(August 5, 2022 at 12:39 am)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: In "The Seven Lamps of Architecture", John Ruskin expressed moral outrage at the lack of Truth in certain forms of mannerism and the unadorned expression of structure and function came to be considered a virtue in modernist architecture.
I often think that Ruskin would be horrified by the way people used his ideas later on. The "truth to materials" thing was used to justify brutalist architecture where the aging stained concrete is expected to look like aging stained concrete, etc.
And the (in retrospect bizarre) idea from the '60s that any sort of illusionism or subject matter in painting -- other than making the paint itself the subject -- was somehow fakery. He would have found that insane.
(I think we could make a museum of wonderful people who ended up having a terrible influence. Duchamp, for example.)
Quote:Personally, I go not have the energy it takes to sustain aesthetic purity or the money it takes to built with 'authentic materials' Is it really so bad to have plastic laminate countertops that look like granite? I understand the allure of authenticity but wonder if the dream is better than the reality.
This reminds me of labels you used to see calling luggage "genuine imitation leather." I mean, they're not lying.
Probably Ruskin's ideas have proven unworkable in the economic sphere. He wanted a beautiful England for everybody, but in the end it's only the rich who can get it. As you say, authenticity costs money. William Morris did his best but I think proved in the end that actual handwoven tapestries and solid wood furniture just won't be available for us in the rank and file.
Ruskin and Morris had a big influence on Japan when it opened up aesthetically to the West and people were working out what was worth keeping in their own culture. "Truth to materials" is easily applicable to traditional Japanese architecture, where the stone is stony, the wood is unpainted, and the paper is obviously paper. But here as in England, it's ended up being a rich person's game. You can get a 200-year-old farmhouse in the country and live a simple life growing vegetables, but replacing the thatch on the roof is going to cost you about as much as a new modern home.
I think it's not surprising that Ruskin's most famous disciples (Pater and Oscar Wilde) ended up pretty much reversing his values. Wilde said that a book is neither moral nor immoral, it is only well or badly written. And he was well known for wearing flowers in his lapel that he had dyed unnatural colors.
But fudging architectural elements to look nice is not a uniquely American value. It's well known that the Romans achieved great things in architecture because they were willing to use molded concrete with a thin marble veneer. Unlike the purist Greeks, who needed solid marble.
