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Status | GmbH |
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Founded | 1980 |
Founder | Benedikt Taschen |
Country of origin | Germany |
Headquarters location | Cologne |
Distribution | Worldwide [1] (including Ingram Publisher Services (US) [2] and Littlehampton Book Services (UK) [3] ) |
Key people | Benedikt Taschen Marlene Taschen |
Publication types | Art books |
Nonfiction topics | Arts |
No. of employees | 250 |
Official website | www |
Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. [4] As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt Taschen and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen.
The company began as Taschen Comics, publishing Benedikt's comic collection. Taschen focuses on making lesser-seen art available to mainstream bookstores, including fetishistic imagery, queer art, historical erotica, pornography, and adult magazines (including multiple books with Playboy magazine). The firm has brought potentially controversial art into broader public view, publishing it alongside its more mainstream books of comics reprints, art photography, painting, design, fashion, advertising history, film, and architecture. [5]
Taschen publications are available in a various sizes, from oversized tomes to small pocket-sized books. The company has also produced calendars, address books, and postcards sets. [6]
In 1985, Taschen introduced the Basic Art series with an inaugural title on Salvador Dalí. [7] Today's series comprises over 100 titles available in up to 30 languages, each about a separate artist, from classical to contemporary. [8] Further series followed, alongside an expansion into new themes like architecture, design, film, and lifestyle. For example, the firm also publishes a "Basic Architecture" series in the same style as "Basic Art" that covers some of the most prominent architects in history. [9]
In the spring of 2014, the firm's Basic Art Series was criticized in Swedish public media for its focus on male artists. The series then consisted of 95 books, only five of which were female artists. Malmö Konsthall in Sweden was the first institution to report the disparity highlighted by the artists Ditte Ejlerskov and EvaMarie Lindahl. [10] [11] [12]
In 1999, Taschen expanded to the luxury market with the Helmut Newton SUMO . [13]
Signed and limited to 10,000 copies, the folio-sized publication quickly sold out. It later became the most expensive book published in the 20th century, [14] with SUMO copy number 1 selling at auction for $304,000. [15]
This book paved the way for Taschen's GOAT – Greatest Of All Time, an homage to Muhammad Ali, which Der Spiegel called "the biggest, heaviest, most radiant thing ever printed in the history of civilization." [16]
Further Collector's Editions followed, including titles with Nobuyoshi Araki, Peter Beard, David Hockney, David LaChapelle, Sebastião Salgado, Annie Leibovitz and the Rolling Stones, often reaching ten times their original price within a few years. [17]
Taschen's Bibliotheca Universalis is a series of famous artworks in an affordable (about 15 euros) hardback format (14 x 19.5 cm). [18] They are generally multilingual, with English, German and French texts and legends. Some books are also published in Spanish, Italian and European Portuguese.[ citation needed ]
Taschen Basic Architecture is a series of books on architects published by Taschen. Each book looks at a different architect, with a biography and pictures of their work. [19]
This book series of 40 volumes, published in the 1990s, provided a comprehensive survey of architecture from antiquity to the present day. [20]
Through the mid-to-late 1990s, the company expanded by opening stores in other cities. Some dedicated flagship Taschen bookstores, conceived in collaboration with artists and designers such as Albert Oehlen, Beatriz Milhazes, Jonas Wood, Marc Newson, Mark Grotjahn, Philippe Starck, and Toby Ziegler, are located in:
The firm has publishing offices in Berlin, Cologne, London, Paris, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. [5] [9]
Between 2014 and 2018, Taschen owned and curated its own 6,000-square feet art gallery space in Los Angeles, featuring exhibitions on Michael Muller, Mick Rock, Ellen von Unwerth, and Albert Watson. [21] The publishing house employs more than 250 staff members worldwide and many freelance editors. [22] [23]
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Along with George Grosz and Max Beckmann, he is widely considered one of the most important artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit.
Roy Stuart is an American photographer and film director who lives in Paris. His photographs blend glamour photography and contemporary art with an emphasis on female models and BDSM aesthetics. His photography books have been published by Taschen and has directed the movies Giulia and The Lost Door.
Eric David Kroll is an American photojournalist, fetish photographer, erotica historian, and book editor.
Isa Genzken is a German artist who lives and works in Berlin. Her primary media are sculpture and installation, using a wide variety of materials, including concrete, plaster, wood and textile. She also works with photography, video, film and collage.
Taschen Basic Art is a best selling art collection books, published by Taschen, starting in 1985. Each book looks at a different artist, with a biography, and illustrations of their work. The books are published as affordable hardcover books of 21 x 26 cm. As of 2022, 78 titles had been published. Similar series entitled Taschen Basic Architecture, Taschen Basic Cinema and Taschen Basic Photographies were started after the success of the Basic Art series.
Michael Wolf was a German born artist and photographer who captured daily life in big cities. His work takes place primarily in Hong Kong and Paris and focuses on architectural patterns and structures, as well as the documentation of human life and interaction in the city. Wolf has published multiple photo books, has had his work exhibited widely around the world, has permanent collections across Germany and the United States, and has won three World Press Photo Awards from 2005 to 2011.
Dian Hanson is an American magazine and book editor.
David Zwirner is a German art dealer and owner of the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, and Paris.
Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have worked together as an artist duo since 1995. Their work explores the relationship between art, architecture and design.
Benedikt Taschen is a German publisher and contemporary art collector. He is the founder and managing director of the publishing house Taschen, one of the most successful international publishers, with illustrated publications on a range of themes including art, architecture, design, film, photography, pop culture, and lifestyle.
Walead Beshty is a Los Angeles–based artist and writer.
Malmö Konsthall is an exhibition hall located in the center of Malmö, Sweden. It is one of the largest exhibition halls for contemporary art in Europe.
Ditte Ejlerskov is a Danish contemporary artist. She was born in Frederikshavn, Denmark, and lives and works in Denmark. In 2017, her official portrait of Helle Thorning-Schmidt at Christiansborg was positively received by local critics.
M+ is an art museum located in the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong. It exhibits twentieth and twenty-first century art encompassing visual art, design and architecture, and moving image. It opened on 12 November 2021.
Claes Söderquist is a Swedish artist and filmmaker. Söderquist filmed on Alcatraz in 1970 during the Occupation of Alcatraz by Indians of All Tribes.
EvaMarie Lindahl is a Swedish artist, who works mainly in pencil drawing.
SUMO is a book series by publishing house TASCHEN, so named due to their size.
Snövit Hedstierna is an interdisciplinary artist, film director, art curator, art writer and university teacher. Her subject matters include power structures, gender issues, existential questions and intimacy.
100 Contemporary Artists A-Z (ISBN 978-3836514903) is a two-volume edition contemporary art compendium. It is the 25th anniversary special edition and it features one hundred contemporary artists from TASCHEN's seminal Art Now! 4 and Art at the Turn of the Millennium series. The biographies are available in English, French and German. The compilation was edited by Hans Werner Holzwarth.
Maria Lind is a Swedish curator, art writer and educator. Since 2020, she has been the Counsellor of Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of Sweden in Moscow.