The Theory of Decorative Art: An Anthology of European and American Writings, 1750-1940 (Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design & Culture) [Paperback]

Ms. Isabelle Frank (Editor), David Britt (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 2000 | Series: Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design & Culture

This anthology contains significant writings on the theory of the decorative arts from the mid-18th century to the 1940s. It offers a history of decorative art as it emerged in the west, and reconstructs the debates over how to define this type of art and distinguish it from fine art.

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About the Author

Isabelle Frank is an independent scholar living in Chicago. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Bard Center (November 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300088051
• ISBN-13: 978-0300088052
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #984,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars concise, informative and to the point, February 12, 2010

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Hannah L. Sigur "lecturer, writer and teacher... (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Theory of Decorative Art: An Anthology of European and American Writings, 1750-1940 (Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design & Culture) (Paperback)

It is hard to imagine a better overview than this one of the foundations of modern aesthetics and design in the decorative arts. From a few, well-chosen excerpts for each theorist, Frank distills essentials of concepts that they themselves formulated over volumes and years. Her selection reveals not just broad and deep knowledge of their work but also analytical skill in uncovering the important nuggets buried within a huge and diverse body of material. Her own commentary is written with economy and clarity. Having borrowed this book at the library, I realized within an hour that I had to own it. It has been immensely helpful in my own work, and will be an essential reference for years to come.

Hannah Sigur Influence of Japanese Art on Design

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sourcebook with glimpses, December 4, 2006

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Viktor Blasjo - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Theory of Decorative Art: An Anthology of European and American Writings, 1750-1940 (Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design & Culture) (Paperback)

Predictably, most texts in this anthology are quite dull and don't come anywhere close to presenting anything that could be called a "theory" of decorative art. There were only three texts I liked; I will quote from them here.

Karl Philipp Moritz, Preliminary Ideas on the Theory of Ornament, 1793: "Application of the concept of isolation to ornament. The frame adorns a painting because it isolates it ... All settings adorn by containing and isolating the thing they set apart, by detaching it from the surrounding mass of other objects, and by presenting it as something exceptionally worthy of our attention ... The vase, the container par excellence, is thus an ornament in itself---because it embodies the idea of the thing that isolates and contains within itself ... A thing that is to contain will open and widen gradually---for, if it were as wide below as it is above, it would appear to be passive rather than active ... This idea of containment is most clearly manifest in the calyx of a flower, which falls back over itself to catch the falling dewdrops with its outermost rim, and to let nothing escape that approaches it from above."

Adolf Loos, Ornament and Crime, 1910: "[T]he man of our day, who in response to an inner urge, smear the walls with erotic symbols is a criminal or a degenerate. It goes without saying that this impulse most frequently assails people with such symptoms of degeneracy in the lavatory. A country's culture can be assessed by the extent to which its lavatory walls are smeared. ... I have made the following discovery and I pass it on to the world: The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from utilitarian objects. I believed that with this discovery I was bringing joy to the world; it has not thanked me. People were sad and hung their heads. What depressed them was the realisation that they could produce no new ornaments ... Then I said: Weep not! ... we have fought our way through to freedom from ornament. See, the time is nigh ... Soon the streets of the city will glisten like white walls ... Then fulfilment will be come."

Gottfried Semper, Concerning the Formal Principles of Ornament and Its Significance Artistic Symbol, 1856: "[T]he artistic feeling active in ornament, though it first appears as a very early stage, long remains uncertain of its own true nature ... It only unconsciously obeys the universal cosmic laws which the Greeks, as I believe, were the first and only nation to interpret and apply universally. What is this cosmic law? Perhaps we can trace it by dividing ornaments into categories ... 1. The Pendant. Pendant ornament is primarily associated with those qualities of visual form that we call symmetry ... Examples ... are the nose and ear pendants ... As heavy bodies that hang free, they swing with the wearer's every movement and thereby prepares us for the moment of tranquility and balance that will ensue ... The aesthetic value of symmetrical ornament is markedly enhanced by its influence on the actions of the individual whom it adorns. At rest, posture must be corrected; in motion, a degree of dignified restraint must be observed ... A convincing example of the aesthetic effect of the principle under discussion is the artistic pleasure evoked by comely female figures bearing vessels of water on their heads. These were the source of the canephori and caryatids that are important motifs in architecture ... 2. Annular or ring ornament. Annular ornament is mainly proportional: it serves to emphasize the proportions of the body, to remedy deficiencies, and in some circumstances to maintain, by exaggeration ... certain effects that may be characteristic of may suit a specific purpose ... Almost every culture known to ethnology has been seduces into barbaric lapses of taste by the attempt to lend authority to the human head--and to its individual possessor--at the expense of good proportions, by loading it with superstructures and other top-heavy ornaments. Only the Hellenic and kindred cultures never did this; and this in itself justifies their claim to be the only nonbarbarians. We ourselves still have our grenadier caps and our tubular felt hats: forms of unexampled barbarity ... 3. Directional ornament ... is designed to emphasize the direction and motion of the body ... It relates entirely to the antithesis between the front and back of a figure or object, and is intended primarily to be seen in profile ... It is interesting to observe how differences in national character are reflected in the dominance of one or other ornamental principle. The earthbound, law-abiding regularity of Egyptian art is reflected in the dominance of symmetrical ornament ... The Assyrians preferred the annular ornament ... here we detect the feudalistic, dynastic, yet centralizing culture of that nation ... The forest Indian of North America, decked in the flight feathers of the eagle, has a special feeling for the asymmetrical principle, with its emphasis on motion and direction entirely in keeping with his nomadic life as a hunter ... Among the Hellenes ... we find the freest combination of the three principles, each operating in the field appropriate to it."