BELLAS ARTES

The world appears to be divided into cat and dog lovers, but fortunately Walter Chandoha, the 20th century’s greatest pet photographer found himself happily in the middle. He loved these intriguing creatures equally for their unique beauty and individualism, and as subjects to photograph in a career spanning over 70 years. While working on his critically acclaimed TASCHEN book Cats, Chandoha handpicked his favorite dog photos for a potential follow-up title, putting into carefully marked boxes hundreds of contact sheets, prints, and color transparencies, many unseen for at least 50 years, and some totally unseen. Chandoha sadly passed away in 2019 at the age of 98, but his legacy lives on in this dashing sequel dedicated to man’s best friend. “Walter Chandoha’s photographs of dogs are compelling not just because dogs have an inherent charm, but because the person behind the camera was a master of his craft,” writes the photography critic Jean Dykstra in the book’s introduction. We see terriers, collies, beagles, bloodhounds, poodles, small dogs, big dogs, show dogs, working dogs, and many more, featuring over 60 breeds photographed in both black-and-white and glorious Kodachrome.Spanning a 50-year period, the book is divided into six sections, and each chapter reveals Chandoha’s exceptional combination of technique, versatility, and soul. The opening chapter “In the Studio” focuses on formal portraiture; next it’s “Strike a Pose” where our canine companions ham it up for the camera; in “Out and About” they get to roam and play, often photographed with Chandoha’s own children; next it’s “Best in Show” with Chandoha using his reportage skills to capture vintage dog shows from the Mad Men era; in “Tails from the City,” the dogs are hitting the streets of mid-century New York; and in the closing chapter “Country Dogs,” it’s back to nature, the fields, and the beaches. Dogs is an unleashed photographic tribute to these lovable and loyal creatures.

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.

This book will represent one of the most effective and extravagant visions of architecture, one that links the new generations and the old world. In the past few years, Mexico has brought to light a new generation of architects whose extraordinary vision and productivity has positioned the country among the most creative design cultures of the world. Under his own firm FR-EE, since 2000 Fernando Romero has designed and created a number of projects which represent a new vision of Mexican and world architecture. Romero's approach to architecture is innovative and an inspirational tool for empowering future generations. The volume will focus on three themes that intertwine throughout the content of the book. On-site photographs (mainly aerial views) highlight the different places where FR-EE works, from urban centers to the desert. The location is what drives FR-EE's creative work, while the practice strives to investigate the dynamic forces of each site and client. Inspirational photographs give the reader a vision of how Romero's perspective shifts between different focuses of references, and reimagines them in new symbolic visions of the world (from monuments to colors, from natural elements to animals). The images include renderings, photographs, diagrams, plans, and sections. The projects are presented in situ and through architectural drawings, so as to explain the projects' concepts and contents.

This comprehensive monograph is an exclusive look inside the château that inspired the design of Versailles and today continues to enchant visitors and film directors alike. Vaux-le-Vicomte’s rich history began in 1641 when infamous French finance minister Nicolas Fouquet, the original owner, surrounded himself with the most skilled and talented artisans of the time: the architect Louis Le Vau, the painter Charles Le Brun, and the garden designer André Le Nôtre, to create a perfect harmony between architecture and landscape. The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte and its spectacular gardens fascinated Louis XIV and were the inspira­tion for Versailles. Classified as a historical monument since 1875 under the impetus of the owner at the time, the castle of Vaux-le-Vicomte quickly became a model of the artistic genius of the seventeenth century. This volume traces the château’s history from the seventeenth century through the Belle Époque, World War I, and its public opening in 1968. Exclu­sive photography and archival documents offer unprecedented access to the château, furnishings, and gardens, and illuminate the extraordinary secrets of court life and centuries of celebrations that include the enchanting candlelit tours held today.

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.