Book Description
Drawing extensively from various disciplines including ethnology, geography, geology, and environmental studies, this groundbreaking book addresses shifting concepts of time, history, and landscape in relation to the work of pioneering American artists during the first half of the 20th century. Paintings, watercolors, and photographs by renowned artists such as Frederic Remington, Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel Adams, Thomas Hart Benton, Dorothea Lange, and Jackson Pollock are considered alongside American Indian ledger drawings, tempuras, and Dineh sandpaintings. Taken together, these works document the quest to create a specifically American art in the decades prior to World War II.
The Modern West begins with a captivating meditation on the relationship between human culture and the physical landscape by Barry Lopez, who traveled the West in the artists’ footsteps. Emily Ballew Neff then describes the evolving importance of the West for American artists working out a radically new aesthetic response to space and place, from artist-explorers on the turn-of-the-century frontier, to visionaries of a Californian arcadia, to desert luminaries who found in its stark topography a natural equivalent to abstraction.
Beautifully illustrated and handsomely designed, this book is essential to anyone interested in the West and the history of modernism in American art.
Book Description
Invisible Gardens is a composite history of the individuals and firms that defined the field of landscape architecture in America from 1925 to 1975, a period that spawned a significant body of work combining social ideas of enduring value with landscapes and gardens that forged a modern aesthetic. The major protagonists include Thomas Church, Roberto Burle Marx, Isamu Noguchi, Luis Barragan, Daniel Urban Kiley, Stanley White, Hideo Sasaki, Ian McHarg, Lawrence Halprin, and Garrett Eckbo.
They were the pioneers of a new profession in America, the first to offer alternatives to the historic landscape and the park tradition, as well as to the suburban sprawl and other unplanned developments of twentieth-century cities and institutions. The work is described against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the Second World War, the postwar recovery, American corporate expansion, and the environmental revolution.
The authors look at unbuilt schemes as well as actual gardens, ranging from tiny backyards and play spaces to urban plazas and corporate villas. Some of the projects discussed already occupy a canonical position in modern landscape architecture; others deserve a similar place but are less well known. The result is a record of landscape architecture's cultural contribution - as distinctly different in history, intent, and procedure from its sister fields of architecture and planning - during the years when it was acquiring professional status and struggling to define a modernist aesthetic out of the startling changes in postwar America.
Customer Reviews:
A Very Thorough Presentation.......2001-06-28
Invisible Gardens is a well-written, lively introduction to the confluence of landscape architecture and modernism during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Although somewhat like a textbook in its style of presentation, the writing throughout is clear, incisive and often quite absorbing. And there are plenty of black and white photos and architectural renderings which accompany the text to enhance its ability to inform. But only twelve colour plates were included in Invisible Gardens. I felt a bit let-down personally by this aspect of the project. I thought the book could have used additional high quality colour plates of the often spectacular commissions under review to balance the density of the text. And to convey visually what often needs to be seen to be properly appreciated.
Book Description
The first book to explore Modernism from a truly international perspective, Modernism: Designing a New World offers a reassessment of the concept and reveals the fundamental ways in which it has shaped our world and its visual culture.
Modernism flourished between 1914 and 1939, and became a key point of reference for 20th-century architecture, art, and design. This important, lavishly illustrated book demonstrates the movement's continued influence, on everything from the chairs we sit on to the buildings we occupy. The range of objects illustrated-including the fine arts as well as architecture, furniture, manufactured products, film, and graphic design-reflect the period's emphasis on the unity of the arts. Key artists and designers include Mondrian, Le Corbusier, Bourke-White, Eisenstein, and Breuer, along with lesser-known figures from around the globe.
Customer Reviews:
The power and potential of the machine.......2007-10-15
I thought Christopher Wilk, in his excellent introduction, mentions a very interesting point: 'It is difficult to see how Modernism could be understood without investigating the idea of utopia (both as a dream that existed on paper and as an experiment in actual building)'. Bearing this thought in mind it helped me understand how this `ism' effected so much visual culture for several decades in the twentieth century.
