Art History Reviewed IV: Nikolaus Pevsner's 'Pioneers of the Modern Movement', 1936

• Autores: Colin Amery
• Localización: Burlington magazine, ISSN 0007-6287, Vol. 151, Nº 1278, 2009, págs. 617-619
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The writer discusses Nikolaus Pevsner's 1936 book Pioneers of the Modern Movement from William Morris to Walter Gropius. In this book, Pevsner linked the Bauhaus to the Deutscher Werkbund, to the writings of Hermann Muthesius, and to the work of Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, thereby becoming responsible for legitimizing the Modern movement and providing it with a basis of historical authenticity. At the time of its publication, and since, the book has been received by scholars and architects as the “gospel” of Modernism. However, its authority and status have been questioned. Pevsner apparently wanted an end to individualism and independent artistic creativity; architecture had to conform to the Zeitgeist and to demonstrate rationality and unity within the social system, and the book is dominated by this theory, alongside a firm belief that art and architecture reflect national character. This theory allowed Pevsner to generalize about people and places and to indulge in a colloquial expression of national characteristics.