Sunday, February 23, 2003

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

Last week's culture included a visit to the Whitechapel Gallery for the Mies van der Rohe exhibition. Together with Le Corbusier, Philip Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies was one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. Mies pretty much invented the glass skyscraper in post-war US. However, this exhibition was all about his time in Berlin before 1938 when he emigrated to the 'States. It was fascinating to see some of his earliest commissions whilst working for Peter Behrens practice. Behrens gained note for his use of steel, particularly in the AEG Turbine Hall, and an early use of pre-cast concrete. Some of the early Mies work was quite old-fashioned, in the style of the English Arts and Crafts movement. But, particularly after the war, his style evolved into the more modern idiom. I wasn't aware of the influence of modernist painters like Theo van Duisburg on Mies's work. But, it's pretty evident in the dozen or so house commissions in post-WWI Germany.

Mies later became the director of the Bauhaus school of art . When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Bauhaus was closed down. A defiant Mies got it reopened after awhile, but he quickly lost favour in the new regime and was forced out of the country.


The exhibition, put together by the New York Museum of Modern Art, concentrates rightly on the highly influential pavilion at the Barcelona trade fair. But, it was the earlier house commissions that really interested me.


:: Posted by pete @ 18:55