The eleven chapters pull the various strands of Modernism together: The cataclysmic effect of the First World, the rise of totalitarian authority, rejection of past ornamentation and an increased awareness of the machine and technology. To creative folk in central Europe it looked like a better life might be possible for all though the publics visual awareness of the style was mainly through architecture. They were the ones who initially accepted new social housing estates and high rise apartments designed for maximum light and easy maintenance, who participated in the mass gymnastics and the healthy body ideal. Chapter seven deals with the healthy body concept that was probably the oddest part of Modernism. Central Europe again seems to have provided the lead. Dance, mass gymnastics, fresh air and exercise would create a perfect working unit just like a machine. Architects like Alvar Aalto and Mies van der Rohe designed sanatoria, Richard Neutra designed the Lovell 'Health' house in Los Angeles.
The format of book is the same as the V&A's remarkable Art Deco: 1910-1939: each chapter covers a theme in depth followed by a pictorial section with additional image related text and captions. Because both books are centered round exhibitions I sometimes found it rather annoying attempting to find a particular image because the exhibition ones have been augmented by many more for the book and each are referred to in different ways. The design, paper and printing (in 175dpi) are of the quality one would expect for this type of book.
I think it's worth saying that the title concentrates on creativity in the designed world so it does not include literature or music but I think, rightly, does include movies and chapter eight has an excellent survey by Ian Christie. The four hundred illustrations and photos throughout the book give a wonderful idea of the huge creative energy created by a relatively small group of artists and designers. I think it covers the subject in more depth than Richard Weston's Modernism though his book is useful because he starts his analyses of the style before 1900 and concentrates more on fine art and architecture.
Like the previous V&A 'Art Deco' I expect 'Modernism' will be considered the standard reference book on this fascinating creative style. For a short-lived concept it influenced so much that is still with us today.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
Essential Book for Modernism.......2007-10-04
This is actually a museum catalog for an exhibition by the Victoria and Albert Museum of London. The show also made an appearance at the Corcoran Museum in Washington, DC. The several chapters in this book cover modernism in multiple arts: art, architecture, dance, industrial design, physical fitness, film, etc. It's well illustrated and researched and will give the reader an excellent overview of the modernism movement. I discovered that I knew remarkably less than I thought I did. I've used it as a reference and stepping stone for further reading in the style/movement. I'm using it as touchstone for my interest in all aspects of the style and highly recommend to others for the same purpose. Well-illustrated probably understates it's visual effect. It's a great coffee-table book even with it's extensive written content.
Book Description
Many people think modernist architecture never flowered in California north of the San Fernando Valley. NorCalMod dispels that notion in a copiously illustrated history showcasing extraordinary examples of its proud contribution to the Bay Area and environs. As a style, modernist architecture was hotly debated in its day (why create modern structures where such distinctive Victorian and Arts and Crafts buildings already existed?) pulling heavyweights such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Lewis Mumford, and Walter Gropius into the fray. Ultimately, that existing "Bay Region Style" would remain the area's architectural hallmark, but not before hundreds of important modernist projects, many still standing yet unjustly neglected today, had been established. The remarkable photos in this book open our eyes to a long-lost chapter in the history of California architecture and make NorCalMod a volume to be enjoyed by those interested in California history and style as well as by architecture students and professionals.
Customer Reviews:
Of both particular and general value; a fine piece of work........2007-05-30
This is an accessible, well-written and thoughtful book; a rarity in current architectural discourse.
Furthermore, it is handsomely designed and illustrated with beautiful archival photography.
Though it focuses on the seemingly narrow topic of the neglected/suppressed history of modern architecture in Northern California, its value is much broader.
More generally, it provides lucid insights into the mechanisms of architectural history and, by extension, the very nature by which we come to understand and appreciate our built environment in the present age.
Great, Important Work.......2007-05-17
This underappreciated topic finally gets the attention it deserves. Great photos, interviews, etc which are obviously the result of extensive research. Color photos would have been nice.
Average customer rating:
- beating their cannons into canon
- Eh.
- Language is a barrier!
