Your Shopping Cart

Your shopping cart is empty!

Discover our bestsellers
Subtotal0 Items0
Go to Shopping Cart
XL
XL books are at least 34 cm (13.4 in.) high, with the exception of landscape-format titles

Keiichi Tahara. Architecture Fin-de-Siècle

300Edition: Multilingual (English, French, German)Availability: In Stock
With a meticulous sensibility for light and detail, the late Keiichi Tahara captured Europe’s finest Art Nouveau architecture. This exquisite three-volume set features more than 500 of his photographs and is interspersed by brilliant gold pages, each carefully produced using the finest printing techniques. This is a collection of majestic aura, brimming with the unique spirit of the fin de siècle.

Limited and numbered edition of 10,000 copies
Hardcover, clothbound, 3 vols. in slipcase, 27 x 36.8 cm, 966 pages, in cardboard box with handle
“A must-have for fans of architecture and photography.”
AnOther
“Some fin-de-siècle architects created buildings of such vibrancy that viewers were transported to a magical world of dreams and fairy tales.”
Riichi Miyake
XL
XL books are at least 34 cm (13.4 in.) high, with the exception of landscape-format titles
Keiichi Tahara. Architecture Fin-de-Siècle

Keiichi Tahara. Architecture Fin-de-Siècle

300

Floral Buildings

Art Nouveau marvels across Europe

At the turn of the 20th century, architecture took an imaginative leap. As new construction materials and technologies met such far-flung stimuli as the Far East, nirvana, and the unleashed unconscious of Freudian psychoanalysis, buildings by the likes of Gaudí, Horta, Hoffmann, Loos, and Mackintosh instilled structure with the sinuous lines of nature, surfaces with a fairy-tale shimmer, and spaces with an ethereal wash of light or shadowy, mysterious hush.

For this dramatic portfolio, printed for the first time ever in a book with five colors including gold, the late architectural photographer Keiichi Tahara traveled across Europe to present the finest examples of this Art Nouveau architecture. From the glamorous façade of the Grand Hotel Europa to the elaborate sweep of a staircase or the perfect poise of a single chandelier, Tahara captures the intricate details as much as the holistic spatial effects of these ambitious, marvelous structures. With an eye attuned to the style’s organic detailing, he surveys its floral patterns, vine-like balustrades, and the soft, hollow interiors that seem to summon us into some primordial place.

Drenched in sunshine or draped in dramatic shadows, Tahara’s pictures excel in evoking not only the unrivaled aura of these buildings but also the particular, fin-de-siècle spirit of their age, caught on the axis of a century, and characterized by reflection and yearning, as much as technological, philosophical, and political advance. Texts by Riichi Miyake accompany Tahara’s pictures to describe the buildings’ floor plans, designs, and the broader context of their dreamlike environments.

Limited and numbered edition of 10,000 copies
The photographer

Keiichi Tahara (1951–2017) lived in Paris from 1973 to 2004 before moving back to his native Japan. Considered one of architecture’s great photographers, he won many awards, including the Niépce Prize in 1988. His series include Louvre (1995); Les Anges de Croatie (1995); l’Opéra de Garnier (1996); Egypt (1997); Piemonte (2000); the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar (2008); and The Diet Building of Japan (Kokkaigijidou) (2015).

The author

Riichi Miyake (b. 1948) was educated at the University of Tokyo (1972) and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1979). After working as a professor at Shibaura Institute of Technology, Université de Liège, Keio University, and Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris, he is currently professor at Fuji Women’s University in Sapporo. Miyake’s publications include Weaving Culture, Creating Culture (2005) and Saint-Gobain (2010).

Keiichi Tahara. Architecture Fin-de-Siècle
Hardcover, clothbound, 3 vols. in slipcase, 27 x 36.8 cm, 966 pages, in cardboard box with handle

ISBN 978-3-8365-3057-6

Edition: Multilingual (English, French, German)
Download product images here

4.9

/5

12 Ratings

Stunning survey of Sin-de-siecle architecture

Jeffrey,November 8, 2021
Tahara's mammoth 3 volume is a incredible journey across Europe for the finest Art Nouveau architectural style. The XL books come in a slipcase and the volumes are weighty and substantial filled with golden tinged pages and gorgeous photos. There are lots of details for each building and would have benefitted from even more photos from each location.

Amazing photography in a beautiful book

KT,October 30, 2021
The three books are very well made and especially the chapter pages in gold are beautiful.

Love it!

Carlos,October 28, 2021
If you like Tahara's work, you will like this book!

The Art of Architectural Photography

Sergey,October 27, 2021
One of the best books by a wonderful Master. High-quality printing, great design and wonderful photos.

Stunning pictures & heavy 3 volume set

Ralph,October 27, 2021
A great photographic book showing a complete image of the Jugendstil in Europe even those random ones like the great examples of Hungary and Romania. This book is printed on specific quality paper with great detail of the print, all 3 volumes in hardcover in a large slipcase. The book is also a limited edition and it is numbered and weights over 14kg.