Art Deco Complete: The Definitive Guide to the Decorative Arts of the 1920s and 1930s

Alastair Duncan

ISBN 10: 0810980460 / ISBN 13: 9780810980464

Published by Abrams, New York, 2009

About this Item

Quarto. 12 1/2" x 10". 544pp. A very nice copy in dust jacket. Small black dot on bottom fore-edge of book. Containing 1000 full-color images accompanying biographies of the most influential artists and designers of the inter-war years. A massive reference work on Art Deco.

Seller Inventory # 91500

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Art Deco Complete: The Definitive Guide to the Decorative Arts of the 1920s and 1930s
• Publisher: Abrams, New York
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810980460
• ISBN 13: 9780810980464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First American Edition.
• Condition: near fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: near fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Art

About this title

Synopsis

This beautiful, gift-ready oversize volume is the definitive last word in Art Deco, the most glamorous decorative arts style.

This 544-page book includes more than 1,000 color images of classic Art Deco objects and spaces. Its author is the colorful and experienced Alastair Duncan, who was for many years the expert who ran the 20th-century decorative arts department at Christie’s in New York.

It includes the work of all of the important Art Deco designers, from high-style French furniture makers to the creators of the popular “Streamline Moderne” style. And it is, in the spirit of Art Deco, a lavish and attractive book, as well as authoritative and thorough.

This gorgeous coffee table book stands as a unique monument to Art Deco, one that every graphic designer, architect, interior designer, artist, and jeweler will want to own, display, and refer to again and again.

Opinions vary as to what constitutes the best of Art Deco, whether it was the highly colorful and playful geometric style which ruled the Paris Salons in the immediate post-WWI years––the chevrons, arcs, sunbursts, maidens, fountains, floral abstractions, and ubiquitous biche (doe)––or that of the crisp angular patterns of the American modernistic impulses—including zig-zag, jazz-age, machine-age, and streamlined aesthetics, to which architects were drawn toward in the 1930s and to which its supporters believe the Deco label most appropriately applies. In the end, the argument does not matter, only the timeless designs do.

Here you will find:

• Furniture and interior decoration
• Sculpture
• Paintings, graphics, posters
• Bookbinding
• Glass and ceramics
• Textiles
• Metal work
• Jewelry
• And much more

About the Author

Alastair Duncan’s work as an officer and consultant at Christie’s New York from 1977-1990 has made him a leading authority on Art Deco and Art Nouveau decorative arts. This is his 33rd book on the decorative arts including Abrams’ Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany and American Art Deco. He lives in New York City.