Streamlined books.(Current and Coming)(The Art of Bookbinding)

The art deco style in France permeated every aspect of the decorative arts, but it was particularly appealing to graphic designers. Posters, books, and other printed materials provided the perfect vehicles for bold two- and sometimes even three-dimensional designs that incorporated stylized typefaces and geometric patterning created with exotic materials like aluminum and nickel, shagreen and snakeskin, ivory, rare woods, and gemstones. Some of the same materials that were exploited by furniture designers were also used by bookbinders in this new, streamlined idiom. An exhibition that investigates the fascinating careers of two designers and their patron is on view at the New York Public Library in New York City until June 12. Entitled The Art Deco Bookbindings of Pierre Legrain and Rose Adler, the exhibition contains more than forty books, most of which have never before been exhibited. Almost all of them are on loan from the Bibliotheque litteraire Jacques Doucet in Paris, which is named for the influential fashion designer, art collector, bibliophile, and patron who commissioned these incredible bindings from Legrain and Adler.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In his first foray into collecting Doucet focused on eighteenth-century French decorative and fine arts, but he soon turned in a new direction and disposed of these traditional antiques and paintings at auction in 1912. The following year he began collecting works by Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, and Edgar Degas, which he installed in his studio on the Avenue de Bois. Several years later he radically altered his sights again, this time pursuing contemporary art, and his collection grew to include important works by artists such as Henri Rousseau, Francis Picabia, Constantin Brancusi, and Pablo Picasso (whose landmark painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon [1907; Museum of Modern Art, New York City] he owned). Many of these pictures were purchased with the advice of the surrealist poet Andre Breton, whose well-honed eye guided Doucet between 1920 and 1924. Doucet was among the first to appreciate African, American Indian, Chinese, and Japanese objects, and, by the time his studio in Neuilly was completed in 1928, it was richly and eclectically appointed. Among the furniture in these avant-garde interiors were examples designed by Emile Jacques Ruhlmann, Pierre Legrain, Jean Dunand, and Rose Adler. ...