Marsilio – förlag

A sweeping overview of poetic compositions from the beloved American postwar painter known for her groundbreaking and inventive approach to abstraction

Celebrated among the second generation of postwar American abstract painters, Helen Frankenthaler played a pivotal role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting. Active for more than six decades, Frankenthaler emerged on the American art scene with a no-rules approach to painting, protean imagination and improvisational skills that reshaped the narrative not only for women artists but for the genre itself. With her innovative soak-stain technique, Frankenthaler explored a new relationship between color and form, expanding the potential of abstract painting in ways that continue to inspire artists today. Working with color, space, abstraction and poetry, Frankenthaler distinguished herself through her unique ability to combine technique, imagination, research and improvisation, expanding her practice beyond established canons in the pursuit of a new freedom in painting.Painting without Rules is an ambitious presentation of the poetic abstractions of one of the most significant American artists of the 20th century. It examines Frankenthaler’s artistic affinities, influences and friendships by interweaving paintings created between 1953 and 2002 with select works by some of her contemporaries including Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Anne Truitt.Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) was born in New York. She studied art under Rufino Tamayo, Paul Feeley and Hans Hofmann. Her first critical success was with Mountains and Sea (1952), which was emblematic of her soak-stain technique in which paint was absorbed directly into the canvas. She was included in Clement Greenberg’s landmark 1964 exhibition Post-Painterly Abstraction. The term “Color Field painting” was first coined to describe her work.

Touring the traditional craft workshops and historic palazzi that help to preserve Florence’s exceptional art and architecture

Picturesque medieval streets, breathtaking cathedrals and legendary art: there is much to love about the city of Florence, as its droves of tourists will tell you. Yet the city is not completely overrun by visitors, and Florence’s locals are eyewitnesses to today’s world while also heirs to a centuries-old history of tradition, creativity and independence.Livia Frescobaldi invites readers to discover the city that lies beyond the tourist realms, in the form of the age-old craft workshops and their ability to preserve all that makes Florence one of the world’s most admired cities. Together with photographers Alessandro Moggi and Eugenia Maffei, Frescobaldi charts an itinerary through which to discover the arts and crafts. We visit the botteghe, or storefronts, housing these time-honored practices: framers, stonemasons working in marble or brilliant pietra dura, printmakers and ironworkers. Meanwhile, Frescobaldi also stops to show us some of the most historic palazzi still inhabited and cared for, such as the 13th-century villa home to fashion’s Pucci family, or a former monastery-turned-mansion once belonging to Henry Brewster, an American expatriate in Florence. With essays rich in anecdote and admiration, Frescobaldi offers an intimate and original view of what it means to live in Florence today.Livia Frescobaldi grew up in Florence’s Oltrarno district. As an appraiser, she has produced valuations for private estates and cultural sites across Italy. She also established the Associazione Amici di Doccia—which she heads—for research into and preservation and promotion of the Ginori porcelain manufactory.

Kiefer’s dramatic, metallic paintings and sculptures staged within the walls of a cinquecento palace

The historic Palazzo Strozzi in Florence welcomes one of the greatest masters of art of the late 20th and early 21st century: Anselm Kiefer. Famous for his striking works that investigate the themes of memory, myth, war and existence, Kiefer presents an itinerary through his historical works and new productions, in an original dialogue with the Palazzo’s architecture and Italian history.Each of Kiefer’s paintings and sculptures expresses a monumentality and powerful materiality, part of the infinite wealth of resources with which he probes the depths of memory and the past. From the beginning of his career, he has embarked on an artistic journey in which history, religion, mysticism, poetry and philosophy combine and mingle. His late 1960s works were among the first to reflect on the history of World War II and Germany’s emotional and cultural legacy. Yet in this consequential space, Kiefer’s drastic compositions layered in gold and silver take on a new significance in the context of the theatrical and deeply religious paintings of the Italian Renaissance. This exhibition, and its dazzling monograph, restores the vital complexity of Kiefer’s art: celebrating its interweaving of figural art and abstraction, nature and artificiality, creation and destruction, in a strong engagement for the public in the physical and conceptual space of his works.German artist Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) developed his signature style of multimedia impasto painting through the influence of Neo-Expressionism and artists such as Joseph Beuys and Georg Baselitz. His art incorporates global religious traditions and occult teachings, while also reckoning with the legacy of the Third Reich.

