Review by Choice Review
Since the late 1970s Charles Jencks has so barraged us with books and articles on postmodernism that he has, with good reason, come to be regarded as its principal spokesman, yet this new history of the movement by the German critic, Heinrich Klotz, is vastly superior to any of Jencks's texts. Klotz's history begins with the dissolution of late modernism and treats the emergence of postmodernism in terms of its leading practitioners, a strategy that excludes many prominent contemporary architects but one that allows Klotz to expand in greater depth upon the ideas and influences underlying the work of each firm. Klotz acknowledges the primacy of the Americans Louis Kahn (as a progenitor), Robert Venturi, and Charles Moore, but his discussions of the major Europeans--particularly the Germans and the Italians--reveal fundamentally different attitudes toward humor and gravity and urbanism that exist as a kind of subtext to the larger congruences of the movement. This handsomely illustrated text should be regarded as the standard history of postmodernism. Recommended for undergraduate and graduate students in architecture, and for consideration for public libraries with architectural holdings. -J. Quinan, SUNY at Buffalo
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
A broad consideration of postmodern architecture, especially of the movement's many divisions and of its relationship to the historical development of modernism in the twentieth century. Klotz presents his arguments by addressing philosophical issues and by examining projects and buildings of a number of prime postmodernist practitioners. The study is especially good at ferreting out the predecessors of postmodernism in the architecture of the modern movement and at redefining the relationship between these two developments. The author also challenges many of the common conceptions about postmodernism's eclectic appearance and prefers to analyze many of the separate schools that are blanketed under this umbrella term. While the book doesn't have the stylistic sizzle of Charles Jencks' work, there's plenty of meat here in the substantial proposals that German architectural critic Klotz advances. A crisply designed production, well- illustrated with photographs, drawings, renderings, diagrams, and plans. Notes, bibliography; index. JB.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In response to Mies van der Rohe's famous dictum that ``less is more,'' Robert Venturi said ``less is a bore,'' implying that the pure, unembellished architectural style in the modernist tradition of Mies, Gropius, Le Corbusier et al. had reached a dead end. The decisive turn from modernism to postmodernism, notes the author of this provocative survey, occurred around 1960 as architects were again designing buildings that expressed meaning as well as function. Klotz, director of the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt, first traces the progress of modernism from the 1920s to 1960. He then discusses in depth the works of Venturi, Charles Moore, James Stirling, Aldo Rossi, Hans Hollein and many other postmodernists. Central to his thesis is the idea that postmodern architecture has a fictional contentunlike modern architecture, it refers to events outside itself. Illustrations. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Renowned architectural historian Klotz, director of the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt, has produced an important book. Other surveys of postmodern architecturee.g., Charles Jencks's Language of Post-Modern Architecture (Rizzoli, 1984; 4th ed.) and Paolo Portoghesi's Postmodern ( LJ 5/15/84)lack the serious, scholarly historical viewpoint that Klotz elaborates here. Klotz avoids both polemic and bias in his thoughtfulat times too thoughtfulaccount of major trends in America and Europe in the past 20 years. Unfortunately, his work suffers from a tendency to go for depth and density over clarity and ease of expression, lifting it beyond the ken of the general public. Peter Kaufman, Suffolk Community Coll., Selden, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
