Beaux-Arts
Article
Beaux-Arts is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between December 04, 2024 and December 05, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as “An example of Beaux-Arts, the older style that had become “heresy” by the third year of Bauhaus leadership”; “No more tedious Renaissance renderings in the old Beaux-Arts manner”; “our Beaux-Arts building again”. It most often appears alongside Bauhaus, From Bauhaus To Our House, International Style.
Metadata
- Category: Concepts
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: December 04, 2024
- Last seen: December 05, 2024
Appears In
Related Pages
-
- Bauhaus (2 shared issues)
-
- From Bauhaus To Our House (2 shared issues)
-
- International Style (2 shared issues)
-
- 3D printing (1 shared issues)
-
- @dieworkwear (1 shared issues)
-
- Abercrombie & Fitch (1 shared issues)
-
- AI (1 shared issues)
-
- AI Art Turing Test (1 shared issues)
-
- Aldo Rossi (1 shared issues)
-
- Alessandro Menini (1 shared issues)
-
- America (1 shared issues)
-
- Architectural League of New York (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
The teaching of architecture was transformed overnight. Everyone started from zero…all architecture became nonbourgeois architecture, although the concept itself was left discreetly unexpressed, as it were. The old Beaux-Arts traditions became heresy, and so did the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, which had only barely made its way into the architecture schools in the first place. Within three years, every so-called major American contribution to contemporary architecture . . . had dropped down into the footnotes.
An example of Beaux-Arts, the older style that had become “heresy” by the third year of Bauhaus leadership Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, another “heresy” victim. I found this part of the book sudden and jarring. Okay, Americans have always had an unhealthy fascination with European culture - but, really? Everyone abandoned all previous forms of architecture within a three year period just because some cool Europeans showed up? I was left to hunt down hints to the broader story. Some of these come from elsewhere in the book, and some are my own speculation.
Faculty members resisted the compound passion at their peril. Students were becoming unruly. They were drawing up petitions - manifestos in embryo. No more laying down laborious washes in China ink in the old Beaux-Arts manner! No more tedious Renaissance renderings! … and the faculties caved in … With the somewhat grisly euphoria of Savonarola burning the wigs and fancy dresses of the Florentine fleshpots, deans of architecture went about instructing the janitors to throw out all plaster casts of classical details, pedagogical props that had been accumulated over a half century or more.
Taste seems to constantly change. In 1930, all the sophisticated people said that Beaux-Arts architecture was very tasteful. In 1950, they’d laugh at you if you built Beaux-Arts; everyone with good taste was into International Style. This is very suspicious! Human universals don’t change that fast! Rules about what is vs. isn’t “jarring” don’t change that fast! Only fashion changes that fast!