[PDF] Naturaleza Muerta (Libros De Arte / Books of Art) (Spanish Edition) by Victoria Charles in Arts-Photography

Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Great book!By CustomerEvery line text of this book is a door opening to the architectural world; the digital machinary; the gothic era and its legacy. Great book!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Finding Our Way Back To The BeautifulBy Robert M. KellyLars Spuybroek has written a highly theoretical book aimed at helping us trace our way back to a sympathy with “the beautiful;” an ideal championed by John Ruskin (1819-1900). Spuybroek claims that weve lost our connection to beauty because of a “hundred-year obsession with fracture and fragment”. His main target is Modernism; the so-called style to end all styles. The author is extremely well-read; bold in thought; and confident in expression; qualities which serve him well in tackling such a formidable subject. Many of his statements in the book are provocative. For example; in order to find our way back to beauty “We must resort to a radical solution: a full return to decoration. Artists have no way to structure their sympathy anymore” (p. 97); "In the Gothic; work; activity; and craft were taking place at the design stage; rather than only at the stage of execution" (p. 22).He suggests that we need to re-engage with a particular epoch: “In the Gothic; ornament acts like structure and structure acts like ornament” (p. 27). He attempts to bring Ruskin’s insights about the Gothic (and subsequently many other theorists’ insights about many other things) forward. As for how these insights from the age of stone cathedrals can be applied in the age of iPhones; he suggests an unusual agent: “A computer is handicraft taking place at the level of drawing and design” (p. 34).The book is jammed with thoughts; many of them fresh and convincing. His recursive style guarantees that ideas we miss the first time around will show up again. He mixes much philosophy into his historical account of design and architecture. Hes rigorous about presenting the ideas of Ruskin; Darwin; William James; and William Morris in context. He then mixes and matches these ideas with his own while indicating what needs to happen next.Reservations: one; I have an uneasy feeling that this book is over my head. Much of the time the text reads like a conversation between Mr. Spuybroek and his sources. This reader found it difficult to keep up. The second reservation is that I’m not convinced he gives enough credit to the reasons for design and decoration - in other words; to human satisfaction and delight. Perhaps this lack of empathy is inevitable in a theoretical book. But; the book seems vague as to what this tsunami of theory is supposed to accomplish. He gives a lot of weight to “things”. Indeed; as Brian Massumi notes in his Foreword; “An essential part of Spuybroek’s proposition is that things do design work among themselves; just as we work design directly in their midst. To be is to be in the movement of design. This move toward an eventful flat ontology that is ecological through and through strikes a chord with what has come to be known as the ‘nonhuman turn’ of the last ten years.” Do "things" do design work among themselves? The cracks in mud or the structure of snowflakes; so attractive; protean; recurrent and ultimately; mysterious; might qualify as design work in some sense. Yet its hard to see how this insight connects to the built environment; in this or in any other age.Spuybroek has written a fascinating account of how we got to where we are; design-wise; in decoration and architecture. His book is valuable in that it unearths and explains what the Gothic consists of and why; as it unfolded; it was so different from other art-historical movements that came before and after. By reminding us of the centrality of "movement" and "changefulness" in design; he achieves his goal of suggesting how we can once again connect to the concerns of Ruskin and Morris as they saw the machine age approaching. Yet; at some point in their progress; most design ideas come to rest. They resolve into objects and projects; serving as the basis for an artifact that was then put to use in the home of a human being (or; in the case of architecture; put to use as the home of a human being). This realization of design was no less necessary in the Gothic age as in the ages before or after. Spuybroek is eloquent about the material; efficient; and formal causes of design. To the extent that his book downplays the final cause of design (helping human beings live well) he seems to have somewhat missed the mark.