Art Deco New York [Hardcover]

David Garrard Lowe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2004

Art Deco New York takes 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

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Garrard Lowe is the author of numerous books, including Stanford White's New York (0-8230-4914-0) and Beaux Arts New York (0-8230-0481-3). President of the Beaux Arts Alliance, he is a regular lecturer at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823002845
• ISBN-13: 978-0823002849
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superbly organized and presented tour, December 8, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Art Deco New York (Hardcover)

Art Deco New York by cultural historian and author David Garrard Lowe (who is also President of the Beaux Arts Alliance and lectures in such noted forums as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the American Academy in Rome, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) offers a superbly organized and presented tour of seminal decorative designs during the transformative decades of the 20s and 30s when the art style known as "art deco" was affecting architecture, fashion, furniture, textiles, graphics, trains, automobiles, even Hollywood movie and Broadway theater stage sets. Profusely illustrated with period photography and artifacts, Art Deco New York is an impressive, "reader friendly", coffee-table book that would significantly enhance any personal, professional, academic, or community library architectural studies, art history, or American popular culture collection.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The panoply of New York City's Art Deco era, November 29, 2004

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Art Deco New York (Hardcover)

Garrard revives the restless, utopian, sensationalistic mood of the 1920s and '30s giving rise to the inimitable Art Deco style not only by pointing to buildings and their design features representing the style, but also by including posters, advertising, architectural drawings, furniture, and varied aspects of popular culture. The author evokes an understanding of Art Deco not mainly by discussion of aesthetics or art criticism, but by immersion in the spirit of the time between the World Wars, frequently with bountiful and in many cases, unfamiliar visual matter. The Empire State Building and Paul Manship's sculpture of Prometheus ringed by signs of the zodiac in Rockefeller Center are familiar Art Deco images, if often taken for granted. But designs of rooms, architectural details of buildings, trains and cars, and magazine covers and clothing fashion are often overlooked. Garrard demonstrates how deeply--thoroughly--Art Deco pervaded the culture; and points to elements of this vibrant, short-lived cultural period which continue.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art Deco New York, July 11, 2007

By 

R. Weissler (Gloucester, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Art Deco New York (Hardcover)

For lovers of the 1920s and 1930s this is a fabulous book. From New York's stunning architecture to the social lives of the rich and famous, everything associated with New York when Gotham was truly the center of it all, this book is a trip back in time. Historically rich and a visual treat! New York in its finest hour.