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FUNDACIóN JUAN MARCH
Modern Taste: Art Deco in Paris 1910-1935
Edited by Tim Benton, Manuel Fontán del Junco, María Zozaya. Text by Tim Benton, José Miguel Marinas, Emmanuel Bréon, Francisco Javier Pérez Roja, Ghislaine Wood, Tag Gronberg, Évelyne Possémé, Hélčne Andrieux, Agnčs Callu, Carole Aurouet.
The definitive book on Art Deco: an elegant large-format hardcover with hundreds of museum-quality color reproductions featuring exquisite examples of Art Deco jewellery, ceramics, laquer, fashion, textiles, graphic design and art work
Modern Taste: Art Deco in Paris, 1910-1935 offers readers an opportunity to appreciate, examine, assess and enjoy an artistic movement that defies easy definition but which has been described as "the last of the total styles": Art Deco.
Comprehensive and beautifully designed, Modern Taste includes nearly 400 works in a wide array of media: painting, sculpture, furniture, fashion design, jewelry, film, architecture, glassware and ceramics are all represented, alongside the photography, drawings and advertisements that helped create "the modern taste."
The book aims to question the almost total absence of Art Deco from the history of modern art and from curatorial practice, and to vindicate--as some exemplary cases did in the wake of the Deco revival from the 1970s onwards--not only the evident beauty of Art Deco but also the fascination exerted by this singularly modern phenomenon with all its cultural and artistic complexity.
What we know as Art Deco was an alternative style to the avant-garde. It stood for a modernity that was pragmatic and ornamental rather than utopian and functional, and it became the great shaper of modern desire and taste, leaving its characteristic stamp on Western society in the early decades of the 20th century.
An elegant and stylish addition to any design library."
Jeanne Paquin, Chimčre evening dress, 1925, is reproduced from Modern Taste: Art Deco in Paris 1910-1935.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Real Style Network
New Art Books for the Creative Soul: For anyone fascinated by the art deco movement, Modern Taste: Art Deco In Paris pays tribute to the artistic style which made a splash in Paris from 1910-1935.
Metropolis
Shannon Sharpe
[Modern Taste: Art Deco in Paris 1910-1935] serves as an important challenge to the division between fine and decorative arts.
Metropolis Magazine
Shannon Sharpe
This book questions why Art Deco…is almost completely absent from the history of modern art. It serves as an important challenge to the division between fine and decorative arts.
Art Daily
Outstanding examples… of painting, sculpture, furniture, fashion, jewellery, perfumery, film, architecture, stained-glass, ceramics, lacquer and goldsmith’s work in addition to textiles, book-bindings, photographs, drawings, plans, architectural models, advertising posters and magazines.
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Jean Dupas' poster for the XVčme Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, 1924, is reproduced from Modern Taste: Art Deco in Paris 1910-1935. In his chapter, Art Deco: Style and Meaning, Tim Benton writes, "This was the Zeitgeist premise: architecture and design should change radically because the world had been dramatically altered by the arrival of industrialization. Modernist architects and designers all over Europe invariably made use of this argument. But there was a counter-argument: that the horrors of the modern world required that artists separate themselves from contingency and create an autonomous, disinterested work which allowed them to achieve an elevated spiritual satisfaction… This argument is the epistemological issue of the relationship between the material world and the realm of the imagination, or between body and spirit. Does the one determine the other? Most people would have reservations about this. Curiously, many supporters of Art Deco deployed this argument in favor of decorative art." continue to blog
Featured image is a detail from a design for a silver cigarette case by Jean Fouquet, circa 1925. It is reproduced from Modern Taste: Art Deco in Paris 1910-1935, published by Fondacion Juan March. Evelyne Possémé, chief curator of Art Nouveau and Art Deco jewelry at the Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris, quotes one critic's response to Fouquet's designs based on machine and automobile parts: "It gives me the shudders. Are women supposed to wear ball bearings on their arms? Really, I object [...] yes, machines are wonderful, powerful things, and that’s what I like about them; but I am not keen on seeing their insides displayed at inopportune moments. Pieces of jewelry that look like spare parts make for very crude symbols. We do not need fetishism. We are not commemorating the victory of the machine; we do not have to sport miniature engines. Messrs Fouquet and Templier really should look elsewhere for their inspiration." continue to blog