- art since 1900: modernism, antimodernism, postmodernism
- Ideological Claptrap
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Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism
Hal Foster ,
Rosalind Krauss ,
Yve-Alain Bois , and
Benjamin Buchloh
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
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Here's an exceptional rarity: a large, sweeping art history text book so well-done it almost makes the reader wish she or he were back in school. It's rather amazing that it took so long for a book like Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, and Postmodernism to exist: a balanced, seven hundred page historical tome written with multiple perspectives in mind. As any undergrad knows, H.W. Janson's ubiquitous History of Art was written as if art history were some sort of race to colonize ideas and imagery; you'll likely not miss Janson's fetish for pointing out who did what first. Penned by a nimble crew who all teach at Ivy League universities, Art Since 1900, which mirrors the development of psychoanalysis and the creation of a huge international art scene, is on a smaller scale a history of contemporary theory and the art world almost as much as it is the art itself. Attention is paid throughout to important exhibits and texts, pointing out the rippling effect throughout the art community of these mirrors and portals. The book is arranged so that there are one or two essays per year. In such a novel format, often undervalued movements are given as much respect as Cubism and Minimalism. There are entire chapters here on Fluxus, feminist art, the Assemblage movement, Lettrism, the Independent Group, Gutai, Kineticism, the Harlem Renaissance, Aktionism, earthworks, video art, and the aesthetics of ACT UP. As with any history, there are personalities whose works are emphasized over that of others; the scant attention given to Jean-Michel Basquiat, for instance, is a rather large question mark. Quibbles aside, it's a very important, and nearly immaculate, work. --Mike McGonigal
Images from Art Since 1900
Book Description
A landmark in art history and the most anticipated art publishing event of the new millennium.
In this groundbreaking and original work of scholarship, four of the most influential and provocative art historians of our time have come together to provide a comprehensive history of art in the twentieth century, an age when artists in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere sought to overturn the traditions of the past and expectations of the present in order to invent new practices and forms.
Adopting a unique year-by-year approach, Foster, Krauss, Bois, and Buchloh present more than 100 short essays, each focusing on a crucial event—the creation of a seminal work, the publication of an artistic manifesto, the opening of a major exhibition—to tell the story of the dazzling diversity of practice and interpretation that characterizes the art of the period. All the turning points and breakthroughs of modernism and postmodernism are explored in depth, as are the frequent and sustained antimodernist reactions that proposed alternative visions of art and the world. Illustrating the authors' texts are more than 600 of the most important works of the century, many reproduced in full color.
The book's flexible structure and extensive cross-referencing allow readers to follow any one of the many narratives that unfold, whether that be the history of a medium such as photography or painting, the development of art in a particular country, the influence of a movement such as surrealism or feminism, or the emergence of a stylistic or conceptual category like abstraction or minimalism. Boxes give further background information on the important figures and issues.
In their insightful introductions, the four authors explain the different methods of art history at work in the book, providing the reader with the conceptual tools for further study. Two roundtable discussions —one at midcentury, the other at the close of the book—consider the questions raised by the preceding decades and look ahead to the art of the future. A glossary of terms and concepts completes this extraordinary volume. 600 illustrations, 400 in color.
The contributors:
- Yve-Alain Bois, Harvard University
- Benjamin Buchloh, Barnard College
- Hal Foster, Princeton University
- Rosalind Krauss, Columbia University
Customer Reviews:
beating their cannons into canon.......2007-04-18
I suspect that a number of these comments were inspired by a scathing review in the Wall Street Journal by Eric Gibson (the "culture war" ones at least). But maybe not...
I would have liked to write a more critical review of this book, although, or perhaps, because I liked it so much, but with all of these rather "blunt" opinions, it is hard to do anything but just praise it. Still, I'll throw out a couple of points of critique:
1. It is obvious that the authors are trying to create a kind of definitive history of 20th century art. This is in part based on their particular take, and indeed, sometimes this is more evident than others (esp. the closer you get to the present), but in general it is a very thorough book (presenting numerous positions). That they were among the founding editors of October should make it more interesting to read than otherwise. Needless to say, it should also be read in this way. There is definitely a certain direction to this work. But isn't that what writing and scholarship is all about? See also point 3.
2. I do wish that they would call into question some more of their own philosophical and political "foundations." For the most part, much like in October, their critique and development of Marxism, structuralism, psychoanalysis, "post-structuralism" etc. all seem to focus on a historical or art historical USE of these fields rather than going to the "heart of the matter" and maybe trying to address them on a philosophical or for that matter on a "real-political" level. It would be nice to be able to read the work from a philosophical or political vantage point too, not just an art historical one...they seem to SOMETIMES ironically mirror their "blunt" critic's weak position of lumping everything into one common trend of "continental philosophy" or "postmodernism" etc.
3. The tension between textbook and the "avant-garde" art critic: I find this to be sometimes a bit too much, end up asking myself, am I in some "contemporary art 101 class?" or am I directly "on the front"...but in the end I find this also to be interesting. Trying to make an institution, a textbook classic out of all of these disparate attempts to undermine such an idea... I hope the next version is less well-mannered and proper and a bit crazier (less a text book).
