Crafts

"Global Luxury in Renaissance Venice" offers an unprecedented exploration of maiolica in the Serenissima set in a vibrant context of hybridity and exchange. Versatile and receptive to all forms of decoration, the medium of maiolica offers a unique point of entry into Venice’s material world as it was shaped by Mediterranean trade and local luxury production.

"Art Along the Rivers" coincides with the Missouri state bicentennial. It presents extraordinary objects produced or collected within a 150-mile region around St. Louis. Beginning with the ancient Mississippian culture followed by the Osage, French, African American, German, British, and artists today, these communities developed rich artistic traditions that have vibrant legacies.

Kimbel and Cabus were among the most progressive design reformers of their time. This is the first publication to explore the timeless American immigrant success story of the trailblazing New York City design team who captured national attention with their imaginative furniture forms and defined a significant aesthetic in the United States.

"The Art of Orientation" explores the mosque through 125 artefacts from across the Islamic world. It employs an original and contemporary approach by incorporating essays by leading Arab and international authors, which provide a fresh interpretation of the cultural history behind the shown objects by interweaving concepts, histories and ideas.

The Dresden artist Max Uhlig (*1937) created one of the greatest window cycles of contemporary art for the Gothic Church of Saint John in Magdeburg. Vines and coloured foliage together with lines in expressive rhythms which are a revelation in their incisiveness, fill a window area of some 350 square metres with colours and immerse the interior of the church in light.

The book synthesizes research in history, fashion, art and visual culture to reassess the hair story of peoples of African descent. Long a fraught topic for African Americans and others in the diaspora, Black hair is here addressed by artists, barbers and activists in both its historical perceptions and its ramifications for self and society today.

The publication examines in depth the influence of folkloric traditions on the pioneers of Modernism in the develop- ment of their new artistic language. Craft objects and folk art are contrasted with masterpieces by artists of the avant-garde like Josef Albers, Sonia Delaunay, Johannes Itten, Vasily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Pablo Picasso, Charles Sheeler and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.

Breaking out of Tradition traces the pioneering developments in lacquer art at the beginning of the 20th century in Japan. The lacquer artists of that time adopted a critical and creative approach to the centuries-old traditions, experimenting with innovative techniques and new materials, thereby also providing new stimuli for Western art.

"Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon" presents sixty-seven masterpieces collected by John D. Rockefeller 3rd and his wife Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller. Illuminating the cultures and history of Asia, the book presents a magnificent selection of sculptures, bronzes and ceramics that range from the late sixth century BCE to the early nineteenth century CE.

Five hundred years ago, the landing of Hernán Cortés in Mexico marked the end of the Aztec Empire. This volume presents the wealth of this culture with spectacular, sometimes unpublished finds: rare feathered shields, impressive stone sculptures, precious mosaic masks and goldwork as well as brilliantly coloured illustrated manuscripts bring the world of the Aztecs to life.