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Lecture: Modernism and the Home

Mar. 09, 2012

  • 6:30pm — 8:30pm

Join Dr. Gretchen Bender of the University of Pittsburgh's Art and Architecture Department for an informal lecture followed by discussion.


At the dawn of the 20th century, radical abstraction emerged in architecture, as it did in painting, as a strident desire to embrace the new -- to seek a new vocabulary that could communicate unencumbered living, a sense of freedom, the dynamism of an industrializing world, and the purity of spirit for which so many strived. Strange buildings began to arise, ones that looked radically different, with flat roofs and simple geometric forms, cubic masses with plain windows. Rejecting historical tradition and the laden ornament with which it was associated, artists sought a new elemental simplicity and openness. A tremendous faith in the power of architecture to liberate humanity arose. It was in their designs for domestic spaces - for the common home - that the major architects of the modern movement often exercised these revolutionary ideas most stridently. This lecture will investigate the ideals, goals and practices of modernism as it manifested itself in the home in such canonical sites as Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House and Fallingwater, Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, and Gerrit Reitveld's Schroeder House.   


Light hors d'oeuvres and refreshments will be served. To register, call 412.741.4405. Pre-registration is recommended, but not necessary. Walk-ins welcome.


Sweetwater Center for the Arts
Members: Free/Non-members: $5

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