Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) concocted gentle deliriums of color in quiet domestic scenes: views of a table set for lunch, a garden view, a woman adjusting a bouquet or, most famously, the artist's wife bathing, all infused with an infectious chromatic delight. "It seemed to me that it was possible to translate light, forms and character using nothing but color," he once wrote, "without recourse to values." Bonnard lavishes his domestic scenes with a palpable tenderness that later led to his style (and that of his colleague Eduoard Vuillard) being dubbed "Intimiste." In the 1880s Bonnard was a founding member of the Nabi group, along with his close friends Paul Sèrusier, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson and Edouard Vuillard. Their Post-Impressionist aesthetic favored emotional tangibility over observational truth, and their paintings reveled in heightened effects of pattern, prompted by a shared predilection for Japanese decorative arts and prints. In Bonnard's case, this predilection led to an experimentation with many forms, such as lithography, illustration, interior design and photography. For this catalogue and the exhibition it accompanies, the Fondation Beyeler has gathered an extraordinary selection of Bonnard's paintings from institutions and private collections around the world, compiling an ideal introduction to Bonnard's life-affirming vision.

Pierre Bonnard

Küster, Ulf.

Benesch, Evelyn

Reference

Hatje Cantz

Now available in a new format, this opulent book presents Vasily Kandinsky’s major paintings from all phases of his artistic career and celebrates the artist and his groundbreaking work. This generously illustrated volume displays Vasily Kandinsky’s brilliant use of color, shape, and composition through approximately 250 full-color illustrations. Essays by the world’s leading Kandinsky experts focus on the evolution of his work throughout all periods of his career: his exploration of his Russian roots and his emigration to Munich; his attraction to the Art Nouveau and fauvist movements; the formation of the Blue Rider group; the influence of music on his painting; his years at the Bauhaus; and his late work in Paris. The book’s design allows for a thorough examination of Kandinsky’s most important works in all their extraordinary detail. Accessible, impeccably researched, and wide-ranging, this important volume offers an indispensable overview of the artist’s seminal works and a tribute to the beauty and power of Kandinsky’s vision.

Vasily Kandinsky

Arts & Photography

Derouet, Christian

History & Criticism

Prestel

Charlotte Salomon. Leben? oder Theater?

Biographies & Memoirs

Belinfante, Judith C.E

Arts & Literature

Taschen Deutschland GmbH+

Charlotte Salomon: Vie? Ou Théâtre?

Taschen America, LLC

When German artist Charlotte Salomon (1917–1943) handed her gouache series Life? or Theater? over to a friend, she beseeched him to “take good care of it, it is my entire life.” A few months later, the five-months pregnant Charlotte was picked up by a Gestapo truck, deported to Drancy, and then on to Auschwitz, where she died upon arrival at the age 26.
The work Salomon left behind is, in a very real sense, her pièce de résistance – in her own words, “something wildly eccentric.” A cycle of nearly 1,300 autobiographical gouaches, it combines creative force with pioneering personal narrative into one shattering document of self-expression.
Divided into three sections, the gouaches unveil a vivid self-portrait spanning across all facets of Charlotte's existence: from a complicated family life, marked by the suicides of nearly all female relatives; growing up in Berlin; her close relation to singing teacher Alfred Wolfsohn; the rise of the Nazis; to her exile to France in 1939. Throughout, the artist challenges these destructive forces by deploying playful pseudonyms and fantastical elements alongside emotional candor, remarkable observation, and a meticulous visual memory. Her film strip-like sequences are interspersed not only with words but also musical suggestions, making Life? or Theater? the storybook for a whole musical, years before the heyday of that genre.
Without comparison, the gouaches are a triumph of personal truth and individual expression. Published here with a selection of the 450 most important pieces, Life? Or Theatre? is an unrivaled opus magnum from a great and ambitious artist, dark with her early death, but luminous with her precision, her lyricism, and her courage.

Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre?: A Selection of 450 Gouaches

Humor & Entertainment

When German artist Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943) handed her gouache series Life? or Theater? over to a friend, she beseeched him to "take good care of it, it is my entire life." A few months later, the five-months pregnant Charlotte was picked up by a Gestapo truck, deported to Drancy, and then on to Auschwitz, where she died upon arrival at the age 26. The work Salomon left behind is, in a very real sense, her pièce de résistance - in her own words, "something wildly eccentric." A cycle of nearly 1,300 autobiographical gouaches, it combines creative force with pioneering personal narrative into one shattering document of self-expression. Divided into three sections, the gouaches unveil a vivid self-portrait spanning across all facets of Charlotte's existence: from a complicated family life, marked by the suicides of nearly all female relatives; growing up in Berlin; her close relation to singing teacher Alfred Wolfsohn; the rise of the Nazis; to her exile to France in 1939. Throughout, the artist challenges these destructive forces by deploying playful pseudonyms and fantastical elements alongside emotional candor, remarkable observation, and a meticulous visual memory. Her film strip-like sequences are interspersed not only with words but also musical suggestions, making Life? or Theater? the storybook for a whole musical, years before the heyday of that genre. Without comparison, the gouaches are a triumph of personal truth and individual expression. Published here with a selection of the 400 most important pieces, Life? Or Theatre? is an unrivaled opus magnum from a great and ambitious artist, dark with her early death, but luminous with her precision, her lyricism, and her courage.

Charlotte Salomon. Life? or Theatre?

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