ARTES

The arrival, in 2021, of Australian global pop star Troye Sivan’s richly layered Melbourne home introduced the world to Flack Studio, a wildly creative, multidisciplinary practice of designers and architects well established in Australia. Launched in 2014, the studio is driven by an adventurous sensibility that embraces historical research and contemporary innovation. Furniture, lighting, textiles, fittings, and vivid colour coalesce into a holistic yet idiosyncratic experience. A deep sense of materiality, a passion for contemporary art, and an embrace of local community and makers are hallmarks of Flack’s projects, which include homes and restaurants throughout Australia, Los Angeles, Seoul and the Ace Hotel in Sydney.

Wright has captured the attention of design aficionados with his breathtaking architectural spaces informed by the spirit and lessons of historical, vernacular, and modern styles for today. Each of the presented residences—from a Queen Anne–style house and a seaside Shingle-style cottage to a modern beach house, a Frank Lloyd Wright–inspired retreat, and a McKim, Mead & White city apartment—is paired with Wright’s painted and penciled sketches, along with floor plans, all of which demonstrate his facility with the history of ornament and contemporary currents. Wright frequently collaborates with the country’s most esteemed interior designers, including Bunny Williams, Cullman & Kravis, Brian J. McCarthy, and the late Amy Lau. Sophisticated yet approachable, Wright’s architecture will tour the reader through the legacy of great buildings and outstanding craftmanship reinterpreted for the contemporary sensibility.

Every garden possesses its own unique beauty, just as every place holds a mysterious equilibrium within it. This is the premise advanced by Anna Scaravella, a renowned expert in landscape architecture who views every project as a new opportunity to explore the alchemy of plant culture and design. Scaravella’s unerring instincts and aesthetic rigor bring her to the nexus of garden and landscape, resulting in the creation of places that are not only marvelous but also energy-conscious and environmentally sustainable. This splendid volume of photography takes us on a journey through ten gardens from northern to southern Italy: from the garden of Villa Albera in Lombardy to the hills of Piacenza with Villa Bellaria, on to Bagno Vignoni in Tuscany, and then even further south, to marvelous Ostuni. Scaravella has crafted magnificent oases of peace and beauty and invited us to visit and admire them by her side.

Gardens Illustrated is today’s most popular gardening periodical, thanks to its lavishly photographed features on contemporary, forward-thinking gardens that focus on irresistible plants and clever designs. Through these gardens, each selected by the magazine’s editors for a truly exceptional trait, readers will visit the best new gardens from the United States, United Kingdom, and around the world. The scales range from small city spaces aiming to bring biodiversity deep into the built environment to country estates photographed with a new lens on ecology and sustainability, and were created by today’s top garden designers, including Andrea Cochran, Arabella Lennox-Boyd, Peter Korn, Dan Pearson, Andy Salter, Tom Stuart-Smith, Andy Sturgeon, Urquhart & Hunt, and Keith Wiley.

For over fifty years, Jacques Grange has been the decorator of choice for the homes of prominent collectors, artists, designers, and trendsetters. With a classical education from the École Boulle and École Camondo in Paris, combined with his passion for contemporary art, Grange has developed a unique vision and an inimitable approach to interior design. In this stunning new book, illustrated with previously unpublished photographs by Nicolas Mathéus, readers will discover thirty of Grange’s latest projects across Europe and the United States, showcasing his wide-ranging inspirations and his natural elegance. From luxurious private mansions in Paris, residences in London and New York, trendy hotels that feel like homes, and chic seaside retreats in New England and Comporta to sensitive restorations of important historical homes in Normandy and on the Riviera, each project bears Grange’s singular touch and unparalleled artistry. With insightful commentary by Pierre Passebon, the text delves into the foundations of Grange’s creative evolution, his extensive travels, and his inspirations, examining his eclectic, unique, and refined aesthetic. Despite his long and illustrious career, Jacques Grange remains as original, inspired, and open to the world as ever, continuing to influence younger generations of clients and designers with his boundless vision and passion for beauty.

