MERRELL SPRING 2017 Contents New Titles SPRING 2017 3–6 Published Titles ARCHITECTURE 8 ART 9 DESIGN 10 FASHION 12 GARDENS 12 GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUStratION 13 ILLUStrated HISTORY 14 PHOTOGRAPHY 15 TRAVEL 16 COLLECTOR’s EDITION 16 INDEX 17 CONtactS 19 COVER Navghan Kuvo, Junagadh, Gujarat; photograph copyright © Victoria Lautman (see The Vanishing Stepwells of India, p. 3) PAGE 7 Rachid Koraïchi, Untitled (detail), mixed media on paper, 1981 (see Signs of Our Times: From Calligraphy to Calligraffiti, p. 10) Please note that all prices, publication dates and specifications listed in this catalogue are subject to alteration without notice. NEW TITLES £40.00 UK $60.00 US $77.99 CAN Hardback with jacket ISBN 978-1-8589-4658-0 224 pages 29 x 25 cm (9¾ x 11½ in) 250 colour illustrations, 1 map February 2017 UK March 2017 North America Rights available The Vanishing Stepwells of India Victoria Lautman Foreword by Divay Gupta Some of the most stunning architectural structures in India are to be found below ground: these are its ancient stepwells. Stepwells are unique to India; the earliest rudimentary wells date from around the 4th century CE, and eventually they were built throughout the country, particularly in the arid western regions. Stepwell construction evolved so that, by the 11th century, they were amazingly complex feats of architecture and engineering, not only providing water all year long but also serving as meeting and gathering places, refuges and retreats. The journalist Victoria Lautman first encountered stepwells three decades ago, and now, a seasoned traveller to India, she has devoted several years to documenting these fascinating but largely unknown structures before they disappear. Of the thousands of stepwells that proliferated across India, most were abandoned as a result of modernization and the depletion of water tables. Frequently commissioned by royal or wealthy patrons, the wells vary greatly in scale and design. Some also functioned as subterranean Hindu temples, featuring columned pavilions and elaborate stone carvings. Islamic wells were generally less flamboyant, but often incorporated large chambers. Although relatively few stepwells are in use today, the Indian government and heritage organizations are recognizing the need to preserve these architectural wonders. While many wells are still rather decrepit, their magnificent engineering and great beauty never fail to impress. • A unique photographic exploration of the remarkable but largely unknown ancient stepwells of India • Authored by a journalist who has spent years documenting the wells •Will appeal to anyone interested in Indian culture and history, as well as world architecture VICTORIA LAUTMAN is a print and broadcast journalist specializing in architecture, art and design. Formerly Contributing Editor of Chicago magazine and Chicago Editor of Metropolitan Home and Art + Auction magazines, she travels regularly to India to document its stepwells, and lectures on this subject across the United States. DIVAY GUPta is Principal Director, Architectural Heritage Division, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) – a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation and preservation of India’s cultural heritage. merrellpublishers.com 3 NEW TITLES £40.00 UK $60.00 US $77.99 CAN Hardback with jacket ISBN 978-1-8589-4663-4 160 pages 29 x 25 cm (9¾ x 11½ in) 125 duotone illustrations February 2017 Rights available Edward Weston Portrait of the Young Man as an Artist Graham Howe and Beth Gates Warren Over the course of his 50-year career, the American photographer Edward Weston (1886–1958) blazed a trail into Photo-Modernism, capturing portraits, landscapes, still lifes and nudes that have established him as one of the most revered proponents of photographic art. In 1902, when he was living in Chicago, the 16-year-old Weston took up photography as a hobby, and it soon consumed most of his energy. At the age of 20, he moved to Tropico, California (now Glendale, Los Angeles County), where he built his first studio and with great purpose set about becoming a photographic artist. An examination of Weston’s sharp- and soft-focus photographs of this period reveals that he was already exhibiting the perfect sense of composition that became his hallmark. Presenting Weston’s earliest images as preserved in a series of family albums assembled by Flora, his first wife, Edward Weston: Portrait of the Young Man as an Artist compares Weston’s first naive photographic efforts with his later masterpieces, demonstrating the persistence and evolution of his singular vision to find essential form in the vernacular with an ever-increasing intensity. Weston’s early compositions, beginning with his teenage snapshots, reflect a young man who was deeply intuitive and original in his creative expression, and simultaneously embrace the same significant form as the later photography for which he is now considered a master. • A sumptuously produced book on one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century • Features previously unpublished photographs from the