Arts & Architecture: The Entenza Years

Add to My Reading List

Barbara Goldstein Editor

The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990, English

Nonfiction, Architecture; Nonfiction, Art and Cultural History

ISBN: 9780940512085

From the Publisher. This anthology brings together seminal articles from one of America's most distinguished architecture magazines, copies of which are now extremely difficult to locate. Published and edited by John Entenza from 1938 until 1962, when he left to direct the Graham Foundation, Arts & Architecture played a significant role both in Los Angeles's cultural history and in the development of American modernism in general. Arts & Architecture was the first American magazine to popularize the work of Hans Hofmann, Craig Ellwood, Margaret DePatta, George Nakashima, Bernard Rosenthal, Charles Eames, Konrad Wachsmann, and many others. It also embodied the highest standard of graphic design attained by an American art magazine of its time, employing the talents of such designers as Alvin Lustig, Herbert Mattes, and John Follis.

Arts & Architecture: The Entenza Years maintains the large format of the magazine and includes many full-scale reproductions of the original pages. It brings together articles from the years 1943 through 1959, publishing them exactly as they appeared. In keeping with Entenza's tireless advocacy of modernism in all its aspects, the articles cover design, architecture, photography, music, and visual arts. They explore the culture that led to the famous Case Study House program, and feature industrialized and postwar tract housing, as well as houses designed by the Case Study House architects during the same era as the program.

There is an introduction by the editor Barbara Goldstein and an essay on John Entenza by Esther McCoy, who wrote for Arts & Architecture through most of Entenza's period as editor.

On 1 book list

Craig Hodgetts

On Craig Hodgetts’s Book List

Simple, straightforward account of the birth of a new aesthetic. Brave new magazine composition, brave new design principles, brave new technology, brave new lifestyle, all assembled into a slim, almost fragile format that was just this side of self-indulgence—except it wasn’t. It is of course the bible for mid-century aficionados, but don’t let that fool you. It is as deep as you want to go, and I suggest you do go deep.

comments powered by Disqus

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

Order the book.

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Order the book.