Cultural History

The history and culture of Europe has been decisively shaped by the exploration and use of the seas surrounding Europe. This catalogue book reflects the significance of the sea as a space of rule and trade for Europeans, as bridge and border, as resource and a place of longing. The book also reviews the changing perception of the sea in the arts.  

This book highlights two series of little known drawings from the 1950's, drawings where Andy Warhol first explored the controversial and for him deeply personal subject of drag. His oeuvre during the first decade of his career, before he became the godfather of Pop, has proven to be enormously influential on his life's work, yet so far has not received due attention.

Like many great artists, Heinz Mack also found inspiration in African art. His artistic expeditions into the African desert and his encounters with the special light, the people and the architecture have continued to influence his art to this day. His collection of African art is being published for the first time.  

This survey in 14 essays of Fatimid art between the 10th and 12th centuries showcases the pottery, rock crystal, metalwork, textile, architectural, wood, and calligraphic creations of one of the most artistically inventive periods in Islamic culture, with special attention paid to the art of Christian and Jewish communities under the Fatimids.

"A Princely Pursuit" highlights more than seventy pieces from the Meissen porcelain collection of Malcolm D. Gutter. Promised to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the collection’s roughly 170 works focus on exemplary early examples from the German manufactory and trace the evolution and experimentation of Meissen wares.

The German architect Rudolf Schwarz (1897–1961) numbers among the leading masters of church architecture in the 20th century. Inspired by the Catholic Youth Movement, he has designed over 40 religious buildings since 1924. His oeuvre includes numerous new buildings as well as alterations and renovations. In addition, he has made a name for himself as the author of fundamental texts on sacred architecture.  

The Bavarian architect Hans Döllgast (1891–1974) was accepted into the international canon of modern architecture quite late, but then remained a part of it all the longer. His most important achievements after 1945 were the “creative restorations” of buildings in Munich that had been destroyed by war: the Alte Pinakothek, the Basilica of St. Boniface, and the major municipal cemeteries.

Fully integrated into the nature of the Corinthian countryside, the Museum Liaunig is at once restrained and spectacular. An outstanding example of contemporary museum architecture, it creates spaces for the Liaunig collections whose focus is on Austrian art from the post-war era to the present.

Electro-mobility is the number one topic when it comes to our mobility in the future. What does the vision of BMW, Germany’s main pioneer in the field, look like? For the first time providing extensive insight into BMW’s workshop of ideas, this volume presents the multi-faceted concept for sustainable and visionary mobility right up to autonomous driving.

Assembling buildings designed by modern star architects from Tadao Andō to Peter Zumthor, this photography book is a total-work-of-art: its felicitous interplay of brilliant architectural photography, exquisite book design, and texts approaching the subject from the angle of the history of thought places Marcel Chassot’s imagery within European cultural history.