Taschen

“What is merely beautiful has always bored me. I’m interested in what is powerful and real.” ?Peter LindberghWith such credits as shooting the first American Vogue cover under Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, bringing together for the first time a group of young women who would become the ’90s supermodels, and numerous solo exhibitions at world-renowned institutions including the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, and the Gagosian in London, Peter Lindbergh (1944–2019) was a master of his craft who made his mark in the halls of photography history.The industry quickly became enamored with his almost anti-fashion photography, capturing the zeitgeist and the spirit of his subjects rather than pursuing today’s search for perfection, which he considered inhuman.Handpicked from 37,000 unreleased photos from his groundbreaking 2017 Pirelli calendar shoot, Shadows on the Wall offers an intimate insight into a pool of extraordinary talent: Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Charlotte Rampling, Dame Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Kate Winslet, Léa Seydoux, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Robin Wright, Rooney Mara, Uma Thurman, and Zhang Ziyi.Lindbergh’s message is simple. These intimate images represent a different kind of beauty, far away from society’s obsession with youth and perfection; one which is concerned with individuality, the courage to be yourself, and your very own sensibility.

When German artist Charlotte Salomon (1917–1943) handed her gouache series Life? or Theater? over to a friend, she beseeched him to “take good care of it, it is my entire life.” A few months later, the five-months pregnant Charlotte was picked up by a Gestapo truck, deported to Drancy, and then on to Auschwitz, where she died upon arrival at the age 26.The work Salomon left behind is, in a very real sense, her piece de résistance – in her own words, “something wildly eccentric.” A cycle of nearly 1,300 autobiographical gouaches, it combines creative force with pioneering personal narrative into one shattering document of self-expression.Divided into three sections, the gouaches unveil a vivid self-portrait spanning across all facets of Charlotte's existence: from a complicated family life, marked by the suicides of nearly all female relatives; growing up in Berlin; her close relation to singing teacher Alfred Wolfsohn; the rise of the Nazis; to her exile to France in 1939. Throughout, the artist challenges these destructive forces by deploying playful pseudonyms and fantastical elements alongside emotional candor, remarkable observation, and a meticulous visual memory. Her film strip-like sequences are interspersed not only with words but also musical suggestions, making Life? or Theater? the storybook for a whole musical, years before the heyday of that genre.Without comparison, the gouaches are a triumph of personal truth and individual expression. Published here with a selection of the most important pieces, Life? Or Theatre? is an unrivaled opus magnum from a great and ambitious artist, dark with her early death, but luminous with her precision, her lyricism, and her courage.

Bright colors, bold prints and joie-de-vivre abound in this tribute to Pucci, the distinctive fashion house. Full of archival photos, sketches, and designs, this edition captures the breathtaking elegance, drama, and innovation of a unique brand.

In eastern France, close to the German and Swiss ­borders, lies the historic city of Mulhouse. During the early 19th century, it became one of the leading centres of textile manufacture in the country. Today it is home to the Musée de ­l’Impression sur Étoffes, a museum dedicated entirely to the history of fabric printing from the 17th century right up to the present day.Few are the serious fashion designers who have not come to visit this astonishing temple to textiles. This book, however, gives you the key to those vaults, presenting perfectly captured images of its collections that span four different continents – recounting a fascinating artistic and technological adventure across the world, from its origins in India to the most contemporary creations.You’ll discover luxuriantly illustrated chapters that bring to glorious life a chronological and thematic overview of the Musée’s unprecedented retrospective of the art of printed fabrics. And that journey begins in India, exploring the origins of the designs that made these prints famous and how they travelled to the factories of Europe. You’ll also find stories and images detailing artistic innovations such as toile de Jouy and the development of new colour ranges. The reader can also look back at the incredible inventiveness of manufacturers and their designers throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Explore eye-catching cashmere motifs and the intense passion for nature and flowers that emerged under the Second Empire, before the artistic avant-gardes and modernity profoundly evolved the artistic creation of textile prints.With hundreds of pieces reproduced here to the highest standard, you will journey through the extraordinary tapestry of motifs and colours that make this book such a peerless source of inspiration for textile enthusiasts of all kinds.

