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Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > From 1900 > Design styles > Modernist design & Bauhaus
Danish Modern explores the development of mid-century modernist
design in Denmark from historical, analytical and theoretical
perspectives. Mark Mussari explores the relationship between Danish
design aesthetics and the theoretical and cultural impact of
Modernism, particularly between 1930 and 1960. He considers how
Danish designers responded to early Modernist currents: the
Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, their rejection of Bauhaus aesthetic
demands, their early fealty to wood and materials, and the tension
between cabinetmaker craft and industrial production as it
challenged and altered their aesthetic approach. Tracing the
theoretical foundations for these developments, Mussari discusses
the writings and works of such figures as Poul Henningsen, Arne
Jacobsen, Hans Wegner, Nanna Ditzel, and Finn Juhl.
For nearly fifty years the humanities have been confined by a
series of critiques: of the subject, of representation, of the
visual, of modernism, of autonomy, of intention, of art itself. In
their place various "materialities" have appeared: signs,
identities, bodies, history, and works. Against Affective Formalism
challenges these orthodoxies. "What I am after, above all, is
expression," Henri Matisse declared. Matisse believed that through
the careful arrangement of line and color he could transmit his
feelings directly to the minds and bodies of his viewers. Yet
Matisse continually struggled with the reality that his feelings
were misunderstood-or simply ignored-by viewers of his art. Matisse
oscillates between a desire for expressive command over the viewer
and a sense of the impossibility of making himself known. Against
Affective Formalism confronts modernism's dissatisfactions with
representation. As Todd Cronan explains, a central tenet of
modernist thought turns on the effort to overcome representation in
the name of something more explicit in its capacity to generate
bodily or affective experience. Henri Bergson was one of the most
influential advocates of the antirepresentational impulse; his
novel theories of memory and freedom gripped a generation of
writers, philosophers, psychologists, and artists. Matisse and
Bergson worked within and against the context of form and
expression that remains in force today. Writing in opposition to
prevailing theories and assumptions about the relation of intention
and form-most of which accept the "death of the author" as a basic
fact of interpretation-Cronan argues that the beholder's response
to art, outside a framework of intentionality, is irrelevant to a
work's meaning. Intentions are not a matter of method at all: no
letter, biography, document, archive, or key will recover an
intention. What matters is that intentions make works of art
different from objects in the world.
"Fair Park Deco" is a fascinating tour of the 1936 Texas
Centennial Exposition. Like every American exposition in the 1930s,
it began in economic depression. Although its economy had been
buoyed by major oil discoveries in the early '30s, Texas
agriculture was hard hit by the Great Depression. By the middle of
the decade, state officials had set their sights on a great
centennial celebration to help stimulate the economy and attract
tourist dollars. "If during the next six months the people of the
state could become filled with the idea of holding a big
celebration on the one hundredth anniversary of the establishment
of Texas independence," the state's centennial commission
speculated in July, 1934, "it would have the effect of creating a
general forward-looking spirit through the state. It would be more
stimulating than anything we can think of, and this effect would be
immediate."
This book focuses specifically on the Art Deco art and
architecture of Fair Park--the public spaces, buildings, sculptures
and murals that were designed for the 1936 exposition. Most of the
chapters in the book represent different areas of Fair Park, with
buildings and artwork effectively arranged in the same order that a
visitor to the Texas Centennial Exposition might have seen them.
The art and architecture are featured in original photography by
Jim Parsons and David Bush as well as in historic photographs.
Fair Park is one of the finest collections of Deco architecture in
the country, but it is so much more: the embodiment of Texan
swagger, it is a testament to the Texanic task of creating a
dazzling spectacle in the darkest days of the Depression.
Miami Modernism, or MiMo, is the exotic brand of mid-century
architecture ubiquitous in the world-famous city. ""Designing the
Good Life"" is a personal account of the post - World War II
movement that shaped a city and defined an era. This captivating
story offers a unique look at the architecture of Norman M. Giller,
one of the early godfathers of MiMo. Giller made an indelible mark
on the urban landscape with architecturally progressive structures
ideally suited to their surroundings. Discussing technologies,
materials, and the key elements of MiMo, Giller offers an insider's
view. He delves into Miami's architectural history to examine some
of his most iconic structures, including the Ocean Palm Motel, the
Carillon Hotel, the North Shore Band Shell, the Diplomat Hotel and
Country Club, and the Giller Building. Each project is lavishly
illustrated with vintage images from the architect's exclusive
collection and contemporary photographs by Miami photographer Robin
Hill. The only book to chronicle the movement's evolution from the
perspective of one of its most distinguished exponents, ""Designing
the Good Life"" reveals how Giller's vision helped to define
Florida architecture since World War II.
The production of this book stems from two of the editors'
longstanding research interests: the representation of architecture
in print media, and the complex identity of the second phase of
modernism in architecture given the role it played in postwar
reconstruction in Europe. While the history of postwar
reconstruction has been increasingly well covered for most European
countries, research investigating postwar architectural magazines
and journals across Europe - their role in the discourse and
production of the built environment and particularly their
inter-relationship and differing conceptions of postwar
architecture - is relatively undeveloped. Modernism and the
Professional Architecture Journal sounds out this territory in a
new collection of essays concerning the second phase of the
reception and assimilation of modernism in architecture, as it was
represented in professional architecture journals during the period
of postwar reconstruction (1945-1968). Professional architecture
journals are often seen as conduits of established facts and
knowledge. The role mainstream publications play, however, in
establishing 'movements', 'trends' or 'debates' tends to be
undervalued. In the context of the complex undertaking of postwar
reconstruction, the shortage of resources, political uncertainty
and the biographical complexities of individual architects, the
chapters on key European architecture journals collected here
reveal how modernist architecture, and its discourse, was perceived
and disseminated in different European countries.
