Search results for ""Author David A Hanks""

As the 1930s began, Alfred H. Barr Jr., founder of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Philip Johnson, distinguished architect, brought the principles of the Bauhaus to America - even before exiles from Nazi Germany fully established the idea of architecture and furnishings as a functional whole in the United States. Barr's organisation of the museum reflected the departmental structure of the Bauhaus, elevating architecture, graphic design, utilitarian furniture design, industrial design, photography and film to be on an equal footing with painting and sculpture, and endorsing all to be recognised as art. Barr and Johnson curated exceptional exhibitions such as Modern Architecture, International Exhibition (1932) and Machine Art (1934) at MoMA and created modern interiors in private living quarters. In this book, comprehensive essays and series of photos trace how modernism found its way into the American cultural landscape. Text in German.

Read more less

The story of Alfred Barr and Philip Johnson, two young men, now acknowledged as giants in the history of modernism, who changed the course of design in the United States. The 1920s and 1930s saw the birth of modernism in the United States, a new aesthetic, based on the principles of the Bauhaus in Germany: its merging of architecture with fine and applied arts; and rational, functional design devoid of ornament and without reference to historical styles. Alfred H. Barr Jr., the then 27-year-old founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, and 23-year-old Philip Johnson, director of its architecture department, were the visionary young proponents of the modern approach. Shortly after meeting at Wellesley College, where Barr taught art history, and as Johnson finished his studies in philosophy at Harvard, they set out on a path that would transform the museum world and change the course of design in America. The Museum of Modern Art opened just over a week after the stock market crash of 1929. In the depths of the Depression, using as their laboratories both MoMA and their own apartments in New York City, Barr and Johnson experimented with new ideas in museum ideology, extending the scope beyond painting and sculpture to include architecture, photography, graphic design, furniture, industrial design, and film; with exhibitions of ordinary, machine-made objects (including ball bearings and kitchenware) elevated to art by their elegant design; and with installations in dramatically lit galleries with smooth, white walls. Partners in Design, which accompanies an exhibition opening at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in April 2016, chronicles their collaboration, placing it in the larger context of the avant-garde in New York - 1930s salons where they mingled with Julien Levy, the gallerist who brought Surrealism to the United States, and Lincoln Kirstein, co-founder of the New York City Ballet; their work to help Bauhaus artists like Josef and Anni Albers escape Nazi Germany - and the dissemination of their ideas across the United States through MoMA’s traveling exhibition program. Plentifully illustrated with icons of modernist design, MoMA installation views, and previously unpublished images of the Barr and Johnson apartments - domestic laboratories for modernism, and in Johnson’s case, designed and furnished by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - this fascinating study sheds new light on the introduction and success in North America of a new kind of modernism, thanks to the combined efforts of two uniquely discerning and influential individuals.

Read more less

A beautifully illustrated retrospective of Art Nouveau architect and designer Hector Guimard, positioning him at the forefront of the modernist movement The aesthetic of architect Hector Guimard (1867–1942) has long characterized French Art Nouveau in the popular imagination. This groundbreaking book showcases all aspects of his artistry and recognizes the fundamental modernity of his work. Known for, among other things, the decorative entrances to the Paris Métro and the associated lettering, he often looked to nature for inspiration, and combined materials such as stone and cast iron in unique ways to create designs composed of curves and waves that evoked movement. Guimard broke away from his classical Beaux-Arts training to advocate a modern, abstract style; he also pioneered the use of standardized models for his design objects and experimented with prefabricated designs in his social housing commissions, advancing the technology of the time. With copious, beautifully reproduced illustrations of his architectural drawings as well as his furniture, jewelry, and textile designs, this volume explores Guimard’s full oeuvre and elucidates the significance of his work to the history of modern art. Essays by an international group of scholars present Guimard as a visionary architect, a shrewd entrepreneur, an industrialist, and a social activist.Published in association with the Richard H. Driehaus MuseumExhibition Schedule:Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York (November 17, 2022–May 21, 2023)The Richard H. Driehaus Museum, Chicago (June 22, 2023–January 7, 2024)

Read more less

An invitation into the evocative, human-scaled, and artful interiors designed by Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Rooms presents the warm interior spaces and exceptional design work of this beloved American master. Wright was an early proponent of total design. Unsatisfied with what was available in designing a given space or home, he invented what was needed, developing a language of architectural detail and styling that is unique and which extended to the tables, bookcases, easy chairs, sofas, and cabinets; to rugs and murals; to stonework; to stained glass light screens, which served as windows, doors, and room partitions; and lighting. This approach was manifested distinctly in each of his residential projects. This book offers the reader an immersion into this work by means of extraordinary artful detail in intimately explored rooms and spaces. From the Oak Park Home and Studio in Illinois to the majestically appointed Darwin D. Martin House with its abundance of art glass, including Wright's famous Tree of Life and Wisteria designs, this luxurious volume ranges over the whole of Wright's oeuvre. It highlights a number of Wright masterpieces, including Hollyhock House, the mysterious Aztec-like home and arts complex built on a hill in Los Angeles; the Dana House, with its luminous butterfly transom glass; and the fabled living room at Fallingwater.

Read more less