BELLAS ARTES

It was the Belle Époque, a time before air travel or radio, at the brink of a revolution in photography and filmmaking, when Burton Holmes (1870–1958) began a lifelong journey to bring the world home. From the grand boulevards of Paris to China’s Great Wall, from the construction of the Panama Canal to the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Holmes delighted in finding “the beautiful way around the world” and made a career of sharing his stories, colorful photographs, and films with audiences across America. He coined the term “travelogue” in 1904 to advertise his unique performance and thrilled audiences with two-hour sets of stories timed to projections of multihued, hand-painted glass-lantern slides and some of the first “moving pictures.

From romantic to contemporary, from famed architects to little-known craftsmen, you’ll scale the heights to visit all manner of treetop structures, from a teahouse, restaurant, hotel, and children’s playhouse to simple perches from which to contemplate life, enjoy the view, and discover that tree houses take as many forms as the imagination can offer. With an abundance of gorgeous photographs and illustrations, this is an ode to alternative living, where playful imagination meets eco-sensitive finesse.

Henry Bourne’s photographs of the residences and workspaces of a who’s who of creative people open windows onto the groundbreaking design approaches and trends of the last three decades. For nearly thirty years, Bourne has been photographing the residences and studios of, or those designed by, some of the world’s most important artists, architects, designers, and innovators. Culture and society are constantly evolving, and changes, both aesthetic and sociological, are reflected in our physical surroundings. Spaces and portraits in this volume range from the Upstate New York studio of artist Richard Prince, Vincent Van Duysen’s early apartment in Antwerp, and Marc Newson’s residences (his modern former bachelor pad as well as the more textured apartment he shares with Charlotte Stockdale today) to the joyfully chaotic London atelier of artist Paula Rego, the Villa Volpi by architect Tomaso Buzzi near Rome, the London studio of artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster—before and after its sleek renovation, designed by architect David Adjaye.

Today, the works of Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) are among the most well known and celebrated in the world. In Sunflowers, The Starry Night, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, and many paintings and drawings beyond, we recognize an artist uniquely dexterous in the portrayal of mood and place through paint, pencil, charcoal, or chalk. Yet as he was deploying the lurid colors, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms that would subsequently make his name, van Gogh battled not only the disinterest of his contemporary audience but also devastating bouts of mental illness. His episodes of depression and anxiety would eventually claim his life, when, in 1890, he committed suicide shortly after his 37th birthday. This richly illustrated introduction follows Vincent van Gogh’s story from his earliest pictures of peasants and rural workers, through his bright Parisian period, to his final, feverish burst of creative energy in the South of France during the last two and a half years of his life.

Descubra a Vincent van Gogh, el atormentado genio del arte del siglo XIX. Este espléndido volumen reúne su obra pictórica completa, 871 pinturas acompañadas por textos que recorren la vida y la obra de uno de los maestros más destacados de la historia del arte. A través de pinturas como Los girasoles, La noche estrellada y Autorretrato con la... Hoy en día, las obras de Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) se encuentran entre las más conocidas y valoradas del mundo. En pinturas como Los girasoles, La noche estrellada y Autorretrato con la oreja vendada reconocemos a un artista con un talento único para la representación de las texturas y las emociones, la luz y el espacio. Durante su vida, Van Gogh tuvo que enfrentarse no sólo al desinterés de sus contemporáneos, sino también a los devastadores ataques de su enfermedad mental. Sus episodios de depresión y ansiedad le acabarían costando la vida cuando, en 1890, poco después de su 37 cumpleaños, se suicidó. Este exhaustivo estudio sobre Vincent van Gogh ofrece un catálogo completo de sus 871 pinturas acompañadas por textos que recorren la vida y la obra de una de las figuras más destacadas de la historia del arte.