Eh........2006-11-10
The reproductions are good and very useful, but the language is a bit convoluted.
Language is a barrier!.......2006-08-07
The Publisher's Weekly review spoke volumns about this book. It was well written, however for the majority of the students in the class I attended this book left them more puzzeled than informed. One of the reasons the instructor order this title was due to the organization of the chapters. It is broken down according to dates and not periods. This was a novel new way to present art history because you suddenly realize how art periods overlaps. One period does not come and suddenly end, it is a melding of periods, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. If you already have a basic knowledge of 20th century art this is well worth adding to your library. If you are new to 20th century art ask your instructor to supply you with alternative titles that are written less like a doctorial thesis.
art since 1900: modernism, antimodernism, postmodernism.......2006-07-02
great book at a much better price than I could get elsewhere, even with coupons, etc.
thanks!
Ideological Claptrap.......2006-03-02
As a professional art historian who teaches twentieth century art at public university, I find this book to be virtually worthless. Not only do the authors leave out artists from their book because they don't adhere to their own rigid ideological orthodoxies, but the book is very badly written; they undermine their own arguments by constantly lapsing into semi-meaningless jargon. A good postmodernist/ Marxist perspective in a general introduction to twentieth century would be useful, but these authors are too inept and arrogant to bring it off.
Book Description
This beautifully illustrated book highlights the unique history of The Société Anonyme, Inc., an organization founded in 1920 by the artists Katherine S. Dreier (1877–1952), Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), and Man Ray (1890–1976). As America’s first “experimental museum” for modern art, the Société Anonyme provided a means for artists, rather than historians, to chronicle the rise of modernism. Led by Dreier and Duchamp, the group eventually assembled a collection of more than one thousand artworks, which it presented to the public in a variety of innovative programs, publications, and exhibitions.
The incredible collection of the Société Anonyme now belongs to the Yale University Art Gallery, a gift from the Société and Dreier. It features the work of more than one hundred artists, many of whom are among the century’s most renowned—including Jean Arp, Duchamp, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, El Lissitzky, Piet Mondrian, Man Ray, Kurt Schwitters, and Joseph Stella—as well as works by lesser-known artists whose contributions to modernism are substantial.
With new archival information, including personal correspondence between Dreier and the artists whose work she assembled, a host of previously unpublished images, essays by leading scholars, and an interview with artists Robert and Sylvia Mangold about the contemporary significance of this collection, this fascinating book is essential to our understanding of the reception and interpretation of modernism in America.
Customer Reviews:
Catalogs a wonderful exhibit.......2007-02-10
Here's the story--well told and illustrated--of modernist art in the U.S. Lots of revelations here--the woman who was the driving force behind the movement; the breadth and scope of the many, many artists who were part of it; and the amazing number of talented women who produced some incredible art in this context. The book is well researched and organized and is destined to be an important reference work.
Superior Art Exhibit Catalog.......2006-07-27
I recently attended the Societe Anonyme Exhibition at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angles. The accompanying catalog is outstanding both in terms of the essay material and many photographs. I have a large collection of museum art catalogs and this one rates at the top. For anyone interested in the history of an important era in early Twentieth Century American modern art this monograph is a wonderful place to start.
Book Description
âDon’t start an art collective until you read this book.â âGuerrilla Girls
âEver since Web 2.0 with its wikis, blogs and social networks the art of collaboration is back on the agenda. Collectivism after Modernism convincingly proves that art collectives did not stop after the proclaimed death of the historical avant-gardes. Like never before technology reinvents the social and artists claim the steering wheel!â âGeert Lovink, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam
âThis examination of the succession of post-war avant-gardes and collectives is new, important, and engaged.â â Stephen F. Eisenman, author of The Abu Ghraib Effect
âCollectivism after Modernism crucially helps us understand what artists and others can do in mushy, stinky times like ours. What can the seemingly powerless do in the face of mighty forces that seem to have their act really together? Here, Stimson and Sholette put forth many good answers.â âYes Men
Spanning the globe from Europe, Japan, and the United States to Africa, Cuba, and Mexico, Collectivism after Modernism explores the ways in which collectives function within cultural norms, social conventions, and corporate or state-sanctioned art. Together, these essays demonstrate that collectivism survives as an influential artistic practice despite the art world’s star system of individuality. Collectivism after Modernism provides the historical understanding necessary for thinking through postmodern collective practice, now and into the future.
