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This book is a visual essay documenting the notion and history of spectacle, those public performances and happenings that galvanize hordes of people and, if only for a brief moment, express the culture of our time in mass participation. From the dazzling opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games to the surreal circus atmosphere of performance troupes like Cirque du Soleil, from holiday parades like Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to religious events such as the Hindu festival of Kumbh Mela, which drew millions of pilgrims in 2001, this volume is a tribute to the art of celebration and ritual. As design impresario David Rockwell notes in the book's interview, "the focus of this book's journey is the value of being there. It's not about something happening to you, it's about participating...This is looking at things that are temporary and the power of something that can burst and happen and go away." As editors of this book, Mau and Rockwell bring together eye-popping photographs, interviews, and brief essays that examine the art, evolution, and cultural impact of spectacles old and new and around the globe. The book is divided in six thematic sections, each expressing an aspect of the ritualistic event: Scale, Visual Exuberance, Community, Transformation, Impermanence, and Immersion. Each section documents three spectacles, ranging from the Kumbh Mela celebration in India to Carnival celebrations to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, from the glitzy mass appeal of Las Vegas to the historical reenactment of the Calcio Storico in Florence, and ephemeral events like fireworks displays and flashmobs. Each featured spectacle includes several spreads of stunning color and archival photographs, a brief description, selected statistics, and an interview with a noted cultural figure, among whom are art critic Dave Hickey, architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown, theater professor Arnold Aronson of Columbia University, and theater director Julie Taymor. Illustrated sidebars profile historical figures and events, such as Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. "Spectacle" presents an unprecedented collection of dynamic images that convey the palpable buzz, sheer beauty, and often bizarre fascination of man-made events worldwide. And, for those readers with a desire to get closer to the scenes as spectators or participants, the book includes a listing of 24 events with factual information (where, what, when), among these are the Dakar Motor Rally, the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan, Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, the New York City Marathon, and Ibiza raves.

Mapping Asia presents an authoritative selection of the most important antique maps of Asia and the Middle East produced from the time of Alexander the Great to the early nineteenth century, by cartographers from England, France, Portugal, Holland, Turkey, Italy, and China. A fascinating visual chronicle of the maps and their makers, this book explores the history of Europe's discovery of lands to the east, from Constantinople to present-day Alaska. It tells the stories of the thriving trade that linked east and west beginning with the ancient Silk Road, the explorers - such as Magellan and Sir Francis Drake - who continually searched for new lands and routes to reach the east beginning in the fifteenth century, and the indigenous peoples who struggled to retain their autonomy in the face of European missionary activity and influence. Mapping Asia reproduces in full color 80 beautifully rendered and rare maps, more than 40 of which have never been published for the general public. Each map is accompanied by an accessible essay that provides extensive background on the mapmaker and how the map was originally produced, and describes the geography, sites, and details on the map. Most

Born near Paris in 1862, Claude Debussy was one of the most influential composers of his age, affecting profoundly the works of later generations of composers, both in his native France and elsewhere. He was trained at the Paris Conservatoire, and decided there on a career as a composer rather than as a pianist, his original intention. His highly characteristic musical language, thoroughly French in inspiration, extended the contemporary limits of harmony and form, with a remarkably delicate command of nuance, whether in composition for the piano or in the handling of a relatively large orchestra. Considered by many to be the most important composer of piano music since Chopin, Debussy also produced a single opera, "Pelleas et Melisande", which brought an entirely new tone to the genre. This, however, was his only completed opera and instead his work predominantly comprises orchestral pieces, piano sets and songs. The orchestral works include "The Three Nocturnes" (1899), "The Three Images" (1912) and "The Ballet Jeux" (1913). Debussy's piano music begins with works that, Verlaine fashion, look back at earlier musical styles with a modern cynicism (Suite bergamasque, 1890, Pour le piano, 1901). But then, as in the orchestral pieces, Debussy began to associate his music with visual impressions of the East, Spain, landscapes etc, in a sequence of sets of short pieces. His last volume of "Etudes" (1915) interprets similar varieties of style and texture purely as pianistic exercises and includes pieces that develop irregular form to an extreme, as well as others influenced by the young Stravinsky (a presence too in the suite En blanc et noir for two pianos, 1915). A planned set of six chamber sonatas was sadly cut short by the composer's death from cancer in 1918. Perhaps the most influential composer of his generation (and certainly one who provoked much contemporary controversy), Debussy's influence continues to be felt in the twenty-first century.

