14 beautiful Art books to slip under the tree

“They walked during the day, they walked at night, they walked without trying to know where the road wanted to lead them”… Kaïdara is a long allegorical poem and the initiatory story of three Fulani shepherds from West Africa. Its author, Amadou Hampâté Bâ, born around 1901 in what is now Mali, writer, diplomat, ethnologist, has throughout his life collected thousands of stories from African oral tradition. Its three travelers set out in search of the god Kaïdara, a metaphor for the cosmos, a territory of wealth and knowledge. Who better than Omar Ba, born in Dakar in 1977 to a Fulani father and a Serer mother, could illustrate this tireless march towards wisdom in the land of “dwarf geniuses”? A beautiful text by our colleague Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter brilliantly takes us in the footsteps of this luminous and inspired painter.

My museums in freedom, 120 artistic walks in Franceby Adrien Goetz, ed. Grasset, 352 pp., €23

Who said there was only the Louvre in life? Certainly not Adrien Goetz. Like an influencer, the academician shares with us his inspiring wanderings in regional museums which hold just as many treasures as those in Paris. From the Château d'Écouen and its precious Daphne in coral, to the Masséna museum in Nice and its charming neo-Empire decor, he eclipses preconceived ideas with the help of tasty anecdotes to invite us to pay them a well-deserved visit.

Pink. History of a colorby Michel Pastoureau, ed. Threshold, 192 pp., €39.90.

Blue, black, green, red, yellow, white… Michel Pastoureau could have stopped there. Nay! This time, the color historian tackles a shade that crystallizes the issues of our time: pink. Dividing, gendered, kitsch, political, pink has become the spearhead of a femininity finally proud of itself. But before Barbie, he had a “long and turbulent” life. Illuminations, portraits, Art objects tell a not-so-sweet story that takes us from 14th century Italy to the Kennedys.

Received ideas about jewelryunder the direction. by Guillaume Glorieux, ed. Le Cavalier Bleu / The School of Jewelry Arts, in French and English, 280 pp., €22.

How many stubborn clichés still surround the art of adornment in the West! Working to make the language and symbolism of jewelry known to as many people as possible, the School of Jewelry Arts, with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels, is publishing an essential work to combat preconceived ideas. Equipped with impeccable iconography, this book written by a collection of specialists offers a valuable introduction to discovering in all its facets this “obscure object of all our desires”.

The Hours of Jean de MontaubanM. Moleiro Editor, 2 volumes of 22.3 x 16 cm including one of comments (216 pp.) by Laurent Guitton, Mary-Bess Halford and François Boespflug, leather box, price on request.

A treasure of the Rennes Métropole library, the richly illuminated Book of Hours by Jean de Montauban has just been the subject of a facsimile edition, produced with all the usual marks of perfection from the publisher M. Moleiro. The work is accompanied by a volume of studies on the sponsor, an illustrious Breton nobleman who served the dukes of Brittany and the kings of France, as well as on the iconography and the perspective of the work in art. time, characterized since 1415 by the dispersion of large workshops of Parisian illuminators. Probably made around 1430-1440 in western France by an anonymous principal master marked, among others, by the Master of the Hours of Rohan, this Book of Hours is a fireworks display of colors and layout, of incomparable seduction.

French Design 1950by Pascal Cuisinier, ed. Flammarion, 352 pp., €69.

Who are these “young wolves” of design? Pierre Guariche, Janine Abraham and Dirk Jan Rol, Pierre Paulin, Joseph-André Motte, so many names that Pascal Cuisinier has championed since 2006 in his Parisian gallery. A specialist in the generation of the first French designers, the gallery owner pays tribute to them through detailed biographies and focuses on their main creations. An inventory of 500 listed models closes this ode to the clear and stripped-down style of the fifties.

Le 35 S. Le Corbusier’s Workshopby Didier Teissonnière, Norma Éditions, bilingual French-English, 160 pp., 120 ill., €45.

This book on beautiful matte paper allows you to know everything about 35 S, the workshop that Le Corbusier had at 35 rue de Seine from 1924 to his death in 1965. Installed in a disused Jesuit convent backing onto the Saint-Ignace church , this 40 x 3.50 corridor saw the birth of the architect's masterpieces, from the Esprit Nouveau pavilion of the Exhibition of 1925 in Firminy, passing through the Cité Radieuse. A “concept machine” brought to life by new photos and testimonials from former collaborators.

