Art Deco - the style that swept across the globe during the 1920s and 1930s and created the defining look of the interwar years. Its influence was ubiquitous- it touched the design of everything - from cinemas and Hollywood films to the packaging of cigarettes, from evening wear and accessories to luxury liners and locomotives. Deco was the ultimate synthesis of styles- it borrowed from European craft traditions as eagerly as it appropriated aspects of 'the exotic' from the cultures of Ancient Egypt, Meso-America, the oriental East and black Africa. Its use of rare and unashamedly precious materials was a reminder of the wealth of empires, whilst its geometric imagery celebrated urban modernity and the experience of modernity worldwide. This lavish and erudite book brings together nearly 40 essays from leading experts in the field to discuss the phenomenon that was Art Deco in the most wide-ranging survey of what created such an utterly distinctive iconography - its sources, its varied forms of expression, and the way it refined and redefined itself as it spread throughout the world. With breathtaking illustrations and essays both thought-provoking and scholarly, it will stand as the definitive book on what was, arguably, the most popular style of the twentieth century.

Essential Art Deco captures the essence of the style which swept across the globe in the 1920s and 1930s, altering the skyline of cities from Shanghai to Rio, and adding an exotic vibrant edge to everything from cinema and fashion to ocean lines and automobiles. Beautifully illustrated throughout, the book explores the extraordinary visual language of the style. Skilful juxtaposition of source material and iconic Deco pieces shows how designers borrowed from the exotic cultures of Ancient Egypt, Meso-America, the oriental East and Africa and from the man-made world of skyscrapers and machines, developing in the process a new and highly distinctive iconography. Images inspired by the natural world of plants and animals, sunbursts and fountains, contrast with the geometric forms of avant-garde painting and design, culminating eventually in the symbolic idiom of streamlining. Deeply eclectic and highly decorative, Art Deco was all about fantasy, fun and glamour - themes that are celebrated in this attractive book and which still strike a popular chord today.

Explores the tradition of the streamlined design and reveals how it was manifested in the great buildings, furniture, and merchandise of the 1930s.

An expansive take on American Art Deco that explores Chicago's pivotal role in developing the architecture, graphic design, and product design that came to define middle-class style in the twentieth century Frank Lloyd Wright’s lost Midway Gardens, the iconic Sunbeam Mixmaster, and Marshall Field’s famed window displays: despite the differences in scale and medium, each belongs to the broad current of an Art Deco style that developed in Chicago in the first half of the twentieth century. This ambitious overview of the city’s architectural, product, industrial, and graphic design between 1910 and 1950 offers a fresh perspective on a style that would come to represent the dominant mode of modernism for the American middle class. Lavishly illustrated with 325 images, the book narrates Art Deco’s evolution in 101 key works, carefully curated and chronologically organized to tell the story of not just a style but a set of sensibilities. Critical essays from leading figures in the field discuss the ways in which Art Deco created an entire visual universe that extended to architecture, advertising, household objects, clothing, and even food design. Through this comprehensive approach to one of the 20th century’s most pervasive modes of expression in America, Art Deco Chicago provides an essential overview of both this influential style and the metropolis that came to embody it.

"Essential art deco looks in detail at all aspects of the movement, from architecture to decorative arts, with detailed commentary on 120 works. Some of these are considered major pieces, others are less well-known, but they are all essential to the philosophy of the Art Deco movement."--BOOK JACKET.

When I. M. Pei was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1983, the jury said he had "given this century some of its most beautiful interior spaces and exterior forms." I. M. Pei: Complete Works, the first and definitive survey of the master architect, attests to this statement by showcasing Pei’s transcendent, sculptural forms in over fifty projects and more than 300 illustrations, culminating in the last works he is currently completing. Often working in a spare geometry with a palette of stone, concrete, glass, and steel, Pei—who began his career pioneering public housing projects in New York City—has taken his vision of modern architecture across the globe with commissions in locations as diverse as Quatar, China, Luxembourg, Japan, and Germany. Meanwhile, major projects such as the JFK Library in Boston and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., have made him a household name in the United States.

Surrealism, one of the influential movements of the 20th century, had a profound impact on all forms of culture. Containing over 350 illustrations, this book examines its impact in the wider fields of design and the decorative arts and its sometimes uneasy relationship with the commercial world.

work on the subject for many years to come." "With over 1,000 illustrations in colour and black-and-white." --Book Jacket.

The Art Deco movement emerged from the remnants of a world that had been torn apart after World War I. This aesthetic movement came to embody dreams of industry and prosperity. In the whirl of the Jazz Age and frenzy of the "Roaring Twenties", the streamlined silhouette of the flapper girl was reflected in the architectural aesthetic of Art Deco the rounded curve was conquered by the androgynous straight line. Architecture, painting, furniture, and sculpture evolved into oeuvres enhanced with sharp lines and broken angles. Although short-lived, this movement still influences contemporary design today.