Annotated Bibliography
Beaudrillard, Jean. America. London: Verso, 1989.
The relevance of this book lies in its discussion of the role of images in America. America's dedication to a cult of images is attributed to cultural establishments from film to transportation.
Caruthers, Annette and Mary Greensted. Good Citizen's Furniture. London: Lund Humphries, 1994.
This book focuses on a specific collection of Arts and Crafts works. The preliminary text outlines the historical development of the movement and specifically William Morris. His ideas are explained with regard to contemporary social and economic conditions and predecessors, Pugin and Ruskin. Also outlined is the connection between moral social life the production of art.
Dalisi, Riccardo. Gaudi, Furniture and Objects. Woodbury, N.Y.: Barron's, 1980.
This book focuses on Gaudi's non-architectural work as evidence of his concern for a "total environment", united in theme and motivation from structural support to the minute details on a chair. Gaudi's concern with handiwork is presented as his strategy towards the humanization of an object or environment. As a result, or perhaps a cause, Gaudi's techniques were fluid and spontaneous and the products were physically engaging.
Danto, Arthur C. Embodied Meanings: Critical Essays and Aesthetic Meditations. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994.
A collection of essays with a broad range of art subjects. One of the recurring topics is functionality. Of the essays dealing with this, there are two of great interest. "Furniture as Art" outlines the historical developments that created the contemporary distinction between craft and fine art. "Fine Art and Functional Objects" deals more generally with contemporary notions of beauty and their relationship to functionality. There is also an essay, "Abide/Abode", that, although disparate in its theme, is useful for its discussion of the home as the manifestation of man's interaction with the environment.
Descharnes, Robert and Clovis Prevost. Gaudi the Visionary. New York: Viking Press, 1971.
A comprehensive evaluation of Gaudi's architecture arranged biographically and focusing primarily on the Sagrada Familia Church. As the title suggests, the dominant theme is Gaudi's "artistic and religious vision". The idea of organic architecture is explained and clarified through a discussion of Gaudi's intentions and corresponding techniques.
Ferrier, Jacques Louis. Outsider Art. Paris: Terrail, 1998.
This book focuses on a handful of representative visionary artists. Some of these are particularly relevant in their creation of environments or architecture. I focused on Ferdinand Cheval and Simon Rodia as examples. Cheval's work is portrayed as an astounding feat accomplished by an average, although industrious, man determined to create a completely personal environment. Rodia, on the other hand, appears as a tortured and very eccentric artist type building a heart-felt monument to some secret obsession.
Hughes, Robert. Shock of the New. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
The section of Modern art that I find most relevant is featured in Hughes' chapter entitled, "Trouble in Utopia". Hughes outlines the historical and industrial precedents of Modern architecture. Individual studies of architects like Mies and Le Corbusier are connected to older, often unrecognized traditions of Romanticism which undoubtedly combined with the rationalism of the day to produce the contradiction that is Modern architecture.
Hundertwasser, Freidrich. Austria Presents Hundertwasser to the Continents. Exhibition Catalogue. Glarus, Switzerland: Gruener Janura AG, 1983.
In this catalogue, Hundertwasser's complete oeuvre is presented in numerical order. Also included are Hundertwasser's manifestos, speeches and correspondences. Of interest to me are Hundertwasser's public manifestos that call for dramatic changes in societal establishments. Some, like his essay, "On False Art", deal with Hundertwasser's very strong and very public opinions about how art should be. In this short essay, he points to the detachment of high art as a major problem. He insists that art should have as its first aims beauty and happiness. Instead of reflecting all that is wrong with the world art ought to offer a solution or at least counteract the mass of negative influences. This sort of insistence on a societal ideal is mirrored in the ecological realm. For instance, another manifesto deals with man's responsibility to protect the natural cycle of death and rebirth. Such radical ideas are consistently tied into a unified program of "organic" aesthetics.
Manley, Roger. Self-made Worlds: Visionary Folk Art Environments. New York: Aperture, 1997.
This book is a collection of short descriptions of various folk art environments. Such work ranges from giant figures made entirely from branches hidden in the forest to a house literally full of handmade dolls meant to illustrate bible stories. Emphasized throughout is the significance of a completely personalized environment.
