Excerpts from the book “La Serenissima”
At the occasion of the 450th anniversary of Titian’s and the 100th anniversary of Claude Monet’s death, this book is dedicated to the theme of “Beauty and Transience”. The contributions other Venice-loving artists with important anniversaries in 2026 have made to modernity (Turner, Vivaldi, and Richard Wagner) is also honored in its pages. While Venice has never been destroyed, it nevertheless embodies the continuity of transience. William Turner and Claude Monet loved visiting the city to depict its melancholy beauty. Monet’s last trip before dedicating himself to his almost abstract late water lily works, had also taken him to Venice. The revolution of landscape in art, however, first occurred during the Renaissance.
Category Archives: ART BOOKS
Art gift book “La Serenissima” – The Beauty of Transience
Homage to Titian and Claude Monet
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume XV
Editor: Kurt Ries
At the occasion of the 450th anniversary of Titian’s and the 100th anniversary of Claude Monet’s death, this book is dedicated to the theme of “Beauty and Transience”. The contributions other Venice-loving artists with important anniversaries in 2026 have made to modernity (Turner, Vivaldi, and Richard Wagner) is also honored in its pages.
The Fascinating Realm of Dreams and Dreaming in Art and Music
Excerpts from the book “Dreams of Art”
Artists have always been fascinated with dreams. Just like dreams, their paintings often show events simultaneously happening in the past, present and future. At times, their art depicts everyday objects in a new way and turns them into symbols. In this context, dreaming is understood as a more perceptive kind of seeing. Dreams mostly consist of pictures. William Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummernight’s Dream” bears witness to the fact that the great playwright also delved into the world of dreams – dreams, too, tend to lack clarity and order.
Art gift book “Dreams of Art – Träume der Kunst”
Homage to Sigmund Freud and his Dream Theory
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume XIV
Editor: Kurt Ries
Artists have always been fascinated with dreams. Just like dreams, their paintings often show events simultaneously happening in the past, present and future. At times, their art depicts everyday objects in a new way and turns them into symbols. In this context, dreaming is understood as a more perceptive kind of seeing. Dreams mostly consist of pictures.
Bach themed Museums and Memorial Sites – Johann Sebastian Bach’s 340th Birthday
To all Bach lovers wanting to travel on the trails of the composer I recommend also visiting Ohrdruf, Weimar, Dornheim, Mühlhausen and Dresden, as well as Lüneburg, Celle, Buxtehude, and Hamburg. Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest geniuses ever alive. Please read also our blog post: Celebrating Christmas, New Year and Easter with Johann Sebastian Bach.
Continue readingArt gift book ‘Art Château’, vol. 2 – Vernissage with Ice Wine
Vernissage imaginaire with ICE Wine – Celebrating Christmas, New Year and Easter with Johann Sebastian Bach
Book series LOUNGE 1 – volume II
Editor: Gabriele Walter
A festive occasion like an anniversary or a vernissage is the perfect opportunity to enjoy a fine wine. This gave us the idea to create a series of books called “Art Château” celebrating the special relationship between wine and art. Wine as a cultural treasure goes far beyond drinking. Wine cannot be considered a muse, it is however, said that only those who value art, poetry, and music, can truly treasure it. The special occasion for the book is the 340th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach and his festive music for Christmas, New Year and Easter.
Celebrating Christmas, New Year and Easter with Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest geniuses ever alive. The true extent of his creativity, however, can only be grasped when going beyond the sublime tragedy of his passions and the deep faith of his cantatas, to discover the playful joy of his dances and orchestra suites as well. In the famous Goldberg Variations, every third piece is a canon. If the follower plays the melody backwards, doubles or halves the notes of the leader, while the latter undauntedly strides ahead, various canons can be heard simultaneous
Starstruck – The romantic wine landscapes on the rivers Rhine and Nahe
Excerpts from the book “Art Château – vol. 2 – Vernissage with Ice Wine”
The refreshingly sweet ice wine is a very special treat originating in Germany and Austria. Its production process is an interesting story. Only grapes frozen naturally on the vine may be used for the Dionysian drink, forcing growers out to harvest in icy cold weather. Going down the Rhine, you reach a point behind Koblenz where the grapes start feeling uncomfortable. At the steep slopes above Leutesdorf, where the water drains through swiftly, their roots start clawing 15 meters deep into the poor, stony soil. In the vaults of the vineyards around here, 40-year-old wines are kept behind heavy wooden doors. Looking down the vertiginous vineyards, the river and the town come into view. In the background, way up high, squats Hammerstein Castle, while down below, the picturesque landscape of the Rhine Valley with its hoarfrost cover rings in the Christmas season.
