Birthdays and Modernism at the V&A
It was Surreal Girl’s birthday today. This involved Tim Tams, reading Guy Browning, sheltering from the weather under trees in the park, the Modernism exhibition at the V&A, walking in South Kensington in the rain and pancakes at My Old Dutch on the Kings Road. Despite the fact we were meant to be celebrating her special day, all of these things in the best of company made it feel like a treat for me. Some might find birthdays and Modernism at the V&A an odd combination, but it works.
Surreal Girl’s review of Modernism 1914-1939 was: “Bitty.” She was spot on and a lot more succinct than I am able to be. There was distinct absence of narrative drive after it abandoned its early Searching for Utopia aspect. Combined with a lack of proper thematic historical context, it did suffer a little from ‘just a collection of objects and pictures ‘ syndrome.
A flaw that maybe only jaded old hacks like myself would be bothered about was its piss-poor coverage of Modernist typography and magazine design. A much bigger problem was that the exhibition failed to come up with a way to do Modernist architecture within the confines of a museum. A few photographs, drawings, models and the odd video do not convey the sense of an individual building or offer give you the feel of whether a housing estate actually worked or not for those who lived in it.
The exhibition also left a lot of questions unanswered. These ranged from the interesting such as Surreal Girl’s poser about the use of glass, to the most vital ones. What about Modernism’s collaboration with totalitarianism? What about its failure to engage with the reality of the working class?
However, Modernism 1914-1939 does have much to recommend it. There are wow moments – the Tatra T-87 saloon that made me understand the impact of Modernism on car design; the fitted kitchen from the Am Höhenblick housing estate and the Volksempfänger and other radios.
The biggest compliment I can pay the exhibition was that leaving it to search out the Great Bed of Ware, I experienced a real culture shock. Going from the 'ornament is excrement' of Modernism to the sensual overload of the rest of the V&A brought home the Year Zero aspects of Modernism like nothing else ever has or possibly could.
Surreal Girl’s review of Modernism 1914-1939 was: “Bitty.” She was spot on and a lot more succinct than I am able to be. There was distinct absence of narrative drive after it abandoned its early Searching for Utopia aspect. Combined with a lack of proper thematic historical context, it did suffer a little from ‘just a collection of objects and pictures ‘ syndrome.
A flaw that maybe only jaded old hacks like myself would be bothered about was its piss-poor coverage of Modernist typography and magazine design. A much bigger problem was that the exhibition failed to come up with a way to do Modernist architecture within the confines of a museum. A few photographs, drawings, models and the odd video do not convey the sense of an individual building or offer give you the feel of whether a housing estate actually worked or not for those who lived in it.
The exhibition also left a lot of questions unanswered. These ranged from the interesting such as Surreal Girl’s poser about the use of glass, to the most vital ones. What about Modernism’s collaboration with totalitarianism? What about its failure to engage with the reality of the working class?
However, Modernism 1914-1939 does have much to recommend it. There are wow moments – the Tatra T-87 saloon that made me understand the impact of Modernism on car design; the fitted kitchen from the Am Höhenblick housing estate and the Volksempfänger and other radios.
The biggest compliment I can pay the exhibition was that leaving it to search out the Great Bed of Ware, I experienced a real culture shock. Going from the 'ornament is excrement' of Modernism to the sensual overload of the rest of the V&A brought home the Year Zero aspects of Modernism like nothing else ever has or possibly could.
1 Comments:
I'm afraid my grasp of Modernism ended with the Jetsons, me old china.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home