Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Presents a history of twentieth-century decorative arts covering both well-known and obscure items.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

A visual delight, this exhibition catalog provides color photographs of 200 objects from the permanent collection of the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts. An earlier catalog, Design 1935-1965: What Modern Was (CH, Sep'91), provides text on many of these objects but suffers from black-and-white photography. This new work covers the entire 20th century, but it gives only a basic description of the works (no notes) and a quotation from the artist or a critic. The layout follows the exhibition's thematic arrangement. Segments on body language, inversion and transformation, and fantasy are straightforward. The "Is Ornament a Crime?" section traces the debate over the rightness of adorning utilitarian objects, and the opposing philosophies of the organic and geometric. The well-written essays preceding each exhibition segment refer to both exhibit objects and items from other collections. They juxtapose works from different time periods and media. A selective index of proper nouns provides adequate access to the thematically arranged objects, but the work would have been enhanced by at least an attempt at indexing by media and style. Recommended for university and art collections. Upper-division undergraduate through professional. M. M. Doherty University of South Florida