American Modern, 1925-1940: Design for a New Age - Hardcover

Johnson, Stewart J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810942089 ISBN 13: 9780810942080

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2000

Synopsis

In the years between the world wars, a pioneer group of designers, architects, and artists-including Norman Bel Geddes, Donald Deskey, Paul Frankl, Raymond Loewy, Gilbert Rohde, Eliel Saarinen, Walter Dorwin Teague, and Russel Wright-forged a new design aesthetic that was unmistakably American and undeniably modern.

This book, the companion volume to an exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts and opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, showcases more than 125 of the most influential works by these and other legendary designers. From chairs, dinnerware, and textiles to lamps, cocktail sets, and clocks, these strikingly innovative objects made stylish modern design accessible to a broad audience-and are much sought after by collectors today.

The introductory essay ranges from the role of museums and department stores in promoting modern design to the obsession with streamlining to the origins of planned obsolescence. This extraordinary book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in American design.

170 illustrations, 140 in full color, 9 3/4 x 9 3/4"

J. STEWART JOHNSON, the consultant for design and architecture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Modern Art, has curated exhibitions on Alvar Aalto, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Marcel Breuer, among many others.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkMay 15, 200 0-Jan. 2001

About this title

From Booklist:

When the Museum of Modern Art in New York speaks, everyone and anyone concerned with design listens. In the style-setting forefront for decades, this showcase, in concert with the American Federation for the Arts, thoughtfully has assembled a traveling collection of 125 "American Modern" objects that truly signify what this 15-year period (1925-40) means. It is, for one, the hard-edge Cubist shapes of Ferdinand Leger. Yet it is also Russel Wright's famed American Modern dinnerware, a ubiquitous sight at major flea markets and antique shows. An excellent essay by MOMA consultant Johnson kicks off this tribute, explaining its origins and practitioners, while the colorful photographs following illustrate far better than words alone the majesty of American Modern. A checklist of the exhibition, biographies, glossary, notes, and bibliography appended. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0810942089
• ISBN 13: 9780810942080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192