Mardi Gras Treasures: Float Designs of the Golden Age

Rating:
Summary: With striking full-color illustrations
Review: Mardi Gras Treasures charts the specialty parade floats of Carnival in New Orleans from 1870-1930, examining classic and artistic themes and recreating original float designs in watercolor and lithographs. The author, Henri Schindler, has himself designed Mardi Gras parades and balls for some time: his striking full-color illustrations will appeal to a wide audience, from float designers to artists with a special interest in New Orleans works and history.

Rating:
Summary: Visually rich journey through Evolution of Unique Art Form
Review: Schindler, himself a treasure-trove of history and lore of New Orleans' "golden age", shares through lucid and eloquent essays and stunning color plates the story of the evolution of the Carnival street pageant, from its beginnings in pre-Civil War affluence to the great depression of the 1930s. He weaves a tapestry of social, political and economic events through the warp of the lives of the great artists and artistic movements that shaped the unique street parades of the New Orleans Carnival. From the sadly anonymous creator of the 1858 Comus pageant memorialized in the London Illustrated News through the accomplishments of prolific Virginia Wilkinson Wilde and the remarkable Plauche family in the last century, Schindler offers a rich chronicle of the men and women who created a unique art form that provided mass public entertainment long before the invention of the motion picture projector and cathode ray tube. Those of us who have enjoyed his prior publications, Mardi Gras and Invitations of the Golden Age will delight in this latest addition to the multi-layered history of New Orleans' pre-Lenten celebration. Readers new to Schindler's magic will eagerly await his next opus.

Rating:
Summary: Visually rich journey through Evolution of Unique Art Form
Review: Schindler, himself a treasure-trove of history and lore of New Orleans' "golden age", shares through lucid and eloquent essays and stunning color plates the story of the evolution of the Carnival street pageant, from its beginnings in pre-Civil War affluence to the great depression of the 1930s. He weaves a tapestry of social, political and economic events through the warp of the lives of the great artists and artistic movements that shaped the unique street parades of the New Orleans Carnival. From the sadly anonymous creator of the 1858 Comus pageant memorialized in the London Illustrated News through the accomplishments of prolific Virginia Wilkinson Wilde and the remarkable Plauche family in the last century, Schindler offers a rich chronicle of the men and women who created a unique art form that provided mass public entertainment long before the invention of the motion picture projector and cathode ray tube. Those of us who have enjoyed his prior publications, Mardi Gras and Invitations of the Golden Age will delight in this latest addition to the multi-layered history of New Orleans' pre-Lenten celebration. Readers new to Schindler's magic will eagerly await his next opus.