Week Six- Protomodernism

Chapter 20

 Protomodernism

•        Projects containing the seeds of Modernism

•        Rejection of Historical Styles

•        Significant experimentation with form and ideas

•        Rejection of “ornamentation”

Deutscher Werkbund Movement

• German workshop (translation)

• Founded in Munich, Germany

•        Herman Muthesius

•        Purpose was to have the highest quality design to the mass produced output

•        The Deutscher Werkbund was a major influence on the early careers of Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe

• Equivalent to the Arts and Crafts movement

• Protest against artistic establishment

• Important difference

•        embraced the use of the machine

• Set the stage for the International Style and Art Deco style
• Collaboration between design professional with product manufactures to improve competitiveness of German design

Important People

Joseph Olbrich

•        Education: Studied architecture at the University of Fine Arts Vienna

•        Artist and Architect

•        Co-founder of the Vienna Succession movement

•        Designer of the Secession Building       Exhibition (1897)

Gustav Klimt

•        Education: at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (which he did in poverty)

•        Major painter of the twentieth century

•        Most prominent member of the Vienna Secession

•        Endorsed the unity between the arts and design

•        Influenced by the Sigmund Freud

•        His work was focused on the subconscious and themes of sexuality

•        Characteristics and Style:

•        Known for his paintings, murals and objects of art

•        Inspired by Japanese design and Byzantine mosaics

•        His Style was highly decorative

•        Known by his use of gold leaf in his paintings

Otto Wagner

·        Education: studied architecture at the Viennese Polytechnic Institute and the Royal School of Architecture in Berlin.

• Part of the Vienna Secession

• From Austria and taught at the Vienna Academy

• Architect, urban planner, designer, teacher, and writer.

•        believed in staunch functionalism

• Designed furniture to relate to his architecture

• Created a book called- “Modern Architecture”
• Characteristics and Style:
• Industrial style
• The construction method is the style
• Method and Materials:
• Advocated the use of new materials and styles relating to the changes in human society and tasks
• Design should display understanding and good choices in material
• Materials should be available, workable, durable and economical (Hinchman, p. 459)
• The following of these principles would produce quality design
• Color palette was neutral

Adolf Loos

•        Education: Studied at Technical Schools such as Brunn, Reichenberg, and Vienna

•        He was an Austrian architect and theorist

•        Influential essay called, “Ornament and Crime”

•        Ornamentation was only used if it was functional

•        He influenced major architects such as Le Corbusier, Mies Vander Rohe and other modernists

•        Methods and Materials:

•        Building design consisted of pure forms that were practical and utilitarian

•        Favored rich interior materials, reddish brown coral wood, translucent yellow onyx panels, and leather (Hinchman, p.463)

•        Characteristics and Style:

•        Beauty was in form and not ornamentation

•        Influenced by Arts and Crafts

•        His style was a simple pared down aesthetic that paved the way for Modernism

•        Function of the interior was superior and style should be discreet

Josef Hoffmann

• Education: Studied in Brno, Wurzburg and Vienna under Otto Wagner

• Architect and designer for 50 years

•        Furniture, textiles and metal work

• Very innovative and progressive

• Inspired by English Arts and Crafts

• Inspired by Ruskin, Morris and Wagner
• Methods and Materials:

•        Preferred geometric lines

•        The cube and square were his trademark and main design motifs

•        Focused on design and interior elements vs structural qualities

Kolomon Moser

•        Education: Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and The School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna

•        Founding member of the Vienna Secession

•        Artist, Furniture Designer and Graphic Designer

De Stijl-

•        De Stijl means “the style” in Dutch

•        Movement begins in the Netherlands in 1917

•        De Stijl is also the name of a journal that was published by the Dutch painter, designer, writer, and critic Theo van Doesburg

•        Focus on elementary shapes, colors and flat surfaces (not nature)

•        Focus on the vertical and horizontal line

•        Major architect: Gerrit Rietveld

•        Major artist: Piet Mondrian

Gerrit Rietveld

•        One of the most influential Dutch designers of the 20^th century

•        Education: Apprenticed to his father who was a “joiner”, self taught in the arts

•        Designer and architect who began as a cabinet maker in his father’s shop

•        Gerrit Rietveld The Architect and Designer

•        Methods and Materials:

•        Simplicity in construction

•        Embraced  mass production of furniture and inexpensive production methods

•        Materials included industrial products such as plywood, sheet metal and beech wood

•        Color scheme used the primary colors

•        Characteristics and Style:

•        Industrial Style

•        Simplicity and Functionality

•        Furniture accessible to all people

•        Geometric design with no applied texture

•        Schroder House built in Utrecht, Netherlands 1924

•         Design featured a flexible floor plan

•        Brought the inside and outside together

•        Walls were created with brick and plaster

•        Use of primary colors

       

Frank Lloyd Wright

•        Education: University of Wisconsin- Madison

•        Early contributor to American Modernism

•        Developed an “American” architecture and vocabulary

•        Focused on residential homes

•        Started out working for Louis Sullivan

•        Left Sullivan and started his own business in Oak Park, Illinois- 1893

•        Methods and Materials:

•        Design motifs were taken from nature and were repeated throughout the interior

•        Glass was used as a design element that let the natural world come into a home

•        Color palette was drawn from indigenous plants from the Midwest

•        Characteristics and Style:

•        Structures were in harmony with humanity and nature- “Organic Architecture”

•        His style of architecture was called the “Prairie Style”

•        The ”Prairie Style” exterior:

•        Hipped roof with a strong horizontal profile

•        Integration of house, material and landscape

•        The “Prairie Style” interior:

•        Interior focused on the family

•        Fireplace the center of the home

•        Built in furniture

•        Unique furniture designed for each home owner

•        Stained glass windows

•        Unique light fixture

Koloman Moser Texitle Print 

Modern Texitels Patterns

Josef Hofmann Circular Fledermaus table and chair 

Modern Version of the Circular Table and Chair

Gerrit Rietveld Chair

Modern Geometric Chair

One Step Further 

Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian (born March 7, 1872, Amersfoort, Netherlands—died February 1, 1944, New York, New York, U.S.) was a painter who was an important leader in the development of modern abstract art and a major exponent of the Dutch abstract art movement known as De Stijl (“The Style”)

Mondrian believed his abstraction could serve as a universal pictorial language representing the dynamic, evolutionary forces that govern nature and human experience. In fact, he believed that abstraction provides a truer picture of reality than illusionistic depictions of objects in the visible world.