232 pages Edited by Isabelle Mauchin, Jean-François Colau, Giovanna Citi-Hebey, Geneviève de Mathan Foreword by Sophie Lévy, Jeanne-Bathilde Lacourt, Marie-Amélie Senot Designed by Anne Lagarrigue, Martin Corbasson 28 x 21 cm Language: French Paperback Publisher: Éditions Gallimard & LaM 2012
Familiar yet uncanny, the modern metropolis both fascinates and unsettles. More than a mere backdrop, the city becomes a living character, an arena where dreams, fears, and the imagination collide. From the late 19th century onward, artists began to see the urban landscape as the stage of all possibilities, pleasures, and innovations.
After the First World War, this fascination grew into a full mythology of the modern city, from New York to Paris, from Berlin to beyond. Over four decades, painters, photographers, and filmmakers captured the strange magnetism of urban life, revealing cities that are by turns luminous, disquieting, and surreal.
This richly illustrated volume brings together masterpieces by Giorgio de Chirico, René Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Victor Brauner, Anton Räderscheidt, and many others, alongside the pioneering visions of the international avant-garde in photography and cinema, Brassaï, Ilse Bing, André Kertész, Raoul Hausmann, Fritz Lang, Dziga Vertov, and more.
Structured as a fantastic historical tale in four chapters, La Ville magique invites readers on a journey into the depths of the modern metropolis: its myths, its mysteries, and its enduring power to inspire awe and unease.
