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  • Colquhoun Alan UrnAndTheChamberpotAdolfLoos 2002

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    Alan Colquhoun Urn and the Chamber Pot

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    Colquhoun_Alan_UrnAndTheChamberpotAdolfLoos_2002

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    Alan Colquhoun Urn and the Chamber Pot

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    22 views14 pages

    Colquhoun Alan UrnAndTheChamberpotAdolfLoos 2002

    Uploaded by

    Paul DeFazio
    Alan Colquhoun Urn and the Chamber Pot

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 14
    Oxford HistoryofArt Modern — Architecture AlanColquhoun OXFORD [UNIVERSITY PRESS The Urnand the — Chamberpot: Adolf Loos 1900-30 ee ee eg wat nots mode of manufctre butts purpose. Pefection of extn, tion should be the am ofhand-wovkand macine-wotk ke Inka {ase the mals should sot express individuality bot shoul be te {eanamitter of impesonal curl vals. Loos eas oe English Arts and Crafts movement was based wot only on the qa ofits workmanship but also on the fit that did noe ater heart, filly nev, but respected tation andeustorn, kk was as a writer of polemical articles that Loos fst became ‘Known, His phoristc, wit and sarcastic pieces, which gained fin ‘many enemies fiends, resembled he writings fhis clave fend te Pee Karl Keaus (ipy-196), editor and sole writer of the eae] owrmal Die Face (The Tord), pubic from 899 to ryss In he journal Kraus pursued a relentless campaign aginst the Aran att tural and politics establishment and is journalists, whose abuso Jnnguage be saw as betraying unfathomable depths of hypociy ad ‘moral degradation. Loos himself tated a journaler ogc Orbe)—hich, howerer,appeated in ony two numbers nog ‘supplements in Peter Altenber’ journal Die Kent This pablinon subtitled Jourat for tbe Inieduton of Hestern Ciabetion ine Absériayparalted. Die Fatt eula cxtque in the sphere of the wef arts, comparing Austrian cate unfavourably with that of England and Americ. Loos’ articles attacked not only Austen tmidle-cas eau, bt ao the very want gard! care tat sel ‘osupendcit? Loose writings shifed the debate on the reform ofthe applied ats into a new register—one that was eventually to ta hit ino the umwiting father figure ofthe 920s Modem Movement. ln his ey “Ornament and Crime’ (1908), be claimed that the tliminatone of fenament fom usefal objets was the reaul of «ealturl evolution {cadng tothe abolition of waste and auperfuiy from human labour This process was aot harmfl but bene to cult, edcing the time spent on manual labour and releasing energy forthe ife che sind ‘The esay was not mecelyanataceon the Viennese Secession and Jegendai was ako an attack on the Werkbund, founded yer ‘arf Awe have sca, Muthesiuyaim forthe Westbund was twee the arts a form-givng ole within ity and cus eo etblek the Gestatrf the machine ge To Loos, this was unacceptable--no. foe ‘Vande Velde and Gropiv, because would destoy the freedoon ofthe ante but precisely because it envisaged the atin athe pinay agent inthe creation ofevrytay objec. Loos belied thatthe nyc fon ‘poch was always che result of mutt economic and cultural ores twas not something which the rode, aided by th artist, should {to impose onthe consumer ‘Germany makes, the world ten Ae lesstieshoud. Burit doesnot want to, Fewantstocreate its own fens forits own fe rather than have them imposed by sone sitar pro ducer agoiton ™ ‘With his aim of involving che artist in industry, Muthesis (Looe’s anqumen: implied) was merely substituting form for ornament in an stempt ad a fttons ‘piri quality to the social economy and tobind Rutorand Ziluation togetherin anew oganiceyathess. But such synthesis was neither posible nor necesary. An ineradicable ‘gap had opened up between ave and sea. In twig thes ‘pat capalism had liberated them both, Art and the design of wse- objects now existed as independent nd nstonomous prices" We ate ste [the nineteenth centry] forthe magnificent nccomplish= ment of avg separated the ats and the craft once and forall" The search fr the yl ofthe sme! that Mates’ types were intended to expres was fill based ona nostalgia forthe pre india ‘gn’ society I act, a styl ofthe moder age ale existed—in industrial product thon ony artistic pretensions: Al hose mas which have nage to kop this peso reat [the sre) out thi workchope ae at pent tthe peak ofthe abi [thei reduces. per the age of or tine o el hat we do not een look on then shaving ey. They have Become entwined with ou tgs and Fags: Our einge contrition or ses oar opt instrament, our umbrels and ates, out igage ad aden ou ees iui ces turjewellay. and ether they sal nen? ‘The attempe consciously to create the formal ype’ ofthe new age was loomed fl justas Vande Veldeateempr to create ane onmarnent Jha filed ‘Noone ha red tn pt his poy ges into the turing wheel oftme without having his hand tor off “Accoring to Loos, at coal now survive in aly two (absolutely antitetica forms: fity asthe re exetion of works of ar that mo Tonger ha ay socal esponsbityand were theeloe able fo project ideas into he fire and eiticize conternporcy society and stony in the design of buildings which embodied the collective memory Loos sehuratized these buildings at Denkmal (he monument) tal Grabmat (xe tomb)? For Loos, the private house belonged to the eat gory athe wef not to thatof the momsment hence the ait his houses of ly develope clasia language, except fra bri period between ig andaga (Se page 8) Decorum Lootienfied the surviving realm ofthe monument with the antique “The archteet he sid, is a stonemason who has learned Latin,” cchoing Vitrwviar® statement that knowledge of building grows sunlly ou of fibria (material and rato reaeon).? Fle atiide to the clasical tation diffed fm that of Otto Wagner Behrens, whom a synthesis berween at (pst, soul) and rationality yas si posible, and who wanted to aape classic to modezn conditions, For Looe, as for Kraus, the antique had preserved in language the seach fora lost image ofthe primordial Is syntax shoul therbe imitated to the eter even ifmade wth mode material, not atl “Moder architects sem more ike Bxperantts. Drawing instetion needs to proceed from casial omament™ By the same tokeo, both hand Kraus believe inthe importance ofthe edition of shee, particulary its distinction between genes and its concept of dara, ‘which divides ee continuum offived experience Sato discrete wits Aa Krave Ado Loot Ihe in ely in wont ave done noting lie than sho ‘hac there iva divence between awn ad chamberpot and that hice France is necanazy beaut unter te pe fear, The other om ‘hecontrary the defender of positive values, ae divided between hove ho ‘msi the um fr achunbespo and thore mo mistake the charerpt er For Loos ths senility of ference! was exacerbated, not lin nated, by the dislocations brought about by industalization, As Marsmo Cacia hes pointed out, modem For Loon ws cont tuted by diffrent and mutually intransitive Tanguage gues. Loos | ‘thought in tems of art and industry, art and handiraft, masc and drama, never in terms of a Getemdhunfuert that would synthesize these diffrent genres in modern ‘commanity ofthe ar Tn is design for the War Ministry in Vienna (go7 and the mons- ment tothe Emperor Frans Jos (97), Loor adopted neoclasici which, though clearly mediated bythe Beaux-Arts, was more literal than che clasciing work of Wagner or Berens, These pes ofbuild- ing belonged to the category of Debra. But what sbout those ‘buildings inthe public realm which could make, at best, only wea

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