I have a number of books at the moment that I am reading, or waiting to read:

I am currently reading the Chanel biography, the inspiration behind the film which I have not yet seen, ‘Coco before Chanel’. It is a fascinating book and really well written (very engaging). It speaks of how Chanel, when recounting her life, was often fabricating details or in fact, just making them up!  The story draws together accounts from people who actually knew her and tells of how she grew up in a family of itinerants, lost her mother and was taken to a convent. It then relays how she gained her nickname Coco (her real name was Gabrielle) and gradually how she made a name for herself. It is a very good read.

I am also reading the Festival of Britain Design book. The Festival of Britain fascinates me as a designer. It was an event that got written off in terms of its significance, particularly by Winston Churchill who ordered the main south bank exhibition to be cleared with the exception of the Royal Festival Hall, which became a concert venue with the profits from the festival.

The graphic designer for the festival was Abram Games, the official war poster artist. The design was brilliant and both that and the architecture was influential in 50′s design, which remains one of the most iconic design periods in history (particularly for furniture). The festival opened in 1951 and there were many buildings (including the Skylon, which looks a little like Phillippe Starck’s juicer!), art works by famous artists, exhibitions, etc.

The festival was designed to increase the public morale following the war years and introduce a new hope for the future of British industry.

The book is perhaps not an easy read but very informative and interesting

Next on the list and lying by my bedside:

The Bauhaus is one of those subjects that I refer to a lot in meetings, as it was so influential in the direction of both art and design. However, it is also one of those subjects where my knowledge is a bit like a child’s dot to dot puzzle with the lines missing that joins the picture together? I know lots of bits about the Bauhaus, but I don’t know its story properly, so I wanted to read a non-complex book that would explain it.  Here is what Amazon says about it:

Functional beauty Founded in Welmar in 1919, the Bauhaus school developed a revolutionary approach that fused fine art with craftsmanship and engineering in everything from architecture to furniture, typography, and even theater. Originally headed by Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus counted among its members artists and architects such as Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Wassily Kandinsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Marcel Breuer. In 1930 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe took over as the leader, but soon after, in 1933, the Nazi government shut down the school. During its fourteen years of existence, Bauhaus managed to change the faces of art, architecture, and industrial design forever and is still hugely influential today.

The other book is Friends in Exile, Wassily Kandinsky and Josef Albers, two artists who were great friends and colleagues at the Bauhaus until the Nazis shut it down in 1933. When it was closed down, Kandinsky moved with his wife to Paris and Albers to the US. They corresponded for 20 years.

Kandinsky has always fascinated me and I actually have a book to read that is just about him. He was a very deep thinker and in particular fused the notion of composing music with painting or creating art. He said “Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” This is a little too deep for my liking, but what I love about Kandinsky is that he progressed through many different movements of art and yet all of them are beautiful. I particularly like his colourful impressionistic early work and then his later work which is clearly influenced by his time at the Bauhaus, as it becomes very architectural.