Indisputably the grande dame of modern design, Andrée Putman burst onto the scene twenty-five years ago with the graphic, black-and-white interiors of the Morgans Hotel in New York. Since then Putman has gone on to redefine design for a diverse group of prestigious clients, including Karl Lagerfeld, the French Ministry of Culture, and the interior of the supersonic Concorde. Projects since 1980 range from museum interiors, a jewelry line for Christofle, private residences for global trendsetters, and a film set for Peter Greenaway. Putman’s work is the epitome of chic, incorporating cashmere and leather with affordable ceramic tiles and industrial metals for interiors that speak volumes for Putman’s unmistakable style of quiet luxury. The same attention to detail is given to a simple necklace as to furniture collections, grand offices, and entire spa hotels. Putman is also credited for the revival of once-forgotten early modernist designers, such as Eileen Gray, Robert Mallet-Stevens, and Jean-Michel Frank, whose designs she put back into production and used in her famous interiors. The first comprehensive monograph on Putman’s essential designs in 20 years, Andrée Putman Complete Works will be an indispensable road map of style and elegance to all lovers of modern design....

In the aftermath of World War II, New York emerged as a world-class city and the de facto national financial capital, becoming a magnet for moguls and strivers. At the same time the city remained a collection of small towns made up of people going about their daily rounds. No other publication captured this twin identity as successfully as Look magazine.

In the pre-television era, the editors of Look recognized the great demand for photographs of all kinds—politicians, titans of industry, and unsung heroes, glamorous events and intimate moments, society matrons and showgirls, violent crime and courtroom drama—that provided entertainment and diversion to voyeuristic subscribers to the magazine. Reaching a peak circulation of nearly 8 million in the late 1960s, Look was a national publication with a focus on the fascination and allure of New York.

The magazine's New York images—more than 200,000 in all—were donated to the Museum of the City of New York. Only in New York draws from that astonishing archive to present the tapestry that was New York in the 1940s and 1950s....