Art Deco Textiles: The French Designers - Tapa dura

The period between the two world wars was one of extreme upheavals in politics, economics and society as a whole. It was also a time of intense artistic creativity, culminating in the great Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925, and the subsequent spread of the celebrated Art Deco style. The radical innovations in Art Deco fashion and interior decoration demanded new textile designs, and, as the period progressed, fabrics for clothes, upholstery wallpaper and rugs increasingly reflected the modernism, elegance and vibrancy of the movement. As the French artist Raoul Dufy, himself a brilliant fabric designer, wrote, 'Paintings have spilled from their frames and stained our dress and our walls.' This sumptuous new book invest the reader to discover the spectacular world of French Art Deco fabrics, with examples by designers such as Delaunay, Ruhlmann, Henry, Marrot, Dufresne, Benedictus, and dozens more. Alain-Rene Hardy, a noted French expert in 20th-century decorative arts, has searched through museum holdings, manufacturers' archives and private collections to find hundreds of examples of both hand- and machine-made textiles, many of them never before published. From the lavish to the minimalist, from luxurious floral patterns to subtle geometric variations in colour and texture, Art Deco textiles continue to enthral us with their originality, complexity and vivacity.

Alain-Rene Hardy is a former university lecturer and a specialist in 20th-century decorative art.