Product Description

Jacques- mile Ruhlmann, Pierre Chareau, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Charlotte Perriand, Eileen Gray: together these designers and their contemporaries pioneered the look of the modern French interior during the 1920s. Their use of sumptuous materials, rich jewel tones, intricate geometric patterns, and complex and varied textures has made this work a lasting favorite among interior designers, architects, and their clients. When it first appeared, the go t moderne, or modern taste, was marketed through limited-edition portfolios containing unbound drawings, printed in full color using a traditional process called pochoir. Created in an era before color photography, the vivid gouache and watercolor depictions of interior spaces—complete with coordinated furniture, carpets, fabrics, and decorative accessories—announced the dawn of a new era of French design and set the standards of luxury and taste that still guide us today.

Moderne presents the finest examples of this work in more than two hundred plates, selected by Sarah Schleuning, a curator of the Wolfsonian Museum, and faithfully reproduced to preserve their original color palettes. This sumptuous volume is comprehensive in scope, beginning with the early art moderne of Ruhlmann and concluding with the avant-garde work of Gray and Perriand. These and other high-water marks of the period are discussed in an essay by historian Jeremy Aynsley. Designers' biographies and a brief bibliography are also included, making this an inspirational resource for interior designers and architects, and an indispensable reference for historians of the modern era.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #795169 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review
A beautiful addition to the library of anyone interested in art, design and history, from professional decorators to armchair designers, Moderne is a lush documentation of a period in the world of design when traditional techniques and groundbreaking ideas found a common mode of expression. -- Globe & Mail, November 10, 2007

Lavish -- New York Times, November 16, 2007

Thanks to this ravishing new book...the era comes alive in delightful and unexpected ways. -- World of Interiors, Winter 2008

Review
...accurately captures the modern design of the period, while simultaneously displaying the plates as the artworks they are.

About the Author
Sarah Schleuning is a curator at the Wolfsonian-Florida International University. She has curated several exhibitions relating to twentieth-century art, decorative arts, and design.

Jeremy Aynsley heads the Department of Design History at the Royal College of Art in London. Since 2001, he has been director of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior.

Customer Reviews

a beautiful chronicle
This is a beatiful addition to the library of anyone interested in art, interior design or the history of both. Together, Sarah Schleuning and Jeremy Aynsley present an interesting history of the pochoir technique - a method of creating coloured illustrations of an interior designers intent. Full of charming full colour pochoir illustrations of the work of France's finest designers, its as fascinating as it is inspirational.

Buy it immediately - if not sooner
This is a fabulous book not intended for the lay person. The illustrations of French deco rooms is a very welcome change from super-staged photography that's all the rage these days in interior design books and mags. This reminds me of the wonderful fashion illustrations that have bitten the dust over the years (since the 60's) to be replaced by styled-to-death prepubescents in haute couture. It's wonderful to see something so beautifully done by hand get a chance. Buy it immediately if not sooner!!
Stylemaven