Main entry:

Loos, Adolf, 1870-1933.

Title & Author:

Spoken into the void : collected essays, 1897-1900 / Adolf Loos ; introduction by Aldo Rossi ; translation by Jane O. Newman and John H. Smith.

Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Published for the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, Ill., and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York, N.Y., by MIT Press, 1982.

Description:

xiii, 146 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Series:

Oppositions books

Notes:
Translation of: Ins Leere gesprochen, 1897-1900.
Includes index.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
pt. 1. Essays on the occasion of the Vienna Jubilee of 1898. The leather goods and gold- and silversmith trades ; Men's fashion ; The new style and the bronze industry ; Interiors : a prelude ; Interiors in the rotunda ; Furniture for sitting ; Glass and clay ; The luxury vehicle ; Plumbers ; Men's hats ; Footwear ; Shoemakers ; Building materials ; The principle of cladding ; Underclothes ; Furniture ; Furniture of the year 1898 ; Printers -- pt. 2. Additional essays, 1897-1900. School exhibition of the school of applied art ; The Christmas exhibition at the Austrian Museum ; Potemkin City ; Ladies fashion ; Review of the arts and crafts ; English schools in the Austrian Museum ; Tours of the Austrian Museum ; The Scala Theater in Vienna ; My appearance on stage with Melba ; The poor little rich man -- Appendix. Foreword to the first edition ; The Winter exhibition of the Austrian Museum ; Review of the Arts and Crafts II.
Current Copyright Fee: GBP15.00 0.

Summary:

"This translation of Ins Leere gesprochen by Adolf Loos is based on the 1932 ed. published by Brenner Verlag in Austria."--Ed. note, p. vi
"In these witty, sardonic, and deftly reasoned essays written between 1897 and 1900, the Viennese architect Adolf Loos addresses a broad array of topics, from furniture to building materials, printing to plumbing, luxury vehicles to fashion. Even contemporary styles of underwear come under his scrutiny. In evoking the manners of turn-of-the-century Vienna, the architect exposes the nature of culture in the context of an increasingly urban and technological society. Accepting the fact that progress entails a measure of cultural disinheritance, he foresees the inevitability of a universal modern civilization, while at the same time remaining profoundly beholden to the lessons of history and cultural identity. Better, he declares, to create modern forms that emulate the craftsmanship of the old masters than to recreate old forms that are dressed in modern materials and made by modern methods. Loos staunchly opposes both the pedant who would conserve the vernacular of the peasant and the parvenu who aspires to the privileges of the aristocrat. He dramatizes the excesses of the Gesamtkunstwerk, especially as it was being practiced by his Secessionist contemporaries, proposing an approach that is more modest, more honest with respect to materials and use, and more humane. At the moment when the principles of modernist functionalism are being reevaluated, Loos's essays speak to us with the illuminating power of recognition."--Jacket

ISBN:

0262120976
9780262120975

Subject:

Decorative arts History 19th century.
Arts décoratifs Histoire 19e siècle.
Decorative arts.
Austria Manufactured goods Style, ca 1800

Form/genre:

History.

Added entries:

Oppositions books.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 14118
Call No.: 9951; ID:87-B15225
Status: Available