Modernism Rediscovered

Download or read book Modernism Rediscovered written by Pierluigi Serraino and published by Taschen America Llc. This book was released on 2000 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new appreciation for the genius of architectural photographer Julius Shulman has opened the way for hundreds of abandoned masterworks to be rediscovered. The images burned in our memories, which to us represent the spirit of fifties and sixties design, were those widely published in magazines and books; but what about those that were not? The abandoned files of Julius Shulman show us another side of Modernism that has stayed quiet for many years. The exchange of visual information is crucial to the development, evolution, and promotion of architectural movements. If a building is not widely seen, its photograph rarely or never published, it simply does not enter into architectural discourse. Many buildings photographed by Shulman suffered this fate, their images falling into oblivion. With this new book, Taschen brings them to light, paying homage to California Modernism in all its forms. It's like sneaking into a private history, into homes that have rarely been seen and hardly appreciated as of yet. Bringing together nearly 300 forgotten masterpieces, Modernism Rediscovered breathes eternal life into these outstanding contributions to the modern architectural movement.

Download or read book NorCalMod written by Pierluigi Serraino and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2006-08-03 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many people think modernist architecture never flowered in California north of the San Fernando Valley. NorCalMod dispels that notion in a copiously illustrated history showcasing extraordinary examples of its proud contribution to the Bay Area and environs. As a style, modernist architecture was hotly debated in its day (why create modern structures where such distinctive Victorian and Arts and Crafts buildings already existed?) pulling heavyweights such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Lewis Mumford, and Walter Gropius into the fray. Ultimately, that existing "Bay Region Style" would remain the area's architectural hallmark, but not before hundreds of important modernist projects, many still standing yet unjustly neglected today, had been established. The remarkable photos in this book open our eyes to a long-lost chapter in the history of California architecture and make NorCalMod a volume to be enjoyed by those interested in California history and style as well as by architecture students and professionals.

Download or read book Architecture and Its Photography written by Julius Shulman and published by Taschen America Llc. This book was released on 1998 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American photographer Julius Shulman's images of Californian architecture have burned themselves into the retina of the 20th century. A book on modern architecture without Shulman is inconceivable. Some of his architectural photographs, like the iconic shots of Frank Lloyd Wright's or Pierre Koenig's remarkable structures, have been published countless times. The brilliance of buildings like those by Charles Eames, as well as those of his close Friend, Richard Neutra, was first brought to light by Shulman's photography. The clarity of his work demanded that architectural photography had to be considered as an independent art form. Each Schulman image unites perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape. The precise compositions reveal not just the architectural ideas behind a building's surface, but also the visions and hopes of an entire age. A sense of humanity is always present in his work, even when the human figure is absent from the actual photographs. Today, a great many of the buildings documented by Shulman have disappeared or been crudely converted, but the thirst for his pioneering images is stronger than ever before. This is a vivid journey across six decades of great architecture and classic photography through the famously incomparable eyes of Julius Shulman.

Download or read book A Constructed View written by Joseph Rosa and published by Rizzoli International Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Julius Shulman, one of the great master of architectural photography, is the preeminent recoreder of early California modernism. By 1927, when he was sixteen, Shulman was already using the family Brownie box camera to document his Southern Californis surroundings and experiences; in 1936, his professional career was launched when he sent Richard Neutra some uncommissioned photographs of the architect's Kun House. Shulman went on to document the famous Case Study House Program (architects included Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig, and Eero Saarinen) and also the architecure of the 1930s through the 1980s, especially that of Southern California, but also country and worldwide. His subjects included the buildings of R.M. Schindler, John Lautner, Raphael Soriano, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Oscar Niemeyer, among many others. Through his work, Shulman defined the image of Los Angeles and framed the architecture of the time for a global audience. In addition to an overview of Shulman's career and photographic oevre, this book emphasizes Shulman's method of "constructing" photographic views. These contructions, which complemented his innate ability to compose striking photographs, often transcends reality to capture the spirit, time and place of a work of architecture. An analysis of architecture's visual presentation examines not only the media of the era--John Entenza's "Arts & Architecture," for instance--but also the work of Shulman's photographic contemporaries. Joseph Rosa is chief curator of the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and the author of numerous essays and books, including Rizzoli's "Albert Frey, Architect." He received his architecturedegree from Columbia University and is currently a doctoral candidate in the university's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Ester McCoy was the formost architectural historian of Southern California. Her books include "Modern California Houses, Five California Architects, "and "Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys."

Download or read book Modernism Reborn written by Michael Webb and published by Universe Publishing(NY). This book was released on 2001 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first book of its kind, architectural critic Michael Webb and Esto photographer Roger Straus III examine 35 extraordinary modern houses that have been restored, enhanced, or extended by new owners who see them as timeless classics. Built in the heyday of modernism, from the 1930s through the early 1960s, these houses were designed by exceptional architects for themselves or for adventurous clients. A few were preserved as time capsules, but most endured years of neglect or abuse and might easily have been torn down. Webb explores how these houses were created-- as daring experiments or as creative responses to site and climate-- and the research and effort that went into their restoration. Included here are villas that fuse craft and invention, machines for living, and residences that embrace the landscape. Here, too, are houses inspired by the purity of classical temples, and frugal dwellings that have been sensitively enlarged. After a long eclipse, these houses and the enlightened attitudes they embody are being rediscovered by creative individuals searching for distinctive, open, light-filled places to live. Modernism is a way of living, more than a style, and this book celebrates the architects and owners who respect its character and scale. Also included are nearly 200 photographs taken by Roger Straus, all of which were specially commissioned for this book.

Download or read book Invisible Gardens written by Peter Walker and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invisible Gardens is a composite history of the individuals and firms that defined the field of landscape architecture in America from 1925 to 1975, a period that spawned a significant body of work combining social ideas of enduring value with landscapes and gardens that forged a modern aesthetic. The major protagonists include Thomas Church, Roberto Burle Marx, Isamu Noguchi, Luis Barragan, Daniel Urban Kiley, Stanley White, Hideo Sasaki, Ian McHarg, Lawrence Halprin, and Garrett Eckbo. They were the pioneers of a new profession in America, the first to offer alternatives to the historic landscape and the park tradition, as well as to the suburban sprawl and other unplanned developments of twentieth-century cities and institutions. The work is described against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the Second World War, the postwar recovery, American corporate expansion, and the environmental revolution. The authors look at unbuilt schemes as well as actual gardens, ranging from tiny backyards and play spaces to urban plazas and corporate villas. Some of the projects discussed already occupy a canonical position in modern landscape architecture; others deserve a similar place but are less well known. The result is a record of landscape architecture's cultural contribution - as distinctly different in history, intent, and procedure from its sister fields of architecture and planning - during the years when it was acquiring professional status and struggling to define a modernist aesthetic out of the startling changes in postwar America.

Download or read book Reactionary Modernism written by Jeffrey Herf and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1986-05-31 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a unique application of critical theory to the study of the role of ideology in politics, Jeffrey Herf explores the paradox inherent in the German fascists' rejection of the rationalism of the Enlightenment while fully embracing modern technology. He documents evidence of a cultural tradition he calls 'reactionary modernism' found in the writings of German engineers and of the major intellectuals of the. Weimar right: Ernst Juenger, Oswald Spengler, Werner Sombart, Hans Freyer, Carl Schmitt, and Martin Heidegger. The book shows how German nationalism and later National Socialism created what Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister, called the 'steel-like romanticism of the twentieth century'. By associating technology with the Germans, rather than the Jews, with beautiful form rather than the formlessness of the market, and with a strong state rather than a predominance of economic values and institutions, these right-wing intellectuals reconciled Germany's strength with its romantic soul and national identity.