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Mondrian

Mondrian and the quest for "universal harmony"

Less is often more - such is Piet Mondrian's approach to art. His main pictorial elements are horizontals and verticals, his preferred colours yellow, red and blue.

Throughout his life, Mondrian (1872-1944) applied these simple elements in his quest for "universal harmony". This publication in our Basic Art Series presents an extra-ordinary painter and art theoretician whose influence on architects and designers is as profound today as it ever was.

Miró

Miró's world of forms resembling shorthand symbols

Joan Miró (1893-1983) is one of the most significant Spanish painters of the twentieth century. His early work clearly shows the influence of Fauvism and Cubism. The Catalan landscape also shapes the themes and treatment of these initial works. In his travels, Miró encountered the intellectual avant-garde of his time. His friends included Francis Picabia, Tristan Tzara, André Masson, Jean Arp and Pablo Picasso.

Matisse

A color harmony that is analogous to a musical composition

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is known not only as one of the most important French painters of the 20th century but also as co-founder and leading exponent of Fauvism. His work reflects an ongoing quest for the expressive power of pure, brilliant colors and simple forms; as a result, the realistic presentation of nature often retires to a secondary position.

Marc

The quest or a universal art which would resolve the contrarieties of life in the harmony of creation

Franz Marc (1880-1916) became known principally for his images of animals: blue horses, yellow tigers, red fawns. What was it that led him to concentrate on painting animals? Marc himself explained his choice of subject matter in these words: "From an early date I felt humankind to be 'ugly'; animals seemed to me possessed of a greater beauty and purity..."

Magritte

A sense of the amazing, the surprising, and the ridiculous in Magritte's paintings

It is impossible to overlook the influence of René Magritte (1898-1967) on contemporary art. His surrealistic painting turns the usual order of things ironically on its head, thus restoring mystery to a world that has lost its magic.

Lichtenstein

Transforming products of mass consumption and the entertainment industry into subjects for art

In the late 50s and 60s, American painter Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) became one of the most important exponents of Pop Art - that movement which transformed products of mass consumption and the entertainment industry into subjects for art. This apotheosis of banal, everyday objects simultaneously constituted a criticism of the traditional elitist understanding of art.

Leonardo

Leonardo, the non-specialist: From key points in anatomy to plans for vehicles, planes, helicopters and submarines

One of the most fully achieved human beings who has ever lived, Leonardo remains the quintessential Renaissance genius. Creator of the world's most famous painting, scientist, philosopher, builder, he is credited with defining the accomplishments of the great flowering in human consciousness. And yet, so wide-ranging and prolific were his interests that he brought hardly any major undertaking to a final end.

Landscape Painting

The landscape from Renaissance to Pop

The landscape has been, for many centuries, one of the most important genres in painting. This book examines the landscape from the late Middle Ages to modern times, comprising a synopsis of the genre and covering a selection of the most important landscapes in the history of art. From Titian to Warhol, readers will discover the evolution of this
popular genre.

Featured artists include:

Klimt

The world "in female form"
One of the greatest artists of his times

Gustav Klimt's art expresses the apocalyptic atmosphere of Vienna's upper middle-class society around the turn of the 20th century—a society devoted to the cultivation of aesthetic awareness and the cult of pleasure.

Klee

Klee's paintings: Geometrical figures and hieroglyphic elements

Designated as "degenerate" by the Nazis, Paul Klee (1879-1940) is today considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His works stand out for the variety in their forms of artistic expression.