1 comments about Popular Art Deco: Depression Era Style and Design.

1. Most books about Art Deco rightly cover the fine art aspects of the movement but the authors of this lovely book explore the way commerce used deco styling in mass produced products available on any Main Street. It would be a good few years before an art style was used again to sell things, namely pop art in the mid-Sixties.
   
   Look at the many photographs of everyday items in the book and it is clear that manufacturers copied whatever deco style elements they wanted to enhance the sales potential of their products, at the same time a group of industrial designers where developing America's unique design style, streamline and contributing more elements to be copied, a good example are the three speed lines that popped up on many products.
   
   I think the illustrations in the book are well chosen and they really do cover everyday items in use during the Depression years and nicely the text is broken up with various interesting sidebars like the one on Dolores Del Rio's moderne house or festive season graphics or Deco Mexicana. To compliment this excellent survey have a look at 'Streamline' (ISBN 0811806626) by Steven Heller and Louise Fili, basically a visual book with several hundred examples of everyday graphics. Both books cover so well two exuberant art styles that everyone could share and so were truly democratic.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

No comments about Auction Prices of American Artists, 1995 (Auction Prices of American Artists).

No comments about Margaret Olley.

No comments about Early Works: Lucian Freud.

No comments about Zoo.

No comments about The Art of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri.

1 comments about Celtic Art and Design (The Treasury of Decorative Art).

1. This is a Dover-style reprint-illo book -- not as well-documented or professionally-produced as the Dover books, but the imagery reproduced here is so compelling that the book is well-worth a look.
   
   For instance, here's the Gundestrup Cauldron (circa first century BC): see customer images. This huge silver vessel, found dismantled in a Danish peat bog, is filled with enigmatic images of Celtic deities and rituals. See Wikipedia for the details, which you won't find in this book. But the photographs here are excellent.
   
   Which is the pattern for the book: tantalizing photos of really cool artifacts, like the Battersea Shield (see photo), dredged from the Thames, where it was likely placed as an offering, some 2000 years ago. With just enough information to tantalize (or frustrate) the reader. Fortunately, you can easily research the ones that particularly interest you online.
   
   So: the quality of the photographic reproductions is variable -- but many of these artifacts are simply wonderful, and many were new to me. The paper quality is good, and the book is inexpensive. Cautiously recommended to Celtic art fans.
   
   Happy reading--
   Peter D. Tillman

No comments about Robert Jacks: Past Unfolded.

No comments about Art of Taiwan: The Contemporary Art of Taiwan (An Art and Asia-Pacific Book).

No comments about Cigarette Cards and How To Collect Them.