Taschen Large Format

Santiago Calatrava is a world-renowned architect, structural engineer, sculptor, and artist. From the Athens 2004 Olympic Sports Complex to the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in Manhattan, he exhibits a remarkable aesthetic…

A Small House is a tribute to the endless artistic inventiveness of architects and ingenuity of perception of the familiar and known concepts. It is also a conscious pivot towards sustainability and reduction of impact on the envi…

Whether it's diamond-encrusted grills, oversized "truck" style chains, bust-down Rolex and Patek Philippe watches or a Tiffany necklace, jewelry is a cornerstone of hip-hop culture. Glittering, blinged-out jewels are the shining s…

When Benedikt Taschen asked the most important portrait photographer working today, Annie Leibovitz, to collect her pictures in a SUMO-sized book, she was intrigued by the challenge. The project took several years to develop and w…

When David Hockney discovered the iPhone as an artistic medium, it opened up entirely new possibilities for his art. He made his first digital drawings in spring 2009, describing the morning landscape in broad lines and dazzling c…

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 str…

Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566,) was a founding father of modern botany, honored to this day in the vivid flower, and corresponding color, Fuchsia. In 1543, Fuchs combined his masterful botanical knowledge with groundbreaking medical r…

Virtually unparalleled in scope and spanning more than five decades, the photography of visionary Helmut Newton (1920-2004) reached millions through publication in magazines like Vogue and Elle. His oeuvre transcended genres, brin…

Before reaching the tender age of 30, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) had already sculpted Pieta and David, two of the most famous sculptures in the entire history of art. As a sculptor, painter, draftsman, and architect, the …

We owe a great debt to Jean Baptiste Marc Bourgery (1797-1849) for his Atlas of Anatomy, which was not only a massive event in medical history, but also remains one of the most comprehensive and beautifully illustrated anatomical …

Global travel can be a wearying business: mass tourism, overcrowded planes, chaotic airports, heightened security, cookie-cutter hotel chains, well-worn tourist trails. Finding even a sliver of adventure can sometimes feel impossi…

Antiquarian, archaeologist, vulcanologist, and envoy to the British Embassy in Naples, Sir William Hamilton (1731-1803) was a leading European figure of his time. Though the romance between his wife Lady Emma Hamilton and Horatio …

Unmatched in his ingenuity, technical prowess, and curiosity, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) epitomizes the humanistic ideal of the Renaissance man: a peerless master of painting, sculpture, cartography, anatomy, architecture-and m…

Mysterious and mathematical at once, the magical visual world of Dutch artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972) has captivated scientists and scholars and made its mark on popular culture, inspiring book covers, album art, films, posters, a…

Originally published in France between 1876 and 1888, Auguste Racinet's Le Costume historique was in its day the most wide-ranging and incisive study of clothing ever attempted. Covering the world history of costume, dress, and st…

"You're already famous, now you're going to make me famous," photographer Lawrence Schiller said to Marilyn Monroe as they discussed the photos he was about to shoot of her. "Don't be so cocky," Marilyn replied, "photographers can…

On a very fortuitous day in 1970, 26-year-old Sebastiao Salgado held a camera for the first time. When he looked through the viewfinder, he experienced a revelation: suddenly life made sense. From that day onward-though it took ye…

Magic has enchanted humankind for millennia, evoking terror, laughter, shock, and amazement. Once persecuted as heretics and sorcerers, magicians have always been conduits to a parallel universe of limitless possibility-whether in…

Mount Fuji has long been a centerpiece of Japanese cultural imagination, and nothing captures this with more virtuosity than the landmark woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). The…

The Divine Proportion reveals a number of simple patterns: It is seen in the seed patterns of fruits, the family tree of bees, the pyramids of Egypt, Gothic cathedrals, Renaissance paintings, the human body, shells ... the list is…

The Japanese woodblock print is a phenomenon with no Western equivalent, one where breathtaking landscapes exist alongside blush-inducing erotica; where demons and otherworldly creatures torment the living; and where sumo wrestler…

Among the few women artists who have transcended art history, none had a meteoric rise quite like Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. One of the key figures in Mexican revolutionary modern art, she was also a pioneer …

Walton Ford’s large-scale watercolors of animals make up a unique anthropomorphic universe rich in sly jokes and hidden meaning. The most comprehensive survey of Ford’s oeuvre to date, this publication features&nb…

For all those who thought digital heralded the end of an era: illustration is alive and kicking, and new tools have given the art renewed vigor and the illustrator greater stamina. Steven Heller and Julius Wied…

For six years Sebastião Salgado traveled the Brazilian Amazon and photographed the unparalleled beauty of this extraordinary region: the rainforest, the rivers, the mountains, the people who live there—this irreplaceable treasure …

In 1998, TASCHEN introduced the world to the masterful art of Touko Laaksonen with The Art of Pleasure. Prior to that, Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, enjoyed an intense cult following in the international gay community…

In its heyday, the American circus was the largest showbiz industry the world had ever seen. From the mid-1800s to mid-1900s, traveling circuses performed for audiences of up to 14,000 per show, employed as many as 1,600 men and w…

From Azzedine Alaia, Cristobal Balenciaga, and Coco Chanel to Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent, and Vivienne Westwood, more than a century's worth of fashion greats from the permanent collection of The Museum at FIT in New Yo…

At the age of six, Salvador Dali (1904-1989) wanted to be a cook. At the age of seven, he wanted to be Napoleon. "Since then," he later said, "my ambition has steadily grown, and my megalomania with it. Now I want only to be Salva…

Clothes define people. A person's attire, whether it's a sari, kimono, or business suit, is an essential code to his or her culture, class, personality, even faith. Founded in 1978, the Kyoto Costume Institute recognizes the impor…