Klaus-Jürgen Sembach

Art Nouveau. Reconciling the Irreconcilable Art Nouveau, whose emergence at the same time as cinema was no mere coincidence, represents the most remarkable attempt to reconcile the demands of the technical age with the undying wish for beauty and glorification - or to pit the one against the other. Under the title "Art Nouveau - Utopia: Reconciling the Irreconcilable" the reform movement of the turn of the century is not only dealt with as an artistic event, but those economic and political interests which inspired, supported and handicapped it are also taken into account. In the chapters "Movement", "Unrest" and "Equilibrium" the historical phenomenon as a whole is characterised and is also presented with its own distinct local features. The centres of Brussels, Nancy, Barcelona, Glasgow, Helsinki and Chicago are dealt with in subchapters as are Munich, Darmstadt and Weimar. Finally, Vienna, that city in which the synthesis achieved its culmination, is described separately. The outstanding artists are dealt with in detail in connection with the respective cities of their greatest activity. The result is a complex picture of the symbiosis of architecture, furniture design and craftsmanship with their corresponding approaches to artistic revitalisation.

Modernismo. Reconciliando lo irreconciliable. El modernismo, cuya simultaneidad con el cine no fué mera coincidencia, representa el mas memorable intento de reconciliar las demandas de la era industrial con el deseo de subyacente belleza y glorificacion - o de reunir a uno y al otro...

Simbolos de estatus que definen el espiritu de la época. Diseñadores geniales. Henry van de Velde, Charles Rennie Mackintosh y Josef Hoffmann. Le Corbusier y Emile Jacques Ruhlmann. Charles Eames, Ettore Sottsas y Philippe Starck. En sus manos el mobiliario es el protagonista principal. El siglo 20 transformo los interiores en escenarios - y en estos escenarios las creaciones de estos diseñadores juegan los papeles estelares. Este es un libro acerca de estos simbolos de estatus que expresan el caracter de sus dueños, pero mas que esto, definen el caracter de una epoca.