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Edition 19: Outside The Obvious

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the fine arts; they were the indispensable components of great architecture." Art, fine or applied—and the early Bauhaus, in the Manifesto, exhorted all artists to return to the crafts, and indeed, to abolish the "arrogant barrier" between the two--is not meant only for the museum, but to be lived with, to accompany us on our journeys through life, however grand or humble. The spare perfection of a Shaker chair, the exotic, throne- like presence of Breuer's early creation; both are conduits to a better life, one envisioned by 19th and 20th century utopian movements to be, ideally, available to everyone. I have focused on these periods and movements because of the egalitarian inflection underlying their design ideals. Perhaps earlier periods of design which catered to the luxury market of monarchs and merchants did not need such ideals, for craftsmanship was an ideal, universally understood, that penetrated all economic levels of production before the Industrial Revolution. If Baroque furniture could only be afforded by the rich or royal, the style as expressed in the art and architecture of churches visited by the general public was actually intended to communicate to the illiterate as well as the cognoscenti. Its visual appeal was aimed squarely at the senses, its iconography—as in the dramatic paintings of Caravaggio--was direct, simple, obvious and theatrical. In Baroque design and building emphasis on movement--the bold flourish as opposed to intellectually determined ideas of proportion—held mass appeal. The grand sweep of the Baroque was thus experienced by a wide audience, even if it did not trickle down to the level of personal ownership in modest households. HYLAND

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