The Gray Cloth: Paul Scheerbart's Novel on Glass Architecture [Hardcover]

Paul Scheerbart (Author), John A. Stuart (Illustrator, Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0262194600 | ISBN-13: 978-0262194600 | Edition: 1st

The German expressionist, architectural visionary, author, inventor, and artist Paul Scheerbart (1863-1915) wrote several fictional utopian narratives related to glass architecture. In The Gray Cloth, the first of his novels to be translated into English, Scheerbart uses subtle irony and the structural simplicity of a fairy tale to present the theories of colored glass outlined in his well-known treatise Glass Architecture.The novel is set forward in time to the mid-twentieth century. The protagonist, a Swiss architect named Edgar Krug, circumnavigates the globe by airship with his wife, constructing wildly varied, colored-glass buildings. His projects include a high-rise and exhibition/concert hall in Chicago, a retirement complex for air pilots on the Fiji Islands, the structure for an elevated train across a zoological park in northern India, and a suspended residential villa on the Kuria Muria Islands off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea. Fearing that his architecture is challenged by the colorfulness of women's clothing, Krug insists that his wife wear all gray clothing with the addition of ten percent white. This odd demand brings him notoriety and sensationalizes his international building campaign. For the reader, it underlines the confluence of architecture with fashion, gender, and global media.In his introduction, John Stuart surveys Scheerbart's career and role in German avant-garde circles, as well as his architectural and social ideas. He shows how Scheerbart strove to integrate his spiritual and romantic leanings with the modern world, often relying on glass architecture to do so. In addition to discussing the novel's reception and its rediscovery by contemporary architects and critics, Stuart shows fiction to be a resource for the study of architecture and places The Gray Cloth in the context of German Expressionism.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Imagine that the Bauhaus movement had featured colored glass architecture and that glowing buildings ennobled human existence and transformed civilization. Dirigibles provide a new level of luxury travel and massive, 40-tower synthesizerlike organs produce a new type of music and laserlike light show. Such was the techno-utopian vision of architect Scheerbart, who wrote the definitive treatise on the subject (Glasarchitektur, 1914) as well as several novels. For the overbearing Edgar Krug, protagonist of this work, everything revolves around architecture to the point of having his wife wear a gray dress with ten percent white as a contrast to the brilliant glass panels he has designed. Scheerbert combined the ironic late-romantic style of Clemens Brentano with a more earnest Expressionism to great comic effect: " 'Don't you have a wish?' asked Edgar. 'Yes,' responded Clara, 'I would like to eat oysters.' 'Of course, we could do that,' replied the architect, 'but I thought you would express architectural desires.' " This novel will delight art historians, Brentano fans, and lovers of sophisticated irony. Recommended for academic and large public libraries. Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. Lib., Chico
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"In The Gray Cloth, Scheerbart shows that even in the most edifying buildings, the human comedy finds a home" Alan G. Brake Architecture

"This novel will delight art historians, Brentano fans, and lovers of sophisticated irony." Jim Dwyer Library Journal

"In The Gray Cloth, Scheerbart shows that even in the most edifying buildings, the human comedy finds a home." Alan G. Brake Architecture

"John Stuart's commentary on, and translation of, Scheerbart's Gray Cloth makes a very important and entertaining work more accessible. While most well-known texts on architecture seem to be theory, history, or how-to, Stuart's efforts remind us of the delight and power in fiction. Scheebart's fantastic tale struck his contemporaries right where they dreamed, and this translation does the same for readers today."--Terence Riley, Chief Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art

"John Stuart's translation brings to life the full vigor of Paul Scheerbart's amazing novel.  It will not only help in the process of reformulating our understanding of early modernism, but also, and just as importantly, extend the discussion on that most fascinating topic, fiction and architecture."--Mark Jarzombek, Director, History Theory Criticism Section, Department of Architecture, MIT

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 136 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1st edition (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262194600
• ISBN-13: 978-0262194600
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,221,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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