Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius

Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius by Pevsner, Nikolaus. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780140552119.

One of the most widely read books on modern design, Nikolaus Pevsners landmark work today remains as stimulating as it was when first published in 1936. This expanded edition of Pioneers of Modern Design provides Pevsners original text along with significant new and updated information, enhancing Pevsners illuminating account of the roots of Modernism. The book now offers many beautiful color illustrations; biographies and bibliographies of all major figures; illustrated short essays on key themes, movements, and individuals; a critique of Pevsners analysis from todays perspective; examples of works after 1914 (where the original study ended); a biography detailing Pevsners life and achievements; and much more. Pevsner saw Modernism as a synthesis of three main William Morris and his followers, the work of nineteenth-century engineers, and Art Nouveau. The author considers the role of these sources in the work of early Modernists and looks at such masters of the movement as C.F.A. Voysey and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Britain, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in America, and Adolf Loos and Otto Wagner in Vienna. The account concludes with a discussion of the radical break with the past represented by the design work of Walter Gropius and his future Bauhaus colleagues.