Skira is probably one of the oldest and most glorious names in the world contemporary art publication.
1928
Founded in 1928 by Albert Skira in Lausanne this publishing house was soon afterwards transferred to Geneva where its head offices remained for over sixty years. Its earliest editions have become legendary, the Metamorphosis of Ovid, illustrated with thirty original engravings by Pablo Picasso and the Poésies of Stéphane Mallarmé accompanied by twenty-nine gravures by Henri Matisse.
1930
During the thirties Skira opened an office in Paris and the publishing firm became a meeting place for important artistic figures of the time, the Surrealists in particular. Thus the mythical art review "Minotaure" was born, led by André Breton and Paul Eluard, publishing works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and René Magritte but also the early writings of Jacques Lacan and the photographs of Man Ray and Brassaï.
1948
During the second world war the publishing firm was forced to reduce its activities, but in 1948 for the celebrations of its first twenty years Henri Matisse designed the cover of the catalogue, a woman’s head which was to become a sort of unofficial trademark for Skira
1950
The fifties and the sixties witnessed the great rise of Skira on the international scene. Large volumes with illustrated tables reproduced and printed in a quality that was unthinkable for those years. With impressive iconographic renewal the articulation and ambition of each series was extraordinary: ranging from the great histories of Italian, French and Flemish painting to the treasures of Oriental civilisations and books focusing on emerging contemporary phenomena such as important American art ranging from Willem de Kooning to Jasper Johns. Among the authors involved were the most authoritative art historians of the time such as Lionello Venturi, André Chastel, Giulio Carlo Argan as well as writers and poets like Louis Aragon, Roland Barthes and Jacques Prévert. The distinctive logo with its drawn out capital letters became a sort of “guarantee of quality”: no other publisher on the international scene could stand comparison. Skira published in every language with its own trademark and this multinational name itself became a symbol of quality art books.
1973
Albert Skira died prematurely in 1973. His wife Rosabianca, daughter of Lionello Venturi, attempted to continue his work following the same mechanisms which had brought the publishing firm to its greatest period. What was lacking, however, was the founder’s innovative drive; moreover the international publishing scene was undergoing radical transformations in the areas of design, technology and distribution. Gradually the firm began to lose its “uniqueness” and even if the trademark maintained its historical prestige its dimensions and ambitions were significantly reduced. Control of the company passed from the family to Flammarion and subsequently to the Swiss group Edipresse, from whom it was bought back by the family.
1996
And it was from the family that Massimo Vitta Zelman and Giorgio Fantoni (already majority shareholders of the Electa Einaudi Group, later sold to Mondadori) bought Skira in 1996 and orchestrated its re-launching with the utmost style. The Geneva-based company was transformed into a holding, though it maintained its editorial activities in Switzerland. The head offices were moved to the sixteenth century Palazzo Casati Stampa in Milan marking the beginning of a new era for the firm. Over a period of five years the firm’s output grew from less than ten new publications a year to over two hundred. Skira now published again in several languages, re-establishing their international status as the first publishers to be really and truly supranational. The building of series of books has been carried out with the collaboration of great consultants such as the late lamented Federico Zeri, Carlo Bertelli, Vittorio Gregotti and Germano Celant. A series of great books has been created combining scientific substance with a special editorial quality which is the fruit of innovative research into materials and reproduction techniques. Alongside the visual arts, the publisher’s traditional field, equal importance has been acquired by architecture, design and applied arts. Particular attention has been given to primitive and extra-European arts with an international series. Three critical series are also in the making: The Art library, The Architecture library and the Skira paperbacks, agile and successful tools for investigation into the modern and contemporary world. The Archive of modern Art contains extensive critical catalogues of nineteenth and twentieth century artists. In this field the alliance between Skira and the Institute Wildenstein of Paris has been of the utmost importance for the publication of fundamental Catalogues raisonnés devoted to Paul Gauguin, Albert Marquet and Édouard Vuillard. Finally the holding stands out like a giant in the field of major exhibitions, managing the editorial side of many of the most important present day events, among these are the great monographic exhibitions devoted to Giambattista Tiepolo, Lorenzo Lotto, El Greco, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Pieter Bruegel the elder, Sandro Botticelli and Raphael, the anthological exhibitions on Edvard Munch, Amedeo Modigliani, René Magritte, Marc Chagall, Ernst Kirchner and exhibitions on the Longobards, the Renaissance and the Italian twentieth century. The highly specialised staff at Skira and their ability to combine quality publishing with fast and ready intervention makes this publishing firm the natural referent for many institutions in Italy and abroad.
2002
In 2002 Skira and the Rizzoli Corriere della Sera group developed an important business and collaboration agreement. RCS joined the Skira Geneva Holding with a 24% share. Skira entrusted Rizzoli with the distribution of its books on the Italian and American markets. Corriere della Sera gave Skira the production of a series of art related books to be sold in newsagents along with the newspaper itself and the series Classici dell'Arte. Rizzoli Skira encountered enormous public success with sales at times reaching over 300.000 per title. Skira and Corriere della Sera also collaborate in the field of art event organisation with Skira as principal editor and Corriere della Sera principal media partner.
