Sunday Salon

Happy Sunday everyone! This week's theme was Surrealism, thanks to Last Nights of Paris and Paris Peasant, two fascinating companion books written by founding members of the movement. I enjoyed the former much more than the latter, although I do feel that Paris Peasant really deserves a closer re-reading. Still, it had its moments, and I am very glad to have read it alongside Last Nights of Paris.

Actually, now that I think of it, the theme really was the 1920s in general, with Monday's dual posts on Last Nights of Paris and Art Deco. Oh, how I wish I could publish more pictures from that wonderful coffeetable book I got for Christmas. But I don't want to give the whole thing away. It came from the clearance table at Barnes & Noble, so if you liked the pictures I posted, hopefully it's still there for a dirt-cheap price. For those of you interested, as I am, in graphic design from ~1890-1930, here are a couple of examples of Deco's predecessor, Art Nouveau:


For more images, check out this awesome blog post I found. Those pictures are so gorgeous! They say Art Deco was the golden age of commercial illustration, but I would argue that golden age began with Art Nouveau. Advertising just hasn't been the same since Deco ended.

As for my reading, I am currently in the middle of Octavia Butler's Fledgling, a very different vampire book. It's moving quickly so I should be finishing shortly. Then onto Woolf in Winter with Mrs. Dalloway! See you on Friday!