Nothing succeeds like success, as the saying goes, but in the case of Donald Duck the opposite is true: the candor with which Donald reveals his weaknesses wins our hearts and stays with us forever. Revisit Donald’s life’s work from nine decades in this vibrantly illustrated publication on the Disney universe. Following Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by TASCHEN, we witness the career of Mickey’s only rival for the throne as Disney’s most popular creation. From his debut in the Silly Symphony short film The Wise Little Hen on June 9, 1934, the authors trace Donald’s cartoons, groundbreaking adventures in comics and TV, and theme park appearances. With unprecedented access to Disney’s vast historical archives and collections as well as public and private collections, the authors illuminate Donald’s life story with rare concept art, story sketches, background paintings, animation, and comic drawings as well as historical photographs. We encounter the work of all major Donald artists in both film and comics who defined his character, including a vast tribute to the “Duck Man” himself, master storyteller Carl Barks, alongside unseen early storyboard drawings. In the history of comics, Donald Duck is the most frequently printed figure outside the superhero genre, and has appeared on screen more often than any other Disney character. Since the 1950s, Duckburg has expanded into a truly global village, with American artists being joined by a new generation of international colleagues. As Carl Barks once said of Donald: “He is everything, he is everybody; he makes the same mistakes that we all make.” He may often be unlucky, but this is precisely what has endeared him to readers around the world. Copyright © 2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

One part history book, one part art book, and one part fascinating memoir, this book is an overview of more than two centuries of tattoo history intermixed with an intimate look at the lives of tattoo artists, and the personal struggles and triumphs, occupational hazards, and artistic courage that have defined so much of this history.For the last forty years, Henk Schiffmacher has poured his heart and soul into his collection, amassing tattoo drawings, designs, photographs, and artifacts from around the world. The book features many never-before-seen highlights from this collection and includes lithographs, etchings, tattooing instruments, paintings, photographs, posters, shop signs, original drawings, and tattoo designs known in the business as flash, among them extremely rare vintage flash sheets from major players in early Western tattooing. The vastness and variety of tattooing around the world is chronicled in the book’s 700+ images, including the indigenous tattooing of the Maori and South Pacific islanders, the ancient traditions of Asia, and the origins of old-school Western tattooing in Europe and the United States. The book also features a dozen original illustrations by Schiffmacher in his inimitable style, as well as a personal introduction describing Schiffmacher’s own journey as both an artist and a collector that has shaped his view of the art’s journey from the underground to the mainstream.Schiffmacher brings a fascinating perspective to tattoo history through his personal reflections and wild tales of adventure. In this book, we learn not only about the history of tattooing, but also about the adventures behind the making of one of the largest tattoo collections in the world, by a self-taught tattoo artist in love with the art and its innovators.

First impressions count, especially in Milano. In this unprecedented photographic journey, editor Karl Kolbitz opens the door to 144 of the city's most sumptuous entrance halls, captivating in their diversity and splendor. These vibrant Milanese entryways, until now hidden away behind often restrained façades, are revealed as dazzling examples of Italian modernism, mediating public and private space with vivid configurations of color and form, from floors of juxtaposed stones to murals of minimalist geometry. The collection spans buildings from 1920 to 1970 and showcases the work of some of the city's most illustrious architects and designers, including Giovanni Muzio, Gio Ponti, Piero Portaluppi, and Luigi Caccia Dominioni, as well as non-pedigreed architecture of equal impact and interest. The photographs for the publication were exclusively shot by Delfino Sisto Legnani, Paola Pansini, and Matthew Billings, each evoking the entryways with individual sensibility and a stylistic interplay of detail shots-such as stones, door handles, and handrails-with larger architectural views. The images are accompanied by concise contributions from Penny Sparke, Fabrizio Ballabio, Lisa Hockemeyer, Daniel Sherer, Brian Kish, and Grazia Signori, together bringing a wealth of architecture, design, and natural stone expertise to guide the reader through the applied materials and fittings as well as the art-historical and social implications of each of the ingressi. As much an architectural city guide as an aesthetic study, the book provides the exact address and an annotated Milan map for all featured entryways, as well as the architect name and date of construction. In the well-documented realm of 20th-century Italian design, Kolbitz has stepped over the threshold and delivered a brand new area of inquiry in Milanese modernism. With the rigor of its multifaceted research, poised photography, and breadth of its featured hallways, this is an invigorating new reference work and an inside look at the city's design DNA across high to low architecture.

