Private Adolf Loos

Portrait of an Eccentric Genius

AvClaire Beck Loos

Häftad, Engelska, 2020

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Beskrivning

Lively, snapshot-like vignettes form an intimate, literary portrait of the infamously eccentric and influential modern architect Adolf Loos.Written by Loos’ third wife, the photographer Claire Beck (1904–1942), these often humorous, short episodes reveal Loos’ temperament and philosophy during the last years of his life (1928–1933). His irreverent personality and attitudes about post-Imperial Viennese society, the role of the craftsman, and the organic beauty of raw materials are brought to light. Included in The Private Adolf Loos are Claire's photographs of Loos, collected in museums, as well as informal snapshots of the two of them showing the whimsy and theatricality of this relationship between two artistic personalities—one as infamous as he was well-regarded, and one, a youthful accomplice and budding photographer who would also become Loos' intermediary, secretary and proxy. With this bricolage of short tales and its dark conclusion at the brink of death’s door, Claire shows herself to be one of Loos’ great champions and memorialists, despite his shortcoming and debilitations. This is not a book just about architecture, but rather a love story about the Modern revolution that provides a woman’s insight into one of its most radical personalities, set amid the fascinating cultural backdrop of 1920s and 1930s interwar Europe.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2020-04-30
Mått:127 x 196 x 18 mm
Vikt:227 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:176
Förlag:DoppelHouse Press
ISBN:9780997003482
Översättare:Constance C. Pontasch, Nicholas Saunders, Constance C Pontasch

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Mer om författaren

Claire Beck Loos (November 4, 1904 – January 15, 1942*) was a Czechoslovakian photographer and writer. She was the third wife of early modernist Czechoslovak-Austrian architect Adolf Loos. She worked in the atelier of Hede Pollak in Prague and studied photography in Vienna at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt. In 1936, she published Adolf Loos Privat, a literary work of anecdotes about her ex-husband's character, habits, and sayings. Published by the Johannes-Presse in Vienna, the book was intended to raise funds for Adolf Loos's tomb, as he had died destitute three years earlier. She moved to Prague at the beginning of World War II and was deported to Theresienstadt at the end of 1941 and from there to Riga, Latvia, where she was killed in the Holocaust. *Her death date is thus only an estimate.

Recensioner i media

What makes the book most valuable is the fine-grained portrait it provides us of Loos’ last years, of his activities and his preoccupations. […] The English translation of her book, made by Constance C. Pontasch [and Nicholas Saunders], is fluent and accurate, conveying well the tone of Claire Loos’ original (which, in turn, to some extent mimics Loos’ own writing style). [...] It is a richly informative, if sad, tale, and, in Claire’s telling, undoubtedly a very largely truthful one. —Christopher Long, West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture

Innehållsförteckning

Editor’s Introductory NotesPreface: Reflections of a Female ProtegeAdolf Loos: A Short BiographyClaire Beck Loos: The Fractured LensIntroduction to The Private Adolf LoosForeword by Claire Beck LoosThe Private Adolf LoosAppendicesAdolf Loos’ Circle, Some ContextKey to NamesErrataLove Letters from Adolf Loos to Claire BeckPhotographsSelect Writings By Adolf LoosPotteryIn Praise of the PresentBeethoven’s EarsOrnament and EducationShort Hair: Short or Long—Masculine or Feminine? Oskar KokoschkaAcknowledgments