Modernism

by Richard Weston

Modernist ideas have pervaded every form of design, from graphics to architecture, as well as being a key influence on art, literature and music. In this comprehensive survey, Richard Weston traces the course of Modernism from its nineteenth-century roots to its various contemporary manifestations. Weston examines rigorously the Modernist movements of the early twentieth century - Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Purism - to conclude with the 'Postmodernist' experiments of the 1980s and 90s. He shows how the 'tradition of the new' became the creative credo of a small group of progressive artists and how - with the emigration of leading German Modernists to Britain and the United States in the 1930s - the theory and practice of Modernism became widespread. What had begun as a cluster of loosely related artistic movements scattered across Europe, emerged as the dominant style of the twentieth century. This extensive volume addresses the impact of this movement with vigour and an acute originality of thought.

Genres: Art, Architecture

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 1996

About the author

Professor Richard Weston (born 1953) is an architect, landscape architect, author[1] and is also the Chair of Architecture at Cardiff University. He is Director of Richard Weston Studio Ltd and Earth Images Ltd.

Weston was born in Leicester in 1953. He attended Wyggeston Boys Grammar School. He went on to study architecture at Manchester University, gaining a BA in 1975 and BArch in 1977. Supported by the Thouron Award, he attended the University of Pennsylvania (USA) to study landscape architecture, gaining an MLA (Penn) in 1979. From 1979–1982 he worked in practice and was appointed as a lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture (WSA) in Cardiff. He subsequently taught at the Leicester and Portsmouth schools of architecture before returning to Cardiff in 1999 as a professorial research fellow. In 2003 he was appointed to the Chair of Architecture, a position he holds today.

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - for what seemed like a coffee table kind of book, it was incredibly dense with a very small font.