Friday 1 October 2010

ELEPHANT #4 HAS ARRIVED



ELEPHANT #4 has arrived at Material. Here is a bit about the issue...

In an essay on Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin imagines works of art as keys cut with no particular lock in mind. Future users will one day find that these keys can open new doors, doors which were unknown, unimagined and even unimaginable to the original makers. Most of the artists in this issue are in possession of at least one such key. Elephant issue 4 looks at how contemporary artists are drawing from the art of the past in order to create the art of the future.

No city has had such an impact on modern art as Paris and we visit the birth place of modernism and talk to the visual artists who are reinventing the City of Light. Elephant 4 also features candid, provocative and in-depth interviews with luminaries past and future, such as the father of conceptual art now turned architect Vito Acconci and seminal illustrator Jeffrey Fischer, alonside the visual experiments of Supermundane, Soo Kim, Bruno Kurru, Sean Mackaoui and rarely shown (or written about) work by graphic-designer Ena Cardenal de la Nuez. Not to mention Rick Poynor’s return to art in Where Is Art Now.

Oh, yes, last but not least, an amazing collection of ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs, vintage and modern, strange, funny, fascinating.

For more information or a sneak peek inside, visit the website

Thursday 30 September 2010

UH OH... THE CHEEKY LINGERIE BOOK IS BACK





Since becoming a sell out last Christmas, we have been on tenterhooks awaiting the reprint of this fantastic little gem from Taschen 1000 Dessous: A History of Lingerie by Gilles NĂ©ret.

Beautifully compact with a substantial 576 pages and a snip at £9.99, this publication is stylish, saucy, informative and outright cheeky. 1000 photographs and illustrations trace the evolution of lingerie from the dawn of civilization to modern times. Documenting all areas of lingerie through time from the first pair of briefs (Sumeria 3000BC) to the signature corsets of Gaultier, 1000 Dessous reveals the conflict between the need to conceal and the will to reveal and covers the areas of art, advertising, fetishism, illustration, film, performance and media with the lingerie industry.

A joy to flick through, women like to buy it and men love to sneak a peek at it.

Click here to buy it online and enter the code 1000 to receive 10% off this title.

(Offer only available until the end of October, terms and conditions apply)

Wednesday 29 September 2010

FAILE IS HERE






Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller began their prolific collaboration as Faile in 1999 by creating street art in New York City. Today, Faile have established themselves along with Banksy and Shepard Fairey as the leading figures in the genre of urban art.

This book is the first comprehensive collection of Faile’s wide range of prints, graphic design, and paintings. Their work can be seen as a modern interpretation of classic American collage and graphic printmaking that skillfully combines visual cues from a street aesthetic, pop culture, comics, and advertising.

Faile is £40 and available in our London store.

Monday 27 September 2010

FASHION DESIGNER'S SKETCHBOOK



New in at our London store today is the hot off the press new title by Hywel Davies Fashion Designer's Sketchbook

Fashion Designers' Sketchbooks explores many major names working in the fashion industry today. Photographs, sketches, mood boards, line-ups, toiles, fabric swatches and more all contribute to the creation of ideas for fashion designs, and here they are brought together for the first time to show how the final work is conceived and developed.

Numerous leading designers, including John Galliano, Dries Van Noten, Antonio Marras for Kenzo, Yohji Yamamoto and Vivienne Westwood, are interviewed alongside their sketchbooks, discussing the roles they play in evolution of their work, and how they inform and encourage their creative processes. The result is in an inspirational overview of cutting-edge design today.

The book is £28 and is available from our London store and available for pre order at our Ludlow store.

Sunday 26 September 2010

NEW ISSUE OF SELVEDGE NOW IN STOCK



Issue 36 of Selvedge, the Roving! issue is now available to buy from Material.

Featuring...

Returning to the Fold
Why high profile figures are championing a wool revival.

London Design Festival Diary

Life's Werk: Eley Kishimoto
Find out how the Fashion Designers keep things frsh.

Symbiotic
Anthropologie and their relationship with independent designers.

£9.95
Available in store and online