Art Deco : a Mode of Mobility
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Épine 0,5788 po. – 320 p. – 140 M Prix 9 PHYLLIS-LAMBERT atrimoine urbain atrimoine urbain Prize 2011 his book argues that mobility is the central theme of the interwar mode of design known today as Art Deco. It is present on the very surfaces of Art Deco objects and architecture – in iconography and general formal qualities (whether the zigzag rectilinear forms WINDOVER MICHAEL popular in the 1920s or curvilinear streamlining of the 1930s). By focussing on mobility as a means of tying the seemingly disparate quali- ties of Art Deco together, Michael Windover shows how the surface-level expressions correspond as well with underpinning systems of mobility, including those associated with migration, transportation, commodity exchange, capital, and communication. Journeying across the globe – from a skyscraper in Vancouv er, B.C., to a department store in Los Angeles, and from super-cinemas in Bombay (Mumbai) to radio cabinets in Canadian living rooms – this richly illustrated book examines the reach of Art Deco as it affected public cultures. Windover’s innovative perspective exposes some of the socio- political consequences of this “mode of mobility” and offers some reasons as to how and why Art Deco was incorporated into everyday lifestyles around the world. MICHAEL WINDOVER, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the School for Studies in Art & Culture at Carleton University in Ottawa where he teaches in the History and Theory of Architecture Program. His research interests focus on modern visual and material culture, especially designed Michael environments in the twentieth century. Windover Foreword by A MODE OF MOBILITY . Rhodri Windsor Liscombe ART DECO ART ISBN 978-2-7605-3512-1 Presses ,!7IC7G0-fdfbcb! de l’Université PUQ.CA du Québec 3512-Couvert.indd All Pages 12-08-21 10:55 atrimoine urbain Series edited by Lucie K. Morisset Urban Heritage Although drastically altered by an increase in mobility and cultural exchange, relations between communities and their environment remain at the heart of modern identity constructions. Urban Heritage/Patrimoine urbain, an anthology compiled by the Canada Research Chair on Urban Heritage (ESG-UQAM), proposes to explore the material foundations and imaginary configurations ofthis environment. From architecture to the city, and from creation to commemoration, the anthologized works examine heritage in its various manifestations to understand its processes and all its finery, learn to recognize its sudden appearances, and, when all is said and done, share and support the attachment communities feel for the world that surrounds them. An analysis of both ideas and objects is therefore included, in an effort to understand the ingre dients that bring life to the environment and the representations that forge the built landscape. Presented form from cross-disciplinary perspective, the works seek to nourish a reinvention of heritage as a projection into the future of our society. In Urban Heritage/Patrimoine urbain, both young researchers and their more experienced counterparts, from all four corners of the planet, share their reflections with a wide range of readers interested in history, mythic constructions or simply the world around them. Stakeholders, decision-makers and witnesses from the realms of architecture, urbanism and tourism, as well as the curious and ordinary citizens alike, are all invited to join in the process of discovery and debate. Art Deco A Mode of Mobility Series from the Canada Research Chair atrimoine urbain on Urban Heritage – ESG / UQAM Urban Heritage Montréal et son aménagement De la ville au patrimoine urbain Vivre sa ville Histoires de forme et de sens Jean-Claude Marsan – Textes choisis André Corboz et Lucie K. Morisset 2012, ISBN 978-2-7605-3464-3, 320 pages 2009, ISBN 978-2-7605-2479-8, 336 pages Montreal, City of Spires Quel avenir pour quelles églises ? Church Architecture during What future for which churches ? the British Colonial Period – 1760-1860 Sous la direction de Lucie K. Morisset, Clarence Epstein Luc Noppen et Thomas Coomans 2012, ISBN 978-2-7605-3422-3, 272 pages 2006, ISBN 2-7605-1431-5, 624 pages Habiter l’Arménie au Québec Le combat du patrimoine Ethnographie d'un patrimoine à Montréal (1973-2003) en diaspora Martin Drouin Marie-Blanche Fourcade 2005, ISBN 2-7605-1356-4, 402 pages 2011, ISBN 978-2-7605-2653-2, 304 pages Les églises du Québec La ville Un patrimoine à réinventer Phénomène de représentation Luc Noppen et Lucie K. Morisset Sous la direction de Lucie K. Morisset 2005, ISBN 2-7605-1355-6, 456 pages et Marie-Ève Breton 2011, ISBN 978-2-7605-2657-0, 352 pages Presses de l’Université du Québec Le Delta I, 2875, boulevard Laurier, office 450, Québec (Québec) G1V 2M2 Telephone : 418 657-4399 − Fax : 418 657-2096 Membre de Email : [email protected] − Website : www.puq.ca Diffusion / Distribution : Canada and other countries : Prologue inc., 1650, boulevard Lionel-Bertrand, Boisbriand (Québec) J7H 1N7 Tel. : 450 434-0306 / 1 800 363-2864 France : Sodis, 