Meticulous reproductions of sublime paintings showcase rikka, the oldest and most traditional form of flower arranging, which is linked to the Ikenobō school, Japan’s first and largest school of ikebana. The images presented here perfectly illustrate the main principles of ikebana—harmonious juxtaposition of flowers, balance between foliage (leaves, fronds, reeds, etc.) and branches, and naturalistic compositions for display. Several schools and styles of ikebana have evolved over the centuries. The rikka style is characterized by the use of erect branches and flowers to display a marked verticality in order to express the beauty of a natural landscape in a single vase. The floral arrangements in this collection date back to the Ikenobō Grand Master of Kyoto’s Rokkakudō Temple and his disciples from the Ashikaga Shogunate (1336–1573). These flower arrangements were officially documented by Igai Sansaemon in 1673 in artworks printed xylographically and then hand-colored using the gansai watercolor technique. The reproductions are accompanied by authoritative text by one of the world’s leading authorities on Japanese art.

This volume presents a new collection of Takada’s most recent projects, pushing further his continuing reflections on reconnecting the natural world with the built environment. Featuring breathtaking photography of his buildings and interiors, along with sketches and nature-inspired imagery, the book guides readers through Takada’s global work and innovations. The climate positive residence Sunflower House in Italy has a rotating roof and floors to manage sun exposure and heat gain; the Landmark by Lexus pavilion in Melbourne has 1,000 native Australian plants growing on its facade that granted it a carbon neutral certification; the Palm Frond Retreat at Balmoral Beach in Australia is designed for the inhabitants to use different parts of the house depending on the season and time of day, creating positive impact within homes. Each project illustrates Takada’s study of how the present ecological constrains weigh on the architectural design processes and how the reality of our densely built habitats changes the perception we have of buildings and cities, offering a compelling look at environmentally conscious architecture today and to the future evolution of the practice.

This deluxe volume offers a meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated history of fifty magnificent estates in three of America’s most prized residential districts: Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, and Holmby Hills. Lush color photographs as well as a trove of historical images take readers beyond the front gates for an exceptional view of the mansions, grounds, and gardens of these sumptuous estates and tell the history of Los Angeles’s rise from rugged paddocks and farmland to famed metropolis. Each house is explored both for its historical and architectural importance, for here are the epitome of residences and gardens reflecting the famed Italianate and California Mediterranean styles by all the leading architects of Southern California, including Wallace Neff, James Dolena, Gordon Kaufmann, Robert Farquhar, Roland Coate, and Paul Williams. They built for clients such as Gary Cooper, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Bing Crosby, whose own stories reflect the intrigue and foibles of Hollywood society. The book’s final chapter, “Gone but Not Forgotten,” pays homage to great estates that have been destroyed or lost to history.

Published on the occasion of a major exhibition at Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan, this volume explores the deep and transformative relationship between Louis Vuitton and Japan, which has produced myriad innovative collaborations that have defined the brand and revolutionized contemporary fashion. This fresh perspective on the global impact of the luxury powerhouse follows Louis Vuitton’s journey from pioneering trunk innovations to its outsize influence on global street style, especially in Japan. In the volume, the Maison’s history comes to life, from the evolution of its Monogram logo (which took inspiration, in part, from Japanese design) to the ingenious flat stackable trunk and patented lock innovations, alongside the brand’s bold expansion into Japan. The authors consider the house’s groundbreaking artistic collaborations most notably with artists Takashi Murakami (with his iconic “Monogramouflage”) and Yayoi Kusama (with her signature polka-dot motifs) which transformed Louis Vuitton’s visual identity.

Monet’s Venice paintings are high points in his lifelong engagement with the interplay of water and light. Monet and Venice—anchored by two masterworks from the collections of Brooklyn and San Francisco, The Doge’s Palace and The Grand Canal, Venice—will be the first exhibition and English-language publication dedicated to this significant suite of paintings since their Parisian debut at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in 1912. Monet keenly felt the burden of influence in a city that had so often been depicted and had long been an icon of waning, fragile beauty. Venice was—and is—a place where culture and nature are profoundly and uniquely entangled. Monet’s images of Venice’s buildings and canals dissolved in colorful mist and hazy light may be seen as meditations on human aesthetic interaction with a natural environment built upon for centuries.