BELLAS ARTES

A seminal work by one of today’s most vital figurative artists explores the complexity of race, wealth, and class through storytelling and multimedia drawings. This extraordinary illustrated story—Toyin Ojih Odutola’s best-known body of work—chronicles the private lives of two fictional aristocratic Nigerian families, the UmuEze Amara Clan and the House of Obafemi, if colonialist and slave-trade interventions had never disrupted the country. Rendered life-size in charcoal, pastel, and pencil, Ojih Odutola’s figures appear enigmatic and mysterious, set against the artist’s larger conceived narrative, highlighting the malleability of identity and assumptions about race, wealth, and class. The UmuEze Amara Clan and the House of Obafemi presents the story of these families in four chapters illustrated and authored by Ojih Odutola, accompanied by the artist’s sketches and notes. Also included are several insightful essays on the artist herself by noted writers and critics Zadie Smith, Leigh Raiford, and others. An introduction to the artist’s vivid fictionalized world, as well as a reflection on the role of this body of work within her broader practice, this remarkable volume serves as the essential guide to Ojih Odutola’s unique form of storytelling.

This book showcases the unique vision and work of Olajumoke Adenowo, hailed as "Africa’s starchitect" and Africa's most influential female architect. Olajumoke Adenowo is a renowned Nigerian architect who heads her own architecture and interior design firm, AD Consulting, which she founded in Lagos in 1994. A gifted student, at the age of 14 she enrolled at Obafemi Awolowo University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours Architecture) by the age of 19, and then completed her Master of Science (Architecture) in 1991. Adenowo's intense interest in architecture and design emerged from her visits to Europe and throughout the world with her parents as a young child, as well as while living on campus at the Obafemi Awolowo University in the ancient city of Ile-Ife in Osun State, Nigeria, where her parents were professors. Having adopted a global perspective from an early age but firmly rooted in her heritage throughout her career, she is uniquely positioned to directly cultivate the kind of best practice African contemporary architecture that leverages ancestral knowledge and methods from within the continent itself.

The Rosenfelds’ photographs of competition sailboats, billowing spinnakers, and graceful motor yachts not only document the most glamorous era of sailing and boating but also celebrate and capture the power, drama, and beauty of the maritime experience. These beautifully reproduced prints will transport the reader to the decks of daysailers, sleek America’s Cup racing boats, vintage Chris-Craft runabouts, and elegant motor yachts from a bygone era.

La ópera 'no es una reliquia del pasado'; es un mundo vivo en el que se reflejan los cambios culturales y sociales. Así lo demuestra Tomás Marco en esta ambiciosa cartografía mundial del genero que recorre el último siglo y cuarto, aproximadamente, de su historia. De Puccini, Strauss y Janác?ek hasta Pedro Halffter, Michel van der Aa, Toshio Hosokawa o Rachel Peters, pasando por Schönberg, Britten o Stockhausen, a lo largo de estas páginas asistimos, fascinados, a la disolución de su forma decimonónica hasta sus mutaciones más experimentales. No se había escrito antes una obra de esta envergadura sobre la ópera de nuestros días. 'Durante el siglo XX, todo, sometido a una presión tremenda, saltó por los aires. Fue una lucha sin cuartel. Había que encontrar nuevos caminos que permitieran la supervivencia del genero. Se siguieron viejas fórmulas, se crearon otras nuevas, algunos creyeron que la ópera estaba muerta, que ya no servía, y se negaron a componer obras líricas; otros -la mayoría- aceptaron el reto y consiguieron en algunos casos resultados formidables.

A sumptuous monograph tracing the life and legacy of fashion luminary Oscar de la Renta. In October 2014 one of the fashion world’s champions, Oscar de la Renta, passed away, a great loss brightened by the innumerable successes of his half-century reign. The acclaimed fashion designer dressed first ladies from Kennedy to Obama, and celebrities from Beyoncé to Sarah Jessica Parker. Renowned for his unique charm, impeccable taste, and original lifestyle, he married the highest standards of French couture with the ultimate motivation that women must look and feel beautiful. In this intimate volume, longtime editor and friend André Leon Talley recounts de la Renta’s journey through nearly 70 iconic dresses, mainly made for private clients, accompanied by fascinating stories of the exquisite craftsmanship and the legendary friends that brought each gown to life. Born in the Dominican Republic in 1932, de la Renta left for Madrid at nineteen to study art, where he rose to prominence as a sketch artist for newspapers and fashion houses. From his apprenticeship under Cristóbal Balenciaga to his eponymous collections, the designer’s simple lines elevated with a flamenco dancer’s flourish reflect his deep connection to his roots and his commitment to transcendence through beautiful garments.

Rafe and Heide discovered their true home in a late 1800s New England farmhouse after a decade of living in Brooklyn, New York. The historic property, Ellsworth, is a showplace for their shared aesthetic and sensibility of designing for real life, and not for formality. At the core is a house of pared-down traditionalism with references to Shaker tranquility, Arts & Crafts practicality, and bohemian chic. Whimsical wallcoverings, striking colors, a mix of contemporary furniture and antiques, exciting works of art, and comfort abound—turning a workaday house from the nineteenth century into a creative laboratory of the twenty-first.