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When the Corbusian International Modern style, with its contempt for ornament, imposed itself on architecture, figures like Gaudi (1852-1926) were relegated to the sidelines. In this volume, Lahuerta situates Gaudi in his context and vindicates his fin-de-siecle bohemian modernity. Embodied in such powerful images as the equation of the spires of the Sagrada Familia with the flames rising from burning churches during the Tragic Week (1909), the story takes us to the Barcelona of the early twentieth century, when class struggle threatened to topple the prevailing capitalist model. Drawing on valuable first-hand documents collected over several decades, the author shows that Gaudi was not an i...
In "Photography or Life," Juan José Lahuerta contrasts well-known images tied to the history of twentieth-century architecture with anonymous graphic materials and pictures from the popular press. In doing so, he demonstrates that pointing a camera at a building is neither natural nor innocent-it involves deliberate and telling decisions. His analysis of the work of Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier, for example, suggests irreconcilable differences between the two architects that represent radically opposed approaches to architecture and life. Furthermore, a close study of snapshots of Walter Gropius's Bauhaus building taken by teachers and students leads to new ways of understanding the myths as...
"On Loos, Ornament and Crime"is the most controversial of the essays in the series entitled "Columns of Smoke," in which Professor Juan Jose Lahuerta undertakes an acute and thoroughly documented rereading of modernity, linking the ideas of architecture and ornamentation and exploring the ways these have been treated in print. In the previous volume of this series Lahuerta exploded cliches with his penetrating analysis of Loos's relationship with photography, and here he examines in fine detail the architect's written work, and in particular the texts that engage with architectural and artistic theory and continue the classical tradition of Schinkel, Semper and Riegl an allegiance readily ap...
Antoni Gaudí (1852-1928) was a builder by instinct and by practice, fanciful and baroque in his sensibility, in love with the bright colours and plastic forms of the Mediterranean tradition. Despite his considerable contributions, Gaudí was an isolated figure in the architecture of the modern era. Critics were slow to recognize the prophetic value of his work, owing to the difficulty in reconciling it with the development of the Modern Movement. Gaudí invented a new form of modernism that combined elements of art nouveau, Catalan nationalism, Gothic Revival and his own relentlessly original imagination. His eclectic experience was made possible by special historical circumstances such as the economic prosperity of Barcelona and the existence of highly skilled craftsmen in Catalonia. This volume covers Gaudí's work in systematic fashion, from the Güell Palace to the park of the same name, and finally to his unfinished masterpiece, the church of the Sagrada Familia. Author Juan José Lahuerta devotes an attentive critical re-examination of the architect's work through a thorough analysis of his designs and writings.
Exhibition catalogue exploring the influence of medevial Catalan Romanesque art on Picasso's work.
Documents the work of FLores and Prats, an architecture studio founded in Barcelona in 1998 that combines project design and construction with a strong focus on academic activities at a number of universities.
Adolf Loos held that a building should have a soberly discreet exterior, reserving all its riches for its interior. Given that, any real appreciation of the spatial complexity of the work of one of the most misunderstood architects of the twentieth century requires engagement with his interiors, which this book does, brilliantly. In marked contrast to his contemporaries in the Vienna Secession, who designed their spaces down to the smallest detail, Loos presented himself as a "professor of interior design," perfectly willing to adapt to the habits and tastes of his clients, inviting them to embrace their own tastelessness rather than defer to the discernment of an "aesthete" architect. Together with the future occupant, he designed welcoming interiors whose warmth came from the effective use of quality materials and the creation of a flowing continuity articulated by the furnishings. What Loos created thereby was not merely architecture, but a new culture of living.
This book takes us beyond its façade to reveal to us, with meticulous detail, the architect’s great creativity. It includes an essay by Juan José Lahuerta and a study of the morphology of the building.
A richly illustrated catalog, with biography, of artist Julio González. The sculptures of Julio González (1876-1942) were shown at MoMA in 1956, and our understanding of his influence on modern art has grown steadily since. This lavishly illustrated book offers a new, highly nuanced account of González's life, work, and legacy. Beginning with González's complex family relationships, Juan José Lahuerta explores the tensions involved as González sought to combine his craft with efforts to become a painter, as the Romantic, bohemian mentality of the late nineteenth century had idealized. Lahuerta also explores the importance of González's relationships with Picasso and other contemporaries, which helps us understand how, in the 1930s, his naïve artist's urge was replaced by a radical urge to make art that would break every taboo related to tradition, craft, and material. The second section of the book offers a stunning presentation of the new exhibition of the Julio González collection at the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern. The book will serve as a milestone in our understanding of González's work and influence.
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