128, av. du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, 77403 Lagny, France – Tel. : 01 60 07 82 99 Afrique : Action pédagogique pour l’éducation et la formation, Angle des rues Jilali Taj Eddine et El Ghadfa, Maârif 20100, Casablanca, Maroc – Tel. : 212 (0) 22-23-12-22 Belgique : Patrimoine SPRL, 168, rue du Noyer, 1030 Bruxelles, Belgique – Tel. : 02 7366847 Suisse : Servidis SA, Chemin des Chalets, 1279 Chavannes-de-Bogis, Suisse – Tel. : 022 960.95.32 The Copyright Act forbids the reproduction of works without the permission of rights holders. Unauthorized photocopying has become widespread, causing a decline in book sales and compromising the production of new works by professionals. The goal of the logo is to alert readers to the threat that massive unauthorized photocopying poses to the future of the written work. Art Deco A Mode of Mobility Michael Windover Foreword by Rhodri Windsor Liscombe Prix PHYLLIS-LAMBERT Prize 2011 Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and Library and Archives Canada cataloguing in publication Windover, Michael Art deco: a mode of mobility (Patrimoine urbain; 9) Originally presented as the author’s thesis (Ph.D.—University of British Columbia), 2009 under the title: Aestheticizing mobilities. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-2-7605-3512-1 1. Art deco. 2. Art deco (Architecture). 3. Motion in art. 4. Art and popular culture. I. Title. II. Series: Patrimoine urbain; 9. N6494.A7W56 2012 709.04’012 C2012-941110-8 This volume of the Urban Heritage/Patrimoine urbain series was granted the financial support of the following programs and organizations : – The Canada Research Chairs Program, thanks to the contribution of the Canada Research Chair on Urban Heritage ESG / UQAM (Luc Noppen, chairholder, 2008-2015) ; – The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Strategic Knowledge Clusters Program, that subsidizes the Canadian Forum for Public Research on Heritage (Dir. Luc Noppen, Lucie K. Morisset and Martin Drouin, 2008-2015) ; – The Fondation de l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Les Presses de l’Université du Québec acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada for its publishing activities through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council of the Arts. It also thanks Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) for its financial support. Page layout: INTERSCRIPT Cover design: RICHARD HODGSON Cover photos : 1. Mural by Herman Sachs at Bullock’s Wilshire Department Store, Los Angeles (CA), 1929. Photo: Michael Windover. 2. Eros Theatre (north façade), Mumbai (Bombay), architect Bhedwar Sorabji, 1938. 4 1 Photo: Michael Windover. 3. Philco Model 115 “Bullet” radio, ca. 1937. Wooden cabinet (28.5 × 51.5 × 23 cm), Hammond 3 2 5 Museum of Radio Collection, Guelph (ON). Photo: Michael Windover. 4. Entrance to Marine Building on Hasting St., Vancouver (BC), architects McCarter and Nairne, 1930. Photo: Geoffrey Carr. 5. First Floor plan of Marine Building, Vancouver (BC), architects McCarter and Nairne, 1931. Photo: Vancouver Public Library, VPL 12016. 2012-1.1 – All rights reserved. No reproduction, translation, or adaptation without authorization. © 2012 Presses de l’Université du Québec. Legal deposit – 3rd quarter 2012 Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec / Library and Archives Canada Printed in Canada This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, Lloyd, who sparked my interest in history, and to Rebecca and Audrey, who inspire my future. The sun is mirrored even in a coffee spoon. – Sigfried Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command: An Anonymous History, 1948 24830_Windover.indb 7 12-08-16 2:37 PM 24830_Windover.indb 8 12-08-16 2:37 PM Foreword his book represents a major contribution to our under- standing of Art Deco, and of the muddled definitions of modernity, modernization, and Modernism. Rather than become submergedT by any one theoretical position, Michael Windover deftly employs a series of analytical frames, chiefly those associated with lifestyle mobility. Thereby he both recognizes Deco’s inherent fascination with stylism while disclosing the equally fascinating preoccupation of its purveyors with surface but also substance. For his book is built around four major commissions that demonstrate, in a novel manner, the global reach of Art Deco. These studies of Deco at work begin at the western edge of Dominion Canada, travel to the emergent populist cultural capital of 24830_Windover.indb 9 12-08-16 2:37 PM ART DECO—A MODE OF MOBILITY Los Angeles, the late imperial proto-independent Bombay/Mumbai, and finally to the radical re-staging of life around the radio. Windover literally tunes us into the dynamics of the Art Deco: its colonization of high-end as well as low-cost commodification, clever negotiation of contesting iden- tities both national and individual, its visual normalization of aristocratic and archaeological precedent, plus its brilliantly elegant coating of base commercialization. He displays it as progeny of the Beaux-Arts, but cousin of its eventual nemesis, the Modern Movement.