Art Deco Sculpture

Product Description This book showcases and puts into historical context a host of sculpted works created in the 1920s and 1930s in the decorative vernacular defined loosely today as ‘Art Deco’. Whether designed as free-standing statuary for the domestic market or commissioned for some form of architectural placement, as a frieze on a building’s fa�ade or as a public monument or pool fountain, the works shown demonstrate a sometimes bewilderingly broad range of styles and stylistic influences: from the chevrons, sunbursts, maidens, fountains, floral abstractions and ubiquitous biche (doe) of the Parisian geometric style to the crisp, angular patterns of the zig-zag, jazz-age, streamlined aesthetic of the 1930s. Alastair Duncan organizes his subject into three main categories: the first features work by avant-garde sculptors (Csaky, Janniot, Pompon, etc), often as pi�ces uniques or small editions; the second shows commercial sculpture, comprising mainly large-edition statuary, commissioned as decorative works for the burgeoning 1920s domestic market; while a final, third category covers architectural and monumental sculpture from West and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Brazil and beyond. With artists’ biographies and details of manufacturers, a full glossary and a thematic index, this volume is the essential and authoritative guide for all those interested in the Art Deco style, from the amateur collector of animalier sculpture to professional historians of the period. Table of Contents Introduction • Part 1: The Art of the Inter-War Sculptor • Part 2: Sculpture in the Commercial and Decorative Arts • Part 3: Architectural and Monumental Sculpture • A–Z Biographical Index of Sculptors Review A 'lavish study' --World of Interiors From the Back Cover This book showcases and puts into historical context a host of sculpted works created in the 1920s and 1930s in the decorative vernacular defined loosely today as 'Art Deco'. Whether designed as free-standing statuary for the domestic market or commissioned for some form of architectural placement, as a frieze on a building's fa�ade or as a public monument or pool fountain, the works shown demonstrate a sometimes bewilderingly broad range of styles and stylistic influences: from the chevrons, sunbursts, maidens, fountains, floral abstractions and ubiquitous biche (doe) of the Parisian geometric style to the crisp, angular patterns of the zig-zag, jazz-age, streamlined aesthetic of the 1930s. Alastair Duncan organizes his subject into three main categories: the first features work by avant-garde sculptors (Csaky, Janniot, Pompon, etc), often as pi�ces uniques or small editions; the second shows commercial sculpture, comprising mainly large-edition statuary, commissioned as decorative works for the burgeoning 1920s domestic market; while a final, third category covers architectural and monumental sculpture from West and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Brazil and beyond. With artists' biographies and details of manufacturers, a full glossary and a thematic index, this volume is the essential and authoritative guide for all those interested in the Art Deco style, from the amateur collector of animalier sculpture to professional historians of the period. About the Author Alastair Duncan was for fourteen years associated with Christie's, New York, latterly as a Consultant. After joining the auction house in 1977, he organized and catalogued a great number of sales devoted to Art Nouveau and Art Deco and nineteenth-century decorative arts. He has acted as guest curator for exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and is now an independent consultant specializing in the decocrative arts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is the author of many books, including Art Deco Furniture, Art Nouveau Furniture, American Art Deco, and Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany.