Designing the French Interior: The Modern Home and Mass Media

Description

Designing the French Interior traces France's central role in the development of the modern domestic interior, from the pre-revolutionary period to the 1970s, and addresses the importance of various media, including drawings, prints, pattern books, illustrated magazines, department store catalogs, photographs, guidebooks, and films, in representing and promoting French interior design to a wider audience. Contributors to this original volume identify and historicize the singularity of the modern French domestic interior as a generator of reproducible images, a site for display of both highly crafted and mass-produced objects, and the direct result of widely-circulated imagery in its own right. This important volume enables an invaluable new understanding of the relationship between architecture, interior spaces, material cultures, mass media and modernity.

Anca I. Lasc is Assistant Professor of history and theory of design at Pratt Institute, New York City, USA. Georgina Downey is an independent scholar and Visiting Fellow in the Graduate Art History Program at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Mark Taylor is Professor of architecture at The University of Newcastle, Australia.

Focusing on the French period from pre-revolutionary times through the late 20th century, 17 essays from 19 contributors are divided into three sections addressing the importance of various media and their shaping of residential interiors. It delves into the contributions of drawings, prints, pattern books, illustrated magazines, department catalogs, guidebooks, and films in promoting French interior design to the rest of the world. A reasonable number of black-and-white photos and reprints of posters, drawings, and publications enhance the written word, but should not be the only reason for picking acquiring this tome. The primary audience appears to be not only students and professionals, but also anyone who has sought information about the influences of French interiors on residential design. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. * CHOICE * Designing the French Interior is exactly the kind of book a history buff will love - be that buff a professional one, someone studying or just a casual hobbyist. If you have an interest in design, decorative arts, fine art, and the evolution and impact popular media can have on trends and movements, then you'll likely enjoy this read. * Outlet Magazine * This engaging text draws the reader into a unique account of the interdisciplinary nature of the modern French interior. Immersing the reader in topics such as the intricate histories of the French boudoir and transformations in public and private life the text traces the history of the modern French home. -- Rebecca Barnett Griffith University, Australia The scholars involved in this volume have located the study of the interior within the rich intellectual tradition that exists in the areas of French fine art, literature, film and cultural studies. In so doing it brings new approaches and ideas to the wider subject of the modern interior. -- Penny Sparke, Kingston University, UK This text offers a provocative examination of French interiors from the 18th to 20th century. The essays frequently decode primary French resources, making them accessible to a much wider audience. The use of mass media as a filter for analysis underscores the manner in which interiors were communicated, consumed, interpreted and valued. -- John Turpin, High Point University, USA This volume of essays, which presents the modern French interior as a space of intimacy, sexuality and identity, has an array of international scholars who are pushing boundaries in many new and innovative ways. Exploring France as a 'fashion leader', they show importantly how the interior was displayed, mediated and staged. -- Jeremy Aynsley, University of Brighton, UK