Architecture and Truth in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

by Leslie Topp

Overview

Leslie Topp investigates how "truth" in Viennese architecture at the turn of the twentieth century could be interpreted in a variety of ways, including "truth" to purpose, symbolist or ideal "truth", and ethical notions of authenticity. Drawing on newly uncovered archival materials, Topp offers a new interpretation of familiar buildings, demonstrating how they encompass utopianism, hyper-rationality, and subjectivism. She also explores the relationship between Viennese modern architecture and contemporary painting, psychiatry, fashion, labor issues, and anti-Semitic politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521822756
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/21/2004
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	7.09(w) x 10.12(h) x 0.79(d)

Table of Contents

1. The Secession Building: multiple truths and modern art; 2. The Purkersdorf Sanatorium and the appearance of science; 3. The Postal Savings Bank: pragmatism and 'inner truth'; 4. The Michaelerplatz Building, an honest mask.

Editorial Reviews

"Leslie Topp's book is important for offering new perspectives on well-known buildings, especially for systematically trying to answer the question of who the prople that commissioned them were. As a consistent and comprehensive narrative about four iconic modernist monuments, based at the same time on solid research and creative interpretation, it will also be an excellent teaching tool."
-Vladimi Kulic, Austrian Studies

"Her work is both original and thorough, thus it is one of the best treatments of a subject that has received a great deal of attention."
-Jindrich Vybiral, Austrian History Yearbook

"Topp gets it right, and her meticulous analyses confirm what has been a growing understanding in recent years about the complexity and multifarious nature of early Modernism...Her work navigates deftly through the intricate and meandering course of the idea, and it provides a useful contribution to the literature on the early Modernism in Vienna."
-Christopher Long, University of Texas at Austin, Studies in the Decorative Arts

From the Publisher