Product Description

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) was one of the most influential architects and designers of the 19th century. He pioneered an appreciation of medieval art and architecture and established in his polemical writings and design manuals the principles upon which the 19th-century Gothic Revival was based. His ideas were adopted and developed by followers as diverse as William Morris and Frank Lloyd Wright. Pugin virtually invented modern concepts of interior and industrial design. A master in the use of colour, pattern and ornament, with no fear of modern technology, he was also a prolific product designer, creating furniture and woodwork, silver, metalwork and jewellery, pottery and tiles, textiles and wallpapers, and books, all of which reflected his desire to adapt the principles of medieval art to the modern world. This catalogue and the exhibition it accompanies establish Pugin as a figure of worldwide significance. The objects in this catalogue, which are illustrated primarily in colour, reflect Pugin's diversity as a product designer and the modernity of his design principles. Ten essays and their illustrations are included. They show the development of pre-Puginian Gothic and underline the nature of Pugin's role in the history of architecture and design.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1950703 in Books
• Published on: 1995-12-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
English architect, designer, polemicist and convert to Catholicism, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) changed the course of Gothic Revival by linking it firmly to its medieval roots. No mere revivalist, he regarded Gothic as a living language, and his cathedrals, churches, colleges, seminaries, cottages and secular buildings are highly original and personal in their concern for context and texture. Pugin's design of the interiors of the Houses of Parliament reveals his mastery of pattern, color and ornament. He suffered periodic bouts of insanity and loss of eyesight, dying at 40 shortly after a complete mental breakdown, yet his legacy lived on in the Gothic movement in Europe and North America. The catalogue of an exhibition at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts in New York City, this handsomely illustrated study includes essays by 10 American and English scholars who discuss his tragic life, his architectural theory and the full range of his work in ceramics, furniture, sacred vestments, metalwork, textiles, jewelry, stained glass, tiles and wallpaper.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.