![]() ![]() “Pieter Bruegel: The Complete Works” (Taschen, 2003) © Taschen Kink, quirk, culture and cult celebrity were established as the pillars of the publishing house with which the brand has built its name. The first was a beautiful collection of Annie Leibovitz’s portraits. But it was only with the curious acquisition in 1984 of 40,000 deadstock copies of an English-language publication on Magritte, which Taschen sold out in Germany, that Benedikt was prompted to try his hand at publishing his own lavish yet affordable art books. Trading in rare and new comics, it first published its own – the racy, alien adventures of the nude, buxom Sally Forth – in 1980. It is 40 years since Taschen was first conceived as the Cologne comic-book-shop brainchild of a precocious 18-year-old, as Benedikt was then. ![]() It’s also a Technicolor telegraph for those wondering if the woman at the helm of the German culture and art-book publisher has inherited her father Benedikt’s playful spirit. The Taschen CEO’s choice of interview mise en scène is a photo from Koons’ 1990s Made in Heaven series – a portrait of the Hungarian-Italian soft-porn star-turned-politico straddling the artist – that hangs on the wall of the company’s HQ in Cologne. Marlene Taschen’s head, with its pixie crop and cupid’s bow of red Chanel lipstick, is positioned somewhere between Jeff Koons’ naked torso and Cicciolina’s bosoms. ![]()
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