New York Deco Limited Edition

Richard Berenholtz's stunning photographs of the finest examples of NYC's art deco architecture will be accompanied by text from writers, artists and personalities of the era, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Willem de Kooning and Ogden Nash among others.

"New York Deco profiles the architecture of the city during its most stylish and dazzling decades: the late 1920s and '30s. During this period, art deco, with its emphasis on machine-tooled elegance and sleek lines, replaced the beaux arts style that preceded it. New York City landmarks were born of this age - the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, the Waldorf Astoria, and the Lenox Lounge - as well as dozens of lesser-known office buildings and apartment houses. Together, they make the skyline of the Big Apple what it is today." "Richard Berenholtz's photographs of the finest examples of NYC's art deco architecture will be accompanied by text from writers, artists, and personalities of the era, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Willem de Kooning and Ogden Nash, among others. For the New Yorker and tourist alike, this book is a window into one of the city's most divine periods."--BOOK JACKET.

New York is often described as the greatest city in the world. Yet much of the iconic architecture and culture which so defines the city as we know it today from the Empire State Building to the Pastrami sandwich only came into being in the 1930s, in what was perhaps the most significant decade in the city's 400-year history. After the roaring twenties, the catastrophic Wall Street Crash and ensuing Depression seemed to spell disaster for the vibrant city. Yet, in this era, New York underwent an architectural, economic, social and creative renaissance under the leadership of the charismatic mayor Fiorello La Guardia. After seizing power, he declared war on the mafia mobs running vast swathes of the city, attacked political corruption and kick-started the economy through a variety of construction and infrastructure projects. In culture, this was the age of the Harlem Renaissance championed by writers like Langston Hughes, the jazz age with the advent of Tin-Pan Alley, the Cotton Club and immortals such as Duke Ellington making his name in the Big Apple. Weaving these stories together, Jules Stewart tells the story of an iconic city in a time of change.

Arnold Schwartzman's stunning photographs of the finest examples of Art Deco from all over the world are collected here as a celebration of one of the world's most popular decorative styles. Art deco is the 20th century's most glamorous architectural style, and the one that shaped popular ideas of modern luxury. With over 200 photographs, this is a visual celebration of this very popular style. Unlike most other books on the subject that tend to be regionally specific, this book highlights Art Deco buildings from all over the world, from Australia to South America, with an emphasis on London, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, and Paris. Art Deco features much careful and exacting detail, and of special interest in this book are photos that zoom in on murals, mosaics, flooring, ironwork, and other ornamental flourishes. Art Deco began in 1925 and quickly swept the globe becoming the style epitomizing Jazz Age glamor and sophistication. It drew from a variety of influences including ancient Egyptian, Moorish, and Mayan motifs but also modernist movements like Cubism, Fauvism, and De Stijl. Its influence was felt everywhere, from the skylines of New York to Shanghai, and it gained prominence not only with architects and designers but enjoyed a passionate following among the public as well.

Art Deco—the term conjures up jewels by Van Cleef & Arpels, glassware by Laique, furniture by Ruhlmann—is best exemplified in the work shown at the exhibition that gave the style its name: the Exposition Internationale des Art Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, held in Paris in 1925. The exquisite craftsmanship and artistry of the objects displayed spoke to a sophisticated modernity yet were rooted in past traditions. Although it quickly spread to other countries, Art Deco found its most coherent expression in France, where a rich cultural heritage was embraced as the impetus for creating something new. the style drew on inspirations as diverse as fashion, avant-garde trends in the fine arts—such as Cubism and Fauvism—and a taste for the exotic, all of which converged in exceptionally luxurious and innovative objects. While the practice of Art Deco ended with the Second World War, interest in it has not only endured to the present day but has grown steadily. Based on the Metropolitan Museum's renowned collection French Art Deco presents more than eighty masterpieces by forty-two designers. Examples include Süe et Mare's furniture from the 1925 Exposition; Dufy's Cubist-inspired textiles; Dunand's lacquered bedroom suite; Dupas's monumental glass wall panels from the SS Normandie; and Fouquet's spectacular dress ornament in the shape of a Chinese mask. Jared Goss's engaging text includes a discussion of each object together with a biography of the designer who created it and is enlivened by generous quotations from writings of the period. The extensive introduction provides historical context and explores the origins and aesthetic of Art Deco. With its rich text and sumptuous photographs, this is not only one of the rare books on French Art Deco in English, but an object d'art in its own right.

Art Deco New Yorktakes readers on a historically rich and visually spectacular journey through New York in the early decades of the 20th century, when the style known as art deco, with its emphasis on machine-tooled elegance and sleekness of line, replaced the voluptuous beaux arts style that preceded it. It was an era when floating art deco palaces like the Normandie and the Queen Mary, and elegant, speedy trains like Henry Dreyfuss' redesigned Twentieth Century Limited transformed the way people perceived travel. There are dazzling photographs-many never before published-of such art deco icons as Schultze and Weaver's soaring Waldorf Astoria, Jospeh Urban's Zeigfeld Theater and Central Park Casino, and the sky-piercing spire of William Van Alen's Chrysler Building. This book takes a wise, witty, and intimate look at a style that came to New York via Paris in the 1920s and almost overnight became a quintessential symbol of modernity. • The public's already strong interest in art deco will be enhanced by two major art deco exhibits to be mounted 2004 and 2005 • Author is a leading authority on art deco • A perfect book for lovers of New York and architecture

Art Deco was the style-commentator of many architectural trends in the early decades of the twentieth century. Before it culminated in the architecture of the American skyscraper, Art Deco had become an international style in art, architecture, and design. The Art Deco skyscraper in New York is this style's most ambitious archi- tectural aspiration. The stylistic qualities of Art Deco - in particular, tight decorative surfaces with various forms of modernistic ornament - endowed the skyscraper with a cluster of architectural images which reached back to ancient forms of design as well as forward into the modernistic esthetic. In this book, the Art Deco skyscraper in New York is analyzed against the background of decoration, ornament, symbolism, eclecticism, and modernism in the art and architecture of the twentieth century.