William Turner and the Roots of Modernism in Rhine Romanticism
Excerpts from the book “Landscapes for William Turner”
In painting, the term “landscape” did not exist until the 15th / 16th century. While the frescoes of Roman villas featured nature in their depictions of gardens, medieval art neglected it completely. It was the zeitgeist shift during the Renaissance that restored people’s interest in life before death, thus ringing in the radical changes that eventually led to the modern era. As people turned away from the afterlife, they began to explore nature, which led artists to incorporate perspective into their work. The element of landscape that had previously been perceived as dark and hostile was now elevated to a sublime means to express aesthetic beauty.
Art gift book ‘Landscapes for William Turner – Landschaften für William Turner’
William Turner and the roots of modernism
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume XIII
Editor: Kurt Ries
In painting, the term “landscape” did not exist until the 15th / 16th century. While the frescoes of Roman villas featured nature in their depictions of gardens, medieval art neglected it completely. It was the zeitgeist shift during the Renaissance that restored people’s interest in life before death, thus ringing in the radical changes that eventually led to the modern era. As people turned away from the afterlife, they began to explore nature, which led artists to incorporate perspective into their work.
‘Pierrot Lunaire’ by Arnold Schoenberg and Aga Cela’s Clowns
Excerpts from the book “Aga Cela – Clowns”
Based on the Commedia dell’ Arte, the Clown theme was taken up by painters including famous artists like Antoine Watteau, James Ensor, Paul Cézanne, Bernard Buffet, and Picasso. Applying her firm grasp of human psychology, Aga Cela pays homage to the subject by masterfully revealing the prankster hidden in the depths of human nature.
Continue readingMichelangelo and the Freedom of Art
Excerpts from the book “Inspiration Tuscany”
The cultural landscape of Tuscany exerts a special pull on art lovers. As if it was a painter’s composition, its scenery tempts them to embark on a hedonist art and culture tour from town to town. With the rhythmical wave shapes of its cypress and pine studded hill ranges and its unequalled light, it is so much more than your regular holiday destination. Drawing on ideas from the ancient world, the Italian Renaissance also heralded the separation between crafts and fine arts. As the creative act became art’s central focus, people’s understanding of what “art” meant underwent a significant change.
Art gift book ‘Inspiration Tuscany – Inspiration Toskana’
In memory of Michelangelo and the Florentine Renaissance
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume XII
Editor: Kurt Ries
“Florentia”, “the blossoming one” can also be found in the name of the city of “Florence”. Over time, the city has blossomed into the queen of Tuscany, and continues to be one of the most important art metropoles in the world. The conscious differentiation between a landscape’s significance as an artistic motif and its arability led to a new culture, the blossoming of the “villeggiatura”. Its inhabitants began to reflect deeply, write poetry, make music. Florentine cities like Siena, Lucca, and Pisa have their own architectural charm. Similarly, the walled picture book villages on the hill ranges of Tuscany resemble organic structures.
Solo art book Aga Cela – Clowns
Clowns and the circus are a recurring subject in the arts. They are equally present in music: Through works like Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” and the “Circus Days and Nights” by Philip Glass, the clown has made his way into the world’s opera houses, inspiring Aga Cela, an artist with a central focus on portrait painting, to go on a profound creative journey.
Art gift book ‘Excellent Art – Exzellente Kunst 2024’ – vol. 4
Book series LOUNGE 3 – volume IV
Editor: Gabriele Walter
The art and gift book introduces 41 selected artists from 20 countries around the globe. The interpretations focus mainly on the visible, specific side of paintings and sculptures. The texts invite art lovers to connect with the artworks themselves. Special art and poetry pages have been incorporated to give artists an opportunity to present their visual work alongside their poetry. The book also deals with the topic “Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna”: Due to its programmatic character, his Pastoral Symphony is ideally suited to establishing a connection between painting and music.
Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna and his “Pastorale”, Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68
Excerpts from the book “Excellent Art 2024, vol. 4”
This art and gift book introduces 41 selected artists from 20 countries around the globe. The book invites art lovers to connect with the artworks through philosophical-poetic texts about the images and classical music. Due to its programmatic character, the Symphony No.6 of Ludwig van Beethoven is ideally suited to establishing a connection between painting and music. While the poems in this book were selected based on the musical message of its five movements, the artworks were created independently of it. Rather than making Beethoven’s composition a guiding principle throughout the book, the idea is that listening to it will increase readers’ sense of joy and relaxation while looking through its pages.
Art gift book “Poetry of Travel – Poesie des Reisens” – In memory of Paul Klee
In memory of Paul Klee
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume XI
Editor: Kurt Ries
Visual artists have always traveled because for people who create art, it is essential to unlock new sources of inspiration. In Paul Klee’s artistic career, traveling played an especially large part. Time and again, he went to Italy, France and Switzerland. Both his trips to Tunisia and Egypt had a major impact on his work. On his quest to overcome the limitations of sensual experience and explore the secrets of nature, he encountered progressive European painters’ movements and eventually found his own style, which brought him world success.
Paul Klee: Journey of Longing to a Realm of Magic and Poetry
Excerpts from the book “Poetry of Travel”
Visual artists have always traveled because for people who create art, it is essential to unlock new sources of inspiration. In Paul Klee’s artistic career, traveling played an especially large part. Time and again, he went to Italy, France and Switzerland. Both his trips to Tunisia and Egypt had a major impact on his work. On his quest to overcome the limitations of sensual experience and explore the secrets of nature, he encountered progressive European painters’ movements and eventually found his own style, which brought him world success.
Art gift book ‘Inspiration Venice – Inspiration Venedig’
An Homage to Venice and Marco Polo
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume X
Editor: Kurt Ries
Venice stirs admiration and wonder and exerts a strange power over the imagination. At times its appearance resembles a theater production, at times a mirage from 1001 Nights. Strolling through it feels like sliding into a daydream – shimmering like mother-of-pearl, everything solid dissolves into water and colors. For centuries, the poetic melancholy of the lagoon city has been challenging artists and poets with its magic. Even its name stirs up associations with “Venus” who sprang from the foam of the sea.
Venice – Lost in an Enchanted Dream
Excerpts from the book “Inspiration Venice”
Venice stirs admiration and wonder and exerts a strange power over the imagination. At times its appearance resembles a theater production, at times a mirage from 1001 Nights. Strolling through it feels like sliding into a daydream – shimmering like mother-of-pearl, everything solid dissolves into water and colors. For centuries, the poetic melancholy of the lagoon city has been challenging artists and poets with its magic. Even its name stirs up associations with “Venus” who sprang from the foam of the sea. As Goethe’s “Venetian Epigrams”, this book also features artworks that lack any direct connection with Venice because inspiration may be expressed in the most diverse facets.
Continue readingArt gift book ‘Art Château’, vol. 1, Vernissage with Bordeaux Wine
Vernissage imaginaire with Bordeaux Wine
Book series LOUNGE 1 – volume I
Editor: Gabriele Walter
A festive occasion like an anniversary or a vernissage is the perfect opportunity to enjoy a fine wine. This gave us the idea to create a series of books called “Art Château” celebrating the special relationship between wine and art. Wine as a cultural treasure goes far beyond drinking. Wine cannot be considered a muse, it is however, said that only those who value art, poetry, and music, can truly treasure it. .
Book series ART CHÂTEAU: Vernissage with exquisite wines – Art, Wine, Poetry, and Music
Excerpts from the book series “Art Château”
Vernissage imaginaire – Invitation to the Opening
A festive occasion like an anniversary or a vernissage is the perfect opportunity to enjoy a fine wine. This gave us the idea to create a series of books called “Art Château” celebrating the special relationship between wine and art. Without question, wine stimulates the imagination – and the exchange of thoughts. We should only pay serious attention, however, to the truly fine wines. The joy of winetasting should not be the result of alcohol. Drinking wine is not about making life fade into the distance – even if this aspect of it tends to be glorified in volumes of brilliant poetry. Wine as a cultural treasure goes far beyond drinking, and many of the landscapes where the grapes are grown enchant us with their quaint historical appeal.
