Taschen Books has its high-culture side. It publishes works on fine art (Picasso and Monet), design (Frank Lloyd Wright and the Bauhaus) and film (Stanley Kubrick’s unproduced Napoleon, and on-set photographs of Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver.) It also recently printed a full reproduction of a rare 1534 Guttenberg Bible.
But the company also produced the book, Girly Magazines, a peon to a bygone age of pinup illustrations, as well as even more daring titles. And it regularly launches very expensive, limited editions of books that celebrate such diverse popular topics as the moon landing and the boxing career of Mohammed Ali.
Taschen is mum about its revenues – as a private company it is not obliged to publish its financial statements – but some analysts believe that the company sells more that 40 million dollars worth of books in one year in the US alone. (Tony Barrett, Sunday Times)
While Taschen markets its wares primarily through its online outlets, there are also 11 swanky Taschen bookstores worldwide, including ones in Brussels and London, and one in Los Angeles where its owner, Benedikt Taschen, now lives most of the year.
Comic Beginnings
The company’s publishing HQ is still Cologne, Germany, where Benedikt Taschen was born 50 years ago to physician parents who supported their son’s teenage interest in comics, helping him set up a comic store in 1980 when he was only 18. Four years later, young Benedikt bought 40,000 remaindered books on the Belgian artist, Magritte, and resold them at a healthy profit – and his book career was launched. During the intervening 30 years, the company has “revolutionized the hitherto elitist area of art publishing, opening it up to a much wider audience.” (Christopher Kanal, Wealth)
Unlike public firms with their boards and committees, Taschen Books is run by one man who doesn’t conduct focus studies to decide what he’s going to publish next: his company’s products reflect his personal taste. Billy Wilder, the famous director of Some Like It Hot, once said that Benedikt was like “an old fashioned Hollywood studio head who has his hand in everything.” (Tony Barrett, Sunday Times).
Books Expensive…
Taschen Books has received much public attention for its unique and pricey limited editions that include:
- Moon Fire, an epic volume that celebrated the 1969 moon landing by the Apollo 11 mission and contained NASA maps, photographs and Norman Mailer’s feature article on the event from the 1969 Life magazine. Moon Fire was printed in an edition of 1969 copies. Twelve copies came with a chunk of genuine moon rock and sold for $112,000.
- GOAT (which stands for “Greatest Of All Time”), a 20-inch square testament to the career of Mohammed Ali (Special Champs edition, $15,000) with a leather cover printed in pink, the color of Ali’s first Cadillac.
- SUMA, a book featuring the edgy work of photographer Helmet Newton, and one of the largest books ever printed. Taschen sought the help of the Vatican’s bookbinder to produce a volume that is 30 inches tall and four feet wide when opened. (It came with its own stand.) Printed in 1999, SUMA quickly sold out its 10,000 high-priced copies. Recently, one copy signed by 63 celebrities sold at auction for $304,000.
- Coming out this year is a collector’s edition of the installation artwork of Christo and his late wife, Jean-Claude. Each 754-page book carries an original Christo lithograph and a price tag of $50,000.
Enthusiastic customers of these limited sets include Rush Hour director Brett Ratner, who owns a copy of every one the company has produced – he bought 10 copies of the Helmet Newton book - and says his home “looks like a Taschen Store.” (Alexandra Alter, Wall Street Journal)
For someone who drew and sold pictures of vampires as a child and ran a comic book store as a teenager, Benedikt Tashen is clearly comfortable with a wide range of images that reflect a diversity of public taste and which can be either lofty or lewd. “What’s high art and what’s low art is a matter of fashion,” says Taschen. “What is respectable now might be different tomorrow and will certainly be different 100 years from now.” (Tony Barrett, Sunday Times)
… and Affordable
But you don’t have to be a movie director to own a Taschen book. Two-thirds of the company’s income emanates from titles priced at a reasonable level, many for under 50 dollars. In fact, the costly limited editions really function as imaginative – and profitable – publicity stunts designed to draw attention to both the audacity and the quality of the Taschen imprimatur.
But even the cheaper books can hold their value. My son Tom owns a 2004 edition of a Taschen book on film noir by Alain Silver and James Ursini. Ostensibly a paperback, Film Noir displays the rich photographs, thick cover, and heavy paper of a hardcover edition. Film Noir sold for $19.95 six years ago and is currently out of print. A resale copy recently priced at $165.00.
Tom doesn’t plan to give away his own copy any time soon.
References:
“The Passion of Benedikt Tashen,” by Christopher Kanal, Wealth Magazine, 2008
“The Naked and the Read,” by Tony Barrett, Sunday Times Magazine, May 2, 2010
“Luxury Lit,” by Alexandra Alter, Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2010
Alan Barkley - Alan Barkley earned an Honors BA from the University of Guelph and an MFA from NSCAD University in Nova Scotia, Canada. He received a ...
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