Paul Overy is a distinguished scholar of art, architecture, and design history, whose work delves into the nuances of visual culture with profound insight. Having lectured extensively and contributed as an art critic for prominent publications, he has established himself as a sharp commentator on the artistic landscape. His analysis often explores the intricate relationship between form and meaning, illuminating how visual elements convey deeper ideas and emotions. Overy's writing is characterized by its accessibility, making complex artistic concepts engaging for a broad readership.
This groundbreaking book examines the relationship between the modernist architecture of the 1920s and 1930s and that eras preoccupations with health, cleanliness, fresh air and sunshine, exploring how utopian notions of the clean machine and the hygienist movement inspired the pure geometric forms and sparkling surfaces of early modernist buildings. Anyone with an interest in architecture and/or modernism will find this original approach to a popular theme both engaging and enlightening.
The ideas that later had such a marked influence on the architecture of Walter Gropius and others of the Bauhaus movement, and subsequently on commercial art and graphic design, were first advocated by the Dutch magazine De Stijl.