Machine-Age Exposition, catalogue (1927)
Filed under catalogue | Tags: · architecture, art, avant-garde, constructivism, cubism, design, industrial design, machine
Poster, via Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Exhibition catalogue of the Machine-Age Exposition, held on May 16-28, 1927, at 119 West 57th Street in New York, and advertised as the first event bringing together “architecture, engineering, industrial arts and modern art.”
The exhibition was initiated by Jane Heap of The Little Review, a New York literary magazine, and organised along with Société des urbanistes, Brussels; U.S.S.R. Society of Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries; Kunstgewerbeschule, Vienna; Czlonkowie Group Praesens, Warsaw; Architects D.P.L.G, Paris; and Advisory American Section.
The volume contains a panorama of European and American architecture and art, with photo documentation, and following articles: “Foreword: Architecture of this Age” by Hugh Ferriss, “The Aesthetic of the Machine and Mechanical Introspection in Art” by Enrico Prampolini, “Machine and Art” by Alexander Archipenko, “The Americanization of Art” by Louis Lozowick, “French Architecture” by André Lurçat, “Architecture Opens Up Volume” by Szymon Syrkus, “Machine-Age Exposition” by Jane Heap, “The Poetry of Forces” by Mark Turbyfill, and “Modern Glass Construction” by Frederick L. Keppler.
The artists committee of the exhibition included Alexander Archipenko, Robert Chanler, Andrew Dasberg, Charles Demuth, Muriel Draper, Marcel Duchamp, Josef Frank, Hugh Ferriss, Louis Lozowick, André Lurçat, Elie Nadleman, Man Ray, Boardman Robinson, Charles Sheeler, Ralph Steiner, Szymon Syrkus and L. Van der Swallmen.
Represented countries: “America”, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Russia.
Published in New York, 1927
44 pages
via Hagley Digital Archives
Commentary (E. B. White, The New Yorker, 1927): “That the machine is the tutelary symbol of the universal dynamism can be discovered at the Machine Age Exposition. […] Drawings, photographs, cubist and constructionist figures by reputable modern artists are side by side with cogs, motor boat propellers, Crane valves, insides of pianos and diving suits.”
Machine-Age Exposition at Monoskop wiki
Comment (0)Die Form: Zeitschrift für gestaltende Arbeit (1922-1935) [German]
Filed under magazine | Tags: · advertising, architecture, art, art criticism, avant-garde, bauhaus, city, design, graphic design, industrial design, photography, typography
Die in den Jahren 1925-1934 erscheinende Zeitschrift „Die Form“ wurde von Walter Curt Behrendt für den Deutschen Werkbund herausgeben. Sie erschien im Berliner Verlag Hermann Reckendorf; ihre Auflage überschritt nie die Marke von 5.000 Exemplaren. Der Untertitel lautete von 1929 bis 1934 „Zeitschrift für gestaltende Arbeit“.
Bereits im Jahr 1922 hatte es einen ersten Versuch gegeben die Werkbund-Zeitschrift zu etablieren. So heißt es im Geleitwort des ersten Bandes (1925) von Walter Curt Behrendt „Mit dieser Zeitschrift setzt der Deutsche Werkbund ein Unternehmen fort, das bereits vor längerer Zeit begonnen, unter dem Druck der wirtschaftlichen Verhältnisse zunächst wieder aufgegeben werden mußte. Die Zeitschrift wird die Aufgaben der Formgestaltung für alle Gebiete des gewerblichen und künstlerischen Schaffens behandeln.“
Behrendt blieb bis Ende 1926 Herausgeber und wurde dann durch Walter Riezler abgelöst. Die Gestaltung der typographischen Umschläge lag in den Händen von Joost Schmidt. Er war seit 1919 am Bauhaus und leitete seit 1925 die Plastische Werkstatt. 1934/35 wurde die Zeitschrift von den Nationalsozialisten übernommen und dann eingestellt. (Source)
Publishers: Hermann Reckendorf, Munich and Berlin, 1922 & 1927-1932; Kurt Schroeder, Bonn and Berlin, 1925-1926; W. & S. Loewenthal, Berlin, 1933 (1-3); Wendt & Matthes, Berlin, 1933 (4-12), 1934 (1); Deutscher Werkbund, Berlin, 1934 (2-6); Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1935
via Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Volumes (single PDFs) and separate articles (PDF, HTML):
Volume 1, 1922 (Die Form: Monatschrift für gestaltende Arbeit, 4 Issues)
Volume 1, 1925-1926 (15 Issues)
Volume 2, 1927 (Die Form: Monatschrift für gestaltende Arbeit, 12 Issues)
Volume 3, 1928 (Die Form: Monatschrift für gestaltende Arbeit, 15 Issues)
Volume 4, 1929 (24 Issues)
Volume 5, 1930 (24 Issues)
Volume 6, 1931 (12 Issues)
Volume 7, 1932 (12 Issues)
Volume 8, 1933 (12 Issues)
Volume 9, 1934 (6 Issues)
Volume 10, 1935 (1 Issue)
Owen Hatherley: Militant Modernism (2009)
Filed under book | Tags: · aesthetics, architecture, avant-garde, constructivism, design, film, modernism, theatre, vorticism
“This book is a defence of Modernism against its defenders. In readings of modern design, film, pop and especially architecture, it attempts to reclaim a revolutionary modernism against its absorption into the heritage industry and the aesthetics of the luxury flat. Militant Modernism features new readings of some familiar names – Bertolt Brecht, Le Corbusier – but more on the lesser known, quotidian modernists of the 20th century. The chapters range from a study of industrial and brutalist aesthetics in Britain, Russian Constructivism in architecture, the Sexpol of Wilhelm Reich in film and design, and the alienation effects of Brecht and Hanns Eisler on record and on screen – all arguing for a Modernism of everyday life, immersed in questions of socialism, sexual politics and technology.”
Publisher Zero Books, 2009
ISBN 1846941768, 9781846941764
146 pages
Reviews: Will Self (London Review of Books, 2012), PD Smith (The Guardian, 2009), Jonathan Meades (New Statesman, 2009), Dan Hicks (Planning Perspectives, 2009), Kat Koh (2011).
Interview (Andrew Stevens, 3:AM Magazine, 2009)
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