Two weeks ago, after reading an essay by Adolf Loos, I had written my journal about how I disagreed with many of his ways of thinking. The main point he made about design is how ornament is a crime. One of Loos’ quotes read, Ornament is “a crime against the national economy that it should result in the waste of human labor, money and material.” Before making such a harsh claim against Mr. Loos, I should have done more research about him. My previous entry was a heated statement written directly after reading his essay. Of course, his other faults remain wring, but I believe I misunderstood his approach to design. From his words, I had assumed Loos’ work would be the pinnacle of minimalism without any ornament. Some of his exteriors even hold up to that truth. However, in the lecture, we viewed images of some of Loos’ work. I was shocked to say the least. His work, his interiors especially, were far from the plains white walls I was expecting. His interiors featured impeccable woodwork, beautiful marble and gorgeous glass. His color pallets and designs are very masculine, deep greens and browns with hints of gold. It is hard to argue with a designer when they make statements about their own work and their own ways of thinking, so is it wrong to call into question what Loos said about ornament? Comparing his writing to his actual designs don’t exactly add up in my opinion. If I were to look at many of Loos’ interiors, I would not say they lack ornament. Are the gaudy and tacky? No not at all, but I wouldn’t call them simple. There is a lot of well thought out and beautiful design that went into them. Perhaps Loos and I have different ideas of what ornament is. Perhaps I misunderstood what he was saying about ornament. While his designs, like many at the time lean more simplistic compared to the extravagance of the past, I can confidently say I do not consider them minimalistic. So I am retracting what I initially thought about Loos and his designs. I was not expecting to like them so much, it goes to show that you have to do more research before jumping to a conclusion after reading a single essay. In my defense, many of the other statements Loos made remain wrong and swayed my opinion on him. This furthers my interest in ornament and design over time, which is what I am thinking of doing for my curatorial statement. I was not expecting to like work from this movement, but surprisingly I really did. Loos’ interiors have an elegant, masculine look to them, and the other designers we looked at have done beautiful interiors. I definitely want to do more research into what ornament was defined as at these different times because I disagree with Loos that he didn’t use ornament. Lastly I’d like to mention Charlotte Perriand and Eileen Gray who were featured in the presentation as well. Their work was beautiful, but the interiors and furniture pieces. I would also like to learn more about the two of them; two women in and industry and time period dominated so heavily by men that we barley hear anything about them.