Thom Mayne, the founder and principal of the Los Angeles-based firm Morphosis, is one of the most influential architects of his generation practising today and is considered part of an informal "Los Angeles School" of cutting-edge architects mentored by Frank Gehry and which also includes Eric Owen Moss and the late Franklin D. Israel. After completing several small residential projects and renovations, Morphosis first gained widespread recognition in the architecture world with the design of several high-profile restaurants in the Los Angeles area in the mid-1980s: 72 Market Street, a loftlike space in Venice, and Angeli Restaurant and Kate Mantilini Restaurant, whose highly articulated steel-and-wood facades and unconventional plans catapulted Morphosis into the international postmodern and "deconstruction" debates of the 1980s. The firm, however, has always been firmly rooted in its Los Angeles environment, responding to the city's historic openness to architectural experimentation and its resistance to traditional grids and geometric orders. As Val Warke has written, "It is likely that most Morphosis blockbusters are about the contemporary culture of Los Angeles, its manic decentralization." Morphosis's buildings, with their eccentric sculptural forms, their windows and structural elements often pitching at skewed angles, and the beautifully complex plan drawings for which the firm is famous all reflect Thom Mayne's interpretation of an often kinetic, unstable contemporary experience. This book publishes for the first time extensive photographs of all of Morphosis's completed work, from the early residential and restaurant projects in Los Angeles to the most recent work beyond California and the United States - in Canada, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Austria. Included are the Cedars Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center, a showroom for Vecta in Los Angeles, later residential projects - the Lawrence, Crawford, and Blades houses, exhibits at the Walker Art Center and Netherlands Architecture Institute, the Hypo Alpe-Adria-Center in Klagenfurt, Austria, and Toronto Graduate Student Housing in Toronto, Canada. The work in this volume is presented in a clean, almost cinematic layout, with large-format color photographs, including many double-page spreads, illustrating the individual projects. The projects are organized in reverse chronological order, project sections are followed by an essay by Thom Mayne interspersed with commentary by Val Warke. Project credits and a bibliography complete the book.

Raghubir Singh (1942-1999) was one of the finest documentary photographers. He was born in Rajasthan, India, and for thirty years made countless personal journeys across the vast subcontinent. He travelled along the Ganges, toured the ghats and alleys of Benares and explored the cosmopolitan cities of Calcutta and Mumbai. The result was a series of vibrant photographs that capture the exuberant spirit and restless activity of his native India. Like his hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Singh always succeeded in getting into the heart of the scene and intuitively portraying it from the insider's point of view.In his engaging and informative introduction to River of Colour, the first ever retrospective of his work, Raghubir Singh explains what India means to him, focusing in particular on the importance of colour in India. Singh's instinctual affinity with colour is seen again and again in his pictures that follow. Arranged in eleven sections that depict aspects integral to Indian life, including the street, monuments, icons, water and pilgrimages, Singh's photographs reveal everything from the magical to the mundane, providing a comprehensive picture of the country that remains imprinted in the mind.

Although she emerged in the 1990s, Berlin-based English artist Tacita Dean has in her work a quiet depth not usually associated with the Pop and hype of the 'cool Britannia' scene. Her film installations explore how chance and coincidence influence daily life, constructing narratives that connect past and present, fact and fiction, private histories and larger events. In "Disappearance at Sea" (1996) a three-part installation and artist's book, Dean documents the tragic account of Donald Crowhurst and his attempt to fake a solo voyage around the globe, his eventual loss of sanity and his death at sea. The work tells the story through various fragments and landscapes, including a magnificent sea vista from a lighthouse beacon that produces a mysterious 'missing narrative' (as the artist calls it) reminiscent of 19th century atmospheric sea- and landscape painters. "FLOH" (2002) is a collection of photographs discovered by the artist in flea markets across Europe and America - holiday snaps or banal occurrences and events retrieved by the artist. Other works include a jukebox filled with ambient sound recordings from around the world, an endlessly turning Berlin seen from the revolving restaurant of the Fersehturm television tower and a frustrated attempt to follow directions (as misleading as they are meticulous) to find Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty in Utah's Great Salt Lake. Her work has been presented at museums and galleries throughout the world (including the DePont Foundation, Tilburg, the Netherlands, Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Tate Britain, London, Fundacao la Caixa, Barcelona, the Hirsshorn Museum, Washington D.C., Musee d'Art Modern de la Ville de Paris, and Museu Serralves, Portugal) and her films have also been screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

