Adolf Loos (Basic Art) HC

The devil in the details: The life and times of Adolf Loos Adolf Loos (1870 1933) was a flamboyant character, whose presence in the cultural hotbed of early 1900s Vienna galvanized the country s architectural landscape. An early, impassioned advocate of modernism, he all-out rejected the grand Secessionist aesthetic prevalent in contemporary Viennese architecture, as well as any hallmarks of the European fin de siecle.Instead, in lectures and essays, such as the milestone Ornament and Crime of 1913, Loos articulated his passion for smooth and precious surfaces. He advocated that architectural ornamentation was, by its nature, ephemeral locked into current trends and styles, and therefore, quickly dated. In doing so, it would drag the building it decorated, into obsolescence. Loos, himself a Classicist at heart, argued instead for simple, timeless designs with time-honored aesthetic and structural qualities.