Part autobiography, part monograph, part catalogue raisonné: the story of Cattelan's 40-year career as told solely by the artist himself

Covering almost 40 years of work from Italian artist and curator Maurizio Cattelan (born 1960), this volume falls somewhere between a catalogue raisonné, a monograph sui generis, an autobiography and a sourcebook. Chapters in which Cattelan discusses recurrent concepts, processes and questions in his practice alternate with specific focuses on works and series of works, exhibitions or special projects, grouped together and arranged as possible trajectories toward a deeper understanding.Also included are nine essays by Cattelan, written between 1989 and the present day, presented here in their full-length versions with indications of their original contexts. The experience of reading the book is continually renewed through groups of works presented in chronological order, making it possible to trace the evolution of the themes and the course of Cattelan's development as an artist.Beware of Yourself is not just the reconstruction of an artistic career but also an invitation to ask ourselves questions about appearances, about roles, about the very meaning of art and life: a continual play of mirrors in which the critical view of the other inevitably becomes an invitation to reflect on ourselves.

An up-to-date reading of the ways in which the public image of a Venetian prelate came to be defined through his portraiture

This exquisite, richly illustrated catalog documents a dossier exhibition held at Venice’s Museo di Palazzo Grimani, presenting three portraits of the Venetian prelate Giovanni Grimani, a collector of antiquities and patron of important 16th-century artists. The first, already in the collection at Palazzo Grimani, is the work of Domenico Tintoretto (1560–1635) and depicts the patriarch in old age in an iconography that can be found in earlier portraits, including the Portrait of the Patriarch Giovanni Grimani in the Schorr Collection (London), and a small oil on panel representing the same subject, now in a private collection, both painted by his father, Jacopo Tintoretto (1518–94). This unprecedented comparison, in addition to bearing witness to the iconographic evolution of effigies of the Venetian prelate over the course of several decades, helps to outline a history of Venetian portraits during that period.

A lush look into Venice’s verdant gardens, photographed in every season of the year

Turquoise lagoons and crystalline canals, criss-crossed by romantic bridges and traversed by singing gondoliers on their gondolas: water is considered by many to be Venice’s most enchanting feature. Yet on the little land that constitutes this ancient city, secret and sumptuous gardens lie waiting to cast their captivating spell. This lushly illustrated volume takes readers inside Venice’s most undiscovered and most exclusive green spaces across the city. The gardens of the palazzi that overlook the Grand Canal, along with the more vernacular ones of the lagoon islands, are captured throughout the seasons: the flowering in spring, the opulence of summer, the colors of fall and the frost of winter. Photographer Marco Valmarana’s exquisite images evoke a sense of wanderlust enough to inspire even the most jaded traveler. To walk the reader through the legacy of these special spaces, author Toto Bergamo Rossi recounts the evolution and history of the Venetian garden alongside a glossary of commonly used plants. The Gardens of Venice also includes a special foreword by designer Diane von Furstenberg.Toto Bergamo Rossi, formerly a specialist in the conservation of stone materials, has restored a number of important monuments in Italy. Since 2010 he has served as the director of Venetian Heritage. He is the author of Inside Venice (Rizzoli, 2016) and Venice and Its Doges (Rizzoli, 2023).

A glorious publication on the "saintly and excellent" Florentine friar and painter whose religious scenes exemplify Renaissance theories of perspective and humanism

After exploring the language of Gothic painting, the great Tuscan artist Fra Angelico enthusiastically took up the new principles of Renaissance art then emerging in Florence. This volume offers a thorough exploration of the extraordinary talent of this artist, bringing out his capacity for artistic innovation in the service of deep spiritual values.The book also provides a comprehensive assessment of the current state of research on Angelico. Its scholarly significance is further reinforced by the unprecedented reunion of five altarpieces that have been dismantled over the centuries: the San Piero Martire Altarpiece, the San Domenico Altarpiece in Fiesole, the Compagnia di San Francesco Altarpiece in Santa Croce, the San Marco Altarpiece and the Perugia Altarpiece. While the main panels have stayed in Italy, the remaining elements are dispersed across museum collections worldwide. The volume includes critical essays, a study of the history of the Museum of San Marco and an analysis of Angelico's frescoes preserved in the Sala del Capitolo, the cloisters and the monastic cells. This is a definitive and indispensable work of reference on the artist.Born in Vicchio di Mugello as Guido di Pietro, Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455) joined the Dominican order as a mendicant friar. He painted several frescoes for the Convent of San Marco in Florence, including the Annunciation, and decorated Cosimo de Medici's personal room in the monastery. In his later years he was called to Rome to decorate chapels for Pope Eugene IV and then Pope Nicholas V. Of his life, Giorgio Vasari wrote: "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety."