Architect, designer, and theorist Josef Frank (1885-1967) was known throughout Europe in the 1920s as one of the continent's leading modernists. Yet despite his important contributions to the development of modernism, Frank has been largely excluded from histories of the movement. Josef Frank: Life and Work is the first study that comprehensively explores the life, ideas, and designs of this complex and controversial figure. Educated in Vienna just after the turn of the century, Frank became the leader of the younger generation of architects in Austria after the First World War. But Frank fell from grace when he emerged as a forceful critic of the extremes of modern architecture and design during the early 1930s. Dismissing the demands for a unified modern style, Frank insisted that it was pluralism, not uniformity, that most characterized life in the new machine age. He called instead for a more humane modernism, one that responded to people's everyday needs and left room for sentimentality and historical influences. He was able to put these ideas into practice when, in 1933, he was forced to leave Vienna for Sweden. There his work came to define Swedish (or Scandinavian) modern design. For more than thirty years he was the chief designer for the Stockholm furnishings firm Svenskt Tenn, producing colorful, cozy, and eclectic designs that provided a refreshing alternative to the architectural mainstream of the day and presaged the coming revolt against modernism in the 1960s. In this sensitive study of one of the twentieth century's seminal architects and thinkers, Christopher Long offers new insight into Josef Frank's work and ideas and provides an important contribution to the understanding of modernist culture and its history.

Josef Frank: Life and Work

Long, Christopher

Biographies & Memoirs

University of Chicago Press

A comprehensive view of the life, work, and ideas of one of the creative giants of modern American design Arriving in the United States in 1914, Viennese-born Paul T. Frankl (1886–1958) brought with him an outsider’s fresh perspective and an enthusiasm for forging a uniquely American design aesthetic. In the years between the two world wars he, more than any other designer, helped shape the distinctive look of American modernism. This authoritative book draws on an extensive collection of unpublished documents and family papers and photographs to provide the first full account of Frankl’s life and ideas. The book also explores the history of modern American design and the extent of Frankl’s influence on its trajectory. In the early 1920s, Frankl opened a New York City shop that became an epicenter of American modernism. Over the next decades, his work encompassed everything from individual pieces of furniture and decorative accessories to entire interiors, and his style continuously evolved, from early “Skyscraper” furniture to relaxed and casual designs favored by the Hollywood elite in the 1930s to manufactured pieces for the mass market in the 1950s. The book charts the impact of Frankl’s ideas on merchants and consumers, on his fellow designers, and on the changing look of American homes and workplaces. With close to 170 illustrations, Paul T. Frankl and Modern American Design is an essential reference on 20th-century design.

Paul T. Frankl and Modern American Design

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

A celebration of the centennial of Vienna's Looshaus—one of modernism's earliest and most controversial buildings When it was completed in 1911, the Goldman &amp; Salatsch Building in Vienna, commonly known as the Looshaus, incited controversy for its austerity and plainness. It represented a stark rejection of the contemporary preference for ornamentation, though its architect, Adolf Loos (1870–1933), had intended it to preserve Viennese tradition within a new modernist language. The heated debate that ensued among critics and the public set the project apart, distinguishing it as one of the most important and contentious buildings of the early 20th century.
In celebration of the Looshaus's centennial year, Christopher Long, a leading authority on Viennese architectural history, brings to light extensive new research and careful analysis that dispel long-held myths about Loos, his building, and its critical reception. The book, which features new color photography and a vast array of archival materials in print for the first time, tells the remarkable story of the Looshaus's design and construction, the political and social restlessness it reflected, and the building's fundamental role in defining the look of modernism.