"Simone Kahn," Man Ray's 1926 portrait of Surrealist muse and first wife to Andre Breton, is reproduced from Modern Taste: Art Deco in Paris 1910-1935, Fondacion Juan March's glorious survey of more than 400 impeccably chosen examples of period painting, sculpture, furniture design, fashion, jewelry, film, architecture, glassware, ceramics, photography, drawings, advertisements and more. The portrait is one of many that Ray produced for the fashion industry, mixing utopian avant-garde aesthetics with ornamental modern style. Other equally compelling portraits include novelist Marjorie Seabrook wearing a silver collar, heiress Nancy Cunard in dozens of bangle bracelets, model and muse Kiki de Montparnasse with iconic African mask and designer Coco Chanel with pearls and cigarette. See more of our favorite books of the year in our 2015 Holiday Gift Guide. continue to blog
This 1919 portrait of Denise Poiret in a silver evening gown designed by her husband, French couturier Paul Poiret, is reproduced from Modern Taste: Art Deco in Paris 1910-1935, published by Fondacion Juan March. Art Historian Tim Benton writes, "In many ways, Art Deco is a style conceived and largely consumed by and for women. The great couturiers of the 19th century had established Paris as the center of world fashion and their 20th century followers fought tooth and nail to maintain this dominance. And it was the couturiers who were not only the first patrons of Art Deco but also the ones who gave it its characteristic panache. Before the war, it was Poiret who made dramatic changes in the way fashion was conceived and marketed and in so doing changed the shape of the fashionable woman. Freeing the body from the corset and heavy underwear, Poiret idealized an image of the young, slender body… This kind of figure crops up repeatedly in the sculpture of the period." continue to blog
Jean Carlu's 1931 poster for the Exposition Union des Artistes Modernes is reproduced from Modern Taste, Fondacion Juan March's impeccable new survey of Art Deco art, architecture, design, film and advertising in Paris, 1910-1935. Of the dissident group, which included Sonia Delaunay, Jean Prouvé, Jean Fouquet, Eileen Grey and others, the editors write, "The Societé des Artistes Decorateurs (SAD) had always been able to absorb divergences of viewpoint, but… the threat posed by the Modern Movement in Germany, Holland and France and the political stance of many of the members meant that by 1929 it had become intolerable to many designers to continue to represent themselves as 'decorators' serving the interest of wealthy individual clients. The journalist Ernest Tisserand had detected a 'whiff of secession' as early as 1926, writing in that year that he expected to see a salon of independent Decorative Artists in the following year. Sure enough, in 1929 a group of designers decided to split off from the SAD and established a new organization, the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM). The words 'artist' and 'modern' were clearly significant, claiming both a higher status than that of 'decorative artists' and fixing their colors to the mast of modernity." continue to blog
For Design Miami/ 2015, ARTBOOK presents a curated collection of the very best in contemporary design and art books from international publishers, specialized editors, boutique imprints and galleries. In addition to new monographs and important exhibition catalogs, our store carries a hand-picked selection of this year's best Holiday Gift Books. Join us for talks and signings with the Peter Wirtz, the Haas Brothers, Nadja Swarovski and Todd Eberle.
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 11.5 in. / 540 pgs / 600 color / 100 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $39.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $57.95 ISBN: 9788470756290 PUBLISHER: Fundación Juan March AVAILABLE: 7/28/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ ME
Published by Fundación Juan March. Edited by Tim Benton, Manuel Fontán del Junco, María Zozaya. Text by Tim Benton, José Miguel Marinas, Emmanuel Bréon, Francisco Javier Pérez Roja, Ghislaine Wood, Tag Gronberg, Évelyne Possémé, Hélčne Andrieux, Agnčs Callu, Carole Aurouet.
The definitive book on Art Deco: an elegant large-format hardcover with hundreds of museum-quality color reproductions featuring exquisite examples of Art Deco jewellery, ceramics, laquer, fashion, textiles, graphic design and art work
Modern Taste: Art Deco in Paris, 1910-1935 offers readers an opportunity to appreciate, examine, assess and enjoy an artistic movement that defies easy definition but which has been described as "the last of the total styles": Art Deco.
Comprehensive and beautifully designed, Modern Taste includes nearly 400 works in a wide array of media: painting, sculpture, furniture, fashion design, jewelry, film, architecture, glassware and ceramics are all represented, alongside the photography, drawings and advertisements that helped create "the modern taste."
The book aims to question the almost total absence of Art Deco from the history of modern art and from curatorial practice, and to vindicate--as some exemplary cases did in the wake of the Deco revival from the 1970s onwards--not only the evident beauty of Art Deco but also the fascination exerted by this singularly modern phenomenon with all its cultural and artistic complexity.
What we know as Art Deco was an alternative style to the avant-garde. It stood for a modernity that was pragmatic and ornamental rather than utopian and functional, and it became the great shaper of modern desire and taste, leaving its characteristic stamp on Western society in the early decades of the 20th century.
An elegant and stylish addition to any design library."
