1920s Berlin

The Legend of a Music Label Capitol Records – from 1942 to today From the Beatles to Beck, Sinatra to Sam Smith, a parade of era-defining artists have passed through the doors of the Capitol Records Tower, one of Hollywood’s most distinctive landmarks and home to one of the world’s most defining labels for the past 75+ years. To commemorate this extraordinary history of recorded music, TASCHEN presents this official account of Capitol Records, from its founding year of 1942 to today. With a foreword by Beck, essays by cultural historians and music and architecture critics, as well as hundreds of images from Capitol’s extensive archives, we follow the label’s evolution and the making of some of the greatest music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Through pop, rock, country, classical, soul, and jazz, the photographic and musical history includes the label’s most successful, cool, hip, and creative stars, as well as the one-hit wonders who had their all-too-brief moments in the spotlight. Along the way, we encounter the likes of Miles Davis, Nat King Cole, the Kingston Trio, and Frank Sinatra in Capitol’s first 20 years; the Beach Boys, the Band, and the Beatles in the 1960s; global rock magnets Pink Floyd, Wings, Steve Miller Band, Bob Seger, and Linda Ronstadt in the 1970s; Beastie Boys, Duran Duran, Radiohead, and Bonnie Raitt in the 1980s and 1990s; and such contemporary stars as Coldplay, Katy Perry, and Sam Smith. An unmissable milestone for music lovers, Capitol Records is a live and kicking celebration of the mighty giant of the industry that created the soundtrack to generations past, present, and future.

A world of floating symbols For Marc Chagall (1887–1985), painting was an intricate tapestry of dreams, tales, and traditions. His instantly recognizable visual language carved out a unique early 20th-century niche, often identified as one of the earliest expressions of psychic experience. Chagall’s canvases are characterized by loose brushwork, deep colors, a particular fondness for blue, and a repertoire of recurring tropes including musicians, roosters, rooftops, flowers, and floating lovers. For all their ethereal charms, his compositions were often rich and complex in their references. They wove together not only colors and forms, but also his Jewish roots with his present encounters in Paris, markers of faith with gestures of love and symbols of hope with testimonies of trauma. Across scenes of birth, love, marriage, and death, this dependable artist introduction explores the many versions of Chagall’s rich vocabulary. From visions of his native Vitebsk in modern-day Belarus to images of the Eiffel Tower, we explore the unique aesthetic of one of the most readily identifiable modern masters and one of the most influential Jewish artists of all time.

A decade marked by adventures in futurism Published annually from 1906 until 1980, Decorative Art, The Studio Yearbook was dedicated to the latest currents in architecture, interiors, furniture, lighting, glassware, textiles, metalware, and ceramics. Since the publications went out of print, the now hard-to-find yearbooks have become highly prized by collectors and dealers. This volume spotlights the futuristic, experimental aesthetic of the 1970s. After the revolutions of the ’60s, the world of design and architecture became an increasingly exciting and fast-moving hotbed of ideas, rife with vehemently opposing schools and movements. In many ways it was a more extreme era for design than the previous decade. Experimentalism was everywhere, and many projects, thought not practical, were forward-thinking visions of a new kind of decorative art and design. Various groups advocated returning to natural methods, rejecting style in favor of craft or pushing the logic of industrial living to its concrete, high-rise extreme. Decorative Art 1970s includes the work of the decade’s brightest stars, such as Afra and Tobia Scarpa, Luigi Colani, Achille Castiglioni, Kisho Kurokawa, Norman Foster, Richard Meier, and Theo Crosby.

To kolejny – po „Uśmiechu świata” – album Elżbiety Dzikowskiej pełen uśmiechu. Tym razem – dziecięcego. Te niezwykłe fotografie najmłodszych mieszkańców Azji, Afryki czy Ameryki Południowej powstały podczas licznych podróży Autorki. Bohaterowie tych zdjęć najczęściej żyją w biedzie, niejednokrotnie głodują, opiekują się licznym młodszym rodzeństwem i od wczesnych lat pracują, żeby pomóc ledwo wiążącym koniec z końcem rodzicom. Szkoła jest dla nich zazwyczaj nieosiągalnym luksusem. Jednak niezależnie od szerokości geograficznej, od koloru skóry, języka czy statusu materialnego wszystkie dzieci są tak samo ciekawe świata, tak samo starają się znaleźć choćby chwilę na zabawę i tak szczerze i ufnie się uśmiechają. Autorka uważa, że właśnie one uśmiechają się najpiękniej. Wystarczy popatrzeć na zawarte w albumie fotografie, żeby stwierdzić, że ma rację...

Cykl wystaw „Atak Łaskotek” („Tickle Attack”), prezentowanych w całej Europie od września 2008 do maja 2009 roku powstał dzięki wspólnej inicjatywie kuratorów z Austrii, Włoch, Finlandii i Polski. „Wystawa ma być próba obnażenia wszystkiego, co jest wyłącznie na serio” - pisze Krzysztof Candrowicz, dyrektor artystyczny Fotofestiwalu i jeden z kuratorów wystawy. „Aby zauważyć pewne zjawiska, czasami musimy założyć różowe okulary i spojrzeć na świat z większym poczuciem humoru. Żyjemy w czasach, w których absurd, karykatura, ironia stanowią odrębny, autoteliczny kod. Bez zrozumienia tego, co kryje sie pomiędzy wierszami, wszystko wydaje się być jednowymiarowe i dosłowne. Bez zdolności rozszyfrowania ukrytych treści, dostrzeżenia absurdu i humoru, możemy niewłaściwie odczytać intencje, jakie się kryją za słowami i obrazami”.

The Japanese woodblock print showcased breathtaking landscapes, blush-inducing erotica, ghosts and demons that torment the living, and made sumo wrestlers and kabuki actors into rock stars. This condensed edition reveals the most exceptional prints from 1680-1938, drawing from the finest impressions of museums and private collections worldwide.