Modern : Van Gogh, Rietveld, Leger and Others

30 x 23cm. Published on the occasion of an exhibition held at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 18th to September 24th 2023. This book sheds new light on nineteenth and early twentieth-century modern artists and designers. At the time European artists who felt that their gains from individual freedom had been paid for with the loss of direct involvement in society turned to "community art" or art for everyone. Committed designers who were inspired by technological and social modernity were not only concerned with beauty, but also with concepts of the "true" and the "good"; well-designed utensils, for instance, could positively influence people and their environments. The relationships between European and extra-European visual art and design from appropriation to interactions are examined through several exemplary objects. The exhibition included works by R.W. Winfield, Michael Thonet, William Morris, Vincent van Gogh, Kawanabe Kyosai, Jozef Israels, George Hendrik Breitner, Suze Robertson, Suzanne Valadon, Jan Toorop, H.P. Berlage, Gerrit Rietveld, Marcel Breuer, Margaret Bourke-White, Fernand Leger and A.M. Cassandre, among others. These works are accompanied by a selection of objects from New Guinea, Suriname, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Fiji, and Japan, made by unknown artists. Chapters include 'From modern to modernism', ?'Metal is a revolution: a new material in furniture design?', 'Community art and modern society', 'Decolonizing modernism(s)', etc. Fragile die-cut cover slightly shelf-worn, otherwise good condition.…