Collecting The 20th Century

Taking a decade-by-decade approach, this lavishly illustrated guide to 20th-century collectibles delivers useful information in a lively and entertaining style. Each chapter provides detailed insight into a particular decade and includes two central areas of collecting from that era, whether it is ceramic bathing beauties from the 1920s, vintage clothes from the 1940s, cars from the 1950s, or Memphis design from the 1980s. Covering popular periods such as art nouveau, industrial, art deco, retro, and modern, this is an ideal companion for both serious collectors and those who want a glimpse into the world of 20th-century design.

This catalogue celebrates the recently installed collection of twentieth-century sculpture donated to the J. Paul Getty Trust by the Fran and Ray Stark Trust in 2005. The book takes the reader on a visual tour of the J. Paul Getty Museum's new sculpture gardens and installations, which features twenty-eight works by artists such as Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Ferdinand Leger, Roy Lichtenstein, Rene Magritte, Aristide Maillol, Joan Miro, Henry Moore, and Isamu Noguchi. The book offers essays on the curatorial decisions involved in establishing harmonious groupings; a history of European and American sculpture within built outdoor environments and gardens; and catalogue entries that discuss individual pieces within their broader art-historical contexts."

This book explores the relationship between collecting Chinese ceramics, interior design and display in Britain through the eyes of collectors, designers and tastemakers during the years leading to, during and following the Second World War. The Ionides Collection of European style Chinese export porcelain forms the nucleus of this study – defined by its design hybridity – offering insights into the agency of Chinese porcelain in diverse contexts, from seventeenth-century Batavia to twentieth-century Britain, raising questions about notions of Chineseness, Britishness, and identity politics across time and space. Through the biographies of the collectors, this book highlights the role of collecting Chinese art objects, particularly porcelain, in the construction of individual and group identities. Social networks linking the Ionides to agents and dealers, auctioneers, and museum specialists bring into focus the dynamics of collecting during this period, the taste of the Ionides and their self-fashioning as collectors. The book will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of art history, history of collections, interior design, Chinese studies, and material culture studies.

In the Crystal City a newborn princess is cursed to grow up in the body of young prince! Meanwhile in Valhalla, Gadzooks a warrior demigod is banished by Odin until he inspires a young mortal artist! Lucy wants her husband Frank to see a Psychiatrist because he's always talking to four ghosts. Ammiel who was born with both genders, wants to join a monastery or a convent but they won't take him-her. While over at the Medical center, comatose Barbara has a problem, somebody named Diane is in Barbara's body. Two floors up, Charlene who's suffering from amnesia, now remembers that she is a world-class aircraft pilot, only problem is she can't fly! Just down the street, two mischievous teenagers are seeking a love spell from an elderly witch. These are the teasers for a collection of off beat one-act plays by playwright Cheryl Ann Costa; that have charmed audiences in the Washington, DC metropolitan area since 1993. These are extra ordinary stories told in the finest tradition of quirky story telling. If you are a fan of The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits and Amazing Stories, then The Twentieth Century Collection is for you.

Through both longer essays and shorter case studies, this book examines the relationship of European women from various countries and backgrounds to collecting, in order to explore the social practices and material and visual cultures of collecting in eighteenth-century Europe. It recovers their lives and examines their interests, their methodologies, and their collections and objects—some of which have rarely been studied before. The book also considers women’s role as producers, that is, creators of objects that were collected. Detailed examination of the artefacts—both visually, and in relation to their historical contexts—exposes new ways of thinking about collecting in relation to the arts and sciences in eighteenth-century Europe. The book is interdisciplinary in its makeup and brings together scholars from a wide range of fields. It will be of interest to those working in art history, material and visual culture, history of collecting, history of science, literary studies, women’s studies, gender studies, and art conservation.