The definitive guide and resource to Art Deco.
Deco was the ultimate synthesis of styles: it borrowed from European craft traditions as eagerly as it appropriated aspects of 'the exotic' from the cultures of Ancient Egypt, Meso-America, the oriental East and black Africa. Its use of rare and unashamedly precious materials was a reminder of the wealth of empires, whilst its geometric imagery celebrated urban modernity and the experience of modernity worldwide.
This lavish and erudite book brings together nearly 40 essays from leading experts in the fields to discuss the phenomenon that was Art Deco in the most wide-ranging survey of the forces that created such an utterly distinctive iconography - its sources, its varied forms of expression, and the way it refined and redefined itself as it spread throughout the world.
With breathtaking illustrations and essays both thought provoking and scholarly, this will stand as the definitive book on what was, arguably, the most popular style of the twentieth century.