Wilhelm Leibl (1844–1900) is regarded as one of the most significant portraitists and an important representative of Realism in Europe. With large-format illustrations of 40 paintings and 60 drawings, this volume accompanies the first comprehensive museum exhibition with a focus on portraits and representations of figures to be shown in Switzerland and Austria.

Making van Gogh focuses on the œuvre of Vincent van Gogh in the context of its reception. The publication examines the particular role which German gallerists, collectors, critics and museums played in the story of his success. At the same time it sheds light on the importance of van Gogh as a role model for the avant-garde generation of artists.

Heinz Mack is an artist who has left his mark on our times. He has made a pioneering contribution to the question of a new concept of art, which has been of fundamental importance since the post-war period. This volume offers for the first time a monograph with an overview of Mack’s philosophy of art as well as his multi-faceted oeuvre: from ZERO and the legendary Sahara Project to light art and his most recent paintings.

Georg Baselitz's various creative phases are exemplified by 31 of his masterpieces that are held within the Bavarian State Painting Collections. The volume analyses for the first time these important paintings and sculptures within the context of the history of the collection, which has been shaped not only by the artist’s outstanding supporters and collectors, including Duke Franz von Bayern, but also by the passionate commitment of the directors and curators of the museum.

The painting Paris Street, Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894) is an icon of Impressionism.This volume presents the work in the context of Caillebotte’s innovative artistic work, introducing him as a driving force in the establishment of Impressionism and describing his intensive exchanges with his fellow-artists.

A master of colour and an ambitious cosmopolite: Hans Purrmann (1880–1966) was an authoritative figure who forged links in European Modernism both as an artist and a personality, as a stylist and a figure of social integration. The balance between a record of what he saw and the visual reflexion of painting as a form of expression hovers lightly in his pictures.

Elegant sailing ships, expansive seascapes, crystal-clear expansive views of architecture – with his unique pictorial language and range of subjects Lyonel Feininger became one of the most important artists of Classic Modernism, whose works remain very popular to this day.  

When the State Bauhaus opened in Weimar in 1918, the Swiss artist and art theorist Johannes Itten (1888–1967) was one of the first teachers to be appointed by Walter Gropius. With his preliminary course Itten had a considerable effect on the creative training in the Bauhaus; to this day his insights into the theory of colours set standards in art education and in the field of design.

She was not only a talented artist but also a shrewd free thinker and hostess: at the beginning of the twentieth century famous artists including Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, Alfred Kubin, Adolf Erbslöh, Erma Bossi, Franz Marc and August Macke assembled in Marianne von Werefkin’s salon in the Schwabing district of Munich.

Over a career that now spans nearly seven decades, the American painter Alex Katz (b. 1927, New York) has devoted himself to the representation of the here and now and to the immediacy of human perception – a commitment to what the artist has often described as “painting in the present tense.”

Wilhelm Kuhnert was a pioneer. He was one of the first European artists to travel to the largely unexplored savannahs and jungles of the German colonies in North and East Africa. Under hazardous conditions he documented at close quarters the fascinating animal and plant world and then created in his Berlin studio monumental paintings which were much sought-after on the art market.

Majestic and magical landscapes, the soft beauty of fields of flowers, the raw cold of winter: the works of Harald Sohlberg combine a Romantic perception of nature with a contemporary pictorial language akin to Symbolism. This volume assembles some 60 paintings, in addition to a number of drawings, prints and photographs by the artist and grants insight into his conceptual world through his correspondence.

In 1926 22 year-old Dutch artist Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) travelled to the USA on a British freighter – without papers and hidden in the machine room. The young art student eked out a living by painting houses, signs and façades, before he was able after eight years to dedicate himself entirely to painting.  

Admired by contemporaries as an artistic “jack-of-all-trades”, Koloman Moser (1868–1918) is regarded today as one of the most important representatives of the Viennese Secession of around 1900. As a graphic artist and designer Moser was unparalleled in his artistic diversity, creating furniture, textiles, and objects – for the Wiener Werkstätte among others – that are icons of Modernism, as well as leaving behind an impressive oeuvre of paintings.  

In decades of artistic production Gerhard Berger (born in 1933) has arrived at a unique, characteristic visual language. His representation of humans, oscillating between figurative and abstract painting, is rooted in the great myths of humankind and in the religious visual conceptions of the world’s cultures.  

Henri Matisse created an oeuvre that is unparalleled in its brilliance and originality. His colorfully luminescent paintings are a sweeping affirmation of joie-de-vivre, levity and sensitivity. Featuring well-researched texts and numerous illustrations, this volume offers fascinating insights into the life and artistic development of Henri Matisse, one of the preeminent pioneers of modern art.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) is one of the most important artist personalities of the twentieth century; many of his works have become icons of Expressionism. Vacillating between self-doubt and egocentricity, the artist created an incomparably multi-faceted oeuvre with a remarkable instinct for the trends and imbalances of his time.  