Contributors: Irina Aristarkhova, Jesse Drew, Okwui Enwezor, Rubén Gallo, Chris Gilbert, Brian Holmes, Alan Moore, Jelena Stojanovi´c, Reiko Tomii, Rachel Weiss.
Blake Stimson is associate professor of art history at the University of California Davis, the author of The Pivot of the World: Photography and Its Nation, and coeditor of Visual Worlds and Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology. Gregory Sholette is an artist, writer, and cofounder of collectives Political Art Documentation/Distribution and REPOhistory. He is coeditor of The Interventionists: Users’ Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life.
âTo understand the various forms of postwar collectivism as historically determined phenomena and to articulate the possibilities for contemporary collectivist art production is the aim of Collectivism after Modernism. The essays assembled in this anthology argue that to make truly collective art means to reconsider the relation between art and public; examples from the Situationist International and Group Material to Paper Tiger Television and the Congolese collective Le Groupe Amos make the point. To construct an art of shared experience means to go beyond projecting what Blake Stimson and Gregory Sholette call the âimagined communityâ: a collective has to be more than an ideal, and more than communal craft; it has to be a truly social enterprise. Not only does it use unconventional forms and media to communicate the issues and experiences usually excluded from artistic representation, but it gives voice to a multiplicity of perspectives. At its best it relies on the participation of the audience to actively contribute to the work, carrying forth the dialogue it inspires.â âBOMB
Amazon.com
In the late '90s, publishers began to race to get a book out that would cater to the explosive interest in all things midcentury modern. There was Classic Modern, Naturally Modern, and Modernism Rediscovered, to name just a few of the better ones. With the publication of this volume by regular Architectural Digest contributor Michael Webb, we finally have a book that not only provides a plethora of design ideas we can steal for use in our very own living rooms, but also tells the often-captivating behind-the-scenes stories of each great home it showcases.
The focus here is on the saving of these houses, and Webb's text is wonderfully insightful. One of the 35 spectacular homes featured is celebrated architect John Lautner's Harvey House in Los Angeles, the very same once-dilapidated house (the book captures it in its newly restored state) over which actor Leonardo DiCaprio went head to head in a bidding war (and lost) with actress Kelly Lynch and her husband, screenwriter Mitch Glazer.
The house is a work in progress, full of difficult judgment calls. The expanded kitchen may be cut back and the original St. Charles cabinets reinstalled. The rotunda will be refined and there is a possibility of recreating the aluminum-framed glass breakfast nook--a kind of high-tech gazebo--originally located under the pergola. Meanwhile the owners and their small daughter adore living here. "At night, we can look all the way through and out at the lights of the city," says Lynch. "I find myself caught up in the spirit of the place, wander about, and forget I'm in the middle of watching a movie!"
Newly commissioned photography by Roger Straus, known for his panoramic shots of Frank Lloyd Wright structures, is another highlight. Designed and built in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s by architects such as Richard Neutra, Pierre Koenig, Philip Johnson, Eero Saarinen, John Lautner, H.H. Harris, Gregory Ain, Paul Rudolph, John Black Lee, Allyn E. Morris, and Ulrich Franzen, the 35 homes presented here are some of the most sought after in America. If you're into modern or want to know what all the fuss is about, this is the book you'll want to own. --Richard Olsen
Book Description
In the first book of its kind, architectural critic Michael Webb and Esto photographer Roger Strauss III examine 35 extraordinary modern houses that have been restored, enhanced, or extended by new owners who see them as timeless classics. Built in the heyday of modernism, from the 1930s through the early 1960s, these houses were designed by exceptional architects for themselves or for adventurous clients. A few were lovingly preserved as time capsules, but most endured years of neglect or abuse and might easily have been torn down.
Webb explores how these houses were created--as daring experiments or as creative responses to site and climate--and here are villas that fuse craft and invention, machines for living, and residences that embrace the landscape. Here, too, are houses inspired by the purity of classical temples, and frugal dwellings that have been sensitively enlarged. After a long eclipse, these houses and the enlightened attitudes they embody are being rediscovered by creative individuals searching for distinctive, open, light-filled places to live. Modernism is a way of living, more than a style, and this book celebrates the architects and owners who respect its character and scale.