By early 1963 the foundations of the Marvel Universe had been laid. Following the introduction of the Fantastic Four in 1961 came the amazing (Spider-Man), the astonishing (Ant-Man), the strange (Doctor, that is), the incredible (Hulk), the invincible (Iron Man) and the mighty (Thor). Still, Marvel editor in chief Stan Lee realized something was missing. “I was writing these characters and I thought it would fun to put them together in a team,” he recalled. So Lee and artist Jack Kirby assembled Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Thor, and the Hulk to create the Avengers.Right away it was clear this team was different. If the Fantastic Four were family, then the Avengers were the co-workers you didn’t choose. Not everyone got along—the Hulk fought with everyone—but working together they could defeat the baddest of Marvel’s bad guys, like Loki, Kang the Conqueror, the Masters of Evil, and Immortus. The lineup was ever changing: The Hulk departed, Captain America joined, and Ant-Man grew up to become Giant-Man. Then, remarkably, villains Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch became heroes—and Avengers—and the group’s founding members shockingly departed, leaving Captain America to lead the newly-minted heroes.Relive the classic early adventures of Avengers Nos. 1–20 now available as a compact trade edition. The most pristine pedigreed comics have been cracked open and photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company. Accompanying the stories are an in-depth history by the Eisner Award-winning writer Kurt Busiek that’s illustrated with original art, little-seen photographs, and rare documents. This mighty collection about Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is worthy of Tony Stark’s library—or yours.

Hoping to break out of a sales slump at Marvel in the early 1960s, veteran comic creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby hit on the idea of doing a super-team. Kirby, who thought super heroes were due for a revival after 15 years of being pushed aside by romance, horror, and war comics, saw it as smart business. Lee just once wanted to “do the type of story I myself would enjoy reading.” The Fantastic Four forever changed their careers, their lives, and the comic book industry. Some of the most iconic moments in Marvel history are here, starting with Reed Richards, his girlfriend Sue Storm, his best friend Ben Grimm, and her little brother Johnny Storm crash landing their rocket after it has been hit by cosmic rays and discovering they have been transformed into Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Thing, and the Human Torch in issue No. 1. They were emotionally complex characters, who weren’t always sure whether their powers were a benefit or burden. Stories were set in New York City, not some fictional stand-in, and Marvel heroes regularly crossed over into each other’s books. The art was dynamic and the writing conversational and engaging. Lee and Kirby were like the Lennon and McCartney of comic books. Where the talents of one ended and the other began was not always clear, but together one plus one equaled three. Collected here are the first 20 issues reproduced from the most pristine, pedigreed original comics, which were cracked open and photographed in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company. Featured alongside the comics are an in-depth essay by acclaimed Marvel writer Mark Waid and original art, photographs, and other rarities. Welcome true believers to the Marvel Age of Comics. © 2026 MARVEL

When Stan Lee first pitched the idea of Spider-Man in 1962, his boss was full of objections: People hate spiders. Teenagers aren’t lead characters; they’re sidekicks. He should be glamorous and successful, not a friendless loser. But Stan persisted and Martin Goodman let him give the unlikely hero a tryout in Amazing Fantasy, which was already slated for cancellation. With Spider-Man on the cover, No. 15 shot to the top of Marvel’s best-seller list for the year, and the rest is history.Amazing Spider-Man, which debuted seven months later, broke the comics mold. Peter Parker lived in uncool Queens, was always broke, continually worried about his Aunt May, was unlucky in love, and was constantly getting yelled at by his boss, Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson. Spider-Man had the quips and confidence that Parker lacked, but learning to use his powers wasn’t always easy. He often seemed on the verge of defeat against the rogue’s gallery of classic foes that debuted in the first couple of years: Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Lizard, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, and the Green Goblin. Much of the credit for Spider-Man’s greatness goes to co-creator and artist Steve Ditko, who had a knack for portraying teenagers and their problems. His artwork infused Spider-Man with a loose-limbed energy, and, while maybe everyone was scared of spiders, Ditko made swinging through New York seem like the coolest adventure ever.First available as an XXL-sized collector’s dream, this Bibliotheca Universalis edition features the first 21 stories of the world’s favorite web slinger from 1962–1964. The most pristine pedigreed comics have been cracked open and photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company.With an in-depth historical essay by Marvel editor Ralph Macchio, as well as original art, rare photographs, and other gems, this robust collection of wall-crawling wonder will make anyone’s spider-sense tingle with anticipation. © 2026 MARVEL