»Heck, ... it’s all done with panache, fresh from the brush...«

Vasily Kandinsky became the pioneer of abstract art; he was a co-founder of the Blauer Reiter, an art theorist and an influential teacher at the Bauhaus. When he abandoned his promising career as a lawyer in favour of art at the age of 30, no one could have guessed that a few years later he would play a decisive role in determining and revolutionising twentieth-century art.  

Vincent van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo and his artist friends Emile Bernard and Paul Gauguin are full of emotions, full of life, full of despair.  

Egon Schiele (1890–1918) is nowadays regarded as one of the leading pioneers of Modernism in Austria. Although he already enjoyed some success during his lifetime and came to be considered Austria’s greatest artist following his death, his outstanding importance for art was recognized only in the early 1950s.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s move from Dresden to Berlin in 1911 marked a turning point in his art. Under the impression of this most modern metropolis in Europe, during the years between 1912 and 1915 the artist created works which in their exaggerated and concentrated manner can really be regarded as metaphors for the attitude to life at the beginning of the 20th century.

“Ambiguous work. Where can we start?”, wrote the art historian Oscar Schürer in the historic series "Junge Kunst" about Pablo Picasso’s multi-faceted oeuvre back in 1927. Picasso, who was investigating Surrealism at the time, was regarded as a genius even then – and had another 40 years of creativity before him. The magnificent legacy of a talent which showed twentieth-century art the way forward consists of an almost unimaginable number of ...

Emil Nolde was one of the most important exponents of Expressionism, and is considered one of the main precursors of modernism. His virtuoso handling of colour and the incomparable expressiveness of his paintings, watercolours, and Unpainted Pictures astound viewers again and again, and ensure that every exhibition of his work is a great success.

Far from current trends, the painter and graphic artist Zoran Music (1909 - 2005), a native of Slovenia, created an oeuvre that is as moving as it is unusual and that evokes in radical manner a reflection on the inner essence. Music was represented at the Biennale in Venice as well as the documenta and received numerous international awards, including the Prix de Paris.

The art academy failed to recognise his talent; he rejected the contemporary art scene in Vienna; and his visionary work was largely neglected during his lifetime: the painter Richard Gerstl (1883–1908), whose creative period lasted for just four intensive years, is regarded today as one of the most important representatives of Austrian Expressionism for his portraits and landscapes.   

Apocalypse, the city, war, religion, the portrait, exile and existential trauma – Ludwig Meidner (1884–1966) is regarded as one of the outstanding artists of German Expressionism. With the accuracy of a seismograph he recorded in his pictorial and literary works the shocks which reverberated through his time.

Few artists symbolise Franco-German friendship more effectively than Werner Reinisch. For over 50 years he has been composing his expressive works in France in the region of Ardèche, where he has found inspiration in the light and the surroundings. This comprehensive monograph is also a documentation and homage to the artist and his oeuvre.  

31 May 2015 would have been Bernard Schultze’s one-hundredth birthday. On the occasion of this anniversary the publication featuring approximately eighty works of art honours the extensive oeuvre of one of the most important Art Informel artists.

Herbert Nauderer whisks viewers of his work away to a parallel world. The drawings, collages and retouched pictures that constitute his “Mausmannsland” (Mouseman’s Land) cycle coalesce into dark dream sequences. They are linked by the “Mausmann” (Mouseman), a figure wearing a black mask whose threatening silhouette is reminiscent of Mickey Mouse.

Expressionistic and imbued with colour, the work of Rita De Muynck draws the observer into an autonomous world of experience. Dreams, the vigorous subconscious and synesthesia find sensual expression in her large figurative paintings and witty day and night drawings. This lavishly illustrated book presents her work from 1998 to 2013, accompanied by literary and scientific essays as well as personal contributions.

Sein virtuoser Umgang mit der Farbe und die unvergleichliche Ausdrucksstärke seiner Gemälde, Aquarelle und Ungemalten Bilder beglücken sein Publikum immer wieder aufs Neue und garantieren jeder seiner Ausstellungen größte Resonanz. Emil Nolde gehört zu den wichtigsten Protagonisten des Expressionismus und gilt als einer der zentralen Wegbereiter der Moderne. In enger Zusammenarbeit mit der Nolde Stiftung Seebüll widmet sich der neueste Band der Jungen ...

This lavishly illustrated book presents a comprehensive overview of the career thus far of German artist Verena Landau,  documenting her projects from 1999 through 2013. Landau is particularly interested in the tense relationship between art and commerce, a theme that runs through several of her works.

Uta Reinhardt’s compositions are compelling. Her paintings, most of which feature human or animal figures, cause the viewer to try to understand what is happening on the canvas. Figures, some only partly formed, are in strange positions and alien  situations, isolated and distant from each other and from the viewer.

Baselitz is one of the most important artists of today. His works can be found in major museums around the world. For over 30 years, photographer Benjamin Katz has been documenting Baselitz at work in different studios. This volume now captures Baselitz’s exceptional life at work and at home.

The work of painter Francesco Clemente has always drawn on many esoteric traditions. He finds inspiration in a variety of visual languages, ranging from the Tantric diagrams of India to the »Candomblé« ceremonial implements of Brazil.

