Art + Science Now How scientific research and technological innovation are becoming the key to 21st century aesthetics - Thames and Hudson

In the 21st century, some of the most dynamic artworks are now being created not in the studio, but in the laboratory, where artists explore cultural, philosophical, and social issues related to the latest scientific and technological research. Their work spans various disciplines - microbiology, physical sciences, information technologies, human biology and life systems, kinetics, and robotics - covering everything from eugenics and climate change to virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Art + Science Now provides a stunning overview of this new trend in contemporary art, showcasing the best international works produced since 2000. It features around 250 artists from the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, the USA, Japan, Australia, and other countries. It presents a wide range of fascinating projects, from body art to bioengineering, from music, dance, and computer-controlled video performances to large visual and sound installations, all of which challenge our assumptions about our relationships with science, technology, and the world around us.

Stephen Wilson, a leading authority in this field, carefully summarises the latest scientific research for lay readers and complements his text with reading material and extensive online resources, highlighting museums, festivals, research centres, and educational programmes supporting this new work. Presenting a comprehensive guide to contemporary art inspired or driven by scientific and technological innovations, Art + Science Now points to intriguing new directions for the visual arts and traces a key trend in 21st-century aesthetics.

Thames & Hudson was founded in 1949 by Walter and Eva Neurath. Their greatest passion and mission was to create a "museum without walls" and make the world of art, as well as the research of leading scientists, accessible to a wide audience. To reflect international perspectives, the company's name combined the rivers flowing through London and New York, represented in its logo by two dolphins symbolising friendship and intelligence, one facing east, the other west, suggesting a connection between the Old World and the New.

Today, still an independent, family-owned company, Thames & Hudson is one of the world's leading publishers of illustrated books with over 2000 titles in print. It publishes high-quality books in all areas of visual creativity: the arts (fine, applied, decorative, performing), architecture, design, photography, fashion, film and music, as well as archaeology, history, and popular culture. The children's book list is also growing. With headquarters in London and a sister company in New York, and subsidiaries in Melbourne, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In Paris, another subsidiary, Interart, distributes English-language books in France.

The history of Thames & Hudson

Walter Neurath was born in Vienna in 1903. In 1938, he left his hometown - where he ran an art gallery and published illustrated books - for London. Initially, he worked as a production director at Adprint, a company founded by Viennese émigré Wolfgang Foges. Neurath and Foges developed the pioneering concept of what is today called book packaging (or co-edition publishing), where book ideas are developed, commissioned, produced, and sold to publishers operating in different markets and languages to create large print runs, thereby reducing unit production costs. Neurath's concept was the first of many innovations he introduced to the publishing world through Thames & Hudson.

Wishing to continue book packaging in a second edition and recognising the need to amortise the high production costs of illustrated books, Neurath established his own publishing house, with offices in London and New York in the autumn of 1949. Eva Neurath, who had arrived in London from Berlin in 1939, was a co-founder.

Of the ten titles published on Thames & Hudson's first list in 1950, English Cathedrals, with photographs by Martin Hürlimann, was the first and most successful. A testament to the company's strong belief in the longevity of books from the very beginning, it remained in print until 1971. The first year of publication also saw the release of Albert Einstein's "Out of My Later Years," an early indicator of the programme's breadth. With the gradual and successful expansion of the list, which grew from ten titles in 1950 to 144 in 1955, the company moved its offices in High Holborn and in 1956 relocated to a Georgian townhouse at 30 Bloomsbury Street, near Bedford Square, then the epicentre of book publishing in London. The company remained at this address, eventually expanding to five houses, until 1999, when it returned to High Holborn.

In 1958, Thames and Hudson launched one of its most renowned series, World of Art, which became a cornerstone of a very diverse list. Characterised by their pocket size and black spines, the series expanded in just seven years to include 49 titles. Nearly 60 years later, the series featured over 300 titles, with, according to Christopher Frayling, "paint-splattered copies in every art school in the country."

Other significant series that added depth and prestige to the list include Ancient People and Places, edited by Glyn Daniel, which from the 1950s contributed to pioneering interest in archaeology, both in book form and on television. Over 34 titles were published in the series over 34 years. The large-format series Great Civilizations, published in 1961, featured contributions from such esteemed scholars as Alan Bullock, Asa Briggs, Hugh Trevor-Roper, A. J. P. Taylor, and John Julius Norwich.
After building one of the most important publishing houses in Europe in less than two decades, Walter Neurath died in 1967 at the age of 63. Sculptor Henry Moore wrote that "his death was a loss to our cultural life." Sir Herbert Read noted that Neurath "more than any other person was responsible for the revolution in publishing art books" and was "one of those rare entrepreneurs who successfully combined business acumen with idealism." Eva Neurath became chairman. Walter's son, Thomas, who joined the company in 1961 along with his sister Constance, became managing director; Constance later served as art director for several decades. Both Thomas and Constance remain on the board of Thames & Hudson, as do Thomas's daughters, Johanna and Susanna.
From producing the first commercial edition of The Book of Kells to the triumphant publication of the six-volume Vincent van Gogh - The Letters, from such technical innovations as "French folds" to the controversial documentation of graffiti art in Subway Art, Thames and Hudson has always been at the forefront, both culturally and in production techniques.

The year 2016 opened an extraordinary new chapter for the company, heralding a publishing partnership with two of the world's most important museums: the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The world of art and scholarship thus remains at the heart of Thames & Hudson's publishing programme, which remains true to its core principle: providing a "museum without walls."
Today, Thames & Hudson is a recognisable international brand, a symbol of English publishing. In its wide range, it offers thousands of intriguing book titles, many of which are luxury collector's books.