Rijks: Masters of the Golden Age

This unique art publication combines the finest materials, the most innovative techniques and the testimonies of thought leaders and craft masters from around the world. The books bring the reader eye to eye with over 60 iconic paintings such as Rembrandt's Night Watch and Vermeer's Milkmaid. Leading contemporary critical thinkers explain how their perception of the world has been influenced by these paintings. Featuring writings of Ferran Adria, David Allen, Alain de Botton, Anton Corbijn, Angela Missoni, Jimmy Nelson, Erwin Olaf and many more, the testimonies add a new way of seeing not only these masterpieces, but also life itself. The book is lavishly produced in genuine leather, with beautiful hand-written calligraphy, and the finest printing technique and paper.

An anomaly in the design world, Amsterdam based Marcel Wanders (Boxtel, the Netherlands, 1963) has made it his mission to create an environment of love, live with passion and make our most exciting dreams come true. This philosophy is most apparent in Rijks, Masters of the Golden Age, a book born out of Marcel's profound admiration for the incredible artistic and intellectual legacy that is the Gallery of Honour in the Rijksmuseum. Marcel's work excites, provokes, and polarises, but never fails to surprise for its ingenuity, daring and singular quest to uplift the human spirit and entertain. From opening his studio in the heart of the Jordaan area, where over 50 design experts worked every day towards publishing Creative Amsterdam in 2009, a book devoted to the city's intellectual, political and creative history; to designing the interior of the Andaz Prinsengracht set in Amsterdam's former public library, each of Marcel's career milestones has led to his heroic homage to these 17th-century Dutch masterpieces, now made available to everyone. Marcel is bringing the human touch back to design by ushering in design's 'new age', in which designer, craftsperson and user are reunited. In his process, Marcel defies design dogma; instead, focusing on holistic solutions rather than the technocratic. In Marcel's universe, the coldness of industrialism is replaced by the poetry, fantasy and romance of different ages, vividly brought to life in the contemporary moment.