Michael Triegel (*1968) is among the most important representatives of the New Leipzig School. Along with landscape sketches, still lifes and portraits, it is principally mythological and religious subjects that bear witness to his very individual, multi-faceted idiom in the style of the great masters of the Italian Renaissance.

The paintings of German-Greek artist Aris Kalaizis occupy the space between fiction and fact, motion and inertia. With a masterly brush Kalaizis creates scenarios where the subjects play enigmatically entwined roles and the world of shadows lives in defiant coexistence with light.

The pictures of Julia Avramidis are never conclusively explicable; there is no simple solution to her riddles and secrets. Despite the abstraction of the representational, the collages – seemingly thrown together in haste – permit us to recognise life deep down, hidden beneath the layers of materials.

“I want to have an effect during this age in which people are so perplexed and in need of help.” This sentence, a diary entry from 1922, is the creed of a great artist. It is as topical today as it was then. Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) achieved worldwide respect with her drawings, printed graphics and sculptures even during her lifetime.

For the past forty years, Jürgen Schilling (b. 1954) has been painting the landscape of southern France. The art historian Wilhelm Schlink has accompanied his career from the beginning as a friend and collaborative thinker. Schlink describes in lively manner the artist’s approaches and reflections, especially against the background of the current debate about contemporary interpretations of the landscape.

Founded in 1948, Hirmer Publishers soon established a name for art books produced to the highest standards. Over the past decade they have become equally well-known in English-speaking countries, with a reputation as one of the most prestigious publishers in this field. This survey of English titles from 2010 to 2020 encompasses a wealth of subjects across the centuries, from antiquity to the modern age.  

His pictures look curious, his figures introverted and his street scenes strangely stage-like. Jacobus Vrel records everyday life in Holland during the 17th century, and creates quirky worlds at the same time. This volume presents the fascinating complete œuvre of a painter whose works were thought during the 19th century to have been painted by Vermeer.

His pictures look curious, his figures introverted and his street scenes strangely stage-like. Jacobus Vrel records everyday life in Holland during the 17th century, and creates quirky worlds at the same time. This volume presents the fascinating complete œuvre of a painter whose works were thought during the 19th century to have been painted by Vermeer.

The painter Hans Purrmann (1880–1966) ranks among the most important painters in the history of twentieth-century art. His vibrant Colourism drew on the works of Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne, but he achieved independent international acclaim over the course of an eventful life lived between Munich, Paris, Berlin, Florence and Switzerland.  

Phyllida Barlow (*1944) tests boundaries with her monumental sculptures in an eccentric yet humorous manner, reflecting on the relationship with our environment through her use of industrial and everyday materials. With impressive installation photos and never-before-seen archival material the publication presents Barlow’s unique oeuvre from her early works until the present day.

Stirring paintings, colourful picture collages made from countless scraps of paper, moving photo collages – the art of Tammam Azzam (b. 1980 in Damascus) is multi-faceted, political and topical. The publication provides a comprehensive overview of the oeuvre of the Syrian artist and describes his career over the past 20 years.

This opulent volume on Paul Klee celebrates one of the most important and productive artists of the twentieth century, whose work is as topical today as it ever was: growing out of the inner conflict of modern man, Klee’s imaginative works provide a link between the world of reason and the irrational “secrets” of human existence.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88) is one of the great European painters of the 18th century. This volume is the first to present the English artist as a pivotal figure in the development of “modern” landscape painting, a genre in which his painterly experiments were particularly innovative.

Peter Paul Rubens is not only one of the most important painters of the Baroque; he is also a virtuoso of the art of transformation. More than virtually any other artist he sought inspiration in the works of other artists and was thus constantly reinventing his art in a highly radical manner. Here you can look over Rubens’s shoulder and immerse yourself in the creative process through which his masterpieces took shape.

The rediscovery of icons of the 1920s, “degenerate” experiments, magical-poetic abstractions – this wide-ranging publication shows the complete work of Jeanne Mammen (1890–1976), a Berlin artist on the threshold of the modern age. Her productive output mirrors the extreme circumstances she experienced, from war, destruction and poverty to the emergence from the ruins.

Raphael is truly a universal genius of the High Renaissance — be it as a painter and architect in Florence and Rome or in the employment of popes and worldly rulers. His masterful drawings perfectly illustrate his thought and creative processes from the sketch all the way to the finished composition. Featuring about 150 drawings and paintings, the volume assembles all of the artist’s major projects.

“The goal should be an understanding by all three parties: the wall, the architect and the painter”, observed the French artist Fernand Léger (1881–1955) in 1933. His projects reveal a willingness to try out new things and demonstrate his striving to extend painting beyond the boundaries of the easel and to integrate it into the social, everyday space. They shed new light on one of the influential artists of the twentieth century.  

Today Egon Schiele (1890–1918) is celebrated as an artist at the forefront of the international stage, although he spent almost his entire life in Lower Austria and Vienna. This publication uses the most recent sources and previously unpublished photographs to show how Schiele developed essential elements of his expressive art and how influential it remains to this day.