Design for Living: Furniture and Lighting 1950-2000 (Hardcover)

by David A. Hanks (Author), Anne Hoy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A lively and lavishly illustrated history of decorative arts from 1950 through 2000, this survey presents 130 key examples of later twentieth-century design in their cultural contexts. The primary focus is furniture-- both one-of-a-kind examples and mass-produced works-- by international designers and architects. Here are classic designs for chairs, shelving units, and lamps by well-known masters from Aarnio to Zanuso, as well as provocative works by newcomers. All the works in Design for Living are from the Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection of the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts/Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

The furniture is presented in five chapters which establish decade by decade, the historical, artistic, and technical currents that led from Good Design and traditional Modernism to Pop Art and Post-Modernism, and to concerns for ecology, pluralism, and spirituality. Full-color photographs and entries on each object profile the design process and the designer, while illustrations show these works in their original period settings. All this recommends Design for Living to the general reader, as well as to the designer, collector, and scholar. Here is an accessible guide and resource to the fifty years of exuberant creativity that mark the second half of the twentieth century.


About the Author
David A. Hanks has been consulting curator to the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts for the past twenty years. He is the author of The Decorative Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright and other publications on modern decorative arts.

Anne Hoy is an adjunct lecturer on modern art at New York University, and is the author of Fabrications: Staged, Altered, and Appropriated Photographs, and books on popular culture. She is consulting editor of Studies in the Decorative Arts and editor of several books on modern design.

Martin Eidelberg is professor of art history at Rutgers University, and has edited some of the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts' award-winning books including Eva Zeisel: Designer for Industry; Design 1935-1965: What Modern Was; Messengers of Modernism: American Studio Jewelry 1940-1960; and Designed for Delight.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Flammarion (November 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2080136720
• ISBN-13: 978-2080136725
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 10.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,168,321 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars nice intro, like an appetizer, April 10, 2003

By	Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

THis is a very brief history of post-war furniture and lighting design to accompany an exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Design. There are 5 essays, each on a decade of design starting in 1950. They are succinct, very well written, and interesting in that they look at the more general history of the period as well as covering the design movements. However, they are so short that you can read them all in a single sitting, which is what I just did. As I am quite ignorent of design history, it was extremely enlightening for me - I now feel ready for a bigger meal. It was the ideal preparation for a project I am embarking on on design. Furthermore, there are wonderful photos and features on many famous objects, all of which have solid descriptions of what the design innovation represented and what is new about them. All in all, it is a masterful book even if I expected just a bit more.

Recommmended to beginners in the field and as a reference.