[5] These were followed by further luxury editions of poetry, including Stéphane Mallarmé's collection of poems "Poésies" illustrated with 29 etchings by Henri Matisse.
Art historian John Jacobus said of Matisse's work "The etchings of the 1932 edition of Mallarmé perhaps mark the peak in his efforts in this medium".
Skira promoted the magazine as a "primary source of information about the arts" that would reproduce works of "universal interest" and supplement them with critical studies of current artistic trends.
[10] Picasso was commissioned to photograph a series of sculptures for the first number[11] which also included reproductions of works by Matisse and Brassaï and contributions by Breton, Eluard and Pierre Reverdy.
In 1934 Skira launched a book series with the title Les trésors de la peinture française with each volume containing "large colour plates and a brief text".
Towards the end of the war he also published "a monthly review of art and literature"[13] called Labyrinthe (1944–1946) which contained essays on topics and by painters (Cingria, René Auberjonois, Gruber) and thinkers (Jean-Paul Sartre, André Malraux, Eluard) similar to those appearing in Minotaure but whose newspaper format showed that he was attempting to reach a wider audience.
The books were well constructed with embossed lettering on cloth or buckram covers, sturdy archival papers, and great attention to details.
[17] Most volumes in each collection were translated into multiple languages and available in French, English, and Italian editions, and often in German and Spanish "according to the market and the demand of the distributors".
"[17] Painting, Color, History: 23 volumes (1949–1972) [four additional volumes published by Skira/Rizzoli after 1972] Over two decades in the making, the original series for an international audience was "An historical conspectus of the great schools of painting and the chief art movements, past and present"[28] Many art historians of the 20th century were commissioned to write the books, including Otto Benesch, Anthony Blunt, Hans Bolliger, Jules David Brown, Albert Châtelet, Robert L. Delevoy, Enrique Lafuente Ferrari, Hanspeter Landolt, Jacques Lassaigne, Jean Leymarie, Jean- Amedeo Maiuri, Jacques Mayoux, Nello Ponente, Maynal Raynal, Barbara Rose, Werner Schmalenbach, Rosabianca Skira-Venturi, Arnold Rüdlinger, Jacques Thuillier, and Lionello Venturi.
The authors include archeologists and art historians: Giulio Carlo Argan, Georges Bataille, André Grabar, Jacques Lassaigne, Amedeo Maiuri, Carl Nordenfalk, Massimo Pallottino, Maurice Raynal, Martin Robertson, and Lionello Venturi.
The books have dark forest green, buckram covers with embossed gold gilt-lettering on the front and spines, and are in a quarto (4to) format, near square in dimensions (11.25 x 10 in./28.4 x 25.2 cm.).
[31] The authors were all highly regarded in their respective fields, including Basil Gray, Richard Ettinghausen, Akiyama Terukazu (National Institute of Art Researchers, Tokyo), Douglas Barrett (British Museum, London), and Mario Bussagli (University of Rome).
[31] The Taste of Our Time: 57 volumes (1953–1972) Promoted as "handy-sized" these small, relatively low priced books were designed for a wide audience without compromising Skira's high standards.
[35] The authors include art historians and archeologist including Ekrem Akurgal, Maurizio Calvesi, Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón, Alexandre Cirici-Pellicer, Deoclecio Redig de Campo, Richard Ettinghausen, André Grabar, Samuel Kirkland Lothrop, Cyril Mango, Aly Mazahéri, Michelangelo Murano.
The authors include Georges Duby, André Chastel, Giulio Carlo Argan, Jean Starobinski, Eugénie De Keyser, Nello Ponente, and Robert L. Delevoy.
[3] In 1996 the firm was acquired by the Italian publishing group Einaudi and later by Mondadori and its head office was moved to the Palazzo Casati Stampa in Milan.