Originally published in France between 1876 and 1888, Auguste Racinet's Le Costume historique was in its day the most wide-ranging and incisive study of clothing ever attempted. Covering the world ...
No other artist, apart from J. M. W. Turner, tried as hard as Claude Monet (1840-1926) to capture light itself on canvas. Of all the Impressionists, it was the man Cezanne called "only an eye,...
George Eastman's career developed in a particularly American way. The founder of Kodak progressed from a delivery boy to one of the most important industrialists in American history, and a crucial ...
Whether it's Double Indemnity, Kiss Me Deadly, or The Big Sleep, roam a screen world of dark and brooding elegance with this essential handbook to Film Noir. From private eyes and perfect crimes to...
Until his death at age 104, Oscar Niemeyer (1907–2012) was something of an unstoppable architectural force. Over seven decades of work, he designed approximately 600 buildings, transforming s...
The history of nude photography is the history of people’s fascination with the topic. Indeed, the photographic depiction of the human body is the only subject that has enthralled photographe...
Big ideas for small buildingsOver the years, talented architects have occasionally indulged themselves with the challenge of designing small but perfectly formed buildings. Today, with reduce...
From Edouard Manet’s portrait of naturalist writer Émile Zola sitting among his Japanese art finds to Van Gogh’s meticulous copies of the Hiroshige prints he devotedly collected,...
In the architecture of Richard Neutra (1892–1970), inside and outside find their perfect modernist harmony. As the Californian sun glints off sleek building surfaces, vast glass panel walls a...
The Kisokaido route through Japan was ordained in the early 1600s by the country’s then-ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu, who decreed that staging posts be installed along the length of the arduous pass...
The power and glory of illuminated biblesIn the beginning was the word, and in the Middle Ages were kings, princes, and high-ranking religious members whose wealth and influence produced illu...
Helmut and June Newton's Legendary Joint ProjectA fifty-five-year history of life and loveThis is a photographic love story tracing the fifty-five years of collaboration, partners...
Before there was Instagram, there was WarholAndy Warhol was a relentless chronicler of life and its encounters. Carrying a Polaroid camera from the late 1950s until his death in 1987, h...
Through buildings of culture, science, and faith, and across his many famous bridges, explore the neofuturistic structures of Santiago Calatrava. This compact introduction explores the architect&rs...
An in-depth exploration of Bruegel’s painted workThe life and times of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1526/30–1569) were marked by stark cultural conflict. He witnessed religious wa...
The Paintings of Frida KahloAmong the women artists who have transcended art history, none had a meteoric rise quite like Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907–1954). Her unmistakable face,...
The history of the adidas shoe, from its earliest beginnings until today100 years ago the brothers Adolf ("Adi") and Rudolf Dassler made their first pair of sports shoes. Hundreds o...
Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) was a clerk in the Paris customs service who dreamed of becoming a famous artist. At the age 49, he decided to give it a try. At first, Rousseau’s bright, bol...
Religion, Renaissance, and Reformation—these three ideologies shaped the world of 16th-century portraitist Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98–1543), a pivotal figure of the Northern Rena...
The textures and tones of dreamy ProvenceNestled in the south of France, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, is a land renowned for its lavender fields, fine cuisine, golden sun, and dreamy land...