Phaidon Press

This article deals with the book publisher Phaidon Press, for more meanings see Phaidon (disambiguation) .

Phaidon Press ( Phaidon for short ) is one of the world's leading publishers in the field of fine arts , architecture , photography and design .

The company was founded in Vienna in 1923 as "Phaidon Verlag" by Béla Horovitz , Ludwig Goldscheider and Fritz Ungar . The aim of the publisher - whose name is inspired by Plato's Phaidon , the main theme of the dialogue that revolves around the soul - was to offer high-quality books at affordable prices, which could be achieved through cooperation with English and American publishers and high circulation numbers. The publisher's first books were not art books, but literary, philosophical and historical works. The publication of large-format illustrated books, for which Phaidon later became known, began in 1936 with books on Van Gogh , Botticelli and the French Impressionists .

The annexation of Austria to the National Socialist German Reich forced the Jewish owners to emigrate to Great Britain in 1938 , first to Oxford and later to London . The publishing house initially worked there with the British publishing house Allen & Unwin before it was able to establish itself locally as "Phaidon Press".

In 1950 the publishing house published the history of art by the renowned art historian Ernst Gombrich - with a circulation of over 7 million copies in 30 different languages, it was one of the best-selling art books of all time. In the 1970s and 1980s, the publishing house changed hands several times before it was taken over by Richard Schlagman in 1990 , who is still in charge of Phaidon today. From 1994 to 2006 the graphic designer Alan Fletcher was Art Director at Phaidon. Since 1995 Phaidon has also been known for the Contemporary Artists series, which publishes monographs by contemporary and emerging artists.

Today the publishing house Phaidon Press, whose headquarters are still in London, has branches in New York, Paris, Berlin and Tokyo. The publisher publishes in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese.

Web links

• Website of Phaidon Press (in English)