Talking Modernism

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 “The airplane is the symbol of the new age .  A new state of modern conscience. A new plastic vision. A new aesthetic. "

Welcome back to the second season of Talking Modernism, and the first of a 2-part series on Streamline Moderne, the style that is so evocative of Depression era  America.  In this episode I'll be talking about the glamorous world of train travel in the 1930s, and the ground-break...

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"I know it when I see it”

Final in a 3-part series on the 1925 Paris exposition and the Art Deco style.  In this episode I explore the origins of the Art Deco style, especially its roots in avant-garde art.  Plus the role of the forgotten giant of fashion Paul Poiret in packaging the avant-garde for the mass market.

To explore future:

• High-level overview of avant-garde art 
• Article on Antonio ...

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"The first impression of the Exhibition is startling. Passing through the silver obelisk-like towers of the Port d’Honneur, one comes at once upon a cubist dream city, or the projection of a possible city in Mars, arisen overnight in the heart of Paris. "

Second in a 3-part series on the 1925 Paris exposition, the "Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Moderne&q...

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"Paris is the world, the rest of the earth nothing but its suburbs"

First in a 3-part series on the 1925 Paris exposition, the "Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Moderne", that sparked a world-wide explosion of the glamorous and much-loved Art Deco style.   In this episode I discuss the genesis of Paris' position as the fashion capital of the world, and also...

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Second in a 2-part series on Tel Aviv's "White City", the world's largest collection of modernist-style architecture.   In this episode I discuss the growth, decline and rediscovery of the White City.  I also discuss the contrasting work of Expressionist architect Erich Mendelsohn 

To explore further:

• Newsreels of Tel Aviv, including the White City period
• Wikipedia on Levant Fair 1932
• Eng...

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"From the froth of a wave and a cloud I built myself a white city"

Second in a 2-part series on Tel Aviv's "White City", the world's largest collection of modernist-style architecture.   I discuss how in the 1930s a radical architecture style largely developed in Northern Europe took hold in a new city on the shores of the Mediterranean.

To explore further:

• UNESCO wor...

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"On or about December 1910 human nature changed.   All human relations shifted, and when human relations change there is at the same time a change in religion, conduct, politics, and literature.”

Final of a 3-part series based on the book "Rites of Spring:  The Great War and the Birth of the  Modern Age" by Modris Ekstiens,  about the evolution of the modernist spirit in Western Europe.  This e...

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"Now all roads lead to France; And heavy is the tread

Of the living; but the dead; Returning lightly dance"

Second of a 3-part series based on the book "Rites of Spring:  The Great War and the Birth of the  Modern Age" by Modris Ekstiens,  about the evolution of the modernist spirit in Western Europe.  This episode explores how the slaughter of WW1 and continued disruption after the wa...

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"The most discordant composition ever written.  Never has the cult of the wrong note been applied with such industry, zeal, and ferocity"

First of a 3-part series based on the book "Rites of Spring:  The Great War and the Birth of the  Modern Age" by Modris Ekstiens,  about the evolution of the modernist spirit in Western Europe.  In this episode I discuss the tumultuous 1913 premiere...

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"If I had known they'd talk about nothing else I never would have designed that damn kitchen"

In this episode we discuss the Frankfurt kitchen the first mass-produced fitted kitchen.   Designed in 1926 by the amazing and brilliant Greta Schutte-Lihotzky, we'll also discuss functionalist design, the birth of public housing and the idea of "wicked problems"

To explore...

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"Attempting to stand outside of time, the house neither aged nor weathered: it merely cracked and deteriorated"

Welcome to the first episode of the new series "Talking Modernism".  In this episode we'll be exploring what exactly modernism is through one of its iconic buildings, the Villa Savoye.

Useful links, in case you want to investigate further:

• Photo study o...