ACR Edition – serie

Buried in deep valleys, there are citadels of ochre earth. Near the sea there are white chalked casbahs and vast tranquil palm-gardens and deserts of coloured sands run into soot black mountains. Pungent and bustling souks offer spices and potions to ward off malevolent spirits. Slender arched doorways open out into darkened alleys. Scented mint tea is served in pattern-draped tents. The sky is as clear as ever over the Sahara. This is the Moroccan South - a legendary land, sumptuous and austere. This series presents a fascinating chronology of the spread of Islamic art in the form of 12 Exhibition Trails in 11 countries. The programme is based on the unique idea of visitors viewing exhibitions without the works of art being transported - discovering artefacts in their natural environments and within their cultural and historical context. Each trail is presented and written by experts who live in the specified areas and are accompanied by beautiful illustrations. Text in French. Also Available:Paris Plaisir ISBN:9782867701139 £55.00Lebanon: The Phoenician Pearl ISBN:9782867701443 £55.00

Of all the world's great cities, Paris is perhaps the one that marks its visitors and inhabitants the most, both in their discovery of the city, and their memories. With its many monuments, it is also a fabulous theatre where adventure, chance meetings, and the unexpected have fascinated the painters, poets and photographers that we meet in the pages of this book. While its history is ancient, and very long, its present is lively and attractive. This is a history of Paris that invites readers to wander in the city, to discover it. It presents the major events of the city, together with the most charming examples of daily life in its streets, which is always vibrant. It shows its crowds, who are delighted to find all the odours of the world, all the colours of life, and the marvels of everyday that are seen in this city. We also meet those writers who have praised Paris, such as Victor Hugo, Jacques Prevert, Gerard de Nerval and Léon Paul Fargue, and all those who have immortalised the city in their paintings, from the anonymous painters of the Renaissance up to the Impressionists. This is an intelligent history of Paris, but also friendly, entertaining, accessible, to whet your appetite for the city, and to arouse your curiosity.Also Available:Lebanon: The Phoenician Pearl ISBN:9782867701443 £55.00Le Sud Marocain ISBN:9782867700569 £55.00

It had been a desert, its dunes languorously meeting the lapping sea which has played its part in world trade since the beginning of time. There had been the gold and spices from nearby India, and the petroleum of today, extracted from its sands or brought from elsewhere, from off the shores of its coasts. It is difficult to imagine that these seven Emirates have a history, as understood in Western canons. Here, the past seems to have been dug away with excavators, drowned in concrete, built over with metropolitan motorways. This does not prevent it from seeming to surge forth at the slightest provocation, at the smallest of solicitations. Proud of what the world acknowledges as his country's achievements, the most insolent of Emiratis grows less arrogant when recalling his father's fathers. Fathers who, hardly more than four decades ago, were Bedouins, traders, camel drivers, almost all pearl fishers.It is in this way that this modern history was written. Twenty centuries of hard seasonal migration of their livestock, intensive trade, fierce competition, destructive setbacks and creative imagination forged mentalities that have made this desert into one of the richest and most envied places in the world. What seems a modern miracle is no more than the culmination of an ancient culture having survived mishap and change to forge a modern economy.Contents: A History going back to Antiquity; Abu Dhabi, Where Business Has Replaced Vanished Industries; The Activities of the Other Emirates; The Challenge of the Seven Families; Islam According to the Emirates; Immigration; The Emirates: Abu Dabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman; Umm al-Qaywayn; Ras al-Khaimah; Fujairah; The Future of the Emirates.

The interior designer Susanna Biedermann (1943-2007) described herself in her curriculum vitae as a painter as well. The compass of her works is in fact greater still. The book that was edited by her long-term partner Max Alioth and the graphic designer Beat Keusch from Basel begins with the sketchbooks where so many of her creations have their origin. The succession of drawings, watercolours, paintings, murals, objects, photographs, posters, logos, plans, models, builduings and words together give rise to a mosaic which is itself a reflection of Susanna Biedermann's practice of working on several projects simultaneously. Yet what all her many-facetted works have in common is a lightness of touch, a magical quality and a gift for transforming reality. Her many different spheres of interest can all be traced back to her spontaneous fascination with everything around her. Viewed in isolation, her works are simply different parts of a larger whole, which together led to the founding of the Marrakech School of Visual Arts. Text in English, German, French and Arabic.

This book focuses on the production of chairs, discussing the work of Avisse, Blanchard, Boucault, Carpentier, Cresson, Delanois, Foliot, Gourdin and Tilliard and recreates the environment centred around the leading figure Nicolas Heurtaut. Sculptors, gilders and upholsterers are the other professions which contribute to the elaboration of a chair. The book's theoretical section is completed with more technical observations, notably on the art of distinguishing an authentic piece from an imitation. The period covered extends from the end of the regency style to the beginning of neo-classicism (1730-1775). Text in French.

The common denominator linking the artists in this book is that they all went to the Near East or North Africa and painted the experiences drawn from their travels. The "Orient" in question covers a geographic area which spreads from the Balkans through the Maghreb down to Marrakech. Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and Sudan were a part of this vast territory as well. This "covering" of the Orient occurred during the 19th century, in between Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt and the First World War.Text in French.

Of all the customs and traditions concerning the lives of oriental women, the harem is probably the most familiar and least understood in the West. Travelling artists, writers and poets let their imagination run unbridled upon this theme, to such an extent that in all the paintings from the early eigtheenth century to the 1940s, reality and imagination are closely intermingled. Beyond the theme of odalisques and almahs, this volume reflects upon the small pleasures of daily life, family and women's work. Over 150 Orientalist painters, both prestigious and less known, are brought together in this book as individual monographs.

The Berber women from Morocco have received wide acclaim for their rugs. They also used their amazing skills to weave traditional costumes, whose ample shapes are reminiscent of the draped garments of antiquity. Many garments, veils and capes reflect the identity of the different groups living on mountains and in valleys. They represent a way of life that is disappearing fast, as contacts with the outside world render it obsolete. Some items of clothing are decorated with designs transferred from mother to daughter, but tradition did not prevent weavers from expressing their own creativity. The book shows a wide variety of designs allowing the reader to discover masterpieces of weaving and embroidery, but also of decoration with henna, a technique only known from Morocco. This book is the first to offer a vast panorama of this exceptional heritage from the Mediterranean coast to the Sahara. Ethnologist Marie-Rose Rabaté and Frieda Sorber, an art historian and textile specialist have, between them researched Berber costume in and outside Morocco for 40 years. As women in a female environment, their invaluable experience has allowed to widen existing knowledge, to collect rare examples, to witness the changing state of textile crafts and to pinpoint the recent apparition of fakes. In and outside Morocco many collectors have shared their collections for study, to help them to define a Berber style of decoration. A wealth of objects was chosen to illustrate the texts, showing a kaleidoscope of colours and designs, including many details. They present an art that remained hidden for a long time, and that almost disappeared before it could claim its place among the world's cultures.Text in English and French.