Book Experience or Interpretation: The Dilemma of Contemporary Art Museums - Thames and Hudson

How do we perceive art? How is it displayed? A hundred years ago, art was presented in an educational manner. Galleries reflected the curator's view of history at the expense of diverse opinions. Today, museums and galleries not only celebrate these differences in expression but also welcome collaboration with living artists, promoting active dialogue between the present and the past. Galleries and museums are no longer just repositories. They are experiential spaces where the mind often engages as much as the eye. Here, Nicholas Serota presents a coherent historical account of changing attitudes towards the presentation of art in modern museums, exploring the relationships between artist, audience, and curator. He takes us into the artist's studio — which itself is a paradigm of display — and then on a knowledgeable and wide-ranging international tour of museums, galleries, and installations, offering an authoritative insight into how art exhibitions can evolve in the 21st century.

Today, still an independent family-run publisher, Thames & Hudson is one of the world's leading publishers of illustrated books with over 2,000 titles printed. It publishes high-quality collectible books across all areas of visual creativity: fine arts (fine art, 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. 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 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 brand founded by Viennese émigré Wolfgang Foges. Neurath and Foges developed an innovative concept now known as book packaging (or co-publishing), where book ideas 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 that Thames & Hudson introduced to the publishing world.

Seeking to continue the packaging of collectible books in a second edition and recognizing the need to amortize the 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. The firm’s strong belief in the longevity of books remained evident, as it stayed 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 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 30 Bloomsbury Street, near Bedford Square, becoming the epicenter of book publishing in London. The manufactory remained at this address, eventually expanding to five houses by 1999, when it returned to High Holborn.

In 1958, Thames and 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. Almost 60 years later, the series boasts over 300 titles, which, according to Christopher Frayling, are “splashed with paint copies” in every art school across the country.

Other important series that have added depth and prestige to the collections 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 on 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 esteemed 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 technical 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.

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

The art world and scholarship therefore remain 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 catalogue includes thousands of incredible titles, many of which are luxury collector’s editions.

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