PRESS RELEASE: October 1, 2020
ANNOUNCING:
THE SISTINE CHAPEL
A Super-Deluxe Three-Volume Collector’s Limited Edition of Six Hundred Numbered Sets with the Vatican Museums’ Authenticity Seal
Global Publication on November 1, 2020
by Callaway Arts & Entertainment
The Definitive Rendition of the Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo’s Renaissance Masterpieces Presented
in 1:1 Life Size with 99% Color Fidelity
The Complete Sistine Chapel in Book Form
“The Museum Without Walls”
An Unprecedented Technological Achievement
A Must-Have Collectible for Connoisseurs of the Finest in Life
Donation Incentive Program Offered to Benefactors
New York—October 1, 2020 - Callaway Arts & Entertainment is proud to present this extraordinary three-volume set on the Sistine Chapel, the result of a five-year collaboration between Callaway, the Vatican Museums, and the Italian art publisher Scripta Maneant of Bologna, Italy.
Employing ultra-high-resolution digital photography of every centimeter of the Sistine Chapel, along with the finest Italian bookmaking craftsmanship, it is also the culmination of Callaway’s 40 years of publishing the world’s finest art books.
This giant, 24x17 inch, 822-page magnum opus features state-of-the-art color accuracy and printing fidelity, color-matched against the actual frescoes, to produce a 1:1 life-scale rendering of masterworks by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Perugino, and other Renaissance artists as the world has never seen them.
This monumental project dovetails with the ongoing conservation program of the Vatican Museums, who have never authorized a publication of this kind. It creates a state-of-the-art permanent archive through the most advanced digital technology. The worldwide publication is limited to 1,999 copies, with only 600 sets available in the English language for the world. The work will never be reprinted. A portion of proceeds from sales is given to the Vatican Museums.
The publication of The Sistine Chapel trilogy is a pioneering technological breakthrough. To create the ultimate book of these masterpieces, a team of photographers made more than 270,000 digital images over the course of 67 consecutive nights, while the Sistine Chapel was closed to the public. Using a 33-foot-tall scaffold and rig to capture every inch of the chapel in gigapixel digital photography, the team utilized imaging software to stitch together seamlessly all 270,000 individual frames. The Sistine Chapel can be experienced through the pages with a precision, color, detail, and proximity not possible to see in person. The result is the first opportunity in history for viewers to appreciate the frescoes as Michelangelo and the other artists painted them, with images so clear, sharp, and immersive that the viewers feel as if they are side by side with the artist. We can observe in extreme close-up the artists’ precise colors and textures down to individual brush strokes.
The words of Antonio Paolucci, former Director of the Vatican Museums, guide the reader on the journey through the Sistine Chapel: the iconography and stories behind the masterpieces; heretofore-unseen details; the subtly nuanced palette; the energy of brushstrokes applied in the race against time that is inherent in the fresco painting technique; and the mesmerizing expression in the eyes and gestures of the figures portrayed. Readers are left with an indelible experience of overwhelming grandeur.
The Sistine Chapel is an art treasure for the ages, to acquire or to give as the heirloom of a lifetime.
Quote by Robert Simon, Art Historian and Art Dealer, who discovered Leonardo da Vinci’s lost masterpiece Salvator Mundi in 2005 and first exhibited it in 2011:
Now more than ever, when travel is limited and the immense amount of digital imagery fatigues the eye, these magnificent volumes can serve as a tonic for the soul. Whether seen as a triumph of photography, a monument of scholarship, or a luxurious asset, this is a work to covet and, for the fortunate, to own.
Publication Date: November 1, 2020
ISBN: 9780935112917
US Price: $22,000, inclusive of shipping and handing, plus tax. Each set will be expedited via air courier to the final destination in a bespoke, reusable, locked shipping case that perfectly safeguards the ensemble in transit and in storage
To watch The Sistine Chapel book trailer and find out more visit: callaway.com/sistinechapel
For Retailers:
Available through Ingram Publisher Services Contact your IPS Sales Representative, call (866) 400-3551, fax (800) 838-1149, email ips@ingramcontent.com, or visit ipage
SPECIFICATIONS:
• THREE VOLUMES
• Page count: 822 total pages for the three volumes
• Trim size of each volume: 24 x 17 inches (portrait)
• Weight: 25 lbs. for each volume; 75 lbs. total
• Gigapixel photography color-matched against the original frescoes with 99.4% accuracy
• Printed and bound in Italy in six-color offset lithography, including 220, 24 x 51-inch gatefolds
• Printed on Fedrigoni Symbol Tatami paper
• Each signature is hand-gathered and each volume is hand-bound in three-piece Bodoniana sewn binding in silk printed with metallic ink. The spines in white calf leather from matched hides are debossed in silver, gold, and platinum foil stamping
• Typographic design by Jerry Kelly
• Debossed handmade Italian endpapers featuring Cosmati mosaic tile floor patterns in the Sistine Chapel
• Each volume is protected in a custom cotton sleeve and a pair of white cotton gloves is provided for archival handling
• Bespoke handmade gift box for each volume and for the boxed ensemble, printed in white and silver ink with matte film lamination with reclosable fasteners
• Custom-designed viewing stand and cabinet available upon special order
PRESS RELEASE: September 16, 2020
THE BEATLES:
GET BACK
The Beatles’ First Official Book Since Bestselling The Beatles Anthology
Photo by Ethan A. Russell/
©Apple Corps Ltd.
