BELLAS ARTES

This visually striking compendium illustrates the architectural and historical evolution of over 60 iconic synagogues worldwide. Beginning with the foremost archaeological sites in the Holy Land, it extends to the Jewish sanctuaries of Europe, North Africa, Russia, the Caucasus, Israel, and the New World, from the most ancient to the most innovative creations around the globe. Masterpieces such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Beth Sholom Synagogue in Pennsylvania, the Grand Synagogue in Paris, New York’s Temple Emanu-El, and Dresden’s Neue Synagogue are all featured in magnificent detail. In a series of compelling essays, prominent scholars Lidia Chakovskaya, Steven Fine, Max Fineblum, Mohammad Gharipour, Samuel D. Gruber, Sergey R. Kravtsov, Michael Levin, and Edward van Voolen explore the diverse architectural styles that reflect the synagogue’s rich, complex, and often tragic history. Noted Judaic studies authority Aaron Hughes provides the introduction, highlighting the synagogue’s history and liturgical furnishings from silver menorahs and textiles to carved wooden cabinets and lanterns of eternal light. This gorgeously illustrated volume will appeal to those with an appreciation for art and architecture as well as lovers of Jewish history.

Julia Morgan was truly a pioneer of her time—among other accomplishments, she was the first woman architect to be licensed in California, in 1904. Through her remarkable life and legacy, this book celebrates the Beaux-Arts architecture of California. Focusing on Morgan’s most famous project in the state, Hearst Castle, to which she devoted more than 30 years of her life, this volume also examines, for the first time, Morgan’s fabulous early buildings in the style. Morgan designed more than 700 buildings across California, many of which are designated landmarks today. Deepening the reader’s understanding of California archi-tecture, this book also places into context Morgan’s ambitions, her influences and inspirations, as well as her daily practice and challenges as a woman shaping an extraordinarily prolific and highly successful career in a man’s world. To better understand the Beaux-Arts training Morgan underwent in Paris, the reader is taken through the challenging, highly arduous Ecole des Beaux-Arts curriculum, which Morgan completed, a lone woman among men. Also explored, in detail, is the story of how the studio and kilns of California Faience, a Berkeley ceramic artisan’s shop, became the supplier of tens of thousands of tiles designed by Morgan and overseen by Hearst himself to decorate their architectural master-piece overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Longtime creative collaborators Tilda Swinton and Olivier Saillard present an illustrated tribute to the costumes of legendary Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s iconic films. Retracing Pier Paolo Pasolini’s entire cinematography—which continues to fascinate audiences almost half a century after his passing—Embodying Pasolini explores the costumes that brought his films to life. From The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), The Canterbury Tales (1972), and Arabian Nights (1974) to Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), Pasolini’s movies are known for their provocative flair—making them staples of art cinema’s golden age. Styled by Danilo Donati, the costumes—garments, coats, and hats—enlivened the films with their rich textures, volume, color, and embellishments.

Over the past decade, celebrated style maker Suzanne Rheinstein has achieved an unprecedented level of refinement and clarity. Her love of objects from the past remains a touchstone, but in her newest rooms, stylish modernity and an elegant simplicity hold sway. Presented are beautifully photographed homes of clients Suzanne Rheinstein has worked with before that reflect a vision of richness tempered by restraint. Her longtime fans will find new inspiration in these pages. Throughout, she shares her ideas of how to live in a relaxed way surrounded by artworks and personal collections. A traditional Georgian library is done in a totally untraditional lacquered green, while a San Francisco town house revamp includes a “California” room filled with Moroccan rugs and rattan chairs, and a serene retreat has a guesthouse evocative of the bohemian 1970s.

The world’s most important contemporary designers showcase their work within the historic setting of Chatsworth House to shine light and spark conversation on the intriguing juxtaposition of the old and the new, the past and the future, and the evolution of design histories and practices. Chatsworth is an extraordinary environment to experience design: a repository for great works of fine and decorative art commissioned by generations of the Cavendish family for over four centuries. Expanding on the eponymous 2023 exhibition at Chatsworth, Mirror Mirror features the works of sixteen contemporary artists through captivating in-situ photography with accompanying artist biographies and essays that unearth how historic artifacts and environments inform and inspire modern artists' practices today. This diverse group of artists includes Michael Anastassiades, Ini Archibong, Wendell Castle, Andile Dyalvane, Ndidi Ekubia, Najla El Zein, Formafantasma, Joris Laarman, Max Lamb, Fernando Laposse, Jae Sae Jung Oh, Samuel Ross, Chris Schanck, Ettore Sottsass, Faye Toogood, and Joseph Walsh. From lithe, LED lighting structures illuminating the halls of the Chatsworth library to a seating sculpture hand-carved in Iranian travertine in the grand estate’s formal Rose Garden, these modern works create unexpected and timeless connections with the house’s architecture, interiors, furniture, and ceramics.

The first international monograph of one of the most exciting painters working in Brazil today, Marina Perez Simão. Marina Perez Simão (1981–) is an internationally recognized contemporary artist who uses a variety of techniques, such as collage, drawing, watercolor, and oil painting, as starting points to combine interior and exterior landscapes. She composes visual journeys that sometimes traverse the unknown, the abstract, and the nebulous, but which also include visions and memories.   Simão’s work is held in several public collections worldwide, including the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, in Saint-Étienne, France; the Ekard Collection in the Netherlands; the Samdani Art Foundation in Bangladesh; the Sifang Art Museum in China; the Speed Art Museum in Kentucky; and the Dallas Museum of Art, among others.