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Andrew Geller: Deconstructed: Artist and Architect
Jake Gorst
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Description for Andrew Geller: Deconstructed: Artist and Architect
Hardback. Emmy award winning documentary filmmaker, Jake Gorst uses his access to all of Andrew Geller's original archives, including previously unpublished drawings, photographs and interviews, to create a defining book on Geller's life and work. Foreword by architectural writer Alan Hess. Num Pages: 216 pages, 208 colour. BIC Classification: AGB; AMB. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 275 x 233 x 25. Weight in Grams: 1304.
Over the course of a career that lasted more than fifty years, Andrew Geller—architect, artist, and designer—quietly produced a large and culturally significant body of work, leaving an invaluable mark in his field. Geller's impact was first felt in the heady post-World War II years he spent at the Raymond Loewy design firm, where one highlight amongst many was his improvisational and free-handed influence on the Lord & Taylor brand. He is undoubtedly most well-known, though, for his architecture, and his stunning modernist beach houses in particular, houses that still grace our shores and which, not unlike Andrew Geller himself, ... Read morewere innovative, unconventional, and saturated with a delight for beauty and form.
In Andrew Geller: Deconstructed, Jake Gorst celebrates the life and work of his grandfather, bringing together two-decades worth of interviews, both formal and informal, as well as many artifacts and treasures culled from Geller's vast personal collection of drawings and photographs. Included within are stories and images not only of his now famous beach houses, but also of the many lesser-known buildings and early artworks, making this the definitive volume on this architectural icon. Gorst's intent in writing this volume - to share this wealth of information and provide an intimate glimpse into the inner workings of an artist—is here fully actualized, rendering a vivid portrait of a man whose main drive in life was to create beauty whatever he did. Show Less
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Place of Publication
New York, United States
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About Jake Gorst
Jake Gorst has spent the past two decades researching and documenting mid-century modern architecture, including the work of his grandfather, architectural designer Andrew Geller, in print and film. Gorst is an Emmy® award winning documentary filmmaker and the director of Mainspring Pictures Ltd. Recent films directed by Gorst include Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island (2012, Design Onscreen), William ... Read moreKrisel, Architect (2010, Design Onscreen), Journeyman Architect: The Life and Work of Donald Wexler (2009, Design Onscreen) and Desert Utopia: Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs (2006, Design Onscreen). His films Farmboy (2006, Jonamac Productions), and Leisurama (2005, Jonamac Productions), have been in national U.S. public television distribution. Gorst has also been a contributing writer to VOX Hamptons, HOME Miami and Modernism magazines. Show Less
Reviews for Andrew Geller: Deconstructed: Artist and Architect
In Andrew Geller: Deconstructed, Gorst, 45, a documentary film-maker and writer who also lives in Northport, offers both a guide to Geller's work over the span of generations and a personal portrait of a man though the use of colorful anecdotes that perhaps can only come from a family member.
Carl Corry
Newsday, March 6, 2015
In ... Read moreAndrew Geller: Deconstructed, author Jake Gorst, who also happens to be Geller's grandson, shares the stories behind many magnificent houses and the artist who created them. As readers, we feel like weekend guests at these sculptural summer homes built on the coasts of New England towns.
Gwendolyn Horton, Design Notes
March 10, 2015
This appealing biography captures the essence of a gifted and distinctive American architect. Jake Gorst conveys Geller's winsome and distinctive spirit as a designer, grounding the evolution of his talents in a personal saga of friends, family, artistic vision and a larger cultural history of the post-WWII era. The photographs, drawings and the text are a delight—and sometimes even a revelation.
Gwendolyn Wright, professor, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University Architect and artist Andrew Geller, “the architect of happiness,” is remembered for his unique, whimsical beach houses, including Pearlroth House, Elizabeth Reese House and the New York Hamptons Leisurama development. In Andrew Geller: Deconstructed (Glitterati Incorporated), Geller's grandson Jake Gorst has compiled two decades of interviews and a treasure trove of personal artifacts, including photographs and henceforth unpublished drawings by Geller.
March 13, 2015
Written by Geller’s grandson, Emmy Award–winning documentary filmmaker Jake Gorst, Andrew Geller: Deconstructed explores an outstanding if undersung residential oeuvre that The New York Times called “eccentrically free-form and eye-grabbing.” One Geller house in Westhampton Beach looked like a box kite precariously set on edge. Two neighboring residences on Fire Island resembled pieces of a puzzle, the peaked roofline of one being a perfect fit for the concave angled roof of the one next door. A curious construction in the Long Island hamlet of Sagaponack recalled a hybrid between a lighthouse and a Civil War–era submarine, while the main façade of another getaway in nearby Amagansett looked precisely like a stylized cat’s face.
Mitchell Owens
Architectural Digest, March 17, 2015
From these sources and the interviews that he recorded over many years, Jake Gorst has lovingly produced a tribute to his grandfather. Andrew Geller: Deconstructed provides readers with a unique insight into the mind of an artist who over a fifty year career impacted the course of design and architecture. I received my copy yesterday and it is delightful, full of images never before published.
March 24, 2015
Beautiful, beautiful book about midcentury modern architect and artist Andrew Geller, famous for his small-scale, geometric Long Island beach houses, for the innovative, egalitarian Leisurama homes, for designing the Sokolniki Park kitchen in which Khrushchev and Nixon had their famous debate, and much, much more. An important book for fans of real-life "Mad Men"-era design; a tribute to an under- appreciated and dauntingly talented, accomplished man.
Steven Rea
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Written by Geller's grandson, the book mines family archives to present a rich visual biography of a complex and gifted man whose fascinating, quirky designs expanded the concept of modernism.
Elle Decor, May 2015
I am fascinated with the idea of these very light, buoyant houses that were designed at the beach for the purpose of enjoying the beach. The Geller houses were about a lifestyle and having fun. The families fell in love with them and couldn't part with them, and they saved them because people care about the things they love.
Rick Cook, CookFox Architects Jake Gorst’s tribute to his grandfather in Andrew Geller: Deconstructed is a passionate, thoughtful exploration of a very interesting man. Known as the “architect of happiness,” Andrew Geller designed whimsical beach houses and gave them equally imaginative names: Butterfly, Milk Carton, Raspberry Basket, Grasshopper and Square Brassiere, to name a few.
Gwendolyn Horton, Design Notes
April 22, 2015
During the course of writing the manuscript, previously unknown archival materials were discovered in crawl spaces and other hiding places in the house that he lived in for nearly sixty years. Prior misconceptions were enlightened and clarified. Even previously unknown Andrew Geller buildings were discovered. The finished book, Andrew Geller: Deconstructed, provides an intimate glimpse into my grandfather's life and a deeper understanding of his work.
Jake Gorst
Modern Magazine, Summer 2015
This is a beautiful book about a mid-century modern architect whose wonderful designs expanded the concept of modernism. It is loaded with personal photographs and illustrations. For Jake Gorst, the book is a beautiful personal tribute to a grandfather and, for the rest of us, a tribute to a stunning artist and architect. Beautifully done.
Noella Ballenger
Apogee Photo Magazine, August 2015
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