Photo by Linda McCartney/
©Paul McCartney
Photo by Ethan A. Russell/
©Apple Corps Ltd.
Global October 12, 2021 Publication by Callaway and Apple Corps to Coincide with the Release of Peter Jackson’s “THE BEATLES: GET BACK” Feature Documentary Film
Definitive Volume Presents Exclusive, In-Their-Own-Words Account of The Beatles’ Let It Be Recording Sessions, Illustrated with Hundreds of Previously Unpublished Images, Including Photos by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney
London / New York – September 16, 2020 - Callaway Arts & Entertainment and Apple Corps Ltd. are pleased to announce plans for the global publication on August 31, 2021 of THE BEATLES: GET BACK, the first official standalone book to be released by The Beatles since international bestseller The Beatles Anthology. Beautifully designed and produced, the 240-page hardcover tells the story of The Beatles’ creation of their 1970 album, Let It Be, in their own words. Presenting transcribed conversations drawn from over 120 recorded hours of the band’s studio sessions with hundreds of previously unpublished images, including photos by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney, THE BEATLES: GET BACK also includes a foreword written by Peter Jackson and an introduction by Hanif Kureishi. The book’s texts are edited by John Harris from original conversations between John, Paul, George and Ringo spanning three weeks of recording, culminating in The Beatles’ historic final rooftop concert. THE BEATLES: GET BACK will be a special and essential companion to director Peter Jackson’s “THE BEATLES: GET BACK” feature documentary film, set for theatrical release on August 27, 2021.
To watch the THE BEATLES: GET BACK book trailer and find out more visit: http://thebeatles.com You can also watch the trailer on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/ZM OJUFzIQ
Pre-order THE BEATLES: GET BACK by The Beatles: https://lnk.to/thebeatlesgetbackbook https://thebeatles.callaway.com/getback
This intimate, riveting book invites us to travel back in time to January 1969, the beginning of The Beatles’ last year as a band. The BEATLES (‘The White Album’) is still at number one in the charts, but the ever-prolific foursome regroup in London for a new project, initially titled Get Back. Over 21 days, first at Twickenham Film Studios and then at their own brand-new Apple Studios, with cameras and tape recorders documenting every day’s work, the band rehearse a huge number of songs, new and old, in preparation for what proves to be their final concert, which famously takes place on the rooftop of their own Apple Corps office building, bringing central London to a halt.
Legend now has it that these sessions were a grim time for a band falling apart, but, as acclaimed novelist Hanif Kureishi writes in his introduction to THE BEATLES: GET BACK, “In fact this was a productive time for them, when they created some of their best work. And it is here that we have the privilege of witnessing their early drafts, the mistakes, the drift and digressions, the boredom, the excitement, joyous jamming and sudden breakthroughs that led to the work we now know and admire.”
These sessions, which generated the Let It Be album and film released in May 1970, represent the only time in The Beatles’ career that they were filmed at such length while in the studio creating music. Simultaneously, they were exclusively photographed and their conversations recorded.
THE BEATLES: GET BACK is the band’s own definitive book documenting those sessions. It brings together enthralling transcripts of their candid conversations, edited by leading music writer John Harris, with hundreds of extraordinary images, most of them unpublished. The majority of the photographs are by two photographers who had special access to their sessions—Ethan A. Russell and Linda Eastman (who married Paul McCartney two months later).
Peter Jackson’s documentary film will reexamine the sessions using over 55 hours of unreleased original 16-millimetre footage filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg in 1969, now restored, and over 120 hours of mostly unheard audio recordings. This sumptuous book also features many unseen high-resolution film frames from the same restored footage.
