Tiki Modern by Sven A Kirsten Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Tiki Modern
Book Review: Excellent except too much Witco
Summary: 4 Stars
Great Tiki art, design, music, and lifestyle pieces from the past and from the present day. The subtitle is the Witco Company, which has acquired a bit too much of the focus here, I think. Still, a good book with that oddity.Book Review: Light your tiki torch again
Summary: 5 Stars
The tiki revival of today is filled with quaintness, much like the recent short-lived resuscitations of Googie architecture, swing music, cocktail culture, cigar-smoking and other "square" artifacts from the Mid-Century American attic. I can't imagine anyone in Southern California propping a tiki god in the back yard without a heavy dose of smirking irony. But Baby Boomers will surely remember when Polynesiana was a genuine enthusiasm and the excitement of our parents as they departed for an "exotic" evening at some lavish mocked-up South Seas restaurant. Author Sven Kirsten has done another magnificient job as an "urban archeologist" in unearthing this quirky bulldozed chapter in American pop culture, following up his influential The Book Of Tiki which was published in 2000. Tiki Modern covers some of the same ground, but concentrates on the social and artistic movements that gave rise to the tiki craze (and ultimately brought about its demise). It's another lavish, thick book from Taschen, with every page loaded with great graphics and seemingly lost tiki ephemera. The book is divided into two parts, The Evolution Of Tiki Modern and Witco: Tiki Modern Exemplified. Witco was the leading manufacturer of tiki decor. Horrendously ugly to anyone with traditional taste, Witco wall art and furniture was produced with chain saws and shipped across the country to modern crudes. Witco decorated tiki bars, restaurants, apartments, motels and the famous homes of Elvis and Hugh Hefner among countless other swinging bachelors and wild chicks. The book's final chapter ponders tiki's future, which probably will be limited to eBay auctions, thrift stores, and few retro-minded artists catering to hipsters. As a genuine phenomenon, tiki will always belong to its long-departed day.Book Review: Moderism at its best!
Summary: 5 Stars
A MUST HAVE for anyone interested in the atomic/tiki/moderism era. Lots of information and historical photos all in one book. I also recommend another book by this same author (Sven Kirsten)entitled, The Book of Tiki. You will not be disappointed!Book Review: TASCHEN book quality! Beuatiful Pics!!! They dont make'em like this anymore!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is absolutely AMAZING! The pictures are wonderful...colorful, big and vivid. There's pictures on EVERY PAGE...serious material here! Descriptions and the wonderful little tid-bits are executed nicely. Nothing was done as an 'afterthought'. There are even a few vintage items I was going to bid on at one time mentioned in this book...now I seriously regret it because of their rarity!!
If you're a tiki fan, new to tiki or just love art and Polynesian influenced pieces, this is a book you must buy. Pick it up..because once you do, you won't want to put it back down.
Book Review: TIKI Lives Again
Summary: 5 Stars
TIKI Modern is the best collection of TIKI related information yet to be published. If you are looking for a good coffee table book with entertaining reading and lots of photos about a time when American's were taking their minds off the Cold War, you will not be disappointed.