Modernism Rediscovered
Category: Books,Engineering & Transportation,Engineering
Modernism Rediscovered Details
From Library Journal Shulman, long considered the premiere photographer of mid-20th-century West Coast Modern architecture, is now hailed as an artist who defined the image of the "good life" for postwar America through his elegant depictions of spare but luxurious International Style dwellings. The publisher extends the Shulman craze with a mesmerizing portfolio of rare architectural photos. For this book, Shulman raided his vast archive to cull over 500 photos, many published only once before, of houses, office buildings, and other structures by talented but lesser-known and forgotten architects. This treasure trove will captivate architecture historians and midcentury Modern design buffs. The serviceable but pedantic text by architect Serraino consists of a dispensable introductory essay and a dry running commentary on each building. Most public libraries should hold either Joseph Rosa's A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman (Rizzoli, 1994) or Shulman's autobiographical Julius Shulman: Architecture and Its Photography (Taschen, 1998). Modernism Rediscovered is an excellent addition for academic and specialized architecture collections. David Solt?sz, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more Review Shulman’s slick, elegant renderings of buildings amount to an unusual and intriguing look at some of modernism’s less celebrated works. -- Northwest Arkansas Times, 12/24/00This treasure trove will captivate architecture historians and mid-century modern design buffs. -- Library Journal, March 2001 Read more
Reviews
Evidently publisher Taschen had the charmingly pin-headed notion of releasing multiple versions with more or much less content, but with the same title. And the same cover. Reviews of this book were very confusing, as reviewers covered content without specifying which edition they were reviewing. Given the general confusion, they probably didn't know there were different versions. Some vendors on Amazon were not specific as to which of several versions they were offering, which added to my purchasing fun. I even visited the publisher's website, trying to get an ISBN number which would enable me to know what I was buying--a waste of time.This version of Modernism Rediscovered is the large format paperback edition (ISBN 3-8228-6415-3) from 2000. It is 8x10" in size, over 570 pages, and the paper cover is quite substantial. The book is multilingual. Type is very small, in order to fit English, German, and French translations on the same page. An irritating publishing decision, to say the least. Julius Shulman's superb photography deserves multiple language editions.For those who love modern architecture, Modernism Rediscovered is a must have. Shulman's beautifully composed photographs, most in crisp black and white, cover homes and other structures from 1946 into the mid-1970's, the majority in the United States. Some of the subjects have received a great deal of coverage over the years, but many of these cutting edge designs haven't been studied since their first appearance in limited circulation magazines. The publisher is to be commended for bringing them back to public notice and filling a significant gap in our understanding of this important period in design.Author Pierluigi Serraino has treated this material, in a sense, as an abbreviated catalog of the photographer's personal archives. The photos record Shulman's job number, the architect, general structure location, and when the image was captured. Where known, the publications in which the photos were featured are credited. Descriptions are brief and seem to have been taken from the articles the photos illustrated. I hope that in the future Mr. Shulman's complete archive will be offered, in independent language editions.I am rating this book high for the value of the content. You may not find the multilingual pages as annoying as I do.
