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The Art Of Things : Product Design Since 1945Stock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionThe most ambitious survey of its subject ever published, The Art of Things is a monument, and a key, to the objects that surround us. For most of human history, the form of a useful object was determined by its maker, usually a single artisan working within a long cultural tradition. However, the Industrial Revolution saw the development of a curious new profession, that of the designer, whose job it was to decide the appearance and even the functional aspects of goods--whether typewriters or tableware--that would be manufactured by others or, increasingly, by machines. When the so-called consumer society emerged in full force after World War II, designers took center stage; some, like Charles and Ray Eames, became celebrities and icons of the new lifestyles they were helping to create. Within the burgeoning design community, national tendencies emerged: The Germans and the Swiss, heirs to the Bauhaus, favored a modernist aesthetic in which form followed function, and the Scandinavians pioneered a warmer type of functionalism with their distinctive wooden furniture. The U.S. pursued a double strategy, in which home furnishings influenced by European modernism coexisted with frankly exuberant cars and kitchen appliances. Author descriptionDominique Forest is chief curator of the modern and contemporary department at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. She has organized exhibitions of the work of Konstantin Grcic, Jasper Morrison, Maarten Baas, and other prominent designers. Table of contentsTable of Contents from The Art of Things Introduction - Dominique Forest Old Continent and New World: The Emergence of Design - Dominique Forest The United States - Penny Sparke Scandinavia - Asdis Olafsdottir Germany and Switzerland - Jeremy Aynsley Italy - Anty Pansera Great Britain - Penny Sparke France - Dominique Forest Japan - Penny Sparke Belgium and the Netherlands - Mienke Simon Thomas The Landscape of Design Today - Constance Rubini Notes Selected Bibliography Index of Names Photography Credits Author Biographies Acknowledgments |