[audiobook] From the Ocean of Painting: India's Popular Paintings; 1589 to the Present by Barbara Rossi in Arts-Photography

Description

What is style in architecture? "Style is like a feather in a womans hat; nothing more;" said Le Corbusier; expressing most modern architects low regard for the subject. But Witold Rybczynski disagrees; and in The Look of Architecture; he makes a compelling case for the importance of style to the mother of the arts. This is a book brimming with sharp observations--that form does not follow function; that the best architecture is not timeless but precisely of its time; that details do not merely complement the architecture--details are the architecture. But the heart of the book illuminates the connection between architecture; interior decoration; and fashion. Style is the language of architecture; Rybczynski writes; and fashion represents the wide--and swirling--cultural currents that shape and direct that language. The two; style and fashion; are intimately linked--indeed; architecture cannot escape fashion. To set these ideas in sharp relief; he shows us how style and fashion have been expressed in the work of major architects--including Frank Gehry; Mies van der Rohe; Charles McKim; Allan Greenberg; Robert Venturi; Enrique Norten; and many others. He helps us see their works anew and ultimately to look afresh at our surroundings. Style is one of the enduring--and endearing--aspects of architecture; Rybczynski concludes. Furthermore; an architecture that recognizes the importance of style would not be as introspective and self-referential as are so many contemporary buildings. It would be part of the world--not architecture for architects; but for the rest of us.