When Marvel publisher Martin Goodman asked Stan Lee to deliver another new team book for his line of comics, he had no idea he’d be getting something like The X-Men. In fact, nobody could have imagined the extraordinary phenomenon the X-Men would eventually grow into?not Goodman, not Lee, not even the forward-thinking futurist Jack Kirby. What they started out as was a charming, ragtag team of misfits, devised by Lee and Kirby to be mutants?youngsters born with “X-tra” powers thrust upon them not by accidentally crossing paths with cosmic rays or a nuclear blast, but by the fate of birth?led by a no-nonsense professor who trained them to become heroes that could protect the world from menaces, mutant and otherwise. The first years of storytelling laid the foundation for much of what has put the X-Men at the crossroads of comics and popular culture: Hounded by a public that fears and misunderstands them, mutantkind find themselves at the heart of their own civil rights struggle; Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, and Iceman found safety amongst themselves despite the challenges that set them apart from others in society; and Professor Xavier lined up against his ideological foe, Magneto, who had assembled a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to take the fight for their self-preservation directly to humankind. Along the way, Lee and Kirby?who were on fire taking comics into the Marvel Age?introduced a menagerie of villains and supporting characters that would become mainstays of Marvel and its lore: the super-powered siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch; the formidable Blob; the unstoppable Juggernaut; the jungle dweller from the Savage Land, Ka-Zar; the demigod from the stars, the Stranger; and Bolivar Trask and his army of mutant-hunting Sentinels. And as Lee and Kirby gave way to new talents so they could move on to new corners of the Marvel Universe, Atlas era art veteran Werner Roth teamed with writing newcomer and future X-Men legend Roy Thomas to begin their long run on the title. This edition features the first 21 stories of our favorite oddball super heroes from 1963 to 1966. The most pristine, pedigreed comics have been cracked open and photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company. Each page has been photographed as printed more than half a century ago, then digitally remastered using modern retouching techniques to correct problems with the era’s inexpensive, imperfect printing?as if hot off of a world-class 1960s printing press. In addition to these seminal tales are an in-depth essay by X-Men writer Fabian Nicieza as well as original art, photographs, and memorabilia from the early years of X. © 2026 MARVEL

From the end of World War II until the mid-1960s, exciting things were happening in American architecture. Emerging talents were focusing on innovative projects that integrated at once modern design and low-cost materials. The trend was most notably embodied in the famous Case Study House Program, a blueprint for modern habitation championed by the era’s leading American journal, Arts & Architecture. The complete facsimile of the ambitious and groundbreaking Arts & Architecture was published by TASCHEN in 2008 as a limited edition. This new curation?directed and produced by Benedikt Taschen?brings together the magazine’s highlights from 1955 to 1959, with a special focus on mid-century American architecture and California modernists such as Pierre Koenig, Craig Ellwood, and Richard Neutra. A celebration of a politically, socially and culturally engaged publication, this special selection is also a testimony to one of the most unique and influential eras in the history of American architecture.

A prefab is a mass-produced house, constructed in a factory and assembled on–site in a few days or weeks. Once regarded as a cheap, easy solution for urgent housing problems, the prefab has evolved to become a synonym for ambitious design and sophisticated detailing solutions.The amazing history of prefabricated houses started in England in the 1830s with a building kit for emigrants moving to Australia. Even today, prefabricated houses provide a high percentage of living spaces in many countries of the world. This book covers prefabs from the USA via Europe to Asia and Africa, giving insight into the various industrially prefabricated components, the difficulties of delivery to the building site, and the intricacies of assembly and completion. As well as tracing the link between modernism and industrialization that evolved to produce the latest prefabricated solutions, it also features a unique compilation of one-off prefabricated houses by well-known international architects, as well as successful dwellings manufactured off-site for everyday modern living.

