BELLAS ARTES

From the mighty halls of ancient Alexandria to the coffered ceilings of the Morgan Library in New York, human beings have had a long, enraptured relationship with libraries. Like no other concept and like no other space, the collection of knowledge, learning, and imagination offers a sense of infinite possibility. It’s the unrivaled realm of discovery, where every faded manuscript or mighty clothbound tome might reveal a provocative new idea, a far-flung fantasy, an ancient belief, a religious conviction, or a whole new way of being in the world.In this new photographic journey, Massimo Listri travels to some of the oldest and finest libraries to reveal their architectural, historical, and imaginative wonder. Through great wooden doors, up spiraling staircases, and along exquisite, shelf-lined corridors, he leads us through outstanding private, public, educational, and monastic libraries, dating as far back as 766. Between them, these medieval, classical, baroque, rococo, and 19th-century institutions hold some of the most precious records of human thought and deed, inscribed and printed in manuscripts, volumes, papyrus scrolls, and incunabula. In each, Listri’s poised images capture the library’s unique atmosphere, as much as their most prized holdings and design details.Featured libraries include the papal collections of the Vatican Apostolic Library and the Trinity College Library, home to the Book of Kells and Book of Durrow. With meticulous descriptions accompanying each featured library, we learn not only of the libraries’ astonishing holdings—from which highlights are illustrated—but also of their often lively, turbulent, or controversial pasts. Like the Franciscan monastery in Lima, Peru, with its horde of archival Inquisition documents.At once a bibliophile beauty pageant, an ode to knowledge, and an evocation of the particular magic of print, Massimo Listri. The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries is above all a cultural-historical pilgrimage to the heart of our halls of learning, to the stories they tell, as much as those they gather in printed matter along polished shelves.

Toward the end of his monumental career as a painter, sculptor, and lithographer, an elderly, sickly Matisse was unable to stand and use a paintbrush for long. In this late phase of his life—he was almost 80 years of age—he developed the technique of “carving into color,” creating bright, bold paper cut-outs. Though dismissed by some contemporary critics as the folly of a senile old man, these gouaches decoupées (gouache cut-outs) in fact represented a revolution in modern art, a whole new medium that reimagined the age-old conflict between color and line.This edition of the first volume of our original award-winning XXL book provides a thorough historical context to Matisse’s cut-outs, tracing their roots to his 1930 trip to Tahiti and continuing through to his final years in Nice. It includes many photos of Matisse, as well as some rare images by Henri Cartier-Bresson and the filmmaker F. W. Murnau, with texts by Matisse, publisher E. Tériade, the poets Louis Aragon, Henri Michaux, and Pierre Reverdy, and Matisse’s son-in-law Georges Duthuit.In their deceptive simplicity, the cut-outs achieved both a sculptural quality and an early minimalist abstraction, which would profoundly influence generations of artists to come. Exuberant, multi-hued, and often grand in scale, these works are true pillars of 20th-century art, and as bold and innovative to behold today as they were in Matisse’s lifetime.

Max Ernst (1891-1976) transformó todo lo que tocó con una originalidad artística sin igual. Se convirtió en una de las figuras más importantes del dadaísmo y del surrealismo que ensanchó las fronteras del arte y rompió con la visión limitada de la cultura de su tiempo. Impulsado por la reacción a los horrores de la Primera Guerra Mundial, se convirtió en un pionero del movimiento dadaísta. La cancelación de la famosa exposición dadá en Colonia por “obscenidad” llevó a Ernst a pasar el resto de su vida en París, donde entró en contacto con los surrealistas.Por encima de todo, Ernst destaca por la variedad de estilos y técnicas que empleó. Su obra abarca desde la pintura, el dibujo y la escultura, pasando por textos y escenografías, hasta novelas de collage y el desarrollo de su propia técnica de frottage. Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Ernst, como muchos de sus colegas, se convirtió en un “extranjero indeseable” y se vio obligado a emigrar, aunque regresó a Francia después de la guerra. Siguió desarrollando una carrera que abarcó décadas, y en 1954 recibió el Gran Premio de Pintura en la Bienal de Venecia.Este libro es un viaje por la magia, la intensidad y la fantasía. Es una puerta de entrada a la mente y el mundo complejo de Max Ernst.

The work of renowned firm McALPINE has always communicated the power of romanticism, speaking directly to the heart through the beauty and poetry of the home. Tapping diverse influences, the residences draw from architectural languages ranging from Elizabethan and Dutch to colonial Caribbean and agrarian American. The book opens with Bobby McAlpine’s own newly designed house, featuring exquisite spaces that are modern in expression but classical in order and balance. Other projects include a white-on-white neoclassical pavilion-by-the-sea in the Bahamas; a masonry dwelling in the rolling hills of Virginia; a quintessential American country house in Tennessee that combines the familiarity of a farmhouse with crisp minimalism; and an exuberant house sited on the edge of a pastoral golf course in Alabama. Freely choosing from architecture’s treasury, the assembly of houses is familiar, bold, and surprising, all at the same time—reflecting the complexity of the human experience.

Schestowitz is a strong believer that a home should create a sense of belonging and togetherness. Growing up, she developed an appreciation for harmonizing diverse styles, placing a modern stainless steel island by an old dining area, an African dresser next to an Eames chair. Schestowitz is not a follower of design guidelines; she believes in an intuitive harmony of space, color, and light. The spaces she creates are infused with travel collectibles, art acquisitions, family pieces, and historical patterns. The rich palettes and bold patterns create spaces that feel naturally inviting and intimate, a result of her long-standing exploration of Mediterranean style.

Este libro propone una aproximación personal al proceso completo de escritura de un guión de cine sólido, complejo, formalmente potente y que refleje además una voz propia y distinta. Con su dilatada experiencia en el campo de la docencia y los talleres de escritura, Tomás Aragay expone de forma clara, ordenada y pedagógica las herramientas, preguntas y dispositivos que constituyen la metodología para escribir un guión. A traves de un análisis concienzudo de dos películas premiadas y de alto valor nutritivo (Truman, de Cesc Gay, de cuyo guión es coautor, y Plácido, de Berlanga), Metodo para escribir un guión cinematográfico es un texto útil tanto para principiantes y estudiantes como para profesionales que quieran revisar su forma de trabajar. Y tambien para cualquier aficionado que tenga interes en entender los entresijos de la escritura del guión de cine.