A survey of avant-garde cultural and political magazines and journals. Steven Heller An historical survey of avant-garde cultural and political magazines and journals of the 20th century Presents rarely seen magazines from all over the globe linked to

This book is a study of a recurring phenomenon in the history of changing taste in the visual arts, namely the feeling that older and less sophisticated (i.e. 'primitive') works are somehow morally and aesthetically superior to later works that have become soft and decadent. Gombrich traces this idea back to classical antiquity and links it both with Cicero's observation that over-indulgence of the senses leads to a feeling of disgust, and with the profoundly influential metaphor comparing the development of art to that of a living organism. Like an organism, art has been thought to grow to maturity, then decay and die, and successive generations of artists and critics have preferred the alleged strength, nobility and sincerity of earlier styles to the more refined later styles with their corrupting and meretricious appeal to the senses. Summing up more than forty years of study and reflection on this theme, the book presents a closely argued narrative supported by extensive quotations that document with precision the role of authors, critics and artists in shaping and changing opinion. After reviewing the classical authors whose writings largely set the terms of the debate, Gombrich then charts its progress from its revival in the eighteenth century, documenting the often subtle shifts of taste and judgement that frequently focus on the pivotal role of Raphael in the history of art. In the final chapters, he turns to the truly revolutionary primitivism of the twentieth century, analysing the momentous shifts of taste of which he has himself been an eyewitness. Important both as a personal testament and as a documentary anthology, this last book from one of the world's most distinguished art historians provides a deep and revealing insight into the history and psychology of taste.

Mary Ellen Mark (b.1940) began working as a freelance photographer in the mid-1960s. In the 1970s, Mark worked on several bodies of work for which she gained her reputation as one of the most provocative documentary photographers, ensuring her legendary status in the history of photography. In 1976, she documented the women's maximum security ward of Oregon State Mental Hospital, and in 1978 she photographed the prostitutes in the brothels of Falkland Road in Bombay. Both became subjects for books published in 1979 and 1981 respectively. In 1977, she became a member of the photographic agency Magnum, remaining with the prestigious organisation until 1982, when she decided to work independently. In the 1980s and 1990s, she photographed and published books on homeless teenagers in Seattle, a holiday camp for children with cancer in California, Mother Teresa, circuses, and most recently, twins in America. Mark has received an impressive number of grants and awards, including three National Endowment for Art grants, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Picture of the Year Award, and five honorary doctorates, including one from the University of Pennsylvania. Under contract with "The New Yorker" since 2003, she lives in New York City.

Rudolf Nureyev is a legend in the true sense of the word, and this beautiful book is a fitting tribute to his extraordinary career and charisma. It brings together more than 180 of the greatest images of the greatest dancer of the twentieth century, taken by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Snowdon, David Bailey, Martine Franck, and Cecil Beaton. NUREYEV is available again in paperback to mark the 70th anniversary of Nureyev's birth.

