1922-1929
The Machine Age
The 1920s was an age of euphoria and sobriety born on the
heels of the first global war in modern history. The aftermath
of this far-reaching conflict ushered in an era celebrated
as "the Roaring Twenties" and "the Machine
Age, " a decade in which a return to order on the political
front was offset by social liberation and an outburst of artistic
creativity. Characterized by carefree expression on the one
hand and sober, utopian visions on the other, the cultural
spirit of the '20s was bound by a desire to wipe away the
horrors of war and to rebuild society according to new values
and ideas.
The upheavals of the birth of the Soviet Union ushered in
an era of planning and restructuring, defined by the promise
of technology, to form the foundation of a socialist utopia.
A group of Russian avant-gardes known as the Constructivists
who perceived themselves as engineers rather than fine artists
abandoned realist representation in favor of the abstract
language of geometry. Their forms in steel and glass served
as metaphors for a new world order of harmony, precision,
and clarity.
This new direction's manifestation in Modern architecture
came to be known as the "International Style, "
so-called because of its widespread adoption and its seemingly
universal visual language. Le Corbusier's landmark Pavillon
de l'Espirit Nouveau, a two-story apartment built for the
1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs,
exemplified the principle of the building as machine, constructed
from modern materials and a design language culled from a
hybrid of Classicism and Modern engineering. The exhibition
was also a watershed for Modern design, serving as the foundation
for Art Deco, the quintessential Machine Age style defined
by its combination of streamlined forms and use of industrial
materials like chrome and plastic.
But perhaps the most far-reaching influence of the machine
aesthetic can be traced to Germany's Bauhaus, the landmark
school founded in 1919. Under the directorship of Walter Gropius,
the Bauhaus espoused social change through architecture, functional
objects, and works of art based on a universal visual language
(geometry) capable of being mass-produced through the use
of inexpensive, industrial materials. The motorcycles of the
era, such as the BMW R32 and the Moto Guzzi C4V, demonstrate
design emphasis on practicality and efficiency achieved through
a reductive vocabulary of forms-which epitomized the ethos
of the Machine Age: clean, lean, and devoid of ornamentation.
Fuente: Museo Guggenheim
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