Owen's next to the last bit of design advice:
PROPOSITION 36: The principles discoverable in the works of the past belong to us; not so the results. It is taking the end for the means.
Surprised?
I know I was....More......
Looking at the works commended in his Grammar of Ornament, which takes examples from countries all over the world and all across the ages, I wouldn't have expected this.
No mere copying-and-pasting design elements for our Owen, however. No historical pastiches, and they were plentiful during his day, no Neo-Gothic, no Neo-Renaissance, no Neo-Classicism, no Neo-Orientalism, no! no! no!
Then again, maybe I should have expected it.
It rings true to his exhortation about studying nature:
adopt the principles, abhore superficial copying.
If you think about it, it doesn't just cut one way.
Like a two-edged sword, for those loving modernism the implied exhortation is just as strong:
don't turn your nose up at works of the past just because they are "old"; they, too, should be studied in order to distill and profit from their accomplishments.
The farsightedness and continued usefulness of his advice continues to astound me.
No comments:
Post a Comment