Bøger udgivet af Scheidegger & Spiess

Luminous, with a silken glow and soft to the touch, yet harder than steel, created by nature and shaped by human hand: no other material has been more highly valued in China for millennia than jade. Since humanity's earliest days, magical properties have been attributed to the mineral. As a burial gift it confers immortality and is said to improve health when given as medicine, as a talisman it bestows good fortune and protection. It is hardly surprising that jade objects became sought-after collectibles as early as the 10th century. Zurich's Museum Rietberg is home to an exquisite collection of Chinese jade objects spanning four millennia. In his striking images, Zurich-based photographer Felix Streuli brings them to life and makes them glow. The images reveal the most intricate details and make these works of art almost tangible to the viewer. This book features around sixty of Streuli's outstanding photographs, supplemented with concise texts on the objects they show and an introduction to the history of Chinese jade art. Interspersed short stories and poems revolving around the mythical gemstone and a reflection on the photographer's gaze round out this carefully designed picture book.

In recent years, Swiss artist Franz Bucher, born in 1940, has produced an extensive series of paintings which he simply titles Fields: lavender, dandelion, rapeseed, and poppy fields congruent with the canvas to form a pictorial field. Yet Bucher's objective is not primarily the pictorial. Rather, it is more about the two-dimensional space which is given an inherent structure by the largely monochromatic primary colors he uses, as well as his dynamic brushstroke. It becomes apparent that most of the artist's oeuvre since the early 1970s has been determined by the metrical rhythm in his use of color. Bucher's paintings constitute actual energy fields. This new monograph offers a retrospective of Bucher's entire body of work from the vantage point of his recent pictorial fields. It thus illustrates his true artistic intentions independently of the context of his chosen motifs.

The art of HR Giger (1940-2014), Swiss-born creator of the legendary monster in Ridley Scott's movie Alien, is currently experiencing a renaissance and is featured in exhibitions as well as in magazines around the globe. This lavish large-format volume offers never-before-seen insights into Giger's private house and garden, both of which are populated by biomechanical sculptures, airbrush paintings, Alien furniture, objects, prints, and self-portraits. French photographer Camille Vivier-best known for her work for Stella McCartney and Cartier-enjoyed exclusive access to the artist's Zurich home and studio for this book, where she worked on her own as well as with models in a series of photo sessions. Vivier's around 200 photographs form an atmospheric tribute to the arguably most distinguished representative of Fantastic Realism. In addition to images of Giger's studio and his life-size sculptures, Vivier has also documented some hundred objects and artworks, as well as his famous Alien-style garden railroad. An essay by French publicist Farbrice Paineu places HR Giger's art in the wider context of pop culture and the genre of horror movies.

Susanne Bartsch has been living in New York since 1981, where she has created a dazzling Gesamtkunstwerk through the creation of her iconic looks and legendary parties. As an impresaria, artist-agent, and big-hearted, open-minded hostess, she moves virtuosically at the intersection of fashion, make-up, activism, art, music, and performance. In a career as interior designer, researcher, author, and teacher that has spanned more than five decades, Verena Huber has engaged profoundly with the issues of living and staying. To this day, she continues encouraging people to question spaces and objects and to put them in new contexts. Uncompromising in her approach and always looking beyond national borders, she has been hugely influential in contemporary Swiss interior design. Since the early 1980s, artist Beat Streuli has used photography and video to create works of strong visual force. Although cityscapes form the backdrop of his images, it is always people rather than architectural or structural elements that are in his focus. Streuli's images have made him one of the world's foremost exponents of street portraiture. Switzerland's Federal Office of Culture has awarded the 2022 Swiss Grand Award for Design to Susanne Bartsch, Verena Huber, and Beat Streuli. This book introduces each of them through a concise text and interview as well as a brief biography, illustrated with images from their archives.