THE ARCHITECTURE OF R. M. SCHINDLER
Michael Darling, Kurt G. F. Helfrich, Elizabeth A. T. Smith,
Robert Sweeney, and Richard Guy Wilson [essays]
[R. M. Schindler] Michael Darling, Kurt G. F. Helfrich, Elizabeth A. T. Smith, Robert Sweeney, and Richard Guy Wilson [essays]: THE ARCHITECTURE OF R. M. SCHINDLER. New York: MOCA and Harry N. Abrams, 2001. A fine hardcover book in a fine dust jacket: still in Publishers shrinkwrap.
”Each of my buildings deal with a different architectural problem, the existence of which has been forgotten in this period of Rational Mechanization. The question of whether a house is really a house is more important to me, than the fact that it is made of steel, glass, putty or hot air.” - R. M. Schindler
9.25 x 11.25 hardcover book with 284 pages and 265 illustrations, including 107 color plates. This luxurious oversized volume was published to accompany the exhibition of the same name at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, from February 25 - June 3, 2001. This volume also includes notes, checklist of the exhibition, list of buildings and projects, selected bibliography and index.
Lavishly illustrated with vintage black and white photos and color plates of many plans and the contemporary interiors/exteriors of numerous surviving structures.
Today, Schindler is finally being regarded as an outstanding exponent of the Californian modernist style. His marginalized historical status traditionally has resulted from the architects' refusal to mimic the streamlined image of the popular modern architecture of the times. In 1932, when Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock organized the exhibition The International Style, they failed in invite Schindler. His prodigious output until his death in 1953, helped him eventually escape the shadow of his compatriot Richard Neutra. Schindler designed over 500 buildings, more than 150 of which, mostly family residences, were actually built. His own residence in Kings Road, Hollywood (1922), and the beach house he designed for Philip Lovell (1926), has a lasting influence on the development of modern architecture in California. This book is the catalogue for the MOCA exhibit that finally gives Schindler his historic due.
The definitive work on the subject of R. M. Schindler.
Hailing from Vienna, Rudolph Michael Schindler (1887-1953), like his colleague Richard Neutra, emigrated to the US and applied his International Style techniques to the movement that would come to be known as California Modernism. Influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and taking cues from spatial notions found in cubism, he developed a singular style characterized by geometrical shapes, bold lines, and association of materials such as wood and concrete, as seen in his own Hollywood home (built in 1921-22) and the house he designed for P.M. Lovell in Newport Beach (1923-24).