The Stylemakers Minimalism and Classic-Modernism 1915-45

by Teitelbaum, Mo

• ISBN13: 9780856677038
• ISBN10: 0856677035
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-15
• Publisher: Philip Wilson Publishers

Summary

Following a BA Hons degree in French and an MA in South Asian studies, Mo Teitelbaum found herself in Paris in the early 1970s, engaged in research for a PhD on the history of French Indochina. One single event then made her change focus as a historian - a meeting with Eileen Gray. The feature article she subsequently published in the Sunday Times Magazine on the ninety-six-year-old designer, was the very first to reach a mass readership. Major museum exhibitions on Eileen Gray followed. Concerned now that other extraordinary lives and talents may have been overlooked, and certainly never made available to such a readership, Mo Teitelbaum now dedicates herself to retrieving 'lost' histories to present to a wider public. Six years of research in South America have resulted in The Stylemakers - another history that was lost to a wider public. In Paris in the 1920's a new style was born, rejecting the embellishments of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, it allied the linear proportions of late eighteenth-century furniture to a twentieth-century perception, paring down superfluous detail to the essence of classic modernism. The ostensible creation of iconic interior decorator Jean-Michel Frank, the new style owed much to a circle of South American collectors and patrons, including Eugenia Errázuriz, a lifelong friend of Picasso and Stravinsky. This new study documents how their interchange of partners and ideas led to innovation in every field of the arts. Packed with fresh material and original insights on artists such as Man Ray, John Singer Sargent and Diaghilev.

Author Biography

Following a BA Hons degree in French and an MA in South Asian studies, Mo Teitelbaum found herself in Paris in the early 1970s, engaged in research for a PhD on the history of French Indochina. One single event then made her change focus as a historian -- a meeting with Eileen Gray. The feature article she subsequently published in the Sunday Times Magazine on the ninety-six-year-old designer, was the very first to reach a mass readership. Major museum exhibitions on Eileen Gray followed. Concerned now that other extraordinary lives and talents may have been overlooked, and certainly never made available to such a readership, Mo Teitelbaum now dedicates herself to retrieving "lost" histories to present to a wider public. For example, the stark and unique architecture of the first modernist villa on the Mediterranean -- the Villa Noailles of Mallet-Stevens -- known to a few, she wrote about for The World of Interiors. Six years of research in South America have resulted in The Stylemakers -- another history that was lost to a wider public.

Table of Contents

Eugenia Errazuriz - the Genesis of the Style * Jean-Michel Frank - the Designer of the Style * Comte Ltd - the Producer of the Style * Bibliography