Continue readingTable Music by Johann Sebastian Bach
Drinking wine is a sensual journey, and listening to music is said to make it even more enjoyable. Even the grapes themselves love music – as they ripen, they prefer the great symphonies of Beethoven or Mahler, while fermentation makes them long for sacred vocal music and Baroque pieces. Yes – plants are sentient beings, too! While the wine bills of famous composers often mark them as sensual personalities, wine is not the most common subject in classical music.
Continue readingFrom the Winemakers’ Idyll of St. Emilion to the Prehistoric Splendor of Lascaux
Excerpts from the book “Art Château – vol. 1 – Vernissage with Bordeau Wine”
St. Emilion – surrounded by a medieval city wall, even the name of this quaint little town in the Bordeaux wine region breathes spiritual inspiration. Immediately upon entering the town, the stunning ruins of a former Benedictine monastery will tempt visitors to take pictures. The old Franciscan monastery with its gothic cloister with its contemplative combination of ruins and elysian vineyards is another eyecatcher. Like all winemakers around here, the inhabitants bless every path most generously with cases of fine wine. The magic aura of the place will make visitors float through the town’s medieval alleyways. Not a single modern building will disturb their historic sojourn.
Continue readingSolo book Derwin Leiva – Cubism from Hawai’i
Cubism in Hawai’i? Wasn’t Cubism mostly associated with Paris, Picasso, Braque, and the French-German gallerist Kahnweiler? Yet this Cuban artist found a natural affinity for painting in the Neo-Cubist style, particularly after being raised in Cuba… As opposed to Picasso, Derwin Leiva has no need to visit anthropology museums. His personal history gives him all he needs to bring together the natural appeal and poetic immediacy of Latin America, African and Oceanic, as well as European art and culture.
Art gift book ‘Magic of La Bohème – Zauber der Bohème’
An Homage to Paris and Puccini
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume IX
Editor: Kurt Ries
Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece “La Bohème” is one of the five most frequently performed operas in the world. Set in Paris, the main reason for its success is that it depicts the actual lives, pains, and loves of artists working without trying to please the public, striving instead to create pure art. Any life governed by such idealistic ambitions is somewhat awe-inspiring. Cherishing the complete creative freedom the bohemians sought, this book predominantly features works unrelated to its title topic.
Retracing the Paths of Famous Artists and Poets in Paris
Excerpts from the book “Magic of La Bohème”
Critics regard Puccini’s works as sentimental, but the fact of the matter is: They are enchanting! Whilst working on Mimi’s dying scene, Puccini is said to have burst into heavy sobbing. The spiritual and sensory origin of his aesthetic sensitivity was Tuscany. It was in Torre del Lago, a romantic village near Lucca, that he lived and suffered with the heroes and heroines of his operas. “La Bohème” made the maestro world famous. Its success entirely freed him from financial worries. Nevertheless, he continued to hold the bohemian lifestyle in high regard, and even founded a bohemian club. His opera is marked by Baudlairesque anti-bourgeois aesthetics. The composer had read Henry Murger’s novel in one sitting. The subject allowed him to express exactly what he felt inside.
Continue readingArt gift book ‘Color Symphonies – Farbsymphonien’
In Memory of Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume VIII
Editor: Kurt Ries
While Gauguin and van Gogh were rather different people, they had some things in common. Besides frequently discussing Buddhist subjects, they shared an intense longing for the south, the sun, and the joy of exotic colors. After reading about the Marquesas Islands, Vincent, too, felt drawn towards the “savage”, now wanting to paint childishly simple pictures like those featured in old peasant calendars. Gauguin had only strengthened his convictions when talking about the suggestive expressiveness of colors.
Color Symphonies for Gauguin and van Gogh
Excerpts from the book “Color Symphonies for Gauguin and van Gogh”
Without color, life would be gray. This book explores the question why so many people around the world hang reproductions of Vincent van Gogh’s and Paul Gauguin’s paintings on their walls and do not mind waiting in line to see their originals. It is easy to forget that the origin of the artists’ social conflicts was first and foremost a kind of self-sacrifice, as reflected in the color eruptions of their paintings. Brightening daily life with their unconditional artistic passion, the fragrances of the South Sea and La Provence, seeing life as colorful and diverse, and respecting other cultures and their “primitive” ways as a precious asset doubtlessly constitutes their legacy. Both have had a significant influence on modern art and inspired fauvists and expressionists to use strong colors.
