setting out his guiding principles so that a modern audience can recreate the Arts and Crafts style in their own homes. A series of Case Studies explores six contemporary houses from a modern London townhouse to a traditional Arts and Crafts home in Massachusetts that have followed and adapted Morris' dicta, brilliantly demonstrating how the style can be applied to our environment today. The book concludes with a comprehensive style-sourcing section, as well as a gazetteer of places to visit for inspiration.

detractors alike. She offers the reader a comprehensive trajectory of abstraction — from the radically new pictorial language of Bella and Delaunnay, to the visceral spirituality of Kandinsky and Mondrian, to the geometrically-obsessed artists of the 1930s and 1940s. The author takes us from the origin of the movement during the First World War to the post-World War II Zeitgeist that emphasized personal expression, and finally, the revival of Abstraction practiced by Neo-Geo, among others, in the 1980s. A succinct and deftly written account of abstraction, Moszynska offers both an overview of the philosophy of the movement as well as analyses of the approaches of individual artists.

Includes 30 removable postcards of manga artist and tattooist Jian Yi's coolest tattoo designs to complete, customize, and color in and then send to friends and family.

The authoritative and lovingly-crafted publication takes the reader on a nostalgic visual journey from Madonna's arrival in New York in the late 1970s to the lead-up to her latest album release, MDNA, in 2012, covering all her albums, tours, plays and films, and the occasional husband or boyfriend along the way.

This inspiring book chronicles the most influential ideas that have shaped film since its inception. Entertaining and intelligent, it provides a concise history as well as being a fascinating resource to dip into. Arranged in a broadly chronological order to show the development of film, the ideas include innovative concepts, technologies, techniques and movements. From the silent eras masterpieces to today's blockbusters and art house movies, these highly illustrated pages are a chance to discover or rediscover films from five continents. The milestones that have given Hollywood a hegemony over world cinema are discussed, but so too are subjects as diverse as German Expressionism, auteur theory and Third Cinema. Key ideas such as continuity editing, genre and sound are also fully explored. Each idea is presented through informed text and arresting visuals paying homage to the mediums great classics. We learn why and how the ideas first evolved and what their impact has been up to the present day.

This luxurious postcard book collects of the very best cult romance comics covers of the s. From Brides in Love and Romantic Hearts to G.I. Sweethearts and Romantic Adventures there are dozens of uniquely kitsch postcards to send to your beloved. Each postcard includes the title, artist, publisher and publication date on the back.

Van Eyck in Detail opens with a biographical note on the artist and an introductory chapter on the technique of oil painting. Organized by theme, it further encompasses subjects as nature, architecture, daily life, fabrics, glass, jewellery and mirrors, and portraits. Van Eycks concentrated observation of nature formed an integral part of his innovation of the art of painting. He studied fauna and flora in their natural environment under specific light conditions. The accuracy with which he realised a breath taking convincing realism is based on a thorough understanding of structure and visual perception. It looks as if everything, from the foreground to the horizon, reveals itself in minuscule detail. However, when observed under magnification, it becomes clear that much depends on suggestion. Van Eyck anticipated on the phenomenon, understood today, that the brain completes visual observation. The authors explain besides the significance of details, also the technique of painting in oil that the artist improved, allowing him to achieve his innovative artistic results. Finally, the reader receives a number of suggestions for further reading.

Presents the history of jewellery in the age of Victoria. This book focuses on the attitudes of owners to their jewellery and the symbolic weight that it was expected to carry.

Take a privileged view inside the private sketchbooks of over eighty architects and studios from around the world. Densely packed with over 750 illustrations, Architects Sketchbooks is a joyful celebration of how a sketch can become the start of a skyscraper. The 85 practitioners featured range from such starchitects as Will Alsop, Shigeru Ban, Laurie Chetwood, Norman Foster and Eva Jiricna to rising talents from all across the globe. Will Joness introduction explores the artistry behind the built world, and the importance of sketching as part of the design process.

Why Your 5 Year Old Could Not Have Done That is Susie Hodge's passionate and persuasive argument against the most common disparaging remark levelled at modern art. In this enjoyable and thought-provoking book, she examines 100 works of modern art that have attracted critical and public hostility from Cy Twombly's scribbled Olympia (1957), Jean-Michel Basquiat's crude but spontaneous LNAPRK (1982), to the apparently careless mess of Tracey Emin's My Bed (1998) and explains how, far from being negligible novelties, they are inspired and logical extensions of the ideas of their time. She explains how such notorious works as Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII (1966) the infamous bricks occupy unique niches in the history of ideas, both showing influences of past artists and themselves influencing subsequent artists. With illustrations of works from Hans Arp to Adolf Wölfli, Susie Hodge places each work in its cultural context to present an unforgettable vision of modern art. This book will give you an understanding of the ways in which modern art differs from the realistic works of earlier centuries, transforming as well as informing your gallery visits for years to come.

Fashion design is a process of investigating, understanding context, and constantly questioning what you are doing and why. This comprehensive survey presents the work of a wide range of modern and contemporary designers and reveals the innumerable areas of inspiration and research on which they ve drawn, from historical examples such as Christian Dior's New Look to traditional textiles from around the world, as seen in John Galliano's Peruvian-inspired collection of 2005. The first part of the book investigates the research process in the work of designers such as Paul Smith, Comme des Gar ons, and Anna Sui. The second section covers subjects like vintage and retro, the use of archives, and the influence of art movements such as op art and surrealism. The third part presents case studies of world-famous designers: Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen, and Coco Chanel, to name but a few.

For nearly fifty years, sisters Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell have been at the forefront of textile design. Collections for London's Liberty department store made their name, with designs like Bauhaus (1972) deemed a significant turning point, paving the way for a vibrant new aesthetic. Their work at this point included prints, furnishing and dress textiles, and famously Liberty's noted scarves, and many of their designs were widely licenced and became ubiquitous. By the late 1970s, they had added wallpaper designs to their repertoire, and in 1979 established themselves as an independent partnership (their work for Liberty had been marketed uncredited). Their client list includes names like Yves St Laurent, habitat, and Marks & Spencer, and the quality of their work has been recognized by the V&A Museum in London (where 33 of their designs are held in the permanent collection). A long-term US association with Martex saw their patterns grace widely distributed designer bedding — which even made an appearance in Seinfeld. A successful attempt to develop their brand saw them broaden this client base, and sales in the US are now worth millions of dollars annually. All of their patterns have been preserved. Staggering in its scale (over 25,000 patterns to date) the Collier — Campbell Archive is the permanent record of this astonishingly fruitful collaboration. It is from here that the imagery of THE COLLIER — CAMPBELL ARCHIVE will be drawn. Hundreds of designs — some obscure, many instantly recognizable — will form an essential reference for designers, fashionistas and students alike. There will be exclusive commentary from Collier and Campbell themselves, and the voices of key collaborators and experts in the field will cement their deserved reputation as one of the key creative partnerships in modern design.

These small, but perfectly formed, book collections of kitsch and kooky images come complete with fascinating facts and weird and wonderful tales. These digests of the best from classic Fifties comics contain everything from ghastly ghouls and racy romances; through wise-guy gangsters and vampish vixens; right up to battle-scarred heroes and outer space adventures. There's a fascinating introduction giving a brief background to each genre Horror, Crime, Combat, Sci-Fi, Sauciness and Romance and every one contains complete strips, text stories, unusual adverts and mind-blowing covers. Plus, each book has a free fridge magnet, making them the perfect quirky gift, either individually or as a whole set.