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Books > Arts & Architecture > Art forms, treatments & subjects > Decorative arts & crafts > Furniture & cabinetmaking > General
Visionary furniture design from Vienna In 1938, Vienna lost its
best and most creative minds. This rupture was manifested in all of
the arts and sciences and its mark is felt to this day - not least
in the field of furniture design. With inexhaustible creativity the
Jewish furniture designers who were forced to flee Vienna continued
to work while in exile. They taught at the best universities and
spread their ideas and vision throughout the entire world. Their
creations became classics of twentieth-century furniture design,
the epitome of mid-century modern style. This book honors the
memory of the exiled designers with a thorough overview of their
work. It details their life stories and their visionary designs,
which remain as relevant and contemporary as ever, and brings to
light new aspects of the history of Viennese furniture design. A
new history of Viennese furniture design, with 27 detailed
biographies Numerous previously unpublished photographs and
sketches Including works by Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, Martin Eisler,
Josef Frank, Friedrich Kiesler, Richard Neutra, Bruno Pollak,
Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky, Franz Singer, Ernst Schwadron, among
others
A survey by Nicklaus Pevsner in the 1930s estimated that some
80-90% of manufactured goods in England were shoddy and poorly
designed. When it came to furniture only a handful of manufacturers
would have escaped such condemnation. Prime among these was Heals
of Tottenham Court Road - manufacturer, retailer, and, with its top
floor Mansard Gallery, the Mecca for Home Counties cognoscenti of
'modernism'. Most furniture manufacturers advertised their wares in
the press but Heal's was a rare exception in the industry in its
use of posters. Heal's posters not only relay the saga of a
pioneering enterprise but provide a shorthand history of what was
happening in the design and retailing of furniture and furnishings
in Britain in the 20th century.
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