Also included are nearly 200 photographs taken by Roger Strauss, all of which were specially commissioned for this book.
Customer Reviews:
Mid-Century Modern .......2007-08-08
If you want a strong, national (not just LA or Palm Springs) overview of mid-century modern, this is a good bet. Very well produced, beautiful imagery.
A Peek at many Architectural Rarities.......2006-12-02
The author provides a good overview of the history and restoration of 35 architecturally significant houses
of the 1930's through mid-century. The only thing keeping it from getting a 5 star rating is it's small format,
resulting in smallish pictures and smaller floor plans. These wonderful houses deserved a larger page size,
say 12" x 12", to show them to the best advantage. Still, given it's relatively modest price, this book provides
a lot of information between the covers.
Homes of the Brave.......2005-08-27
We are in danger of losing our mid-century domestic architectural heritage.
Yesterday's flat-roof, ultra-modern "home of tomorrow" is often perceived as the cramped and impractical "teardown" of today. Most real estate agents will confide that "Modern doesn't sell," and those modernist homes that are sold are usually fodder for the bulldozer; razed and discarded to make way for another McMansion.
Sometimes it seems that the only folks who have any fondness for "Home, Sleek Home" are advertising directors (who love to feature hip mid-century homes in TV commercials and print ads), and subscribers to Dwell Magazine (and subscribers to the Dwell Magazine lifestyle).
In his book MODERNISM REBORN: Mid-Century American Houses, architectural critic Michael Webb demonstrates that there is a growing appreciation for cutting-edge American residential architecture of the 1930s through the 1960s, and in it he highlights the intrepid homeowners who've assumed stewardship of 35 of these "Contemporary" domiciles of long, long ago. Tersely written, illustrated with floor plans, and enlivened by nearly 200 color photos by noted architectural photographer Roger Strauss III, MODERNISM REBORN explores the unique histories of these homes, and chronicles the research, labor, and expense that the adventurous owners have lavished on their preservation, restoration and sometimes, expansion.
Nearly all of the 20th Century architectural greats are represented here--Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, Philip Johnson and R.M. Schindler--as well as iconic modernist structures such as Pierre Koenig's Case Study House #21, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House, and Charles and Ray Eames' own home-studio. Webb presents homes that embody various modernist impulses in thematic chapters that prove that there was no one right way (or Wright way) to be "modern."
Webb's survey argues a case for Modernism as a mode (or ideal) of living, rather than a mere style (or styles). Indeed, these light-filled, open plan, spartanly furnished "homes of the brave" imply an enlightened lifestyle of Zen-like purity somewhat at odds with the ever more acquisitive and materialistic American way of life.
Don't read too much into the Modernist rejection of consumerism, however, because these designer homes were status symbols in their day, and to furnish a home with "Modern classics" like Le Corbusier's Petit Confort sofa, the Eames lounge chair and ottoman, and a pair of Mies Barcelona chairs will set you back several grand. Modern don't come cheap.
Ultimately, the stories that Webb weaves about the people that commissioned, designed, built, restored and live in these homes are every bit as enlightening and memorable as the homes themselves. In fact, the author makes their histories seem inseparable, as if house and owner are joined in partnership against philistine taste, obnoxious neighbors, natural (and unnatural) disasters, and metal fatigue.
This is not a scholarly study, but Webb assumes a certain level of cultural awareness and familiarity with architectural terms in his reader. It is a fine book with a fresh look at a perhaps overly familiar subject, and is well worth owning for the photos alone.
Reading MODERNISM REBORN makes one wonder how the home of 1950 will inform and inspire the home of 2050, the mid-century home of tomorrow.
Fifties elegance.......2004-02-16
I bought this interesting book because I wanted something that would cover, visually, the best of mid-century American architecture. As another reviewer has said, don't expect a full technical account of the background to these beautiful houses but if you want excellent exterior and interior photos in a well designed and printed book, 'Modernism reborn' is the one to get.
The fact that these thirty-five houses have all been restored in some way gives the book extra interest. Many of them were featured in the architectural press years ago when they were first built and these are the photos you usually see in books. Some of them were neglected but fortunately the current owners thought restoration worthwhile and this is how Roger Straus photographed them.
An interesting companion book to 'Modernism reborn' is Classic Modern: Midcentury Modern At Home by Deborah K Dietsch, not directly concerned with the architecture but more to do with the furniture, fabrics, lighting and style that made these houses such wonderful homes. If only I could afford to live in one!
