End of the 1990s. From a distance, this funny Frisbee posed on an imposing concrete pylon seems straight out of a science fiction film.
The funicular gets under way, allowing the few happy few who have come to slip into the San Fernando Valley, California, to access this curious cuckoo's nest.
"Good evening, can I get rid of your coat?"
Please follow me… ”The music of the holiday reaches the ears of newcomers.
And, when they step into the spacious art-carpeted living room, they cannot help but be gripped by the breathtaking view of the glittering Hollywood hills.
This evening, Benedikt Taschen receives.
Besides, here he is approaching.
He puts on his salmon pink linen suit, greets his guests with a princely smile.
The year 2000 is approaching, he is not even 40 years old, but he could very well be ten younger, or ten older.
What does it matter when you are already a multimillionaire?
Behind him, comfortably seated on the pristine white sofa along the bay window, photographer William Claxton and his wife, former model Peggy Moffitt, chat with two porn starlets.
At the edge of the new swimming pool designed by the painter Ed Ruscha, next to a statue of Jeff Koons, jazz musicians resonate their brass while the immense director Billy Wilder is served a glass of champagne by a charming hostess .
Benedikt is in heaven.
He who dreamed of being an artist in his youth made it even stronger.
He became their impresario, but also their best friend.
So, what other home than the “Chemosphere”, this sentinel building erected by the influential architect John Lautner in 1960, to shelter his madness of grandeur?
Having become a multimillionaire, the publisher acquired, in 1998, an incredible house designed by John Lautner in Los Angeles./Patrick Fraser / Getty
Twenty years later, the man still reigns over the beautiful book market and the publishing house that bears his name, despite the ocean separating his American residence in Los Angeles from the German headquarters of Taschen in Cologne. , his hometown.
“Everything emanates from him, his friendships and his crushes,” admits a long-time employee.
Faithful to those he admires, the soon to be sixty-year-old publishes a number of great artists from the end of the 20th century.
Last year he edited portraits of singer Patti Smith by Lynn Goldsmith, images of Sebastião Salgado in the Amazon or a series by fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh.
A stock of 40,000 books on Magritte
But he does not forget that he owes his insolent success to a certain “little” Belgian painter.
In 1980, at only 18 years old, Benedikt Taschen opened a tiny bookstore in Cologne specializing in comics, those American comics that he collected religiously since childhood.
While he is on the verge of going out of business, the young man borrows money in extremis from his parents, art-loving doctors, thanks to which he steals a stock of 40,000 books on Magritte written in English… that it will succeed in refourging three times more expensive!
We are in 1984, and this poker move will allow him to save his small business and, at the same time, to find his economic model: very large circulation books, mostly printed in three languages (English, German and French ) and sold at bargain prices.
In the advertisement for his own book in 1987, the painter Salvador Dali also pretends to be offended.
"A genius like me for only $ 6.99?"
»We read on the poster.
At 18, the young Benedikt opened a comic book store in Cologne./DR
Quickly, his monographs of the great classical and modern painters, such as Le Caravaggio or Picasso, sold like hot cakes.
From the 2000s, it was rumored that a Taschen flowed every two seconds across the world.
“The house's tour de force is to have known how to democratize art,” analyzes Anne Bonvoisin, communications director at Hachette.
But in the industry, they are not considered editors.
Their books are marketing products, which we buy like magazines, for images more than for texts.
"
What he loves above all: flirting with eroticism
Indeed, Benedikt Taschen has chosen.
The shock of photos rather than the weight of words.
In 2002, he did not hesitate to publish an album entitled Africa, by a certain Leni Riefenstahl, photographer and official director of the Nazi regime.
Needless to say, the press conference organized in Frankfurt during the Book Fair is not going very well ... Press officer Veronica Weller has the greatest difficulty in containing the 200 journalists on the prowl in a small unattractive room where we installed the 100 year old lady.
But the boss doesn't care.
This splits ace continues on his way, relying only on his flair, as when he published, a few years later, a work with the Chinese dissident artist Ai WeiWei, censored and watched by Beijing or, more recently, the disturbing work of photographer Miguel Rio Branco on misery in large megalopolises.
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But what Benedikt loves most of all is flirting with eroticism.
In the early 1990s, he broke up with the mother of his three children to marry Angelika Muthesius, a charismatic blonde recruited as editor at Taschen a few months earlier.
This former German dancer - who does not hesitate to pose in the simplest apparatus alongside her new husband in front of Jean-Loup Sieff's lens - introduces the house to the sadomasochistic or bondage aesthetic (the art of tie up partner).
Porn queens Vanessa del Rio and Cicciolina are each the subject of sensational posts.
Just like the founder of the erotic magazine Playboy, Hugh Hefner, who signs a remarkable autobiography in six volumes.
