At the dawn of the 20th century, Bruno Paul (1874-1968) stood like
a colossus astride the landscape of an emerging Modernism. As an
illustrator, architect and educator his influence was unequalled.
Arguably the most important German designer of his generation, his
work was ubiquitous in the technical and professional publications
of his day. For five decades, Paul's reputation was unparalleled
among progressive German artists. As a young man he was a member of
the Munich avant-garde responsible for the creation of the
Jugendstil. As a designer of furniture and interiors, he achieved a
commercial success unmatched by his illustrious contemporaries. In
the light of his professional accomplishments, he was the most
influential German architect of his generation, a figure of
international significance. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Adolf Meyer
and Kem Weber were among his students, and their work developed
from the practices of his atelier. Indeed, as director of the
Vereinigte Staatsschulen fur freie und angewandte Kunst in Berlin
he presided over an institution that rivaled the Bauhaus as a
centre of progressive instruction in the arts. Despite the renown
he enjoyed at the height of his career, Paul's name has been
largely absent from the standard histories of the modern movement.
Indeed, this book is the first comprehensive study of his life and
work. Nevertheless, Paul's story embodies a significant facet of
the history of 20th-century design: the development of Modernism in
Central Europe and its coalescence from the influences of
Jugendstil, Elementarism, Classicism, Expressionism and
Functionalism. Paul played a prominent role in this coalescence,
and he deserves a place of honour in the history of the modern
movement. Yet his biography also encompasses a less familiar, but
no less significant, aspect of the history of modern design. It is
the story of a pragmatic Modernism that occupied a middle ground
between avant-garde experimentation and conservative professional
practice, a Modernism that was timeless, practical and principled.
It was this pragmatic Modernism that won the patronage of the
middle classes and established progressive design as an accepted
alternative, and eventually as the preferred alternative to the
period styles. Moreover Paul's pragmatic Modernism, and its
underlying principles, remain as relevant today as when they were
first conceived.
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