Customer Reviews

Decorative Arts 1930s & 1940s: A Source Book

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TASCHEN's Decorative Art series spans the 20th century through the 1970s and carefully reproduces the best of Studio Magazine's Decorative Art yearbooks. Published annually from 1906 until 1980, the yearbook was dedicated to the latest currents in architecture, interiors, furniture, lighting, glassware, textiles, metalware, and ceramics, and remained on the cutting edge throughout its nearly eight-decade run. Since going out of print, the now hard-to-find yearbooks have been highly prized by collectors and dealers. Preserving the yearbooks' original page layouts, TASCHEN's Decorative Art books bring you an authentic experience of each decade's design trends and styles. The now complete six-volume set is an essential addition to the comprehensive design library and the devoted collector will want them all.

Decorative Art 1930s ~ 1940s - Decorative art in the 1930s and 40s experienced a great shift from the opulent Art Deco style to pared-down, pragmatic Modernism championed most notably by Le Corbusier and Richard Neutra. Modernism's economy and simplicity became more accepted as a rational response to a time of great economic hardship. From the end of the 1930s through the postwar period, cool Modernism was gradually replaced by the warmer and more human characteristics in, for example, the design work of Charles Eames and Alvar Aalto.

This is a wonderful book, but really only worth purchasing if you are a 30s and 40s furniture afictionado - not for the merely curious. Contains many pages of photographs and descriptions of the furniture and fittings of the era, as well as an introduction describing the style of the period. Taschen books are always full of brilliant photographs, and printed on good sturdy paper. Well presented, but if it's just a passing fancy, you probably wouldn't want to pay full price for it.