Art deco 1910-1939 / edited by Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton, and Ghislaine Wood.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Benton, Charlotte.

Benton, Tim

Wood, Ghislaine

Victoria and Albert Museum.

Class of 1924 Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art deco--Exhibitions.

Art deco.

Art, Modern--20th century--Exhibitions.

Art, Modern.

Genre:

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

464 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 30 cm

Edition:

First North American edition.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Bulfinch Press/AOL Time Warner Book Group, [2003]

Summary:

Spanning the boom of the roaring Twenties and the bust of the Depression-ridden 1930s, Art Deco came to epitomize all the glamour, luxury, and hedonism of the Jazz Age. It was the style of the flapper girl, the luxury ocean liner, the Hollywood film, and the skyscraper. It burst onto the world stage at the 1925 Paris Exposition internationale des arts decoratifs et industriels modernes, and quickly swept across the globe. Its influence was everywhere: it transformed the skylines of cities from New York to Shanghai and shaped the design of everything from fashionable evening wear to plastic radios. Above all it became the style of the pleasure palaces of the age - hotels, cocktail bars, night-clubs and cinemas. Though it originated before the First World War in the one-off masterwork or the limited edition piece, Deco became synonymous with mass consumption and modernity, and was enthusiastically embraced by taste-makers all over the globe, among them Josephine Baker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the Maharajah of Indore.

Deco was an essentially eclectic style. It drew from European craft traditions as well as from the exotic cultures of Ancient Egypt, Meso-America, East Asia, and black Africa. Its use of rare and unashamedly precious materials was a reminder of the wealth of empires, whilst its streamlined and geometric imagery celebrated the machine age and the exuberance of the contemporary world. This lavish and authoritative book brings together leading experts in the field to discuss the phenomenon that was Art Deco. Its sources, varied forms of expression, distinct visual language and global spread are examined in a series of thought-provoking and scholarly essays. With its breathtaking illustrations this volume will stand as the definitive book on what was, arguably, the most popular style of the twentieth century.

Contents:

1 The Style and the Age / Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton 12

2 The Great War, Mass Society and 'Modernity' / Arthur Marwick 28

Part 2 Sources and Iconography 38

3 Egyptomania / Christopher Frayling 40

4 Deco Sculpture and Archaism / Penelope Curtis 50

5 Ancient Mexican Sources of Art Deco / Oriana Baddeley 56

6 Inspiration from the East / Anna Jackson 66

7 Collecting and Constructing Africa / Ghislaine Wood 78

8 National Traditions / Juliette Hibou 90

9 Avant-Garde Sources / Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton 100

10 From Pattern to Abstraction / Jonathan M. Woodham 112

11 The Exotic / Ghislaine Wood 124

Part 3 The Paris 1925 Exhibition 138

12 The International Exhibition / Charlotte Benton 140

13 Paris 1925: Consuming Modernity / Tag Gronberg 156

14 The Artist-Decorator / Stephane Laurent 164

Part 4 The Spread of Deco 172

15 Germany, Austria and the Netherlands / Reino Liefkes 174

16 Art Deco in Central Europe / David Crowley 190

17 'Lovely Neoclassical Byways': Art Deco in Scandinavia / Jennifer Hawkins Opie 202

18 European Glass / Ghislaine Wood 214

19 Italian Architecture and Design / Tim Benton 218

20 Conscience and Consumption: Art Deco in Britain / Gillian Naylor 230

21 British Art Deco Ceramics / Alun Graves 240

22 Art Deco Architecture / Tim Benton 244

23 Art Deco Fashion / Valerie Mendes 260

24 Art Deco Jewellery / Clare Phillips 272

25 Photography and the New Vision / Mark Haworth-Booth 284

26 Art Deco Graphic Design and Typography / Jeremy Aynsley 296

27 Art Deco Bindings / Rowan Watson, Annemarie Riding 304

28 Art Deco and the Book Jacket / Rowan Watson, Annemarie Riding 308

Part 5 The Deco World 312

29 Travel, Transport and Art Deco / Paul Atterbury 314

30 Art Deco and Hollywood Film / Ghislaine Wood 324

31 'The Filter of American Taste': Design in the USA in the 1920s / Wendy Kaplan 334

32 American Metalwork between the Wars / Jeannine Falino 344

33 New Materials and Technologies / Jeffrey L. Meikle 348

34 The Search for an American Design Aesthetic: From Art Deco to Streamlining / Nicolas P. Maffei 360

35 Art Deco in East Asia / Anna Jackson 370

36 Indo-Deco / Amin Jaffer 382

37 Ambiguously Modern: Art Deco in Latin America / Rafael Cardoso 396

38 'A Growing Enthusiasm for Modernity': Art Deco in Australia / Christopher Menz 406

39 Art Deco in South Africa / Dipti Bhagat 418

40 Decline and Revival / Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton 426.

Notes:

Originally published as the catalog of an exhibition held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Mar. 27-July 20, 2003.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 443-449) and indexes.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1924 Book Fund.

ISBN:

082122834X

OCLC:

53017256