Product Description

An exploration of art deco architectural design, embracing many different times and places in its summary 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-siecle Vienna, Cubism, Expressionism and the Bauhaus. Patricia Bayer shows that art deco masterpieces can be seen and admired worldwide: from the skyscrapers of New York City to imperial dwellings in Tokyo; from Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Battersea Power Station to movie theatres and diners across America. Post-modernism now uses its motifs and idioms, and many of the original buildings still survive, fully restored to their former glory.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #313482 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .69" h x 11.46" w x 9.64" l, 2.72 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

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.