The Wylie Agency of New York and London will sell global co-edition rights to the book, and Ingram Publisher Services will be the distributor for U.S., Canada, UK, and Ireland.
THE BEATLES: GET BACK promises to be a must-have title, to be collected and treasured by generations of Beatles fans and music lovers worldwide.
Quote by Nicholas Callaway, Founder & Publisher, Callaway Arts & Entertainment:
The Beatles gave my generation their genius and their joy and they changed the world through their art. The creativity and inspiration expressed in this landmark book and in Peter Jackson’s film are as important and relevant today as ever.
THE BEATLES: GET BACK
Foreword by Peter Jackson Introduction by Hanif Kureishi
Edited by John Harris from transcripts of the original sound recordings Photographs by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney
Peter Jackson is an Academy Award-winning director, producer and screenwriter. His films include The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies as well as the BAFTA-nominated World War One documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old. In 2018 he began work on a new documentary about The Beatles’ 1969 Let It Be sessions, making use of the 55 hours of footage that have never been seen.
Hanif Kureishi is the author of The Buddha of Suburbia, which won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel, The Black Album, Intimacy, The Last Word, The Nothing, and What Happened? His screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette received an Oscar® nomination for Best Screenplay. Kureishi has been awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the PEN Pinter Prize, and is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. His work has been translated into thirty-six languages.
Ethan A. Russell is a multiple Grammy®-nominated photographer, director and author of four books. He is the only photographer to have shot covers for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who. He was invited by The Beatles to photograph the band’s recording sessions in January 1969 and his images adorn the sleeve of the Let It Be album.
Linda McCartney began her four-decade career as a prolific photographer chronicling the musical revolution of the 1960s. In 1967 she was voted U.S. Female Photographer of the Year and in 1968 she became the first female photographer to shoot the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Between 1967 and 1969 Linda frequently photographed The Beatles, including the Get Back sessions, and she married Paul in March 1969. Her photographic work went on to focus on the themes of social commentary, domesticity and nature.
John Harris writes on politics, culture and music for The Guardian and Mojo magazine. His books include The Last Party, about the culture of the 1990s, and the definitive account of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon. In 2018, he contributed an essay to the Anniversary Edition of The Beatles (‘White Album’).
Apple Corps Ltd. was founded by The Beatles in 1968 to oversee the band’s own creative and business interests. As part of its management of The Beatles’ entire intellectual property canon, the London- based company administers the legendary band’s recorded catalogue along with film, theatrical and book publishing rights.
Callaway Arts & Entertainment, headquartered in New York, brings the work of great artists to the world in books and all media platforms through meaningful content, advanced technology and fine design.
* * *
Publication Date: August 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-935112-96-2
US Price: $60.00
UK Price: £40.00
Trim size: 11 7/8 x 10 inches (302 x 254mm), Portrait
Page count: 240 pp plus endpapers
Photographs: 200+
Available through Ingram Publisher Services.
To order: Contact your IPS Sales Representative, call (866) 400-3551, fax (800) 838-1149,
email ips@ingramcontent.com, or visit ipage.
To order in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe General Enquiries:
INGRAM
5th Floor
52 – 54 St John Street Clerkenwell
London
EC1M 4HF
IPSUK_enquiries@ingramcontent.com
International Rights Sales:
The Wylie Agency
New York and London
Contact James Pullen: jpullen@wylieagency.co.uk
* * *
Photos only to be reproduced in news editorial in direct conjunction with the September 2020 press announcement for THE BEATLES: GET BACK by The Beatles.
THE BEATLES: GET BACK cover photo credit: Photo by Linda McCartney/©Paul McCartney
Apple Studio black & white and Apple rooftop photo credit: Photo by Ethan A. Russell/©Apple Corps Ltd.
High resolution images and video are available for download from THE BEATLES: GET BACK media site:
press.thebeatles.com
username: press
password: maxwellpony909
MEDIA CONTACTS:
For Apple Corps Ltd.:
U.S.: Jennifer Ballantyne, A-Side Media Relations: jennifer@a-sidemedia.com
U.K.: Barbara Charone and Moira Bellas, MBC PR: bc@mbcpr.com; moira@mbcpr.com
For Callaway Arts & Entertainment (U.S.):
Emi Battaglia, EBPR: emi@emibattaglia.com
Jennifer Romanello, EBPR: jennifer.romanello65@gmail.com
Please visit www.thebeatles.com & www.callaway.com