Popcorn Palaces

In Popcorn Palaces: The Art Deco Movie Theatre Paintings of Davis Cone, the artist captures the paradoxes of these iconic showplaces from the perspective of the generation that inherited rather than created them; their tackiness, peeling paint, gaudiness and often neglect contrast with the cool assurance of their fantastical design in its futuristic optimism, lurid wit and irony. Architecture writer Michael D. Kinerk and archivist and Art Deco collector Dennis W. Wilhelm compiled the paintings and provided an informative text. Cone has been photographing and painting theaters for more than 20 years; the 86 images presented here convey the richness of his effort.