Taschen is a

luxury Luxury may refer to: *Luxury goods, an economic good or service for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises *Luxury tax, tax on products not considered essential, such as expensive cars **Luxury tax (sports), surcharge put ...

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

book publisher founded in 1980 by

Benedikt Taschen Benedikt Taschen (born 10 February 1961) is a German publisher and Private collection, contemporary art collector. He is the founder and managing director of the publishing house Taschen, one of the most successful international publishers, with ...

Cologne, Germany Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...

. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter,

Marlene Taschen Marlene Taschen is the managing director of Taschen Publishing and the eldest daughter of the founder. Life and career Marlene Taschen is the eldest daughter of Benedikt Taschen, born in Cologne, Germany on 25 September 1985. Since January 2 ...

History

The company began as Taschen Comics, publishing Benedikt's comic collection. Taschen focuses on making lesser-seen art available to mainstream bookstores, including

fetishistic A fetish (derived from the French , which comes from the Portuguese , and this in turn from Latin , 'artificial' and , 'to make') is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has power over oth ...

imagery,

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

, historical

erotica Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use a ...

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

, and adult magazines (including multiple books with ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' magazine). The firm has brought potentially controversial art into broader public view, publishing it alongside its more mainstream books of

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

reprints, art

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable 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 employed ...

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

history,

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

, 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 constructing building ...

.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 date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

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) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

. Today's series comprises over 100 titles available in up to thirty 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 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 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. Building The hall was designed by architect Klas Anshelm (1914-1980), who was inspir ...

in Sweden was the first institution to report the disparity highlighted by the artists

Ditte Ejlerskov Ditte Ejlerskov (born 1982) 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 critic ...

and EvaMarie Lindahl.

The Helmut Newton SUMO

In 1999, Taschen expanded to the luxury market with the

Helmut Newton Helmut Newton (born Helmut Neustädter; 31 October 192023 January 2004) was a German-Australian photographer. The ''New York Times'' described him as a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-a ...

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 thr ...

''. 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 Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...

, which ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' called "the biggest, heaviest, most radiant thing ever printed in the history of civilization." Further Collector's Editions followed, including titles with

Nobuyoshi Araki is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist professionally known by the mononym . Known primarily for photography that blends eroticism and bondage in a fine art context, he has published over 500 books.The number depends on such things ...

Peter Beard Peter Hill Beard (January 22, 1938 – March 31 / April 19, 2020) was an American artist, photographer, diarist, and writer who lived and worked in New York City, Montauk and Kenya. His photographs of Africa, African animals and the journ ...

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

David LaChapelle David LaChapelle (born March 11, 1963) is an American photographer, music video director and film director. He is best known for his work in fashion, photography, which often references art history and sometimes conveys social messages. His pho ...

Sebastião Salgado Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior (born February 8, 1944) is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. He has traveled in over 120 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these have appeared in numerous press pu ...

Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of Jo ...

and the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

, often reaching ten times their original price within a few years.

Series

Taschen Basic Art

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.

Bibliotheca Universalis

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

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

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

Locations

Through the mid-to-late 1990s, the company expanded by opening stores in other cities. Dedicated flagship Taschen bookstores, conceived in collaboration with artists and designers such as

Albert Oehlen Albert Oehlen (born 17 September 1954) is a German artist. He lives and works in Bühler, Switzerland and Segovia, Spain.

Beatriz Milhazes Beatriz Milhazes (born 1960) is a Brazilian artist. She is known for her work juxtaposing Brazilian cultural imagery and references to western Modernist painting. Beatriz Milhazes is a Brazilian-born collage artist and painter known for her larg ...

Jonas Wood Jonas may refer to: Geography * Jonas, Netherlands, Netherlands * Jonas, Pennsylvania, United States * Jonas Ridge, North Carolina, United States People with the name * Jonas (name), people with the given name or surname Jonas * Jonas, one of t ...

Marc Newson Marc Andrew Newson CBE RDI (born 20 October 1963) is an industrial designer who works in aircraft cabin design, product design, furniture design, jewellery, and clothing. His style uses smooth geometric lines, translucency, strength, transpar ...

Mark Grotjahn Mark Grotjahn (born 1968) is an American painter best known for abstract work and bold geometric paintings. Grotjahn lives and works in Los Angeles. Early life and education Grotjahn was born in Pasadena, but grew up in the Bay Area.Arcy Douglas ...

Philippe Starck Philippe Starck (; born 18 January 1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles. Life Starck was born on ...

, and

Toby Ziegler Tobias "Toby" Zachary Ziegler is a fictional character in the television serial drama ''The West Wing'', played by Richard Schiff. The role of Toby Ziegler earned actor Richard Schiff the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor i ...

, are located in: * Beverly Hills * Berlin * Brussels * Cologne * Dallas (Taschen Library) * Hong Kong * Los Angeles * London * Madrid * Miami * Milan * New York City * Paris * Vancouver 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 Michael David Rock (born Michael Edward Chester Smith; 21 November 1948 – 18 November 2021) was a British photographer. He photographed rock music acts such as Queen, David Bowie, Waylon Jennings, T. Rex, Syd Barrett, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and ...

, Ellen von Unwerth, and Albert Watson. The publishing house employs more than 250 staff members worldwide and many freelance editors.

General bibliography

* *

Citations

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 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