I love to buy books on Amazon
3 books worth mentioning are Boom voices of the sixties by Tom Brokaw although he did not speak of modernism and the geat designers I will forgive him as it is a real interesting book on what was going on during that crazy time,
another book that i just love and a fun book to look at is Iconic America by Tommy Hilfiger who knew
he liked icons of America, (sorry Brits you time will come.) any way very well done,
and last but not least Prairie skyscraper about the Price Tower building that Frank Lloyd Wright built in Bartelsville Oklahoma starting in 1953 for the Price pipeline company real well done and i like it cause i am from Oklahoma,and the building is 6o miles away and i have seen it many many times
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I recently bought Jeramiah Goodman(interior portrait painter:covers of interiors magazines,etc.) and Tony Duquette(interiors,sets ,very Hollywood but with a odd arty twist,was a friend of Endora of Bewitched fame),but both are hardly modernists...outlandishly priced books...Duquette book will be the "definitive" one on him I think...Goodman perhaps will remain the only one done on him...
The "Original Scroll" version of
On the Road by Jack Kerouac...released last year for the 50th anniversary of Jack's trip. I saw the scroll diplayed in Jack's birthplace, Lowell, MA, which is close to where I live. The Scroll version is Jack's original text, no editing. It has all the real person names like Neal Cassaday and Allan Ginsberg and it is FAR naughtier than the heavily cleasned version that was first printed. If you loved that version...read the original scroll!
If you are a history buff, read anything by Erik Larsen. The Devil and the White City is wonderful, so is Thunderstruck.
One of my all time favorite books is "Meetings with Remarkable Trees" by Thomas Pakenham If you've never seen this book, please check it out. there is a UK version a world-wide version. it's a bit of a life-changing book.
SDR - re: utility. My scanner...
SDR - re: utility. My scanners on the blink so I can't add any images but googling cc41 utility furniture yields a fair amount of info. I think its fair to say that the circumstances and philosophy behind the Utility Furniture Scheme are more interesting than the furniture itself (although the little open bookcases are terrific). As far as I'm aware its the only instance of a state, democratic or otherwise, imposing 'good design'on its populace to the exclusion of all else and furthermore proscribing 'useless ornamentation' on furniture. Amazingly the utility restrictions on furniture didn't disappear wholly until 1953 although 'freedom of design' was allowed in 1948 so that furniture makers could produce more diverse furniture (but still within quite strict guidelines) - resulting in plenty of horrors but also great pieces like Neil Morris' cloud table. Ernest Race's BA chairs were also classed as Utility , and you even see imported Aalto pieces stamped with the 'CC41' Utility Furniture mark.
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