WHAT: Modernism

The Modernist art movement started shortly after World War I and continued to evolve and influence art, culture and design through the middle of the 20^th century. Modernist architects and designers believed that new technology developed in the early part of the 1900s rendered old styles of building obsolete. Le Corbusier famously said that buildings should function as “machines for living in,” and following this machine aesthetic, modernist designers typically rejected decorative motifs in design, preferring to emphasize the materials used and pure geometrical forms. Skyscrapers, such as the Seagram Building by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, became the archetypal modernist building. Modernist design of houses and furniture also emphasized simplicity and clarity of form, open plan interiors, and the absence of clutter.

Image courtesy archdaily.com. Info courtesy Wikipedia.

WEEKLY Ws: This is the Modern World

This week we look at people, places, furnishings and philosophies that represent the best of modern design. Please visit daily for a peek at a gallery, an auction, an architect’s philosophy and more that prove that designs don’t have to be traditional to be classic.

WHAT: Austria’s Path to Modernism

Two divergent paths illustrate Viennese decorative artists’ paths to Modernism: one is examplified by the member so the Wiener Werkstatte (Josef Hoffman, Koloman Moser and Dagobert Peche) and their design to create a Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art, and the other by the strict formalism of Adolf Loss.

The Neue Galerie’s current exhibition “Vienna 1900: Style and Identity” includes furniture, textiles and art that embody each philosophy, from the Werner Werkstatte’s attempts to make great design available to the masses to Josef Loos’ more formal approach.

Through June 27. For more information, please visit www.neuegalerie.org

Image courtesy Neue Galerie.