Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt Taschen and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen.

History

The company began as Taschen Comics, publishing Benedikt's comic collection. Taschen focuses on making lesser-seen art and imagery available to mainstream bookstores.The firm has brought potentially controversial art and imagery, including fetishistic imagery,

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

art, historical erotica,

pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...

, and adult magazines (including multiple books with '' Playboy'' magazine) into broader public view, publishing it alongside its more mainstream books of

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

reprints, art

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

, fashion,

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

history,

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

, and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

. Degen Pener
''Taschen Books Chief Reveals New Projects, Talks 'Fifty Shades' and $12M Books''
published in

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

, 25 November 2014 Taschen publications are available in a various sizes, from oversized tomes to small pocket-sized books. The company has also produced

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

s, address books, and postcards sets. In 1985, Taschen introduced the '' Basic Art'' series with an inaugural title on

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

. Today's series comprises over 100 titles available in up to 30 languages, each about a separate artist, from classical to contemporary. 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.

Focus on male artists

In the spring of 2014, the firm's ''Basic Art'' Series was criticised 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.

The Helmut Newton SUMO

In 1999, Taschen expanded to the luxury market with the Helmut Newton ''

SUMO is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by th ...

''. 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, with SUMO copy number 1 selling at auction for $304,000. 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". 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.

Book series

Bibliotheca Universalis

Taschen's ''Bibliotheca Universalis'' is a series of famous artworks in an affordable (about 15

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s) hardback format (14 x 19.5 cm). They are generally multilingual, with English, German and French texts and legends. Some books are also published in Spanish, Italian and European Portuguese.

Taschen Basic Architecture

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.

Taschen Basic Art

Taschen's World Architecture

This book series of 40 volumes, published in the 1990s, provided a comprehensive survey of architecture from antiquity to the present day.

Locations

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: * Berlin * Beverly Hills * Brussels * Cologne * Dallas (Taschen Library) * Hollywood * Hong Kong * London * Madrid * Miami * Milan * Paris The firm has publishing offices in Berlin, Cologne, London, Paris, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. 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. The publishing house employs more than 250 staff members worldwide and many freelance editors.

References

General bibliography

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External links

Official website
{{Authority control Book publishing companies of Germany Companies based in Cologne Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia Erotic photography German brands Luxury brands Mass media companies of Germany Mass media in Cologne Multinational companies headquartered in Germany Multinational publishing companies Privately held companies of Germany Publishing companies established in 1980 Visual arts publishing companies