Showing titles in Biographies of Artists, Architects & Photographers

Ein Lied geht um die Welt. Kein anderes Weihnachtslied ergreift seit Jahrhunderten die Menschen mehr, als das von Joseph Mohr geschrieben und von Franz Gruber komponierte Lied "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht". Wie aber kam es zu dem Lied? Warum wurde es geschrieben und wie trat es seine Reise um die Welt an? Warum begeistert es uns heute noch alle? Es scheint so einfach: weil es die Sehnsucht nach Weihnachten in uns weckt. Ganz anders sieht es aus, wenn man die Lebensgeschichte von Joseph Mohr betrachtet, der in einer Zeit der Wirrungen, Irrungen und Krieg das Licht der Welt erblickte.

Er hat seine Heimat besungen, ohne ein Heimatdichter zu sein, nahm eine dezidiert antidänische Haltung in den Streitigkeiten zwischen Österreich mit Preußen auf der einen und dem Königreich Dänemark auf der anderen Seite ein, ohne ein politischer Agitator zu sein; er verbrachte elf Jahre in Potsdam und Heiligenstadt und ist doch eng verbunden mit den Menschen und der Landschaft, die er immer wieder beschrieb: Theodor Storm. 1817 in Husum geboren, der "grauen Stadt am grauen Meer".

With women's wear couture and ready-made lines, Ralph Rucci is known for a signature style that merges extraordinary craftsmanship with a sophisticated, restrained aesthetic, derived from his connoisseurship of history and art. A recipient of the 2008 National Design Award, Rucci has taken on the role of ambassador for American fashion, as the first American to show in Paris couture since the 1930s.

Figure emblématique de la Renaissance italienne, Léonard de Vinci ne cesse d'interroger la nature et de chercher à comprendre les lois qui la gouvernent. La peinture devient avec lui l'espace d'un savoir qui se construit pas à pas. La lumière et l'ombre, autrefois symboles divins du bien et du mal, y traduisent désormais le clair-obscur de toute connaissance humaine.

Mars 2011. Silvère a dix-huit ans. Il est élève de l'école de danse de l'Opéra de Paris. Son travail, sa passion et son talent le destinent à devenir ce dont il rêve depuis son enfance : un danseur étoile. Il va dédier sa vie à la danse, car la danse est son destin. Mais le destin danse parfois avec la vie. C'est ce que relate ce récit écrit au fil des jours par Bruno Jarrosson. Des mots simples, témoignages de l'amour d'un père, qui vous toucheront par leur humanité et leur force. Qui vous inviteront à faire face sans les fuir, aux épreuves de l'existence.

D'une grande clarté dans son propos, enregistré sur le vif de la parole, Françoise Barbe-Gall nous propose une promenade dans l'œuvre d'Edgar Degas. Un portrait de l'artiste au travers une dizaine de tableaux, aux antipodes d'une approche classique de l'art, cette collection recherche avant tout à "déverrouiller" l'accès à la peinture. Elle propose à l'auditeur de découvrir l'esprit d'une œuvre en l'aidant à affiner son regard.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) gehört zu den einflussreichsten Schriftstellern des 20. Jahrhunderts. Zu Lebzeiten veröffentliche er nur eine Hand voll Erzählungen, darunter seine bekannteste, "Die Verwandlung". Die Romane "Der Prozess", "Das Schloss" und "Der Verschollene" erschienen erst nach seinem Tod. Sie begründeten Kafkas Weltruhm als seismographischen Interpreten der Moderne. Der englische Kafka-Spezialist Ritchie Robertson erhellt beides: Kafkas krisengeschütteltes Leben und die Raffiniertheit seiner oft rätselhaft anmutenden Texte.

Cézanne, ennemi de tout compromis, entend traduire avant tout la vérité de sa perception. Ce faisant, il définit une nouvelle relation de l'artiste au monde qui l'entoure, et réinvente l'espace de la peinture. Au lendemain de sa mort, survenue en 1906, il deviendra la référence incontournable des jeunes générations.

Salvador Dalí, Jerome Robbins, Jackie Onassis. Gregory Peck, Mick Jagger, S. J. Perelman, I. M. Pei. Philip Johnson, Josephine Baker, John Lennon: They, and so many more who made New York City the center of the universe in the 1970s, all had one thing in common besides their adopted hometown - they shopped at a legendary palace of books, music, and art: Rizzoli Books at 712 Fifth Avenue. There, Kennedys and Rockefellers mingled with tourists and "regular" customers under the watchful gaze of sophisticated employees.