Morris, William, ed. Arts and Crafts Essays by Members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. London: Thoemmes Press, 1996.
First published in 1893, this collection seeks to establish the philosophical basis of the Arts and Crafts Movement, in general and address each of the unrecognized arts individually. The essay on "the revival of design and handicraft" focuses on the degrading effects of the Machine Age and its commercialism on art. In these conditions, the interest and will of the individual is pushed to the background to make way for the lucrative appeal to an impersonal average man. These factors are blamed for the unfortunate separation of craft and art.
Oldenburg, Claes. Claes Oldenburg: an Anthology. New York: Guggenheim Museum: Abrams, 1995.
A retrospective of Oldenburg arranged chronologically. Each section focuses on a period marked by thematic transitions. Oldenburg's interest in everyday objects and reaching everyday viewers is presented as an initial motivation which led to and combined with the idea that the line between organic and inorganic (i.e. people and things) may be easily blurred.
Rand, Harry. Hundertwasser. Koln: Benedikt Taschen, 1993.
This biographical look at Hundertwasser's work is led by regular excerpts from an interview between Hundertwasser and the author. The reader is led through an extensive explanation of the artist's influences and the development of his artistic philosophy. Given particular importance is Hundertwasser role as a political reactionary forever on guard against complacency and conformity.
Restany, Pierre. The Power of Art: Hundertwasser, the Painter King with the 5 Skins. New York: Taschen, 1998.
This book is written by one of Hundertwasser's friends and contemporaries. It is a portrait of the artist organized by his own philosophy of man's five skins. Starting with the skin of the human body and ending with the Earth as an ecological skin, these five levels correspond to Hundertwasser's development from a precocious boy rejecting the constraints of the academy to a politically minded and active man concerned with lasting harmony between man and nature.
Rose, Barbara. Claes Oldenburg. New York: Museum of Modern Art: New York Graphic Society, 1970.
A biographical explanation of Oldenburg's work. The artist's development and influences are discussed at length. Emphasis is placed on Oldenburg's own writings as a means of substantiating the presumptions evident in his work.
Tuchman, Maurice and Carol S. Eliel, ed. Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992.
This book covers a range of artists and movements. The section I found most relevant was that which dealt with Chicago's Hairy Who and H. C. Westermann. A sort passage is devoted to each individual artist in which their interest in or similarity to visionary art is explained within a historical context.
Tupitsyn, Margarita. Margins of Soviet Art: Socialist Realism to the Present. Milan: Giancarlo Politi Editore, 1989.
This book contains a section devoted to Ilya Kabakov in which his use of characters is explained eloquently. Issues such as communal life, alienation, societal abuse are presented as catalysts for Kabakov's artistic schizophrenia. The artist's attempt to unite with ultimate being, an ontological absolute is offered as his primary artistic motivation.
Westermann, H. C. H. C. Westermann.
Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1968.
The catalogue offers a general understanding of H.C. Westermann
and the importance of his biography in understanding his work
historically. He is portrayed as a sort of performing craftsman
interested first and foremost in the preservation of his personal
artistic vision.
Venturi, Robert, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour. Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1977.
This work challenges the tradition of Modern architecture for its apathy towards the matters of present reality. Despite Modernism's avowed social conscience, Venturi accuses such architects of overlooking the needs of their clients for the sake of their own ideas of some distant ideal of Mankind. The main argument centers on the supposed absence of ornament in Modern architecture. Venturi claims that Modern buildings betray their Purist background by relying on a program of symbolic features to further the architect's "authoritarian" doctrine. Claims of social good are therefore false and insensitive to the unfortunate inhabitants of such experiments.
Venturi, Robert and Denise Scott Brown. A View form the Campidoglio: Selected Essays, !953-1984. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1984.
Especially relevant among these essays is "Learning from Pop". As is evident by the title, this essay focuses on the importance of influences from everyday life and objects. Venturi explains architecture as the built artifact of a certain culture. With this sort of definition, little room is left for an individual architect. Instead, he must take a back seat to other circumstances, not the least of which is money.