Klaus Sembach Knihy

Status symbols that define the spirit of the age Designers of genius. Henry van de Velde, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Josef Hoffmann. Le Corbusier and Emile Jacques Ruhlmann. Charles Eames, Ettore Sottsas and Philippe Starck. At their hands furniture came into its own. The twentieth century transformed interiors into sets - and on those sets the creations of these designers played the star parts. This is a book about status symbols that express the character of their owners but, more than that, define the spirit of the age.

Featuring 500 stunning photographs, this book showcases exceptional modern furniture designs from around the globe, ranging from minimalist chairs to intricate masterpieces. It highlights the innovative work of leading 20th-century designers and explores a variety of materials, including wood, plastic, steel, and Lucite. Additionally, a price guide offers valuable insights for collectors and enthusiasts alike.

She was living evidence that fairy tales are real and that angels can come down to earth. It was Colette who discovered the too tall and too thin girl with expressive eyes, then a complete unknown, and made her the lead in the 1951 Broadway production of Gigi. Her film triumphs were all the more astonishing since she didn’t match the usual Hollywood clichés. Petite, almost androgynous, and with a disarming naturalness, she had a worldwide impact on fashion and beauty trends and was enthusiastically welcomed as an alternative to the sex bombs and pin-up girls of the 50s. This book, with an essay by Klaus-Jürgen Sembach, is dedicated to Audrey Hepburn who died in 1993. It includes the best film stills, portraits, and private photographs by well-known and by unknown photographers from all over the world who have provided us with an immortal image of Hollywood’s most endearing star.

Natural forms in the technical Art Nouveau crafts, architecture, and furniture design Art Nouveau, whose emergence at the same time as cinema was no mere coincidence, represents the most remarkable attempt to reconcile the demands of the technical age with the undying wish for beauty and glorification—or to pit them against the other.Here the reform movement of the turn of the century is not only dealt with as an artistic event, but those economic and political interests which inspired, supported, and handicapped it are also taken into account. In the chapters "Movement," "Unrest", and "Equilibrium," the historical phenomenon as a whole is characterised and is also presented with its own distinct local features. The centres of Brussels, Nancy, Barcelona, Glasgow, Helsinki and Chicago are dealt with in subchapters as are Munich, Darmstadt and Weimar . Finally, Vienna , that city in which the synthesis achieved its culmination, is described separately. The outstanding artists are examined in detail in connection with the respective cities of their greatest activity. The result is a complex picture of the symbiosis of architecture, furniture design, and craftsmanship with their corresponding approaches to artistic revitalization.

Chemnitz ist mit dem Werk Henry van de Veldes eng verbunden. 1902/03 erhielt er mit der Villa Esche seinen ersten architektonischen Bauauftrag in Deutschland. Durch Van de Velde angeregt wurde Edvard Munch als Familienporträtist beauftragt. Anlässlich der 150. Geburtstage der beiden Künstler zeigen die Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz eine umfangreiche Ausstellung aus allen Wirkungsbereichen Van de Veldes. In Sonderschau und Begleitkatalog wird der belgische Künstler mit mehr als 300 Objekten – Möbeln, Textilien, Silber, Keramiken, Porzellan, Arbeiten auf Papier – als ein universeller Künstler, Architekt, Innenarchitekt und Gestalter präsentiert. Einen sehenswerten Einblick erhält man darüber hinaus in das Schaffen von Edvard Munch mit Beispielen aus der Sammlung und wertvollen Leihgaben.