Art Deco Complete: The Definitive Guide to the Decorative Arts of the 1920s and 1930s

Alastair Duncan's Art Deco Complete is the last word in Art Deco, the most glamorous decorative arts style and the one that shaped popular ideas of modern luxury.

"For those who wish they could live in The Great Gatsby and can't pass up a geometric pattern, Art Deco style can bring all the glamour of the Roaring '20s to a 21st-century space." --Architectural Digest

This 544-page volume includes more than 1,000 color images of classic Art Deco objects and spaces. Its author is the colorful and experienced Alastair Duncan, who was for many years the expert who ran the 20th-century decorative arts department at Christie's in New York. Here you will find:

• Furniture and interior decoration
• Sculpture
• Paintings, graphics, posters
• Bookbinding
• Glass and ceramics
• Textiles
• Metal work
• Jewelry
• And more!

It includes the work of all of the important Art Deco designers, from high-style French furniture makers to the creators of the popular "Streamline Moderne" style. And it is, in the spirit of Art Deco, a lavish and attractive book, as well as authoritative and thorough.

Opinions vary as to what constitutes the best of Art Deco, whether it was the highly colorful and playful geometric style which ruled the Paris Salons in the immediate post-WWI years--the chevrons, arcs, sunbursts, maidens, fountains, floral abstractions, and ubiquitous biche (doe)--or that of the crisp angular patterns of the American modernistic impulses--including zig-zag, jazz-age, machine-age, and streamlined aesthetics, to which architects were drawn toward in the 1930s and to which its supporters believe the Deco label most appropriately applies. In the end, the argument does not matter, only the timeless designs do.

This oversize, overfilled book stands as a unique monument to Art Deco, one that every graphic designer, architect, interior designer, artist, and jeweler will want to own, display, and refer to again and again.

Author: Alastair Duncan
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Published: 10/01/2009
Pages: 544
Weight: 8.05lbs
Size: 12.60h x 9.80w x 2.00d
ISBN: 9780810980464

Review Citation(s): 
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2010 pg. 260

About the Author
Alastair Duncan's work as an officer and consultant at Christie's New York from 1977-1990 has made him a leading authority on Art Deco and Art Nouveau decorative arts. This is his 33rd book on the decorative arts including Abrams' Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany and American Art Deco. He lives in New York City.