The Emergence of Modernism: International Style

The international style began in the 1920s in Western Europe. This style had radical simplification of form, rejection of ornamentation, with the adoption of glass, steel, and concrete. The international style was also big on the transparency of buildings, its construction that was called the honest expression of structure, and has the acceptance of industrialized mass-production techniques. There were four main architects during this time: Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Walter Gropius was an architect from Germany who established his own architectural practice in 1911. His style was described as unornamented, funtional, and included an industrial feel. He was the director of the schools of fine art and applied art at Weimar. With these schools he merged them to form the Bauhaus. In the Bauhaus design, Walter included design with different materials such as wood, metal, ceramics and textiles. Mies van der Rohe was from Germany but was an American architect. He created the Barcelona Exhibition in 1929. In it he incorporated colors and textiles of rich materials to provide ornamentation, he used modern structural technology of steel and concrete and abstract work of art. When he relocated to America in 1937, he helped make modernism more mainstream. He always described his designs with his famous sayings, "less is more" and "God is in the details". 

Images: 

Designed by Watler Gropius

Designed by Mies van der Rohe

Current Applications: 

Extra Credit: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRREJp0AhKw

Review

Ashley- Ashley's blog post on Frank Lloyd Wright focused on who he was as an architect and why he was an important figure in American for his designs. She also focused on all the houses and commercial buildings that were very big in his career. I love that she showed other houses he designed that were not discussed in class. I also think she picked images that fit the current applications perfectly.

Holli- Holli's blog post was very informational. It was not just about Frank Lloyd Wright. She started with explaining the background the emergence of modernism had. When she discussed Frank Lloyd Wright, she talked about how big his designs were in America. She also went on to discuss what houses and commercial buildings he designed and gave a description on each one. She chose photos that represented the past and present very well. An overall great blog post.

The Emergence of Modernism- Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was the first major modern architect. He first started out his carrier working for Louis Sullivan. After he left Sullivan, he established his own office at his home in Oak Park, Illinois. Throughout his carrier, he designed 1,000 structures and completed 532 works. Most of his work was residential. With his "prairie style" design, he designed the Winslow House in 1893, the Hickkox House in 1900, the Robie House in 1908, the Martin House in 1904 and many more. All of his houses were significant by the use of a hip roof and a strong horizontal profile. Although most of his work was residential, he did complete some commercial buildings as well. He designed a unity temple, a building called the Rookery which housed over 600 offices, and the Johnson Wax building in 1939.

Images:




Current Applications:



Extra Credit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbFqthFFdMw

Review

Haley H: I think Haley's blog post on Protomodernism was very informative by how she explained the characteristics of the styles with the Deutscher Werkbund Movement and the Vienna Secession. Along with descriptive detail on what those movements were like, she also touched on all of the important people during this time period. I really enjoyed her present application images she chose, they were very unique. She had all around a well written blog post. 

Happy: The way Happy organized her blog post was very helpful due to our first test coming up soon. Breaking all of the information about the Protomodernism movement into bullet points made it quicker and easier to read to grasp on the concept of what this movement was. Even though they were bullet points, the information was still very detailed and informative. I like how she also discussed some of the chairs that were iconic during this movement. Her images also are a perfect representation of the style as well. 

Protomodernism Movement

The Protomodernism movement started in 1897 and ended in 1959. This movement included projects containing the seeds of modernism. Within this movement. there was another movement called the Deutscher Werkbund movement happening in Germany and Austria. The purpose of this movement going on in Germany was to have the highest quality design to the mass produced output. This movement was also equivalent to the Arts and Crafts movement because it was because of a protest. During this time, there was a protest against artistic establishment. This was similar to the Arts and Crafts movement because in Arts and Crafts, there was a protest against the Victorian period which is what made that movement take place. The aspect that was different was while the Arts and Crafts movement was hand crafting, the Deutscher Werkbund movement was embracing the use of the machine. Another event that was taking place during the Protomodernism movement was the Vienna secession. During this secession, there were world wide advances in art, history, psychology and philosophy. This brought unity of the arts; household objects were worthy of design. An important designer during this period was Gustav Klimt. He believed that there should be a union between art and design which helped make this movement expand to a new style. Another movement that began in the Netherlands was called the De Stijl movement. This movement focused on elementary shapes, primary colors, and flat surfaces. Using these, it made this movement also focus on vertical and horizontal lines. For De Stijl, the major architect was Gerrit Rietveld and the major artist was Piet Mondriangg.

Images:

Piet Mondrian interior


Frank Lloyd Wright interior

Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass

Current Applications:



Extra Credit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuBu8SM32MI

Review

Amanda M: I thought Amanda's blog on the Art Nouveau period was very informative. She explained the inspirations and the certain type of designs that are used to represent this movement. I also loved her choice of images. The image of the bench is a perfect representation to this movement. Along with that she also named all the important designers in this era and why they were such and impact and inspiration.

Amanda V: Amanda's blog summarized everything we went over in class about the Art Nouveau movement. She explained all the characteristics of the style during this period. I was able to visually picture what this movement looked like by the detail she included in it. I also think she did a great job on the current application images. They fit the Art Nouveau and our current time period perfectly!

Art Nouveau Movement

When the Art Nouveau movement started in 1890, Europe was in a period of peace and prosperity. This led up to a growth of new and experimental directions in design. The sources of inspiration for this design were flowers, birds, vines, and insects. The designers during this time were also admired by Japanese art. They were inspired by the famous paintings of Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Gauguin, and Aubrey Beardsley. The leaders of the Art Nouveau movement were Belgium and France. The characteristics established by them were rejection of Victorian styles, design style based on nature, use of modern materials for that time period (iron and glass), modern techniques (industrial production), electric lighting, and using the relationship of fine arts which included paintings and sculptures. This movement also used curvilinear forms as a dominate design. An example that was used a majority of the time was a design called whiplash. One icon during the Art Nouveau movement was Victor Horta. He was a Belgian architect, designer and teacher. His work was very extensive in this movement. His work was also the most influential during this period by using iron railings and hardware, stenciled walls and ceiling patterns, and mosaic tile patterns on the floors, walls and ceilings.

Images:

Current Applications:

Extra Credit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4luPnObQYo