Eva Zeisel: Compact Design Portfolio - Hardcover

Young, Lucie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811834336 ISBN 13: 9780811834339

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2003

Synopsis

Continuing to put great classic and contemporary design within everyones grasp, Chronicle Books proudly delivers the next four installments of the popular Compact Design Portfolio. Written by top design critics, these books cover modern masters whose work ranges from the cozily domestic to the aggressively avant-garde: Eva Zeisel, whose elegantly democratic housewares span a 70-year career; Ingo Maurer, who raises lamp and lighting design to a high art form; Gaetano Pesce, whose rejection of traditional good taste brought about revolutionary furniture design; and George Nelson, the impresario behind the Marshmallow sofa and other Herman Miller classics. Follow-ing the introductory essay, a visual gallery exhibits selections of the designers best work in photographs and sketches. Presented in an irresistible small format, this series encapsulates the life, work, and influence of the great designers of our time.

About this title

About the Author

Raul Cabra is the principal of Cabra Diseno, a San Francisco design firm.

Marisa Bartolucci is former executive editor of Metropolis magazine and the author of several critically acclaimed design books. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

Part of Chronicle's Compact Design Portfolio series, this small-format illustrated volume showcases the graceful, curvy Modernist ceramic pieces of Hungarian-born industrial designer Eva Zeisel (previous books in the series have highlighted the work of designers including Michael Graves, Richard Sapper and Eileen Gray). With a career spanning several continents and nearly eight decades, Ziesel has racked up honors-a solo show at MoMA, for example (the museum has 75 of her pieces in its permanent collection), a Schramberg street named for her-and survived harrowing experiences (accused of plotting to kill Stalin, she spent 16 months Russian prisons). From sweetly humble 1926 handmade "crinkle planters" to the popular 1946 "Town and Country" salt and pepper shakers, reminiscent of softened Brancusi sculptures-or Schmoo-to the lovely "Eva" pitcher sets she made in 2002 for a Brooklyn design team, Zeisel's ceramics are pleasing, warmly minimalist, often "zoomorphic" forms. She identifies her mission as "the playful search for beauty," and believes that "one has to learn not to take oneself too seriously, not to overly respect one's designs," since for every choice made, "there are always many more possibilities." A true and endlessly energetic artist, Zeisel is as interesting as her designs, and Young's snappy, economical essay disappoints only in that one wishes it were longer, since there is obviously so much more to be said about Zeisel's life and art.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811834336
• ISBN 13: 9780811834339
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96
• Editor: Cabra Raul, Bartolucci Marisa