the-looshaus

Architecture

The first major look at the renowned industrial designer and architect, who helped to shape the look of American modernism from the 1920s through the early 1950s For German-born Kem Weber (1889–1963), design was not about finding a new expression; it was about responding to “structural, economic, and social requirements . . . characteristic of our daily routine of living.” He sought to ensure that each design he produced—whether a piece of furniture or a building or an interior—was an improvement that responded to modern needs and modern life. Weber was a leading figure of modernism on the West Coast from the 1920s through the early 1950s, and his work greatly influenced the California style of the time. His most iconic designs were his Bentlock line, the Air Line chair, the interiors for the Bixby House, and his tubular-steel furniture for Lloyd. This book, a result of significant new primary research in the Weber family’s archives, represents the first major study of the life and career of this important designer. Christopher Long details the full range of Weber’s contributions, focusing particularly on the part he played in the advancement of American modernism, and his role in heralding a new way of making and living.

Kem Weber, Designer and Architect

Scholars have long stressed the problem of ornament and expression when considering Viennese modernism. By the first decade of the 20th century, however, the avant-garde had shifted its focus from the surface to the interior. Adolf Loos (1870–1933), together with Josef Frank (1885–1967) and Oskar Strnad (1879–1935), led this generation of architects to interpret modernism through culture and lifestyle. They were interested in the experience of architectural space: how it could be navigated, inhabited, and designed to reflect the modern way of life while also offering respite from it. The New Space traces the theoretical conversation about space carried out in the writings and built works of Loos, Frank, and Strnad over four decades. The three ultimately explored what Le Corbusier would later—independently—term the architectural promenade. Lavishly illustrated with new photography and architectural plans, this important book enhances our understanding of the development of modernism and of architectural theory and practice.

The New Space: Movement and Experience in Viennese Modern Architecture

History

Europe

A fresh look at the Arts and Crafts Movement, charting its origins in reformist ideals, its engagement with commercial culture, and its ultimate place in everyday households In its spread from Britain to the United States, the Arts and Crafts Movement evolved from its roots in individual craftsmanship to a mainstream trend increasingly adapted for mass production by American retailers. Inspired by John Ruskin in Britain in the 1840s in response to what he saw as the corrosive forces of industrialization, the movement was profoundly transformed as its tenets of simple design, honest use of materials, and social value of handmade goods were widely adopted and commodified by companies like Sears, Roebuck and Co. The movement grew popular in early 20th-century America, where it was stripped of its reformist ideals by large-scale manufacturing and merchandising through department stores and mail-order catalogues. This beautiful book is illustrated with stunning furniture and designs by William Morris, Gustav Stickley, and Elbert Hubbard’s Roycroft community, among many others, along with such ephemera as the catalogues, sales brochures, and magazine spreads that generated popular interest. This perspective offers a new understanding of the Arts and Crafts idea, its geographical reach, and its translation into everyday design.

The Rise of Everyday Design: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and America

Penick, Monica

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

The Vanguard: Central European Emigres and American Modern Design, 1910-1940

Stern, Jewel

This book investigates the way that the molecular sciences are shaping contemporary security practices in relation to the governance of biological threats. 
In response to biological threats, such as pandemics and bioterrorism, governments around the world have developed a range of new security technologies, called medical countermeasures, to protect their populations. This book argues that the molecular sciences’ influence has been so great that security practices have been molecularised. Focusing on the actions of international organisations and governments in the past two decades, this book identifies two contrasting conceptions of the nature or inherent workings of molecular life as driving this turn. On the one hand, political notions of insecurity have been shaped by the contingent or random nature of molecular life. On the other, the identification of molecular life’s constant biological dynamics supports and makes possible the development and stockpiling of effective medical countermeasures. This study is one of the few to take seriously the conceptual implications that the detailed empirical workings of biotechnology have on security practices today. 
This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, bio-politics, life sciences, global governance, and International Relations in general.

The Molecularisation of Security (Routledge New Security Studies)

Reference

Routledge

The Molecularisation of Security: Medical Countermeasures, Stockpiling and the Governance of Biological Threats (Routledge New Security Studies)

World Financial Systems

Business & Money

Fraser, Robert D.

Economics

Gale/Cengage Learning

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