Continue readingExcellent Art 2022 – Exzellente Kunst 2022 – vol. 3
Book series LOUNGE 3 – volume III
Editor: Gabriele Walter
This art and gift book introduces 47 selected artists from 23 countries around the globe. The interpretations focus mainly on the visible, specific side of paintings, sculptures, and art objects mostly leaving out aspects related to the artists’ résumés. To learn more about the artists, please refer to their respective websites. The book invites art lovers to connect with the artworks themselves. Based on the concept behind Enter-into-Art, feel free to pick a painting, mindfully dwell on it following our instructions for meditative art observation, and relax.
Voices of the Sea: From Felix Mendelssohn to Claude Debussy
Excerpts from the book “Excellent Art 2022 – vol. 3”
Most pieces of classical music featuring the sea are inspired by composers being shipwrecked, and exhibit a pompous, dynamic style of orchestration. Richard Wagner’s Flying Dutchman and Hector Berlioz’s Le Corsaire are two such examples. In my selection for this book, however, I have chosen to focus on works expressing the beauty and the lyrical element of the sea with its poetic range of sounds.
Continue readingAntoni Gaudí: Architecture as a Synthesis of all Art Forms
Excerpts from the book “Art in Dialogue with Nature”
When Antoni Gaudí took over as main architect of the Sagrada Familia in 1883, his feelings towards Christianity– not unlike those of Daniel Defoe’s fictional hero Robinson Crusoe – were rather ambiguous. His scepticism notwithstanding, he went on to create the monumental stone bible that is now a staple landmark of Barcelona. Inspired by his dedicated study of liturgy and the spiritual dialogue between art and nature, Gaudi finally found his faith as an architect. Similarly, Robinson on his lonely island developed a relationship with God through his conversations with nature.
Continue readingArt gift book ‘Art in Dialogue with Nature – Kunst im Dialog mit Natur’
In Memory of Antoni Gaudí and Daniel Defoe
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume VII
Editor: Kurt Ries
When Antoni Gaudí took over as main architect of the Sagrada Familia in 1883, his feelings towards Christianity– not unlike those of Daniel Defoe’s fictional hero Robinson Crusoe – were rather ambiguous. Inspired by his dedicated study of liturgy and the spiritual dialogue between art and nature, Gaudí finally found his faith as an architect. Similarly, Robinson on his lonely island developed a relationship with God through his conversations with nature.
Art gift book “Animal Worlds of Art – Tierwelten der Kunst”
In Memory of St. Francis of Assisi
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume VI
Editor: Gabriele Walter
St. Francis of Assisi’s considerable impact on art and poetry cannot be questioned. His deeply felt connection with nature exerts a special pull on free-thinking people and functions as a bulwark against irrational zeitgeist and cultural decline. At the occasion of his 840th birthday, this idea brought together 60 artists from 24 countries to honor the saint’s love of animals with contemporary imagery.
St. Francis – and Animals in Art History
Excerpts from the book “Animal Worlds of Art”
St. Francis of Assisi’s considerable impact on art and poetry cannot be questioned. His deeply felt connection with nature exerts a special pull on free-thinking people and functions as a bulwark against irrational zeitgeist and cultural decline.
Continue readingArt gift book “Odyssey of Life – Odyssee des Lebens – Homage to Homer”
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume V
Editor: Kurt Ries
He believed the “Fountain of Cressida” in Corfu was the place where Nausicaa had washed her laundry, but the island of the Phaeacians remains a dream. The German wholesale merchant Heinrich Schliemann was a cosmopolitan and a genius. Or was he just a dreamer? He sees Homer´s epics mainly as works of art but reads them in his own way. Eventually, he excavates a seafarers´ realm from the Late Helladic period and becomes the father of Mycenaean archeology.