A groundbreaking history of the confluence of regulatory thinking
and building design in the United States What is the origin of
"room temperature"? When did food become considered fresh or not
fresh? Why do we think management makes things more efficient? The
answers to these questions share a history with architecture and
regulation at the turn of the twentieth century. This pioneering
technological and architectural history of environmental control
systems during the Gilded Age begins with the premise that
regulation-of temperature, the economy, even the freshness of
food-can be found in the guts of buildings. From cold storage and
scientific laboratories to factories, these infrastructures first
organized life in a way we now call "modern." Drawing on a range of
previously unexplored archival resources, Michael Osman examines
the increasing role of environmental technologies in building
design from the late nineteenth century. He shows how architects
appropriated and subsumed the work of engineers as thermostats, air
handlers, and refrigeration proliferated. He argues that this
change was closely connected to broader cultural and economic
trends in management and the regulation of risk. The transformation
shaped the evolution of architectural modernism and the development
of the building as a machine. Rather than assume the preexisting
natural order of things, participants in regulation-including
architects, scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, managers,
economists, government employees, and domestic reformers-became
entangled in managing the errors, crises, and risks stemming from
the nation's unprecedented growth. Modernism's Visible Hand not
only broadens our conception of how industrial capitalism shaped
the built environment but is also vital to understanding the role
of design in dealing with ecological crises today.
The Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012) is a twentieth
century classic. He became world renowned for planning and
buildingBrasilia, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987.
In 1988 he was awarded the Pritzker Prize. His buildings are deeply
respectful of the site and are characterized by an unmistakable,
almost Baroque design impulse. This second and revised edition of
"Oscar Niemeyer: A Legend of Modernity" has a new preface and an
updated biography and list of works. It contains essays that
analyze the important and current aspects of Niemeyer's work, as
well as texts by Niemeyer himself. Topics include the place of
Niemeyer's work in modern Brazilian architecture, his work as urban
planner, the aspect of landscape in his practice, and his influence
on architecture in Germany. Niemeyer, who was highly prolific up
until his death, is one of the most productive architects in
history with over 600 buildings to his name. He was considered the
"last giant of modern architecture." (Suddeutsche Zeitung)
Torn Modernism illuminates an important moment in the history of
the Kunstmuseum Basel's collection. In 1937 the Nazi cultural
policy denounced thousands of works as "degenerate" and forcibly
removed from German museums. The Third Reich's Ministry of
Propaganda correctly assumed that a portion of such works would
find buyers abroad, in this way certain artworks deemed
"internationally exploitable" reached the art market via various
channels. Georg Schmidt (1896-1966), the museum's director at the
time, managed in 1939 to acquire the Painting Animal Destinies by
Franz Marc (1880-1916) and twenty avant-garde masterpieces all at
once. In the catalogue, renowned experts trace the events based on
the seizures in German museums and explain the historical contexts.
The actors of the institutions and the art market are presented,
and the Nazi regime's act of cultural violence is revealed, which
resulted in an artificial fragmentation of Modernism into art that
was "exploitable" on the one hand, and art that had been destroyed
or forgotten on the other. Contributions on the auction of the
Galerie Fischer in Lucerne, on Georg Schmidt's approach, and on the
classification of the acquisitions in the context of Basel's
collection history bring specific Swiss aspects into focus.
The book investigates the theme of Modernism (1920-1960 and its
epigones) as an integral part of tangible and intangible cultural
heritage which contains the result of a whole range of disciplines
whose aim is to identify, document and preserve the memory of the
past and the value of the future. Including several chapters, it
contains research results relating to cultural heritage, more
specifically Modernism, and current digital technologies. This
makes it possible to record and evaluate the changes that both
undergo: the first one, from a material point of view, the second
one from the research point of view, which integrates the
traditional approach with an innovative one. The purpose of the
publication is to show the most recent studies on the modernist
lexicon 100 years after its birth, moving through different fields
of cultural heritage: from different forms of art to architecture,
from design to engineering, from literature to history,
representation and restoration. The book appeals to scholars and
professionals who are involved in the process of understanding,
reading and comprehension the transformation that the places have
undergone within the period under examination. It will certainly
foster the international exchange of knowledge that characterized
Modernism
The architecture of post-war Modernism poses particular challenges
for building research and heritage preservation. Should its methods
be adapted to the often prefabricated nature of the buildings? How
should we rate these buildings, of which there are still a great
many in existence, in terms of monument preservation? What
challenges does modernizing them pose? Can individual components be
replaced with mass-produced items without this detracting from the
building's heritage-listed status? What are the risks in relation
to certain materials that have since come to be classified as
toxic? What strategies of knowledge distribution should be applied
for buildings of post-war Modernism? At the MONUMENTO in Salzburg
in 2018 and 2020, seasoned experts addressed these fundamental
issues of preserving listed buildings with reference to selected
projects.
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