In 1928 commercial artist Hal Foster took a job to turn Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel Tarzan of the Apes into a 60-installment black and white newspaper comic. Initially, no American papers wanted it, so it premiered in England, to great acclaim. When U.S. papers picked it up and wanted more, Foster wasn't interested. It was only in 1931, with the Great Depression threatening his family with starvation, that he consented to take it on as a full color, full page Sunday comic, still calling the low-paid job "a bit of pottage."That bit of pottage fed him for the next seven years, as Tarzan became the first adventure comic, and one of the most beloved Sunday strips in America. Though newspapers complained about the violence (Burroughs countered that Tarzan's success was the result of a "human weakness for gory and gruesome situations") and the incessant nudity (the writer's script notes asked for "a great deal of female nakedness") readers found Tarzan's adventures with ancient Egyptians, modern criminals, Vikings, dinosaurs, killer apes, and a slew of provocative queens and princesses mesmerizing, right up until Foster handed off the strip to Burne Hogarth in mid-1937.Produced from original newspapers, preserving the color and texture of the Ben Day dot coloring process distinctive to vintage comics, Hal Foster's Tarzan carries you back to Sunday morning, belly-down on the living room rug, "funnies" spread before you, lost in a world of exotic adventure while mom whips up your own bowl of oatmeal pottage.Tarzan Hal Foster newspaper strips + ERB, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Tarzan¬ owned by ERB, Inc. Used by Permission.

He's a four-time Mr. Universe, seven-time Mr. Olympia. His films have grossed more than four billion dollars worldwide. He won the California governor's race by a landslide. He has one of the most recognizable faces in the world, an oft-imitated accent, and a physique still heralded as the most perfect ever built. He's Arnold, the one and only, with first name recognition worldwide, and now with a big brawny bio affordable by all.The original Collector's Edition was a decade in the making, a photo tribute covering 70+ years of Schwarzenegger, from the future Terminator's impoverished childhood in Thal, Austria, to his rise as a young athlete, his journey to America to become the most celebrated bodybuilder of all time, to his career as the world's leading action film star, then into the California governor's mansion and beyond.Along the journey, Arnold's muscular body, chiseled features, and charismatic personality made him a favorite subject of photographers, including Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts, Sante D'Orazio, Francesco Scavullo, and Andy Warhol. This new edition, like the original, includes them all, as well as more intimate bodybuilding images, behind-the-scenes film stills, dozens of photos from Arnold's personal archive, and exclusive interviews with Arnold and those who helped him to fame, including directors Ivan Reitman and Bob Rafelson, and bodybuilding legends Franco Columbu, Dave Draper, and Frank Zane.

At the dawn of the Victorian era in her open-air laboratory in Halstead, Kent, Anna Atkins embarked on a radical experiment to document botanical species using a completely new artistic medium. The inimitable cyanotype photograms of algae and ferns she created were made into the first books to feature photographic images. Striking yet ethereal, these albums are a perfect synthesis of art and science. Although the cyanotype technique was discovered by her friend John Herschel, Atkins was the first to realize both its practical purpose for her own interests in botany and taxonomy, and its intriguing artistic potential. The process, which involved fixing the object on sensitized paper and exposing it directly to sunlight, results in the Prussian blue pigment that forms the unmistakeable backdrop to these artworks. Atkins' albums British Algae (1843-1853) and Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns (1853), the latter of which was produced with her friend Anne Dixon, are works of remarkable rarity. They reveal her mastery of multiple disciplines: While the cyanotype process allowed Atkins to meet the challenges of accurate representation, the delicate contours of the specimens, set above the intense blue background, has lent the images a timeless aesthetic appeal. This edition, drawing extensively from the copies of the New York Public Library and J. Paul Getty Museum, has carefully compiled cyanotypes from several sources to reprint Atkins' seminal works. Almost 400 cyanotype impressions are accompanied by a series of introductory essays from Peter Walther, placing Atkins' work in its scientific and art-historical contexts and paying rightful tribute to the groundbreaking contributions of a female pioneer.