family albums compiled by Weston’s first wife • Accompanies a touring exhibition opening in February 2017 at the Monterey Museum of Art GRAHAM HOWE is the founder and CEO of the Pasadena-based arts organization Curatorial Assistance, for which he has curated and toured several hundred exhibitions. He has written biographies of the photographers Paul Outerbridge and E.O. Hoppé. BETH GateS warreN is an independent photography historian. Formerly Senior Vice-President and Director of the Photographs Department at Sotheby’s New York, she has published two books on Weston, and has lectured on his life and career at numerous museums and educational institutions. merrellpublishers.com 4 NEW TITLES £40.00 UK $65.00 US $84.50 CAN Hardback with jacket ISBN 978-1-8589-4660-3 272 pages 25.5 x 21.5 cm (8½ x 10 in) 130 illustrations, 30 in colour, 1 map March 2017 Rights available Alvar Aalto: Architect John Stewart Foreword by Richard Rogers Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) is universally recognized as one of the masters of Modernist architecture. While the remarkable buildings he designed have been much studied, the story of how a young architect from a village in western Finland achieved such international prominence is little known. This new biography of Aalto is the first to offer a comprehensive and objective survey of his life, from growing up in the Finnish provinces to finding global acclaim, and also covers all his projects, from early work in Jyväskylä in the 1920s to Finlandia Hall, completed in Helsinki in 1971. John Stewart draws on Aalto’s archive, the recollections of former employees and contemporaneous publications to fully explore Aalto the architect rather than simply his architecture. For the first time, the Finn’s life is set in the context of the events that surrounded and shaped it. Stewart reflects onA alto’s marriage to Aino, his key friendships, his participation in architectural competitions, working life in his first office and his continual financial difficulties.A s Aalto’s career progresses, Stewart considers the patrons who were so important to him – the Gullichsens – and the founding of the furniture company Artek, Aalto’s professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1940s, his marriage to Elissa after Aino’s death, his greatest architectural achievements in the 1950s, and his growing fame and eventual vanity. This unique book seeks, above all, to understand what drove Aalto; the combination of talent and character traits that led to his extraordinary worldwide success. •The first biography of Alvar Aalto in more than 30 years •Presents previously unpublished material, including photographs and drawings •Features a complete checklist of Aalto’s built and unbuilt projects JOHN Stewart is an award-winning architect and writer who formerly led one of the UK’s largest multidisciplinary architectural practices. He has taught at numerous schools of architecture in the UK. His book Nordic Classical Architecture will be published in 2017. RICHARD ROGERS is an internationally celebrated architect. He founded his practice, now known as Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, in 1977. He was awarded the Royal Gold Medal of the RIBA in 1985 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2007, and was made a life peer in 1996. merrellpublishers.com 5 NEW TITLES £35.00 UK $55.00 US $71.50 CAN Hardback with jacket ISBN 978-1-8589-4651-1 224 pages 1 25.6 x 21.2 cm (8 ⁄4 x 10 in) 260 colour illustrations, 10 maps March 2017 Rights available Metroburbia The Anatomy of Greater London Paul L. Knox London’s suburbs are home to millions of people who commute into the centre every day to work, but they also house millions of residents who rarely find a reason to travel into the city itself. The suburbs contain much of the essential infrastructure for the city, too, including airports, offices, shopping centres, factories and warehouses. Outer London is therefore simultaneously metropolitan and suburban – it is Metroburbia. In this book, Paul L. Knox examines the foundation and architectural development of London’s suburbs, and celebrates their surprising variety and organized structure, refuting the common claim that they are monotonous or amorphous. He explains how topography and geology influenced the siting of the villages that would become part of Greater London, and considers the building booms of the 19th century, the acceleration of building projects between the wars and, after the Second World War, the expansion of residential London along the Underground routes and the incorporation of nearby towns. Knox also describes the genesis of suburban parks, cemeteries and garden villages, and the creation of the impressive industrial, civic and institutional buildings that remain striking elements of the city’s infrastructure today. Having explored the effects of immigration and industrialization on the city’s housing requirements, as well as the consequences of widespread car ownership, the book looks forward, weighing up various theories about the capital’s future, and contemplating the shape of the city in the 21st century.