Thames&Hudson The Hidden Language of Symbols Wilson Matthew

Monocle's latest book is a celebration of the Nordic region, with some surprises, quirks and - maybe - a sauna or two along the way. Monocle's journalists, editors and photographers have returned time and again to all corners of northern Europe for insights, inspiration and ideas for living better • This book isn't about hammering the overhyped hygge trend or fussing over foamy food. Much the opposite - it's about a shared but distinct set of values that have helped varied nations excel in quiet diplomacy, thoughtful design and reasoned debate. Monocle looks beyond the cliches and uncovers the folks, firms and stories that help the region rank highly for everything in everything from art and architecture to eating well • Far from lumping these different nations together, the Monocle team will highlight the people, places and products that show the Nordics in all their nuances: lessons we can all learn from makers in Norway's high north or retailers reaching higher in Reykjavik; the firms building bridges in Denmark or selling Swedish soft power abroad

This is a smart and succinct guide to the rich tradition of Japanese mythology, from the earliest recorded legends of Izanagi and Izanami, their divine offspring and the creation of Japan, to medieval tales of vengeful ghosts, through to the modern-day reincarnation of ancient deities as the heroes of mecha anime. While many around the world love Japan’s cultural exports, few are familiar with Japan’s unique mythology - enriched by Shinto, Buddhism and regional folklore • Mythology remains a living, evolving part of Japanese society, and the ways in which the people of Japan understand their myths are very different today even from a century ago, let alone over a millennium into the past. Offering much more than any competing overview of Japanese mythology, The Japanese Myths not only retells the ancient stories but also considers their place within the patterns of Japanese religions, culture and history, helping readers to understand the deep links between past and present in Japan, and the ways these myths live and grow

Karl Lagerfeld is a modern master of couture. He is also famously outspoken: his wise, surprising statements pop up like offbeat news flashes. This collection of quotations pays homage to the legendary eminence grise of the fashion world. Lagerfeld's pronouncements - on fashion, women, art, politics, love, and life high and low - are famously oracular, seized upon by fashionistas, acolytes and sages around the world. Created with the full approval of the designer himself, this cornucopia of Lagerfeld's maxims is required reading for us all today as we negotiate the trickiest curves of modern life. Cultivated, unpredictable, provocative, sometimes shocking, Lagerfeld's "bons mots" are always impossible to ignore

Asia is home to more than half the world's population, and learning about the art of its many cultures helps readers understand the visual world that surrounds us. This book tells the story of the simultaneous development of artistic techniques, styles and ideas across East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, exploring the ways these regions were often dynamically interconnected with each other, and with places beyond Asia • It covers the full breadth of Asian art history, with almost 500 artworks from China, Japan, Korea, South Asia and Southeast Asia; including areas often under-represented in other books on the subject, such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Tibet, Nepal and Mongolia • Authors Lee and Hutton are active teachers, writers and speakers who engage with art history as a progressive field that promotes cross-cultural understanding

One Saturday evening, sisters Pip and Maisie are sitting in the warm snug of their grandparent's cottage on the edge of a forest in Scotland. Maisie is restless and longs for adventure, but life at the cottage is always slow. When a bright light suddenly falls from the sky into the forest next door, Maisie can't believe her luck - finally an adventure has come her way! She has boots on and torch in hand before Pip has even put down her hot chocolate • Maisie is desperate to discover the special something as quickly as she can. As the two sisters journey through the dark forest towards the gradually receding light, her imagination runs riot - perhaps it's space treasure, gold dust, or maybe even a creature from outer space! Pip, meanwhile, takes in the dark shapes and strange sounds around her, tentatively adjusting to the forest and its wild inhabitants

This beautifully illustrated book brings to life the greatest treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Fifty of the most important objects on display today are each accompanied by a short, accessible text giving the reader just enough information to understand their relevance and importance while retaining a sense of wonder at these ancient artefacts • Each carefully selected object is presented with a full-page colour image and a facing text explaining what the object is, where it was found and why it was buried with the young Pharaoh. There are quotes throughout the text from Howard Carter on his discovery of the tomb in 1922. An introduction by the esteemed Egyptologist Garry Shaw gives a brief overview of the history of ancient Egypt and sets out what we know about the life and times of the young king

This sweeping overview of Rembrandt's extraordinary achievement as a draughtsman fills a gap in the otherwise enormous literature on the artist. Beautifully illustrated, mostly in colour, the more than 150 drawings - culled from a corpus of some 800 - are discussed in detail. The drawings span Rembrandt's entire productive life as an artist, from early self-portraits in the 1620s to late drawings from the 1660s of the victim of an execution, a state coach, and historical and mythological images. The scope of the book allows readers to delve into the very broad range of Rembrandt's oeuvre of drawings

Rasem Badran's influence is rapidly spreading throughout the developing world. Covering the full spectrum from urban planning to individual residences, his work is human-scaled, responsive to it's environment and meets the social and cultural requirements of the people who use it. He is often seen as the natural successor to the seminal Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy • This volume provides a thorough overview of Badran's work, bringing together the architect's own dramatic collection of drawings, plans and photographs, many seen here for the first time • A comprehensive chronology of Badran's work completes this fascinating survey of one of the most influential and revolutionary architects of our time

Fulfilling a need for an accessible, affordable introduction to a subject of sustained and growing significance in contemporary culture, this volume in the World of Art series redefines contemporary Chinese art in the last forty years since the end of China's Cultural Revolution, placing it in the context of unprecedented cultural, political and urban transformation • This book offers neither an art historian's chronological review of Chinese art in post-Mao China, nor does it join the debate of previous terminologies coined by art critics; instead, it provides the most up to date understanding of contemporary Chinese art through original research and informed curatorial perspectives on the selected representative work, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, installation, video, performance and participatory art

A new translation of Giorgio Vasari's Life of Raphael, fully illustrated, that presents Vasari's appealing narrative with new precision • Giorgio Vasari's The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, written in 1550 and 1568, is a classic text of cultural history. This monumental assembly of artists' lives from Giotto to Michelangelo paints a vivid picture of the progression of art in the hands of individual masters • This illustrated stand-alone edition of Vasari's Life of Raphael offers a new translation of this rich and remarkable life, elegantly rendering Vasari's literary text in modern terms. A work of authoritative skill and precision, this new translation preserves Vasari's exciting narrative, alongside beautifully reproduced color illustrations

Now widely acclaimed as one of the world's greatest photographers, Saul Leiter (1923-2013) remained relatively unsung until he was rediscovered by curators and critics in his early 80s, and his work has been drastically re-evaluated over the last two decades. Leiter's images evoked the flow and rhythm of life on the mid-century streets of New York in luminous colour at a time when his contemporaries were shooting in black and white. His complex and impressionistic photographs are as much about evoking an atmosphere as nailing the decisive moment • On his death in 2013, he left behind a collection of more than 40,000 colour slides, only a fraction of which had seen the light of day. This book showcases seventy-six newly unearthed images from that extraordinary photographic treasure trove, published here for the first time

What makes great art great? Why do some works pulse in the imagination, generation after generation, century after century? From Botticelli’s Birth of Venus to Picasso’s Guernica, some paintings and sculptures have become so famous, so much a part of who we are, that we no longer really look at them. We take their greatness for granted; our eyes have become near-obsolete. We need a new way of seeing • Unsatisfied with traditional interpretations of masterpieces, which are so often interested only in learning about art, and not from it, Kelly Grovier combed the surface of revered works from the Terracotta Army to Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits, in a quest to find the key to their lasting power to move and delight us. He discovered that every truly great work is hardwired with an underappreciated detail that ignites it from deep within