Journal 8: British Modern

Edited by Elain Harwood, Alan Powers and Susannah Charlton
Published 2007 £18.50
Format 255x198mm, 128pp, colour cover
ISBN 09529755-8-0

The 1930s saw the start of modernism in Britain and many of the decade’s most important buildings have recently been restored and celebrated. But interpretation of the period is still developing, and is challenging received ideas about simple oppositions between international modernism and national conservatism in Britain.

This new collection of essays examines the relationships between architecture, fine art and design in the 1930s.  Names of international stature – such as Denys Lasdun, Berthold Lubetkin, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth – of course feature, but the range of enquiry extends to figures of more national significance, such as the engineer Owen Williams and the architect Denis Clarke Hall. The social aspect of architecture, so vital to understanding modernism, is explored through the work of the housing consultant Elizabeth Denby, while the first ever publication of a substantial text by Nikolaus Pevsner on the modern movement in Britain offers surprising insights into his broadminded approach to English modernism in the late thirties.

British Modern is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of a perennially fascinating decade.

Contents

Foreword by Alan Powers
The Modern Movement in Britain Nikolaus Pevsner, introduced by Bridget Cherry
Modernism and Tradition in English Sculpture 1929-39 by Chris Stephens
New Eyes for Old: Architectural Photography by Robert Elwall
School Design in the 1930s by Denis Clarke Hall
The Life and Work of Sir Owen Williams 1890-1969 by Royston Foot
Rediscovering Lubetkin by John Allan
Kensal House: the Housing Consultant and the Housed by Elizabeth Darling
The Educatino of a Modern Architect: Denys Lasdun in the 1930s by Barnabas Calder

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