Benedikt Taschen with Pamela Anderson and Hugh Hefner, the boss of Playboy, for the release of his autobiography, in 2009./Michael Bezjian / Getty
Even today, The Big Penis Book, which brings together 400 photographs from the 1940s to the 1990s of male members, solicits the barge on the shelves of the Parisian bookstore in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
He stands against The Big Book of Breasts, devoted to the most sensual breasts of the twentieth century, the Butt Book ("the Book of the buttocks") and the Pussy Book ("the Book of kitties"), which would make Gustave Courbet blush. himself.
If they do not represent its main source of income, these explicit publications maintain the sulphurous reputation of the house.
The biggest, heaviest, most expensive book
When he's not focusing on nudity, Taschen plays with dimensions.
In a snapshot dating from 1999, the photographer Helmut Newton and his wife June display a smile of circumstance, a little tense, which hardly masks sleepless nights and hard work.
But that's it, their baby is finally out!
It weighs 35 kg and rests masterfully on a support specially designed by designer Philippe Starck.
Benedikt baptized it "Sumo" because it is the largest, heaviest and most expensive new book in history (10,000 francs at the time, the equivalent of 2050 euros today. ).
The first "Sumo" from Taschen, signed Helmut Newton in 1999./Alice Springs
This type of monumental publication, printing challenge, is unmistakably Taschen's showcase, which comes out three or four each year.
It took a whole decade for Thomas Laird to develop the one on Tibetan temples (“Murals of Tibet”).
With infinite patience and thoroughness, the American photographed piece by piece the impressive frescoes that adorn these monuments inaccessible to the general public.
Actor Richard Gere even donned the costume of a luxury sales representative to unveil, in New York, this extraordinary book, all of which 998 copies were signed by the Dalai Lama.
Very popular with collectors, these prestigious editions sell out in just a few days and sell for two to three times their initial price on the art market.
“By collecting Taschen art editions, I not only acquire magnificent books, but I also develop a remarkable collection,” says Belgian businessman René Rousseau.
Benedikt is, in a way, the curator.
We are more or less the same age, we grew up about 100 km from each other, saw the same films, listened to the same music… This new world into which he introduces me thanks to his books is incredibly interesting.
And lucrative.
Each of the 250 examples of the “Fascinating Ferrari” Sumo, fitted in a V12 engine (without the internal machinery) of the prestigious Italian car manufacturer, was put on sale for 25,000 euros in 2018. And is currently worth double that.
These flashy publications reinforce the entrepreneur's status as king of the “coffee table book” (in English, “coffee table book”).
Works that it is fashionable to highlight at home.
“When you buy a book from another publisher, you buy an author.
But when you buy a book from Taschen, you buy a Taschen ”, asserts Franck Franchet, sales director for France.
At the Elysée, the Salon de la cartographie welcomes among others the XXL work of the painter David Hockney, placed on its plinth./Philippe Petit / Paris Match / Scoop
Proudly installed on its yellow, red and blue lectern, the XXL book by painter David Hockney sees the heads of state parade who discover the Salon de la cartographie during their visit to the Elysee Palace!
Visiting in May 2019 at the Château du Clos Lucé, in Touraine, Leonardo da Vinci's last home, Emmanuel Macron even wanted to offer his Italian counterpart, Sergio Mattarella, the monograph dedicated to the genius of the Renaissance.
Problem: the book was not yet printed.
"We had to urgently call the director of manufacturing, who was able to deliver it in preview," recalls Franck Franchet.
New signatures to find
But now, after forty years of success, the party no longer seems so crazy and carefree.
Little by little, the artists and friends of Benedikt Taschen disappeared.
Stan Lee, the designer of Marvel superheroes, died right on the heels of his book's release in 2018. Peter Lindbergh died suddenly the following year.
Peter Beard, great photographer adventurer, left on April 19, 2020. Bulgarian artist Christo, who should have wrapped the Arc de Triomphe this fall, died at the end of May, just before the release of his Sumo.
"We hope that the black series will stop," says an employee of the Paris office.
The mission of Marlene Taschen, general manager: to renew the “stable” created by her father. / Joseph Kadow
Admittedly, the boss began to hand over by appointing at the end of 2016 his daughter, Marlene, general manager.
At 35, this young woman with a wise face has the heavy task of renewing the stable.
It remains to be seen whether this "rebel at heart", as she likes to qualify herself, will have the flair and interpersonal skills of her dad to keep the "small" family business going.
"Many artists are begging us to be published with us, but that cannot be improvised", we whisper in the house.
The publishing community, often jealous of success, promises that "the new generation of contemporary artists sometimes prefers more sophisticated and expensive publishers".
Because Taschen remains above all a great popularizer, certainly talented, of world art.