In this exciting new monograph, Professor Griffin provides fresh insight into the life and work of one of America's most-famous and best-loved artists. The author places Homer against a background of American nationalism fuelled by tensions between American self-identity and European sophistication. Finding in Homer's work the aspiration to create specifically American subjects and a specifically American character. It is testament to Homer's success that his influence is still echoed in every strand of America media almost 100 years after his death. Born in 1836, Homer began his career a magazine illustrator, soon becoming a regular contributor to Harper's Weekly, one of the America's most popular magazines. In the early 1860s, Homer was sent by his editor to the front lines of Civil War battles in Virginia. His woodcuts and lithographs of wartime encampments were widely distributed and served to make him highly popular with a large American audience. In the post war years Homer turned his attention to the American countryside and its people. It was during this period that he produced Snap the Whip, a piece thought by many Americans to be his best work. This and similar paintings were embraced by American critics as nationalist masterpieces, reaffirming precious American ideals and values that had been lost during the war. Griffin compares these contemporary feelings with later scholarship - which has suggested that Homer's works hold a deeper criticism of contemporary American life - to reassess Homer's aims and achievements during this period. In 1873, Homer began to paint using watercolours - the medium for which he is perhaps best known outside the USA - and in 1883 he moved to the New England fishing village of Prout's Neck, Maine. Here he began what was to become his best-known period of seascapes and nautical scenes. The overriding theme in much of his later work is the constant struggle between man and nature, a battle illustrated by the sailors in a stormy sea taking readings from a sextant in Eight Bells of 1886. In this new study however, Griffin expands this theme to discuss the often-overlooked idea that these works also react contemporary anxieties about loss of manhood control. Illustrating how the many all-male scenes - described by critics as 'strong meat for men'- affirm masculine authority and are charged with an underlying eroticism.

Los Angeles-based Jorge Pardo (b. 1963) is an artist whose work crosses the boundaries of art, design, and architecture to redefine notions of space and utility. His work re-examines the rules of modernism by incorporating elements of Minimalism and his personal responses to everyday objects and settings. Works by Pardo can be found in the world's most prestigious museums, and several of his permanent public projects can be seen around the world, including PIER, which he built for the 1997 Skulpture Projekte in Munster, and MOUNTAIN BAR, which he designed in 2003 for the Chinatown neighborhood in Los Angeles. This is the first monograph of this scale and scope on Jorge Pardo's work.

Stephen Shore (b. 1947) is a true artistic innovator whose work has opened up new frontiers for contemporary photography. His photographs of American scenes unveil the exceptional beauty to be found in the everyday. As one of the first art photographers to work in color, Shore pioneered such contemporary genres as the diaristic snapshot (later taken up by Nan Goldin and Wolfgang Tillmans) and the monumentalized landscape (as later practiced by Becher-school photographers Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky). This monograph offers the first complete examination of Shore's long and storied career, from his residency at Warhol's Factory to his experiments in conceptual photography, from his landmark series AMERICAN SURFACES to his continued exploration of emerging techniques. Shore's high-key portraits of America's chromatic landscape can be found in the permanent collections of major museums all over the world.

Renzo Piano is an architect whose work seems increasingly relevant to our times. Winner of the Pritzker Prize in 1998, Piano is certainly one of the most interesting and acclaimed contemporary architects. Since his first building, the Centre Pompidou in Paris produced in collaboration with architect Sir Richard Rogers, he has realised a great number of attractive buildings all over the world, always creating new languages that combine a deep concern of the topography of the site, a clear comprehension of the brief and an amazing interest in the experimentation of new technologies. In Volume Five, Peter Buchanan shows, as he has in the previous four volumes, that Piano follows no fashions of form or theory, nor is he limited to a personal idiom. Instead he concerns himself with the specifics and potential of a particular situation and moment, meeting the challenges of the programme, often pushing technology beyond its present limits, and always responding sensitively to the urban fabric of the building's site. The first four volumes of the Complete Works have traced Piano's career from his early collaborations with Rogers and Peter Rice, and the formation of the Building Workshop in 1981, to the completion of Kansai Airport in 1995. This fifth volume will include Piano's latest buildings, which illustrate the continuing complexity of his work. Chief amongst these are the Nasher Collection in Dallas, the Woodruff Arts Centre Expansion in Atlanta, USA, Maison Hermes in Tokyo, Japan, and the Aurora Place Office and Apartment Towers in Sydney, Australia. As before, the book will also include 'work in progress', to demonstrate the full diversity of the Building Workshop's activities. This includes the London Bridge Tower, UK.

V dalším svazku z edice Phaidon Atlas najdete nejobsáhlejší prezentaci současné světové architektury. Na více než 800 stranách velkoformátové knihy (45 x 31 cm) je představeno více než tisíc architektonických projektů postavených po roce 2000 ze 75 zemí.

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