Skira, a supranational imprint
One of the most important features of Skira has been the choice, ahead of time, not to identify itself with any one nationality and not to surrender the rights of its books to foreign co-editors but rather to publish them in the major languages under its own trademark, thus establishing itself as a supranational name. Skira today has a multilingual editorial programme or, perhaps it is better to say five distinct editorial programmes which correspond to five geographic and linguistic areas of operation. Publications in the Italian language are more numerous, among other things they include the catalogues for the major Italian exhibitions and are widely distributed throughout Italy by the Rizzoli distribution network. The English language takes second place in order of importance and includes over thirty new publications each year distributed in North America by Rizzoli New York, using the imposing Random House distribution network. Distribution throughout the rest of the world is entrusted to Thames & Hudson, a traditional ally and partner of Skira in many editorial enterprises, their network, with head offices in London, has branch offices all over the world from South Africa to Malaysia and Australia. The French language line, considered of fundamental importance also because of the role it played in the company’s history, avails of a distribution partnership with Diffusion Flammarion of Paris. The German language programme draws much of its vital force from the organic relationship Skira has with some of the major artistic institutions, first and foremost with the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, distribution in Germany is also entrusted to Thames & Hudson. Skira’s presence on the Spanish marked is less impressive. Activity is principally concentrated in the field of architecture and distribution is carried out by the leading Spanish editor in this field another one of Skira’s historical allies: Editorial Gustavo Gili of Barcelona.
A publisher for major exhibitions in Italy and around the world.
From its foundation, Geneva 1928, it has been the ambitious objective of Skira to unite the scientific and editorial quality of its products and message with a distribution that extends beyond an exclusively specialised public. It was in the spirit of this philosophy that legendary series have come into being and, in keeping with these ideals, Skira has launched itself in the field of major Italian and international exhibitions becoming the European leader in this sector.
Our specialised team provides organisers with unique experience in the areas of planning, production and commercialisation of graphic and editorial products for artistic events and also communications and promotion.
Skira has produced catalogues for Italian events such as Il Cinquecento Lombardo, Monet, Novecento. Arte e Storia in Italia, Rinascimento, Rembrandt, the major exhibition devoted to the Gonzaga family in Mantua, Anton Van Dyck at Palazzo Reale in Milan, Botticelli e Filippino in Florence, Caravaggio e l’Europa at Palazzo Reale in Milan, Veronese at Museo Correr in Venice and Manet at the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, to mention but a few.
Abroad too, Skira has been responsible for the catalogues at exhibitions such as Vermeer in the Hague, Bruegel in Vienna, El Greco in Madrid, Athens and Rome, the triptych on Evard Munch, Amedeo Modigliani and Marc Chagall in Lugano, Raphael in Paris, the Rau Collection in Paris and the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Francis Bacon in Basel, Giorgione at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Il Modo Italiano first in Montreal and Toronto and then at the MART Rovereto, Titian at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris Women in Impressionism at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.
Skira also continues with the catalogues for exhibitions at the Milan Triennial such as the Andy Warhol Show, the Keith Haring Show and the Jean-Michel Basquiat Show or at the Md’AM in Lugano for example Arnaldo Pomodoro, Christo e Jeanne-Claude and Miquel Barceló, the events for the five-hundredth anniversary of the death of Mantegna, the current exhibitions on Tamara De Lempicka and Umberto Boccioni at Palazzo Reale in Milan and those at Palazzo Grassi in Venezia, such as Where are we going and Picasso.
These catalogues unite scientific quality, completeness and spectacularity becoming real reference books on the subjects in question: though the exhibitions come to an end their memory lives on in the catalogue.
Modern Art Catalogue Raisonné
The pride of Skira’s production is its rigorous series of catalogue raisonné which are a solid reference on a global level: richly illustrated and containing technical dossiers on the works in question these volumes cover the complete output of single artists and are an indispensable tool for scholars and collectors the world over.
The following catalogue raisonné have already been published:
Lucio Fontana, Paul Gauguin, Le Corbusier, Umberto Lilloni, Piero Manzoni, Giannino Marchig, Marino Marini, Albert Marquet, Fausto Melotti, Piet Mondrian, Ennio Morlotti, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Daniele Ranzoni, Mimmo Rotella, Arpad Szenes, Guido Tallone, Italo Valenti, Édouard Vuillard.
The principal Skira series
Archaeology, oriental art, primitive art
Architecture
Art
Berenice series
Collections, museums and artistic sites
Design and applied arts
Fashion
Literature
Modern art
Music and enterteinment
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Original drawing by Matisse celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Skira publishing house (1948) |
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Skira with Pablo Picasso in 1973 |
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Albert Skira on a visit to Picassoís studio in the company of Kahnweiler (1948) |
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Matisse checking the proof of a page in the studio of the lithographer Fernand Mourlot |
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The new logo, 1995 |
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Palazzo Casati Stampa, in Milan, the head office of The Skira Group |
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The entrance of the head office |
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A view of the Skira bookstore in the atrium of the head office |
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The bookstore of Palazzo Reale, Milan |
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