A Modern Odysseus on the Trail of Homer’s Epics
Excerpts from the book “Odyssey of Life – Homage to Homer”
This book was conceived and planned in early 2021 out of enthusiasm for the art and culture of ancient Greece. Homer has inspired both archeologists and artists from antiquity to the present day. Today, the hill of Hisarlik in western Turkey is considered the actual site of the city of Troy described in his epics. It was the German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822 – 1890) who finally discovered it, even though he initially took a wrong turn, accidentally destroying part of the place he longed so much to discover. To honor the English archeologist Frank Calvert, the monument of the Trojan Horse was erected at the former site of the British consulate. With a clever move, Schliemann got Calvert to hand over his excavation plans to him.
Continue readingArt gift book “Fairytale Art for Mozart – Märchenhafte Kunst für Mozart”
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume IV
Editor: Gabriele Walter
Fairy tales used to be orally transmitted and kept changing in the process. Also the author of a literary fairy tale is free to let his imagination run wild and create fantastic wonder tales. Based on this idea, at the occasion of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 265th birthday and the 230th anniversary of his death, 64 artists from 33 countries came together to honor the world-famous composer with contemporary imagery. It was also 230 years ago that Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” was first performed.
Like a Fairy Tale without a Happy Ending
Excerpts from the book “Fairytale Art for Mozart”
Apparently, Mozart’s pet songbird could whistle a few bars of his piano concert in G major (K. 453). Did Mozart live in a magic world we love to hear stories about, even if we find them unbelievable? The prelude to his marriage, too, resembles a love story with obstacles the couple had to overcome to be united. Father Leopold was exasperated when Mozart decided to leave Salzburg and embark on the insecure life of a freelancer. Also, he did not approve of his son’s wife Constanze. Maybe this was why Wolfgang hardly mentioned his father’s passing in 1787, while dedicating a long obituary to his “star songbird”, which died around the same time. If we try to judge Mozart’s life in the simplistic terms of fairy tales, based on our conventional ideas of “good” and “bad”, we inevitably encounter contradictions.
Continue readingLiving with pictures
Excerpt from the book “Art Retreat 2020-21 – Living with pictures”
Collect, arrange and enjoy art
There are many reasons to collect art: prestige, value and appreciation of the artist’s reputation may play a role for one collector, a personal relationship with the artist, the joy of collecting or the responsibility for art and its promotion for another. In addition, there are those who are profit-oriented, for whom a work of art is primarily an investment without there being a personal, emotional connection or in-depth specialist knowledge.
Continue readingEn plein air – Claude Monet in Giverny
Excerpts from the book “Flowers for Monet”
Don’t we all long to live like flowers, alive with perfect beauty? The work of Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) is a seed that has firmly taken root in the world’s artistic heritage. As an artist and editor of intercultural art books, the occasion of Monet’s 180th birthday and my visit at his garden in Giverny inspired me to create an homage for him – in the form of a book featuring flower paintings. Flowers possess a lyrical aura; trees are said to be antennae connected with the universe. Rejoicing in the beauty of a flower or a picturesque landscape often makes us feel like we, ourselves, are bursting into bloom. Every flower has a “deva”, a “higher spirit” possessing a mysterious power of attraction that can be further intensified by the spiritual aura of artworks. Like Claude Monet’s Giverny, like his paintings, this gift book, too, emanates its own, unique scent.
Continue readingArt gift book “Flowers for Monet – Blumen für Monet”
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume III
Editor: Kurt Ries
Don’t we all long to live like flowers, alive with perfect beauty? The work of Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) is a seed that has firmly taken root in the world’s artistic heritage. It was a trip that inspired Monet to create his radiant garden in Giverny. After traveling through the night, the flower fields in Holland appeared before his eyes like a bright sea of colours, in which the blossoming individual flowers simultaneously dissolved and fully unfolded. Flowers unite the light energy of the sun and the mythical spirit of earth and water. Based on this idea, 67 artists from 29 countries came together at the occasion of Claude Monet’s 180th birthday to honor the well-traveled impressionist with contemporary artistic abundance.
ART RETREAT Living with Pictures – KUNSTRETREAT Wohnen mit Bildern
Book series ART RETREAT – volume 6
Editor: Gabriele Walter
Small-format pictures from all over the world are not only suitable for an affordable as well as exotic art collection, but also for creating inspired refuges in living spaces. On the occasion of the 6th international “Enter into Art” art competition for the promotion of small-format pictures the art book shows – in addition to exquisite large-format pictures – over 150 works by artists from 36 countries and 5 continents. At the same time it is a poetry book for relaxation with art, poetry and colors.
