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Architect of Dreams: The Theatrical Vision of Joseph Urban
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Product Description
Previous research on Joseph Urban (1872-1933) has focused on his architectural career; yet after moving from Vienna to the U.S. in 1912, he devoted much of his energies to the stage, especially productions for the Metropolitan Opera and the Ziegfeld Follies. A seminal figure in the history of American theater, he introduced to the U.S. the sophistication of European developments in stage design, experiments with lighting, and painterly effects which paralleled developments in modernist literature, painting, and dance.
Architect of Dreams documents more than 100 finely rendered watercolors, photographs, and three-dimensional stage models. Arnold Aronson (professor of theatre arts at Columbia University) contributes a major essay. In other essays, Derek E. Ostergard contextualizes Urban's architecture, and Matthew Wilson Smith examines Urban's work in film.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #997219 in Books
- Published on: 2001-01
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 96 pages
Editorial Reviews
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Customer Reviews
Eurpoean Design Hits American Shores
Joseph Urban was primarily responsible for bringing the influence of the Vienese Secessionist Movement and Modernism to the theatre of America near the turn of the 20th century. Sure, he wasn't the only one and this book doesn't try to over-state Urban's influence. The text lets the designs do the work.
The book is nothing more than a catalogue but what an extraordinary catalogue it is! The photos of the renderings and models are top quality and really good choices by the author and editors. One can really see the watercolor techniques in the renderings along with the development of the design ideas Uban went through in his varied and prolific life as a designer. I really enjoyed the ddesigns and written text associated with the New School of Social Research. His work seems to be a precurser to Mondrian without the sterility of some of the Bauhaus concepts. His theatrical work really enlivened his architectural work.
His designs for the theatre were outrageous and vital.
I rate this book so very high because Urban's work is so important to stage design in America. As I said earlier, this book is a catalogue - but what a body of inspired and fantastical work to catalogue!
