BELLAS ARTES

British interior designer Flora Soames founded her eponymous firm in 2009 and launched an acclaimed collection of fabrics and wallpapers in 2019. Informed by her background in art and furniture, her style exudes the traditional charm of English country homes while incorporating modern, original touches that are comfortable and design-led. This embrace of old and new—along with Soames’s passion for collecting, heritage, color, and pattern—has resulted in an impressive portfolio of projects in the UK and beyond.

French artist, designer, and talented antique hunter Marin Montagut celebrates the joy of collecting everything from textiles to barware to architectural details, taking readers inside a dozen private homes, flea markets, and unusual ateliers to discover the most whimsical treasure troves in France. From a film prop house’s array of leather sporting goods and playing cards to a travel buff’s vintage maps and globes, and from a sculpture studio’s Grecian plaster casts to an amateur designer’s spiral staircase models, and from Montagut’s own wonder wall assemblages to a cook’s haven filled with porcelain dessert molds and copper pots—objects, when presented together as a series, create unforgettable interiors that radiate charm. Inspiration comes in repetition: wooden zigzag rulers with engraved numbers aligned on a wall in a herringbone pattern create an artful space. The spare wooden forms of capipotes—devotional statues used in religious processions, their eyes turned heavenward in ecstasy—and silver ex-votos can be the point of departure for the theme of an entire room. Montagut’s mood boards for each chapter provide endless ideas for the home.

In ten chapters—each an important moment in food history, from Ancient Rome to Al-Andalus in Spain, from the Ethiopian Empire to nineteenth-century New York City—the authors pair menus with immersive retellings of historic culinary breakthroughs, and present the ingredients and modern techniques adapted for today’s kitchens to allow cooks of all abilities to entertain with dishes that were created and enjoyed hundreds of years ago but remain relevant to today’s food tastes and values.

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.

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.