Joseph Urban : Unlocking an Art Deco Bedroom

A study of the impact of Austrian-born architect and designer Joseph Urban (1872-1933) on the development and acceptance of American Modernism through the story of one of his last commissions, the Art Deco bedroom he created for the teenage Elaine Wormser.

Designed in 1929 and completed in 1930, this rare, bespoke bedroom, created for the seventeen-year-old Elaine Wormser, embodies the skillful blend of Viennese artistic influences, sleek modern finishes, daring colour and pattern that marked all of the artist's greatest achievements. The interior, whose elements are held by the Cincinnati Art Museum, has never been fully researched, published or displayed before now. Five essays, accompanied by full colour illustrations, unlock the narratives and significance of this important historic interior. Joseph Urban arrived in Boston in 1911; he lived and worked in the United States for the rest of his life. Over the next twenty-two years, he would become one of the nation's most important and celebrated designers, at the forefront of American modernism, doing as much as anyone to shape its distinctive face. His iconic designs include the New School for Social Research, New York, 1930; the colour direction for the 1933 World's Fair; and the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1926 for E. F Hutton and Marjorie Merriweather Post.