Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Charles and Ray Eames's plywood lounge chair, Isamu Noguchi's Japanese-inspired lamps and Russell Wright's ``American modern'' dinnerware are among the 200 objects, made between 1935 and 1965, spotlighted in this stunning showcase. The catalogue of a traveling exhibition, this mammoth repository of images and essays redefines mid-century modernism. Historian Johnson sets the stage with an examination of the sociopolitical forces that fostered the democratization of art and the development of a rational aesthetic. Led by Rutgers art historian Eidelberg, 15 scholars track the 1930s and '40s ``streamlining'' style in locomotives, jukeboxes and clocks, then trace biomorphism in rugs, tables, an Eva Zeisel teapot and Eero Saarinen's TWA terminal at New York's Kennedy Airport. Expressionism is shown to be a common denominator in Peter Voulkos's ceramics, Lenore Tawney's fiber sculptures and Irena Brynner's jewelry. One provocative finding is that modern design, from its inception, has ransacked past historical styles. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

A pictorial and verbal catalog of designs created between 1935 and 1965. Editor Eidelberg begins with a short historical and political analysis of modernism's roots. This is followed by short essays on various modern designs, including works by great designers and artists such as Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, Henry Dreyfuss, Isamu Noguchi, Tapio Wirkkala, and Pablo Picasso, to name a few. Each essay is superbly illustrated with examples from the Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection of Decorative Arts. The illustrations are mostly high-quality black-and-white photographs of the Collection's objects, which include furniture, glass, textiles, ceramics, metalwork, and graphic design. The 80 pages of references include endnotes, biographies, and corporate histories. The essay format, with 530 illustrations including 60 color plates, makes this an excellent choice for general readers as an introduction to modernism in the decorative arts. A must for undergraduates in art and design.-S. Visser, Purdue University

Booklist Review

Like Miller's Modern Design in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1890-1990 [BKL Ja 15 91], this volume profiles a twentieth-century design collection, here from the Musee des Arts Decoratifs de Montreal. The number of items considered is larger (although the chronological period is shorter), and both the historical essays and the descriptions of the individual items are more extensive in Eidelberg's incisive and revealing survey of decorative design development over three decades in the international modernist movement. Each contributor expertly defines a specific stage or trend in design (historicism, biomorphism, expressionism) and links these developments into the larger context. The black-and-white and color illustrations highlight important designers and their designs in an exemplary fashion. Designer biographies and company histories appended; notes. ~--John Brosnahan