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
cotton candy.......2002-01-22
I'm surprised at the raves for this book. It is well produced. The photos are terrific. But: The building descriptions do little more than cheer-lead. He raves about features which are not illustrated. Most of the buildings only get 4 photos. The plans provided are far too small, usually only one plan is provided, though most of the buildings have more than one level. In at least one case the plans are mislabled. I'd only recommend this book to somebody who only wants a catalog of names. Still waiting for a really good book about mid-century modern architecture. This isn't it.
Average customer rating:
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Designed for Delight: Alternative Aspects of Twentieth-Century Decorative Arts
Manufacturer: Flammarion
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Release Date: 1997-06-15 |
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This book is aptly titled, for both the objects contained in it--things such as Dali's lip-shaped sofa and Gaultier's torso-shaped perfume vials--and the book itself will delight the reader. The furniture, vases, fabrics, and other objects are organized according to four classifications: "Body Language," "Inversion and Transformation," "Is Ornament a Crime?," and "Flights of Fancy." All are reproduced in full color and accentuated by essays elaborating the ideas. Quotes by or about the artists, placed alongside each photograph, complement the pieces. In one, Frank Gehry reveals the genesis of his paper furniture: "I got interested in paper furniture when I was designing for department stores and had to invent display furniture that nobody really had to sit on.... I would draw and my assistants and I would then make them. I never expected to sell these things until someone from Bloomingdale's saw them and suggested I develop them." This fabulous view of 20th-century decorative arts includes both well-known and obscure items, making for hours of reading and viewing pleasure.
Book Description
By the early part of this century, the principles of Modernism in design-- simplicity of form, little or no ornament, truth to materials-- were established as avant-garde ideas, and functionalism soon became an overriding concern. However, looking back from our fin-de-siècle perspective, it is evident that the history of modern design is far more varied and complex. This lavishly illustrated and beautifully designed book demonstrates the surprising ways in which Modernist designers also took alternative routes to create art beyond function.
From Art Nouveau and the Wiener Werkstätte to Pop and Post-modernism, Designed for Delight presents over 200 works from the collection of the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, in all media, focusing in particular on four aspects of the decorative arts through objects and essays. "Body Language" explores the ways in which the human body and its various parts have been used as elements of design. In "Inversion and Transformation" we see how materials have been unexpectedly inverted. Contrary to the accepted notion that Modern design should be devoid of ornament, the richly decorated surfaces and textures of objects in "Is Ornament a Crime?" argue for the everlasting appeal of floral and geometric patterns. Fantasy and illusion have been equally compelling, and "Flights of Fantasy" demonstrates how twentieth-century artists and designers incorporated the fantastic and even the irrational into their work.
Alongside scholarly inquiries on these themes, four essays reflect on the broader context of architecture, painting, sculpture, and design. The objects are accompanied by the words of the artists themselves, or of commentators from throughout the century-- including many quotations unique to this book-- Lalique and Hoffmann, Dalí and Ruhlmann, Pucci and Nikki de Saint-Phalle, Pesce, Sottsass, and Starck. Their words provide a fascinating glimpse into the processes of creation and perception. Published to coincide with a landmark traveling exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, Designed for Delight is certain to become a standard reference for decorative arts of the twentieth century.
Book Description
From teaspoons to cocktail shakers and unique objects made for New York World’s Fairs, this stunning book examines the influence of modernism upon industrially produced silverware made in the United States from 1925 to 2000. Featuring the Dallas Museum of Art’s Jewel Stern American Silver Collection— which comprises over four hundred extraordinary works in the modern idiom—as well as other objects in the Museum’s collection, and selected pieces on loan, Modernism in American Silver is the first book to study the full scope of progressive design in American silver of the twentieth century.
The book not only focuses on the works of such widely known designers as Michael Graves, Richard Meier, Tommi Parzinger, Elsa Peretti, Eliel Saarinen, Belle Kogan, and Lella and Massimo Vigelli, it also reveals the role of others largely unrecognized, among them Donald H. Colflesh, Kurt Eric Christoffersen, Helen Hughes Dulany, Robert J. King, and Elsa Tennhardt, who were instrumental in shaping silverware for a New Age.
For collectors, scholars, designers, students, and museum visitors interested in silver and design, this book is a beautiful and essential resource.
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