Statische Moderne - (Undisziplinierte Bücher) by Nicole Rettig (Paperback)

About the Book

85110108105107101329911111011810111011610511111097108329711897110116451039711410010132110971141149711610511810111532116104971163211211410510997114105108121321141011181111081181013297114111117110100321001211109710910599321121141119910111511510111544

Book Synopsis

Contrary to the usual avant-garde narratives, which primarily revolve around dynamic processes, this volume explores the static side of modernism. Piet Mondrian, Oskar Schlemmer and Gottfried Benn are presented as "aesthetic staticians" who, like engineers, are in search of balance. Their works paradigmatically demonstrate that there is far more to the concept of statics than just mathematical formulae and technoid forms.
In addition to these three avant-gardists, numerous other artists and writers also have their say. In this way, a dazzling cultural and theoretical-historical panorama unfolds.
On the one hand, "static modernism" deals with the history and aesthetics of iron architecture, which are closely interwoven with mechanical statics, and on the other, it offers space for the search for harmony, tranquillity, universality and monumentality. The desire to create something static and therefore equilibristic is only at first glance something that is unpopular in an age of pure dynamism. On the contrary, it is clear that statics permeates and characterises classical modernism.

About the Author

Nicole Rettig, University of Konstanz, Germany.