BOOK FORMAT
Clth, 8.5 x 9.5 in. / 295 pgs / 370 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 10/31/2012
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2012 p. 28

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780878467815 TRADE
List Price: $45.00 CAD $60.00 GBP £40.00

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

TERRITORY
WORLD

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Boston, MA
The Museum of Fine Arts, 10/24/12-04/13/13

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Preview our FALL 2024 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.

MFA PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

The Postcard Age

Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection

Text by Lynda Klich, Benjamin Weiss. Preface by Leonard A. Lauder.

A collection of turn-of-the century postcards from all over the world: this is the perfect gift for anyone interested in graphic design, decorative arts and vintage ephemera

In the decades around 1900, postcards were Twitter, email, Flickr and Facebook, all wrapped into one. A postcard craze swept the world, and billions of cards were bought, mailed and pasted into albums. Many famous artists turned to the new medium, but one of the great pleasures and enigmas of postcards is how some of the most beautiful and interesting examples were made by artists whose names we barely know. Drawing on the riches of the Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Collection (probably the finest and most comprehensive collection of its type), this gorgeous book traces the historical and cultural themes--enthralling, exciting, and sometimes disturbing--of the modern age. The first general publication on the postcard as an artistic medium since the mid-1970s, The Postcard Age is organized thematically, with chapters devoted to urban life, the changing role of women, sports, celebrity, new technologies, the stylish collectors’ cards of Art Nouveau and World War I. The result is at once a vivid picture of the concerns and pastimes of the turn of the century and a sampler from the Lauder’s vast archives.

Featured image is reproduced from The Postcard Age.

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

The Wall Street Journal

"The Postcard Age," opening Wednesday at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, features 700 examples from the era, drawn from the collection of Leonard Lauder, chairman emeritus of Estée Lauder Cos. (His collection numbers more than 160,000 in all.) The cards offer a window into the past, writes Mr. Lauder in the book that accompanies the show. But even beyond that, "postcards help remind us that history is lived and experienced by individuals."

T: The New York Times Style Magazine

Leonard A. Lauder, the billionaire son of Estée, has spent a lifetime scouring kiosks by the Seine and souvenir shops off Portobello Road for rare vintage postcards. He began his quest as a boy, in the 1930s. buying postcards of famous New York City buildings at Woolworth's with his allowance of 5 cents. Lauder is now 79, and his peerless collection is finally getting its day in the sun with "The Postcard Age" ($45), a book and corresponding show (through April 14) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

STATUS: Out of stock

Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.

FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/22/2012

Cards to Write Home About: 'The Postcard Age' Featured in The Wall Street Journal

Today, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston launches The Postcard Age, one of this season's most pleasurable and expert historical exhibitions. Drawn from Leonard A. Lauder's collection of more than 160,000 postcards from the early 1900s, the exhibition is already drawing press, including a full-page preview in the Sunday Wall Street Journal, in which a selection of images are reproduced alongside explanatory captions.
Featured postcard, "RSI Spartakiada, Moscow", is reproduced from the exhibition catalog's chapter on "Healthy Bodies." Designed by Gustavs Klucis and published in Moscow by RSI (Red Sport International) in 1928, it is one in a series of health / propaganda postcards. "Sports and fitness were important to Soviet ideology, but the Soviet Union considered the Olympic Games too closely tied to capitalist and imperial power structures and did not participate until 1952. Instead, Red Sports International (part of the Communist International, or Comintern) organized a parallel competition that took its name from Spartacus, leader of a slave revolt in ancient Rome. Designed when the Soviet Union was still open to artistic experimentation, these energetic cards are dedicated to 'the unity of worker-athletes of the world!'" continue to blog

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