French Theme - 3 Book Bundle

David Hockney: Normandy Portraits by David Hockney - Published: National Portrait Gallery - 2023-10-26 - 48 pages.

David Hockney: Normandy Portraits accompanies a major exhibition on David Hockney at the National Portrait Gallery, London. It reveals new portraits painted in Hockney's Normandy Studio between 2020 and 2022.

David Hockney: Normandy Portraits illustrates around 40 acrylic on canvas works painted by Hockney at his Normandy studio – depicting his friends and visitors, including his partner JP, pop-star sensation Harry Styles, and the artist himself. This image-led book product will showcase a series of some previously unseen portraits, through 48 pages, uninterrupted by text, to allow readers to engage directly with the artworks that will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery as well as some added exclusives. These works highlight the ongoing importance of portraiture within the artist’s practice and demonstrate his sentiment that ‘drawings and paintings … are a lot better than photographs to give you a sense of the person’. Hockney returned to painting after an intensive period spent depicting the Normandy landscape using an iPad. The portraits were painted quickly and directly onto the canvas without under drawing. As Hockney has said ‘to do a portrait slowly is a bit of a contradiction’.

Yves Saint Laurent: Form and Fashion by Elsa Janssen and Cécile Bargues - Published: Flammarion - 2023-10-05 - 176 pages.

Yves Saint Laurent invented a multitude of new silhouettes—minimalist, exuberant, round, ultra-structured—that eclipsed traditional forms in fashion.

A fashion revolutionary, Yves Saint Laurent and his creations were resolutely modern. His ongoing exploration of shape and form incessantly pushed the boundaries of his creativity, and lead to his most groundbreaking and iconic designs. His works were influenced by the artistic trends of the time—from simple and geometric abstraction to constructivism and concrete art—whose many movements mirror the multifaceted talent of the designer. A bold, exacting gesture underpinned his art: his minimalist dresses were often monochromatic compositions seemingly sprung from a single line. A colorist, he imagined pure yet exuberant abstract designs by juxtaposing flat surfaces in vibrant hues. Transposing pictorial material into textile, he thus balanced color, form, surface, and line. An illusionist, he would juxtapose black and white to suggest movement in the garment through optical illusion. By using flat, simple lines, shape prevailed over color.

This volume accompanies an exhibition at Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris from June 9, 2023 to January 14, 2024, which will feature key pieces from the Yves Saint Laurent archives in dialogue with the set design and works by ceramic artist Claudia Wieser.

A Year in the French Style: Interiors and Entertaining by Antoinette Poisson - Vincent Farelly and Jean-Baptiste Martin - Published: Flammarion - 2023-09-21 - 240 pages.

The founders of Antoinette Poisson take readers inside their historic townhouse on the Atlantic coast to discover a style and art of entertaining rooted in French tradition and elegance.

Maison Lescop in Port-Louis, Brittany—the historic residence of an eighteenth-century French importer for the Indian trading company—seemed predestined to become the new home and restoration project for the creative duo behind Antoinette Poisson, a Parisian design team dedicated to reviving the savoir faire of domino paper for home decoration and furnishings. The art historians became enchanted by the poetic beauty of this artisanal craft—derived from an Indian block print technique—when they uncovered original hand-painted eighteenth-century domino wallpaper while restoring a mansion in central France.

Charmed by the repeat-pattern domino prints—which range from florals and fauna to geometric and ikat—they have appointed their new home with attractive decorative touches—handmade lampshades, wallpaper lined armoires, papier-mâché wedding boxes, assorted table settings, and luxurious textiles.

Celebrating the rhythm of life in France, their adventures range from shopping at the local market and antiquing, to paper making and indigo textile dyeing, and they share seasonal French meals inspired by antique cookbooks. This exquisitely photographed book is a celebration of authentic French style.