Book Disturbing Landscape Places and Ideas in 20th Century British Painting - Thames and Hudson

The classic book by Christopher Neve is a journey into the imagination through the English landscape. How did artists, thinking in paint, begin to see the landscape as representing states of mind? "Painting," says Neve, "is a process of discovery, and the landscape can be its thesis." What he writes is not exactly art history: it concerns pictures, landscape, and thought. Over the years, he was able to talk to many of the approximately thirty artists he focused on, with the inspiration for the book being his conversation with Ben Nicholson; and he immersed himself in their work, their countryside, their ideas. As he is himself a painter and a connoisseur of 20th-century art, Neve is well-prepared for such a journey. Few writers have conveyed a more vivid mix of motives, emotions, unconscious forces, and contradictions culminating in the creative act of painting.

Each of the thirteen chapters has one theme and explores its significance for one or more artists. The issue of time, for example, is considered in relation to Paul Nash, God in relation to David Jones, music to Ivon Hitchens, hysteria to Edward Burra, abstraction to Ben Nicholson, "spirit in mass" for David Bomberg. There are also chapters on painters' ideas about specific types of country: about Eric Ravilious and the chalk landscape, Joan Eardley and the sea, and Cedric Morris and the garden.

The Thames & Hudson manufactory was founded in 1949 by Walter and Eva Neurath. Their greatest passion and mission was to create a "museum without walls" and to make the world of art available to the general public, as well as the research of leading scholars. 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-run manufactory, Thames & Hudson is one of the world's leading publishers of illustrated books with over 2000 titles in print. It publishes high-quality collector's 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 list of children's books is also expanding. Based in London with 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.

History of the Thames & Hudson brand

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), in which 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, encompassing 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 that were 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 {brand's|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. As the list gradually and successfully expanded 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 features over 300 titles, of which, according to Christopher Frayling, "there are 'paint-splattered copies' in every art school in the country."

Other important series that added depth and prestige to the list include Ancient People and Places, edited by Glyn Daniel, which since the 1950s has 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, included 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 significant 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 combine business acumen with idealism." Eva Neurath became chairperson. 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, which is a symbol of English publishing. Their catalogue includes thousands of intriguing book titles, many of which are exclusive collector's editions.