From the late editor, writer, and critic, one of the great chroniclers of the art, fashion, and celebrity scenes: an expansive collection of thirty-five essays that offer an intimate look into the worlds of some of the most important and well-known artists, designers, and actors of our time. For...

Die Anfänge des Starckdeutschen reichen in den Nebel und Kneipendunst einer Berliner Nacht im Jahre 1972 zurück, in der eine Künstlergruppe (aus der sich dann im folgenden Jahr die "Schule der Neuen Prächtigkeit" entwickelte) lauthals ihre Unzufriedenheit mit dem damals üblichen Mittelschwachhochdeutschen bekundete: Deutschsein heißt (unter anderem) Starck seyn!

"Così era finita Gerda Taro, per non aver voluto abbandonare il fronte quando non c'era più nessuna speranza, ed era rimasta ferita a morte come tanti altri, in una strada polverosa; lasciò nelle sue foto testimonianza dell'enorme delitto che era stata la guerra. Aveva dedicato la sua splendida vita a un degno compito, a una giusta causa persa". Questo audiolibro racconta la vita di questa ragazza ribelle, l'amore con Robert Capa, l'avventura di fotografare e la gioia di vivere nella Parigi degli anni Trenta.

"Je sens en moi une trame douce, vibrante, un battement d'ailes tremblant au repos, retenant son souffle. Quand je serai vraiment capable de peindre, je peindrai ça." Lorsqu'elle écrivit ces mots, Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) n'était pas encore une artiste, mais une jeune femme aspirant à le devenir. Bien consciente des limites qui l'entravaient encore, mais résolue à ne pas céder sur son dessein (...). C'est cette obsession de la vérité qui a frappé Marie Darrieussecq la première fois qu'elle s'est trouvée face à un tableau de l'artiste allemande.

When Adam Parfrey tracked down Walter Keane - the credited artist of the weepy waifs - for a San Diego Reader cover story in 1992, he discovered some shocking facts. Decades of lawsuits and countersuits revealed the reality that Keane was more of a conman than an artist and that he forced his wife, Margaret, to sign his name to her own paintings. As a result those weepy waifs may not have been as capricious an invention as they seemed.

"Welcome to Rockwell Land," writes Deborah Solomon in the introduction to this spirited and authoritative biography of the painter who provided 20th-century America with a defining image of itself. As the star illustrator of The Saturday Evening Post for nearly half a century, Norman Rockwell mingled fact and fiction in paintings that reflected the we-the-people, communitarian ideals of American democracy. But who was this man who served as our unofficial "artist in chief" and bolstered our country's national identity?

Le età della vita di Leonardo furono marcate da ricerche e spostamenti, sia attraverso luoghi fisici sia - soprattutto - attraverso le discipline che egli studiò e intrecciò in un continuo avanzamento. La sua fu una vita affascinante, tanto che da secoli viene studiata, catturando la curiosità di tutti, dagli storici dell'arte ai critici, dai filosofi agli psicologi, fino a ciascuno di noi.

Margaret Collyer's beautifully written autobiography describes her life as an artist and pioneer farmer in Kenya during the first half of the 20th century.

With lips slightly parted and eyes fixed on a point in the distance, a breathtaking marble portrait of Costanza Piccolomini appears alive. Carved by Gianlorenzo Bernini in 1636 - 37 for his own pleasure, the portrait of Costanza is one of his most captivating works, but until now little has been known about its subject. For centuries Costanza was identified only as Bernini's mistress, who later incited his rage by betraying him for his brother. Author Sarah McPhee corrects and expands this story in her remarkable biography of a sculpture and its subject.

Since 1968, Garry Trudeau (b. 1948) has brought his brand of political satire to bear on public figures, movie stars, heads of state, and even on himself. Trudeau has also advocated for artists' rights and challenged industry norms while keeping a decidedly low profile. In Garry Trudeau: Doonesbury and the Aesthetics of Satire, Kerry D. Soper traces the contribution of this groundbreaking artist. Trudeau is arguably the premier American political and social satirist of the last forty years. Amazingly, he achieved this on the comics page, rather than the editorial page.

In the 1960s and '70s, Frank Yandolino rode the hippie counterculture movement alongside visionaries like Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang, and he helped put together the Woodstock Festival of 1969, the era's emblem of love and peace. From then on (and even before that), Yandolino, a beguiling fast-talker, charmer, and gifted storyteller, took charge of his life according to those ideals, grabbing and embracing all opportunities that were thrown his way.