Allegory and beauty in FlorenceWith the patronage of the powerful Medici family, a canon of secular and religious work, and contributions to the celebrated Sistine Chapel, Sandro Botticelli (...
When traditional craft met blossoming ModernismPoets and intellectuals brushed shoulders in bustling coffeehouses, young avant-gardists heralded a new era in social and sexual liberalism, wal...
“A woman once rang me up and said, ‘Mr. Escher, I am absolutely crazy about your work. In your print Reptiles, you have given such a striking illustration of reincarnation.’ I rep...
Impossible staircases and startling ruins from Italy’s master engraverThe most famous 18th-century copper engraver, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) made his name with etchi...
Capitol Records – from 1942 to todayFrom the Beatles to Beck, Sinatra to Sam Smith, a parade of era-defining artists have passed through the doors of the Capitol Records Tower, one of H...
A culinary and graphic travelogue through EuropeJim Heimann’s new book on Menu Design in Europe is a mouthwatering feast for the eyes, featuring hundreds of European menus from the earl...
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyo-e tradition. Literally meaning "pictures of the floating world," ukiyo-e was a particular genre of art that fl...
In the latter half of the 19th century, in the verdant countryside near Aix-en-Provence, Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), busily plied his brush to landscapes and still lifes that would becom...
Stories and speculations on office spaceImmerse yourself with architects Florian Idenburg and LeeAnn Suen as they journey through a wide-ranging collection of the objects, systems, and buildi...
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 1610) was always a name to be reckoned with. Notorious bad boy of the Italian Baroque, the artist was at once celebrated and controversial, violent in temper...
Bright, bold pictograms distill male and female experienceImagine a setting in which a man wearing a dress might be as habitual as a woman in trousers. Where a woman exposing herself in publi...
The godfather of Italian designItalian architect and designer Gio Ponti (1891–1979) is difficult to pin down. With an extraordinarily prolific output and eclectic style, his oeuvre rema...
It’ll knock both your eyes out!Some call it the American obsession, but men everywhere recognize the hypnotic allure of a large and shapely breast. In The Big Book of Breasts, Dia...
The life’s work of an infographics pioneerFritz Kahn (1888–1968) was a German doctor, educator, popular science writer, and information graphics pioneer. Chased out of Germany by ...
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...
In a fleeting 14-year period between two world wars, Germany’s Bauhaus School of Art and Design changed the face of modernity. With utopian ideas for the future, the school developed a pionee...
The master of Japanese ukiyo-eUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyo-e tradition. Literally meaning “pictures of the floating world,” u...
The Egyptian explorations of Émile Prisse d’AvennesA lifelong devotee of ancient Egyptian and Oriental culture, the French author, artist, and scholar Achille-Constant-Thé...
Andy Warhol was a relentless chronicler of life and its encounters. Carrying a Polaroid camera from the late 1950s until his death in 1987, he amassed a huge collection of instant pictures of frien...
Playthings From the Past For the PresentUp until the 20th century, children’s play was not a subject that demanded much attention. While objects that entertained children have been pres...