Cultural History

The Swiss artist Johannes Itten (1888–1967) was not only a pioneering art theorist and a prominent teacher at the Bauhaus, but he also left an extensive and wide-ranging oeuvre which is only known in part today. The lavishly illustrated catalogue raisonné covers comprehensively and presents an appropriate appreciation of the entire range of his artistic oeuvre.

The Japanese artist Koho Mori-Newton is a master when it comes to handling silk, which he places in an exciting dialogue with architecture. In this way he creates cult-like spaces which interact with light in a fascinating way. In addition to the works in silk, this volume also shows various graphic work groups from the last 35 years as well as the Path of Silk, created specially for no intention.

This catalogue, published in conjunction with an accompanying exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre in Toronto, Canada, presents a selection of more than 200 photographs from the extraordinary and eclectic collection of Howard and Carole Tanenbaum.

Monika Kopplin is leaving and going into retirement after almost thirty years as the Director of the Museum for Lacquer Art. She has contributed in no small measure to the international reputation of the institution. To mark the occasion, the special volume “Lacquer Friends of the World” presents 24 artists from eight nations who have accompanied her over the years.

Abstract paintings were being produced even before Kandinsky. Completely independently from each other, Georgiana Houghton (1814–1884) in England, Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) in Sweden and Emma Kunz (1892–1963) in Switzerland developed an individual, abstract pictorial language. What they had in common was a desire to make visible the laws of nature, the intellect and the supernatural. Their works are being presented side by side for the first time in an exhibition.

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.

James Loeb (1867–1933), the son of a German-Jewish banker in New York, followed his artistic and art historical inclinations and used his tremendous financial wealth for the purpose of cultural and social philanthropism. This publication examines the patron’s life and work and outlines his scholarly achievements.

"Yigal Gawze’s photographs capture the abstraction, the simplicity and the optimism of early modernism in Tel Aviv. He distils the essence of the Bauhaus to bring it alive in a modern city and concentrates on the subtle effects of natural light upon architecture, a technique that the masters of the modern movement themselves applauded." Nonie Niesewand, design editor & author

Seen as an expression of individuality and personality, fashion around 1900 became a synonym for the physical and social emancipation of women and progressed to become an object of artistic interest. The clothes designs of famous artists like Heinrich Vogeler, Henry van de Velde, Josef Hoffmann and Sonia Delaunay reveal both a new aesthetic and a new attitude to the role of women.

The sports cars of the 1950s to the 1970s are fast, beautiful, eccentric and innovative. In recent decades these automobiles not only became coveted collector’s items; they also enjoy cult status. In an exciting journey through time the volume presents 25 outstanding sports cars as design icons and illuminates their presentation in film and photography.