Modernism to Postmodernism

De Stij, Bauhaus, and Le Corbusier

Modernism

a 20th-century movement that rejected historical styles in favor of function, abstraction, new materials, and industrial logic, guided by the principle “form follows function.

• Clean lines, no ornament

• Use of steel, glass, concrete

• Faith in progress and technology

De Stijl

• Horizontal & vertical lines

• Primary colors + black/white

• Universal order through abstraction

Piet Mondrian – Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red (1937–42)

• Grid of black lines

• Primary colors only

• No representation

Gerrit Rietveld – Red/Blue Chair (1917)

• Furniture as abstraction

• Planes and primary colors

• Painting principles applied to design

• Art enters everyday life

The Bauhaus

A short-lived but enormously important and influential school of art and design in Germany.

• Unified art, craft, and industry

• Emphasis on functionality and mass production

• Closed by Nazis in 1933

Artists & Designers at the Bauhaus (KEY WORKS)

Vasily Kandinsky – Yellow, Red, Blue (1925)

• Expressionist Painting

Paul Klee – Twittering Machine (1922)

• Childlike forms

• Machine + fantasy

• Humor within abstraction

Anni Albers – Black White Yellow (1926)

• Textile as modern art

• Geometry and rhythm

• Functional design elevated

Marianne Brandt – Tea Pot (1924)

• Industrial materials

• Simple geometric form

• Beauty + utility

Marcel Breuer – Wassily Chair (1925)

• Tubular steel

• Inspired by bicycles

• Mass production design

Le Corbusier

Swiss-French architect, theorist of Modernist architecture, author of Vers une architecture.

Purist Paintings

• Le déjeuner près du pare

• Trois baigneuses

Characteristics

• Clean forms

• Classical balance

• Machine aesthetics

Architecture & Urban Planning - Le Cobusier

Le Corbusier – Villa Savoye (1929)

• Five Points of Architecture

• Pilotis, free plan, ribbon windows

• House as “machine for living”

Unité d’Habitation (1947–52)

• Vertical city

• Modular housing

• Social modernism

Convent of La Tourette (1960)

• Brutalism

• Raw concrete

• Spiritual minimalism

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright – Fallingwater (1937)

• Building integrated into nature

• Human-centered modernism

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1942–59)

• Spiral ramp

• Continuous viewing experience

• Breaks traditional museum design

Postmodernism

Postmodernism rejects Modernist seriousness, embracing ornament, irony, historical reference, and playfulness.

• Against pure function

• Eclectic and symbolic

Key Works - Postmodernism

Robert Venturi – House in New Castle County (1978–83)

• Historical references

• Complexity over purity

• Reaction against Villa Savoye

Michael Graves – Portland Public Service Building (1980–82)

• Decorative façade

• Color and symbolism

• Anti-International Style

Frank Gehry – Chiat/Day Building with Binoculars (1991)

• Architecture as sculpture

• Humor and pop culture

• Blurs art and building