HENI PUBLISHING – serie

Francis Bacon: Paintings is a compact collection of the complete paintings of Irish-born British figurative painter Francis Bacon. Accompanied by a curated selection of compelling quotes — from figures such as Lucian Freud, Roald Dahl and Damien Hirst — the book guides the reader through the evolution of Bacon’s distinctive aesthetic. A master of the grotesque, Bacon created art that is both unsettling and hypnotic, repulsive and irresistible. Emerging from a turbulent inner life and the devastation of World War II, his images retain a quality of urgency that continues to resonate with contemporary audiences. Over a career spanning more than five decades, Bacon produced almost 500 paintings, including his signature diptychs and triptychs. From his early Surrealist experiments of the 1920s to the stark, elegiac works completed just before his death, this book charts a lifetime of radical and groundbreaking artistry.

The Black Paintings is a striking catalogue published to accompany Wes Lang’s UK debut: The Black Paintings, opening on 27 September 2024 and running until 9 March 2025. The exhibition showcases the complete series of ‘The Black Paintings’, created between 2022 and 2024, now exhibited for the first time. ‘The Black Paintings’ vividly demonstrate the breadth of Lang’s inspiration, drawing from fine art heroes such as Francis Bacon, James Ensor, Francisco Goya and Alfred Munnings, as well as the kitsch imagery of his childhood. Lang masterfully blends these influences to create his distinctive and deeply personal style. Unique otherworldly characters – skeletons and disembodied skulls – are set against dark and obscured backgrounds or lush landscapes, creating story-like compositions that take on an unexpected liveliness. Lang’s works on paper, included in this catalogue, feature these same characters, but set against the blank white space of the page, embedded in intricately inscribed scenes with playful expressions and phrases that echo Taoist philosophy, reflecting the spiritual beliefs which drive Lang’s practice. Published in association with Newport Street Gallery, The Black Paintings catalogue features stunning reproductions of 96 paintings and 96 drawings, along with detailed shots of the works and striking visuals of Lang at work in his studio.

The Hockney Interviews brings together expansive conversations held between art world icon David Hockney, who is best known for his large scale, vivid paintings, and pre-eminent curator, Hans Ulrich Obrist. Since their meeting in 2006, when Obrist first visited Hockney at his London studio, the conversations span a 16-year period to the present day. Exploring Hockney’s dedicated and prolific practice, his relationship with fellow artists Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, fervent preoccupation with painting nature, ruminations on new technologies and his love of smoking - Hockney’s musings are as bold and varied as his work. The Hockney Interviews is a hardback reading book and intimate portrait of David Hockney, one of the world’s most distinguished living artists. Fully illustrated with artworks spanning the breadth of Hockney’s artistic career.

Leading expert Paul Greenhalgh presents a groundbreaking visual and scholarly journey through Art Nouveau – spanning 26 countries and enriched with stunning new photography.The Art Nouveau style dramatically impacted architecture, transforming attitudes to late-19th and early-20th century building practices, and making possible the rise of the various Modern Movements in architecture and design. Formed by the social and political environments of this turbulent period in European history, Art Nouveau was a complex, multifaceted phenomenon from its inception, changing shape continually through time and from country to country.This book unravels the various threads that constituted the style, offering fresh philosophical and aesthetic perspectives and providing a definition of what Art Nouveau actually was, and what it meant to its architects and designers. For the first time in a single volume, it shows the extraordinary spread of the style including in countries not usually recognised as being part of the story, with twenty-six countries represented through superb new photography. The author and photographer had privileged access to many famous buildings, as well as lesser-known architectural masterpieces. Uniquely, this book also considers the later heritage of Art Nouveau, and its long-term effects on subsequent architecture.

While for many architects, drawing is a functional tool in the development of specific building projects, visionary British architect Sir Peter Cook has used the medium throughout his long career to channel his boundless imagination. From those made in the 1960s at Archigram to the present day, Cook’s colourful, highly detailed images resonate beyond the architectural sphere, as seen in his major solo exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in 2022. Cook’s work pushes the boundaries of architectural norms of design and construction, with the freedom to imagine buildings, communities and cities that are, as he succinctly puts it, ‘possible or maybe nearly possible, but importantly, not consciously impossible’.For this book, Cook has selected the 18 projects — 16 drawings, one building and his Serpentine Play Pavilion — that he considers most essential to understanding his creative process. These are accompanied by texts that set them within a historical, cultural andpersonal context. His unorthodox and varied 60-year career is explored further in a conversation with Serpentine’s Artistic Director, Hans Ulrich Obrist, that delves further into Cook’s personal history, belief systems and creative processes from childhood to the present day.

Since the early 1960s, Gerhard Richter has tirelessly explored the infinite possibilities of painting and gained status as a highly-celebrated artist worldwide. STRIP-TOWER (962), 2023, expands on the artist’s enduring investigations of painting, photography, digital reproduction and abstraction. Building on his series of Abstract Paintings from the 1970s onwards, and Strip Paintings made since 2011, with STRIPTOWER (962) the artist moves his explorations into three dimensions. Created using glossy ceramic tiles that clad two perpendicular panels to create a cruciform structure of 12 faces, Marcus du Sautoy describes the work as a piece of ‘complexity and simplicity’; its vertically stripes hiding a deeper, symmetrical process. This book commemorates the first public presentation of the work which was organised by Serpentine in London’s Kensington Gardens from April 2024 to February 2025.