TASCHEN’s Biannual Sale Returns: Here Are Our Picks

Art-book lovers, take note: TASCHEN’s biannual sale lands this week, and it’s the kind of event that makes even the most disciplined coffee-table-book collector lose all restraint.

From Wednesday, September 2 to Sunday, September 6, TASCHEN is offering up to 75% off across its catalogue: art, fashion, photography, design, architecture, travel and more, at taschen.com and in TASCHEN’s flagship stores worldwide. Shoppers keen to get there first can take advantage of an exclusive early shopping day in stores only on Wednesday, September 2.

For those in the UK, TASCHEN London is at 12 Duke of York Square, SW3 4LY, open Monday to Saturday 10am–7pm and Sunday 12pm–6pm.

With so much on offer, we’ve gone through the sale list and pulled out three titles that stood out to us. Here’s what we’re excited about.

Andy Warhol. Seven Illustrated Books 1952–1959

Long before Andy Warhol became the face of American Pop Art, he was a jobbing commercial illustrator in 1950s New York, using self-made books as calling cards to woo clients and charm friends. This TASCHEN volume, written by Nina Schleif, with a foreword by Reuel Golden, brings together facsimile reproductions of all seven of these hand-drawn books for the first time, several of which had never previously been republished.

The books themselves are wonderfully eccentric: 25 Cats Named Sam and In the Bottom of My Garden sit alongside the alphabet portfolio A Is for Alphabet and the spoof cookbook Wild Raspberries, complete with fantastical recipes. Together they reveal an artist still finding his voice, playful, funny, and quietly subversive, years before the Factory and the soup cans. The book is rounded out with archival photographs and ephemera that place the drawings in the context of Warhol’s early career, offering a genuinely revealing look at the artist as a young man on the make.

David Hockney. My Window

A different kind of intimate portrait, My Window collects 120 drawings the late David Hockney made on his iPhone and iPad between 2009 and 2012, each one capturing a view from the window of his Yorkshire home. Hockney took to the devices with real enthusiasm after discovering them as a medium in 2009, and the results- sunrises, snow on branches, lilac evening skies, raindrops on the pane- chart the changing seasons with a freshness that feels distinct from his earlier work.

Arranged in chronological order by Hockney himself, the book plays out almost like a diary told entirely in colour and light. It’s a lovely reminder of how restlessly inventive he remained throughout his career, right up to embracing brand-new tools well into his seventies, and, following his death earlier this year, it feels like a fitting title to spend some time with.

Sexy Record Covers

For something a little less contemplative, Sexy Record Covers is exactly what it says on the cover: a joyfully unruly survey of provocative, nude and downright silly album art from the past seventy-odd years. Compiled by longtime record collector Eric Godtland and edited by Dian Hanson, the book pulls together covers from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, spanning genres from funk and punk to German schlager and novelty comedy records.

Recognisable names: the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Queen, sit next to deeply obscure small-label pressings that Godtland tracked down over nearly five decades of collecting, many of which exist in only a handful of surviving copies. It’s less a design history than a cultural one: a look at how music has used sex, humour and spectacle to sell itself, decade after decade, worldwide. Consider this one strictly adults-only.

About TASCHEN

Founded in 1980, TASCHEN has built its name on ambitious, beautifully produced books that span the full range of visual culture, from the accessible Basic Art series to landmark, SUMO-sized Collector’s Editions. Whatever the subject or the price point, the publisher applies the same level of care to its books, working with leading artists, photographers and writers to produce volumes that are as much objects of design as they are references.

The TASCHEN Sale runs September 2–6, online and in stores, with early access for in-store shoppers on September 2. Full details on the sale, including the complete list of titles included, can be found at taschen.com.