Heralding the future: the art publisher in Great Britain from the 1920s through the post-war era

Abstract

Major contributions to the publication of art books in the 20th century have been made by publishing houses in Great Britain. These include The Studio magazine and its associated publications, founded by Charles Holme late in the 19th century, a widely influential enterprise which was eventually to become the publishing house Studio Vista. Three other ventures resulted from initiatives by European émigrés. Anton Zwemmer arrived in England and commenced his activities as bookseller and publisher in the 1920s. Bela Horovitz’s Phaidon Press, founded in Vienna in 1923, was safeguarded from the Nazis by Sir Stanley Unwin and recommenced operations under its own name, in London, in 1946. And in 1949 Thames and Hudson was founded by Walter Neurath, who had fled Nazi Germany in 1938. The activities of these publishing houses were complemented by those of Albert Skira in Switzerland, who developed the production of art books illustrated with colour plates. After the Second World War, art publishing flourished as never before, with these and other publishers contributing to an expansion of art publishing on an international front which saw the emergence of the ‘coffee table’ book and of popular art books for a wide readership, the publication of international co-editions, and the multiplication of series. However, more art books has not always meant better art books.