DesignArt

"Interesting and ambitious . . . identifies a serious and significant development within contemporary art." -David Batchelor, Royal College of Art, London

"Significant and timely. I see the book as recommended reading for courses in contemporary art. . . . Excellent." -Barry Schwabsky, ArtForum

For well over 100 years artists have blurred the distinction between "art" and "design," creating works for which Alex Coles has coined the term "DesignArt." In a pioneering study of this dynamic area of art-making, he traces its course from the early 20th century to the present, when such works have become a dominant feature of the contemporary art scene.

From Matisse's plush interior for Nelson Rockefeller's New York City townhouse to the playful environments created by Jorge Pardo; from the handprinted fabrics and tapestries of Sonia Delaunay in the 1920s to the fabric designs Takashi Murakami recently conceived with Marc Jacobs, Coles has identified a major and previously uncharted strand in art history. Written in a clear and accessible style and fully illustrated in color throughout, DesignArt is indispensable for all those with an interest in modern art and design and the relationship between the two.

Author Bio: Alex Coles is an art critic and lecturer. His criticism appears regularly in Art Monthly, Frieze, and Parachute, and his edited books include Site-Specificity: The Ethnographic Turn and Mark Dion: Archaeology.