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Louis H. Sullivan and a 19th-Century Poetics of Naturalized Architecture book cover

1st Edition

Louis H. Sullivan and a 19th-Century Poetics of Naturalized Architecture

By Lauren S. Weingarden Copyright 2009
456 Pages
by Routledge

456 Pages
by Routledge

For most of the twentieth century, modernist viewers dismissed the architectural ornament of Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924) and the majority of his theoretical writings as emotional outbursts of an outmoded romanticism. In this study, Lauren Weingarden reveals Sullivan's eloquent articulation of nineteenth-century romantic practices - literary, linguistic, aesthetic, spiritual, and nationalistic -... Read more
Contents: Preface; Introduction: reviewing Sullivan after modernism; The romantic context and Emerson's poetic project for an American art; John Ruskin: the picturesque discourse and the language of architectural naturalism; Gothic naturalism and the Ruskinian critical tradition in America; The auditorium building: a Ruskinian reading; Ruskin's reception in the Chicago school; Sullivan's emergence as a landscape poet-architect; Naturalized technology: Sullivan's theory of skyscraper design; Ut pictura architectura: Sullivan's pictorial techniques for representing nature in architecture; The transportation building: Sullivan's manifesto of poeticized architecture; Epilogue: the problem of Sullivan's poetic legacy; Selected bibliography; Index.

Biography

Lauren S. Weingarden is a Professor of Art History at Florida State University whose Sullivan scholarship spans over 25 years and comprises numerous publications including two books, Louis H. Sullivan: The Banks and Louis H. Sullivan: A System of Architectural Ornament, as well as international museum exhibitions, professional awards and two documentary films.

'Lauren Weingarden has crafted a masterful and illuminating study of Louis Sullivan’s architecture, ornament, and writings, considered through the triple lens of imagination, art, and society, and related closely to the writings of Emerson, Ruskin, and Whitman.' Richard Etlin, University of Maryland, USA

'... Recommended.’ Choice

'Weingarden presents to us an exemplar of in-depth, insightful, and contemporary scholarship. The strength of the book is in its tight structure, evidence-based disclosures, and meaningful cross-referencing of Sullivan's architectural and philosophical thought to Ruskin, Emerson, and key poets, architects, and thinkers. However, most importantly, the book is a much-needed re-evaluation of modernist architectural thought, especially as so much of existing historical scholarship is dogmatic and one-dimensional... Louis H Sullivan and a 19th Century Poetics of Naturalised Architecture makes a substantial contribution to the interdisciplinary fields of architecture and interior architecture and decoration... The book also contributes to nineteenth century studies... Ruskin scholars will find this book exciting... The book will also be of interest to architectural theorists and designers... Louis H Sullivan and a 19th Century Poetics of Naturalised Architecture opens up numerous and delightful avenues for future scholarship beyond itself, which is what good scholarship ought to achieve.' The Eighth Lamp

'Lauren S. Weingarden’s monograph Louis H. Sullivan and a 19th-Century Poetics of Naturalized Architecture makes an important contribution to the growing number of recent studies that reevaluate seminal figures credited with bringing structural honesty to the fore of architectural practice.' CAA Reviews

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