From Publishers Weekly
From a sleekly modern apartment house in Cairo to a town hall in the Netherlands, architecture was influenced internationally by the Art Deco style, as revealed by this wide-angled, superbly illustrated survey. Bayer ( The Art of Rene Lalique ) first uncovers Art Deco's ancient and exotic sources, from Assyrian to Mayan to Moorish. Her text, wedded to 376 jazzy, snazzy illustrations (146 in color), demonstrates how this vibrant, decorative style extended between the wars into every nook and cranny of the U.S. leaving its mark on skyscrapers, movie theaters, firehouses, factories, dams, tunnels, high schools, gas stations, roadside diners and even gravestones. Bayer also examines the Art Deco revival, citing restored Miami Beach hotels as well as public buildings by Michael Graves, Robert Venturi and Helmut Jahn that echo or evoke Art Deco, a style "at once traditional and innovative."
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Book Description
Art Deco buildings, with their highly ornate facades and dramatic forms, are a vital part of our surroundings. The movie theaters, hotels, apartment blocks, and other landmarks of the twenties and thirties preserve the visual identity of this unmistakable style in towns and cities the world over. This exploration of Art Deco architectural design embraces many different times and places in its visual and verbal account of the movement's origins, development, and influence. Various types of architecture, the author explains, were termed Art Deco, and their antecedents were mixed and often surprising: Arts and Crafts, fin-de-sicle Vienna, Cubism, Expressionism, and the Bauhaus. Art Deco's sheer exuberance ensured its success across the globe, and it adapted to the most diverse situations, as shown by examples ranging from offices in Europe and gas stations in America to maharajahs' palaces in India and imperial dwellings in Japan. Public buildings of all kinds--whether fountain or state capitol, skyscraper or bus terminal--bear witness to its decades of popularity. Despite its historic pedigree, Art Deco design is very much alive today. Post-modernism has borrowed its repertoire of motifs and idioms to produce what, in some cases, amounts to a full-blown revival. Many of the original buildings still survive, now restored to their former glory, to be admired and enjoyed. Sumptuously illustrated, this unrivaled study provides a comprehensive guide to the best loved of all twentieth-century architectural styles.