Pioneers of Modern Design

"'The new style, the genuine and legitimate style of our century,' claims Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, 'was achieved by 1914'; it consists of 'a synthesis of the Morris Movement, the development of steel building, and Art Nouveau'.

Such are the challenging theses that underlie this path-breaking, learned and yet immensely readable account. Pevsner considers design in Britain from the Great Exhibition of 1851 to William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement; the state of painting in the 1890s; Art Nouveau (and it's extraordinary offshoots in the work of Gaudí); Victorian engineering and architecture. All these form the essential background to the pioneers' rejection of ornament, use of new materials and commitment to 'utility' and the machine age. Voysey and Mackintosh in Britain were among the early masters of the Modern Movement. Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in America, the Session school, Adolf Loos and Otto Wagner in Vienna and, finally, Gropius and his Bauhaus colleagues perfected the style. Their relationships, achievements and influence are described and celebrated in this classic survey."