HUNGER’s pick of the 10 best coffee table books in TASCHEN’s sale
The Pedro Almodóvar Archives
Movie-lovers rejoice: Cult Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar gives a unique insider’s tour through his mysterious, sexy world with an updated edition of The Pedro Almodóvar Archives. With behind-the-scenes pictures and personal reminiscences, Almodóvar himself guides the reader through his singular journey from its early days through to I’m So Excited (2013) and Julieta(2016). If you love twisty melodrama, you will love this book.
£25 (Was £50), buy it online here.
Frédéric Chaubin’s Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed
French photographer and editor-in-chief of Citizen K Frédéric Chaubin discovered a whole new world of history on his travels. Naming it the fourth age of Soviet architecture, the artist travelled through 2003 to 2010 researching hidden buildings in 14 former Soviet Republics. Finding 90 buildings believed to have all been created between 1970 and 1990, Chaubin discovered an unknown burgeoning era of architecture. Collating these findings into a photographic masterpiece, the architectural book is now a world renowned piece of Taschen’s archive. Serving as remnants of memories, the buildings capture a significant historical moment, and an even more powerful, aesthetic architectural one.
£18, (was £35), buy it online here.
Dalí. Les dîners de Gala
Move over Nigella – ‘tis the season to embrace surrealist fine dining. This must-have reprint of Les diners de Gala reveals the exotic flavors and elaborate imaginings behind the legendary dinner parties of Salvador and Gala Dalí. With recipes from such leading Paris restaurants as La Tour d’Argent and Maxim’s, a special section on aphrodisia, and bespoke illustrations from Dalí himself. A delicious morsel of multisensory pleasure – and, of course, perfect addition for your next soirée.
£25, (Was £50), buy it online here.
David LaChapelle; Lost + Found and Good News
Spanning David LaChapelle’s entire career, Taschen’s two books chronicle key people, works and events over the decades. Featuring the likes of David Bowie and Miley Cyrus within surreal fantasies in Lost + Found and Tupac Shakur amongst vibrant artistry in Good News. As the publisher explained “if Lost + Found presents what came before, Good News presents a sublime, artistic interpretation of where we can go from here”. Bringing together various eras of LaChapelle’s work, the two books are said to be the final publications in the anthology, and maybe ever. A must-have.
Lost + Found, £25 (was £50) buy it online here; Good News, £25 (was £50), buy it online here.
California Crazy Pop Architecture
From settings worthy of Sean Baker’s ‘The Florida Project’ to the “novelty architecture” that sprang up along America’s Sunbelt from the 1920s, California Crazy explores the unconventional landscapes and attitudes found on Los Angeles and Hollywood roadsides which allowed these buildings to flourish. The architectural establishment of the day dismissed these eccentric constructions — from owls, dolls, pigs, and ships, to coffee pots and fruit — as “monstrosities”. Now, they’ve finally regained their integrity. This is La La Land – through a different lens…
£20 (was £40), buy it online here.
Andy Warhol. Seven Illustrated Books 1952–1959
Delight in Andy Warhol’s 1950s hand-drawn books, created during his pre-fame years. This portfolio from the pop art provocateur features meticulous reprints of all seven books, reproduced as closely as possible to the original and presented in an accordion case. Complete with an XL-sized guidebook contextualizing Warhol’s life alongside his unique creations, this edition offers an unparalleled glimpse of the iconoclast’s enduring genius.
£75, (was £150), buy it online here.
Helmut Newton. Pages from the Glossies
Style history, graphic design, and visual autobiography combine in this stunning overview of Helmut Newton’s magazine work across Europe and the United States. With facsimiles of more than 500 original magazine spreads, personally curated by the photographer and his wife June, this thrilling journey from the late 1950s to the late 1990s shows how his unique and evolving aesthetic was integrated into the printed page, as well as a broader image system of glamour.
£15, (Was £35), buy it online here.
Pirelli – The Calendar. 50 Years And More
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the legendary Pirelli calendar, this retrospective volume brings together all calendar images from 1964-2014 from such greats as Richard Avedon, Peter Beard, Annie Leibovitz, Peter Lindbergh, and Mario Testino, as well as behind-the-shoots insights from art directors Derek Forsyth and Martyn Walsh, and many exclusive unpublished images.
£25, (Was £45), buy it online here.
The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaidō
A historic trail through the heart of Japan, as told by two legendary woodblock artists, Keisai Eisen and Utagawa Hiroshige’s legendary series The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaidō is a packed for of stunning dreamscapes. A stunning representation of the historic route between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto and sourced from one of the finest surviving first editions, this vivid tapestry of 19th-century Japan is in equal parts a major artifact of its imperial past and a masterwork of woodblock practice. Inspiring.
£50, (Was £100), buy it online here.
Gustav Klimt
Discover the enduring legacy of iconic artist Gustav Klimt. The complete catalogue of his paintings, including new photographs of the Stoclet Frieze, this book follows the Viennese master through his prominent role in the Secessionist movement, his candid rendering of the female body, and the lustrous “golden phase” behind such shimmering works as The Kiss and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.
£75, (Was £150), buy it online here.