Art gift book “Moonlight Sonatas for Beethoven – Mondscheinsonaten für Beethoven”
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume II
Editor: Kurt Ries
Name a tune you want to listen to again and again, because it goes straight to the heart. Millions on the internet click “Moonlight Sonata” in response to this call. At the same time, both the title and the history of this work have long been subjects of debate. The fact is that Beethoven reversed the conventional sequence of the first and the second movement, thus breaking with the classical sonata form, which may explain this word choice of “fantasy” in the original title. Based on this idea, 69 artists from 26 countries got together at the occasion of Beethoven’s 250th birthday and – with boundless sensitivity – interpreted the “Moonlight Sonata” in visual terms.
George Sand and Frédéric Chopin on the Isle of Majorca
Excerpt from the book “Art Retreat 2020-21 – Living with pictures”
One chapter of the book “Art Retreat 2020-21” is dedicated to the 210th anniversary of birth of the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. During his stay with the French writer George Sand on the island of Mallorca, he wrote the world-famous “Rainbow Prelude”. Chopin’s dreamy Mallorca pieces flow into the creative contemplation of the pictures as musical recommendations. The editor of the book has assigned a selection of Chopin’s Mallorca Preludes op. 28 to the colors, both according to their key and according to their musical statement. Chopin had a copy of the preludes from the “Well-Tempered Piano” of Johann Sebastian Bach in his luggage and was inspired by it. It starts with C major and moves clockwise through the circle of fifths, which basically corresponds to the tonal order of colors in this book. When leafing through the color chapters, readers experience a relaxing effect. The shortness of the Préludes allows small-format paintings and haiku poems equally to appear often only as snapshots of a mood.
Continue readingOn Ludwig van Beethoven’s „Moonlight Sonata“
Excerpt from the book “Moonlight Sonatas for Beethoven”
Name a tune you want to listen to again and again, because it goes straight to the heart. Millions on the internet click “Moonlight Sonata” in response to this call. At the same time, both the title and the history of this work have long been subjects of debate. The fact is that Beethoven reversed the conventional sequence of the first and the second movement, thus breaking with the classical sonata form, which may explain this word choice of “fantasy” in the original title. Based on this idea, 69 artists from 26 countries got together at the occasion of Beethoven’s 250th birthday and – with boundless sensitivity – interpreted the “Moonlight Sonata” in visual terms. Was it not the image of a landscape, after all, that led to the work’s famous epithet?
Continue readingThe oratorio ‘The Seasons’ by Joseph Haydn
Excerpt from the book “Excellent Art 2020”
Starting in Volume 2 of the “Excellent Art” series, each book will introduce one famous musical work that may contribute to the harmonious overall sound, alongside the topic related selection of haiku poetry. By introducing a musical work, the editor hopes to inspire readers to expand their perception to the tonal aspects of art and poetry. Inspired by the composer’s international experiences, and the way he uses notes like a painter in this work, she has chosen “The Seasons” by Joseph Haydn. After all, the seasons are of universal importance in the poetry of the world’s peoples.
Continue readingConcept of the book series “Art Retreat” and the meditation with works of art
You can use our art meditation for all images that can be viewed in our various book series!
The concept is based on our international art installations of previous years. Its basic tenor can also be transferred to the art meditation with the works in the other book series. In addition to the small-format pictures from the “Art Retreat” book series, the large-format pictures from all book series are also included annually in our German online show, where they are sorted by color and inspire an art and color meditation.
Continue readingArt Meditation
Detailed instructions for an art meditation:
1. Mindfulness meditation (technique, style, shape, color, light, mastery)
2. Pleasurable meditation (deepened or extended meditation)
Continue readingA Fine Art Journey – Thoughts on Traveling
Poets and artists are interested in experiencing selected places with a specific atmosphere, because their talent is based on their special power of perception and their sensitivity. Most of them are experts at zooming in on impressions that move their imagination and lead to the release of poetic sparks. Whenever Hermann Hesse went on a trip, for example, he brought home what he referred to as “some large or small treasure”. These treasures included the deep insights he had gleaned from eastern spirituality. He also had a clearer understanding of the social injustices in the world than many of his contemporaries.
Continue reading