The Refinement of Kyoto. Prints and paintings by Katô Teruhideby Manuela Moscatiello, ed. Scale, 156 pp., 145 ill., €39.

Better known as a kimono designer, Katô Teruhide (1936-2015) nevertheless produced numerous paintings of the ancient capital of Japan, where he was born. Written as a “sentimental illustrated guide to Kyoto”, the book takes us in the footsteps of the painter, to the rhythm of the seasons and customs. There we discover the cobbled streets of the city, from Gion, its original district, to the Kiyomizu-dera temple, passing through the gardens of the Silver Pavilion. A lovely dive into the land of the rising sun.

Herbaria: plants, modern herbaria and anthologiesby Domitilla Dardi, In Fine Éditions d'art, 256 pp., €65.

More than a herbarium, this work is a tribute to nature lovers. Because from the Middle Ages to the present day, the world of plants has inspired artists, graphic artists, designers, writers, but also men of science. Throughout the pages, medieval herbaria reveal their magic, their superstitions, and we discover plants resulting from phantasmagorical inventions or purely scientific reflections, which invite us to reflect on the links between man and nature. From the herbarium of Trent (15th century) to that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, from the tapestry motifs of William Morris to the extraordinary photos of Joan Fontcuberta. The uniqueness of this book published by In Fine Editions d'art is due to its large format and its sober and elegant graphics.

See come, come seeby Alain Dominique Perrin, Emanuele Coccia, ed. Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, 436 pp., 800 illus., €35

At 40, what do you do? An update on the past years, and this is what the Cartier Foundation is offering with this book. The basic idea in 1984, that of Alain Dominique Perrin, then president of Cartier, was to create a place which exhibits and supports living artists. The first private Foundation for contemporary art in France was born. One hundred and sixty exhibitions later, moving from Jouy-en-Josas to Boulevard Raspail in Paris and soon Place du Palais-Royal, she has become an iconic cultural actor.

love poetryby Paul Éluard, works by Kiki Smith, ed. Gallimard, 176 pp., €45.

For this new title from the Grande Blanche illustrated collection, contemporary artist Kiki Smith confronts Paul Éluard by revisiting L'Amour la Poésie (1929). Through around sixty works using varied techniques – ink, glitter, aquatint or even cyanotype – the American sublimes the “endless book” of the surrealist poet, easily mixing their two worlds. A magnificent work, to lose yourself in the twists and turns of love and dream “with your forehead against the stars”.

Derain and his friends. The prodigious galaxyby Michel Charzat, ed. Gourcuff Gradenigo, 160 pp., €39.

This is the second book on André Derain by academic and politician Michel Charzat. Hailed for his role in the creation of Fauvism then criticized, notably for his participation in the famous “trip to Germany” in 1941, the artist is here placed at the heart of the avant-gardes. Chapter after chapter, we witness his meeting with Vlaminck, Matisse, Picasso, but also of course with Apollinaire, Breton and Satie. Based on unpublished archives and full of anecdotes, the work reads like a novel.

Ani's Book of the Deadunder the direction of Silvia Einaudi, box set and folding easel, ed. Citadelles & Mazenod, 37 full-size facsimile plates, 272 pp., 230 ill., €890.

Under the direction of Silvia Einaudi, professor-researcher in Egyptology at the University of Cagliari (Italy) and co-director of two international epigraphic archaeological missions in the Luxor necropolis (the tomb of Padiaménope and the tomb of Pabasa), this luxurious work, including a foldable easel to allow you to better admire the facsimile plates, offers an edition of the Ani papyrus. Intended for the scribe Ani, this Book of the Dead, a form that appeared during the 17th dynasty (1600-1539 BCE) in the region of Thebes (present-day Luxor), has the function of accompanying the deceased in the afterlife and is therefore full of images and magic formulas. Dated from the 19th dynasty, around 1275 BCE, it comes from Thebes. Recognized as one of the finest examples of Egyptian funerary art, it is today kept in the British Museum in London. Accompanied by enlightening analyses, notices and critical texts, this limited and numbered edition of exceptional quality, published by Citadelle & Mazenod, allows you to consult the precious papyrus, at home, in complete privacy.