Women - Artists book (essential items) - Thames & Hudson

This book, focusing on fifty different female artists, from Lavinia Fontana and Artemisia Gentileschi, through Judy Chicago, Ana Mendieta, and Guerrilla Girls, to Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, and Louise Bourgeois, provides the reader with a general understanding of women’s art history, as well as recognition for its most outstanding figures. Traditionally, women belong to the privileged subject matter of art representation, and their contribution as artists is subordinate to that of men. This book documents women artists in context to offer readers an accessible yet comprehensive understanding of key female artists from the Baroque to the present day.

Thames & Hudson 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, as well as the research of leading scholars, accessible to a broad 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 symbolizing friendship and intelligence, one facing east, the other west, suggesting a connection between the Old World and the New.

Today, still an independent family company, Thames & Hudson is one of the world’s leading publishers of illustrated books with over 2,000 titles printed. It publishes high-quality books across all areas of visual creativity: arts (fine arts, applied arts, decorative arts, performing arts), architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and music, as well as archaeology, history, and popular culture. The list of children’s books is also expanding. Headquartered in London with a sister company in New York and branches 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 an innovative concept now known as book packaging (or co-publishing), where ideas for books are developed, ordered, produced, and sold to publishers operating in different markets and languages, to create large print runs and thus reduce unit production costs. Neurath’s concept was the first of many innovations introduced to the publishing world through Thames & Hudson.

Seeking to continue book packaging in a second edition and recognizing the need to amortize high costs of producing illustrated books, Neurath founded his own publishing house, with offices in London and New York, in autumn 1949. Eva Neurath, who 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 from the very beginning in the longevity of books, it remained in print until 1971. Also in the first year of publication was *Out of My Later Years* by Albert Einstein, an early indicator of the program’s scope. As the list gradually expanded—growing from ten titles in 1950 to 144 in 1955—the company moved its offices from High Holborn and, in 1956, relocated to a Georgian townhouse at Bloomsbury Street 30, near Bedford Square, which became the epicenter of book publishing in London. The manufacturing remained at this address, eventually expanding to five houses by 1999, when it returned to High Holborn.

In 1958, Thames & Hudson launched one of its most famous series, *World of Art*, which became the foundation of a very diverse list. Characterized by 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, which, according to Christopher Frayling, are “stained with paint” in every art school in the country.

Other important series that added depth and prestige to the collection include *Ancient People and Places*, edited by Glyn Daniel, who since the 1950s has contributed to pioneering interest in archaeology, both in book form and television. Over 34 titles have been published in the series over 34 years. The large-format series *Great Civilizations*, released in 1961, featured contributions from renowned scholars such as Alan Bullock, Asa Briggs, Hugh Trevor-Roper, A. J. P. Taylor, and John Julius Norwich.
After establishing 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 anyone else was responsible for the revolution in art publishing” and was “one of those rare entrepreneurs who successfully combine business acumen with idealism.” Eva Neurath became chairwoman. Walter’s son, Thomas, who joined the company in 1961 along with his sister Constance, became managing director; Constance later served as artistic director for several decades. Both Thomas and Constance remain on the Thames & Hudson board, 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 - Letters*, from innovations like “French folds” to the controversial documentation of graffiti art in *Subway Art*, Thames & Hudson has always been at the forefront, both culturally and in terms of production techniques.

2016 marked the beginning of an extraordinary new chapter for the company, announcing publishing partnerships with two of the world’s leading museums: British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum.

The world of art and scholarship remains at the heart of Thames & Hudson’s publishing program, which remains true to its core principle: providing a “museum without walls.”
Today, Thames & Hudson is a recognizable international brand, a symbol of British publishing. Its extensive catalog includes thousands of incredible book titles, many of which are luxurious collector’s editions.

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