Owen Jones

The first edition of The Sympathy of Things, published with V2_Publishing, was quickly sold out to later be published in a revised new edition with Bloomsbury: https://www.academia.edu/19435584/The_Sympathy_of_Things_Ruskin_and_the_Ecology_of_Design_2nd_ed_

Secrets d'ateliers, l'ornement Art nouveau, Bruxelles, Editions du musée Horta, 2020

Secrets of the studios, Art Nouveau ornament, Bruxelles, éditions du musée Horta, 2020 The Horta Museum’s spring 2020 exhibition is dedicated to ornamentation from the Art Nouveau era. The real question is why such a subject is so decisive in this period straddling the 19th and 20th centuries: a point of time in the history of art that is exalted right across Europe while crystallizing into patterns so varied that it is sometimes difficult to see a coherent style. It is the last moment of grace of interior decoration, a blazing sunset before ornamentation falls into disgrace.

Studies on the Alhambra Palace, handled both through romantic and academic approaches, played a significant role in the recognition of Islamic art throughout Europe. Starting with the 19th century, artists and architects paid visits to the palace, located so close to the Western centers, and they shared their visual experiences through illustrated books. Alham- bra’s forms and motifs began to find a place in Western art and architecture, in many art objects and spaces designed with an “oriental inspiration”. Alhambra and its visual vocabulary have turned into a passion.
The Ottoman world welcomed the Alhambra style as an original Western innovation. The new style did provide another spirit into the Ottoman designs as it carried aspects in direct relation to the language of Islamic Art. The style had been applied especially in imperial buildings (e.g. main gate and kiosks of the Ministry of Defense, Çırağan Palace) and in the residences of prominent figures of the government (e.g. Baltalimanı Shore-Palace, Mecit Efendi Mansion, Sait Halim Paşa Mansion).
Beylerbeyi Palace holds the role of a precursor on the adoption of the Alhambra style in Istanbul. It welcomed Empress Eugénie of France right after its completion with its both “of latest fashion” and “traditional-Islamic” decoration. The pala- ce was predominantly decorated with the motifs taken from The Grammar of Ornament, which, for the period had been a highly influential compilation, prepared by Owen Jones. The identification of Alhambra motifs that arrived in the imperial Beylerbeyi Palace through Jones’ illustrated work, sets forth that unlike in the West, this style had been taken seriously by the Ottomans, and it appealed to the Ottoman taste in the creation of a new artistic essence.

Keywords: Alhambra Palace, Beylerbeyi Palace, Ottoman Architecture, Owen Jones, The Grammar of Ornament, Eugénie, Alhambra Style, Ornamental Elements

At the Great Exhibition in 1851, British designers were rendered mute in the face of overwhelming evidence that nearly every country in the world had a more coherent and culturally integrated style of design than that of Victorian Britain. One response by reformers in Britain was to create a modern language of design based on studies of international and historical ornament. Among the most important results of this effort was the orientalist scholar and architect Owen Jones’ 1856 publication, The Grammar of Ornament. The book contained 100 dazzling chromolithograph plates of multiple examples of patterns from around the world and a series of ‘Propositions’ that codified universal principles of design under the unifying term of ‘nature’. This article contends that The Grammar of Ornament was an explicitly cosmopolitan text that attempted to synthesize the industrial and imperial ethos of the period through universal principles of design. Understanding Jones’ work, and the design reform movement more broadly, in terms of cosmopolitanism offers a richer awareness of the complex interplay of stylistic influence and mastery at work in the industrial and imperial design culture of mid-Victorian Britain.

Secrets of the studios, Art Nouveau ornament, Bruxelles, éditions du musée Horta, 2020

The Horta Museum’s spring 2020 exhibition is dedicated to ornamentation from the Art Nouveau era. The real question is why such a subject is so decisive in this period straddling the 19th and 20th centuries: a point of time in the history of art that is exalted right across Europe while crystallizing into patterns so varied that it is sometimes difficult to see a coherent style. It is the last moment of grace of
interior decoration, a blazing sunset before ornamentation falls into disgrace.

The dissemination of Owen Jones’ studies of the Alhambra and his color theory has been
increasingly well understood as a cornerstone of the later Alhambresque style. And yet, curiously,
Jones offers at once an accurate appreciation of the Alhambra and a basis for a striking divergence
from Nasrid design in Alhambresque interiors. This article examines that discrepancy. It begins with
a review of the aesthetics of the Alhambra in view of the eleventh-century optics of Ibn al-
Haytham, supported by conservation work that has confirmed Jones’ vibrant colors. The aesthetic
key to the Alhambra is not color alone, however, but a principle of visual harmony integrating color
and geometry. The Nasrid builders applied color in conjunction with principles of proportionate
geometric relationships and measurable visual properties—height, distance, size, depth—in the
architectural and decorative design. They also manipulated color through their consideration of
the materiality of the polychromed surfaces, whose reflective and refractive potentials allowed for
differing optical effects. By balancing attention between color, as transmitted through the innovative
technique of chromolithography, and the drawings of plans and elevations, this article strengthens
the understanding of Jones’ grasp of the visual harmony of the Alhambra. Second, it demonstrates
the ways in which Jones’ plates of various ornament were often privileged over, or simply divorced
from, his architectural drawings in Alhambresque interiors: e.g., the Salón árabe (1847-1851) in the
Royal Palace of Aranjuez (Spain), the Salotto Turco in the Villa Mimbelli (1865-1870) in Livorno (Italy),
and the Moorish Bath (1850-1854) at Schloss Albrechtsberg in Dresden (Germany). In conclusion,
this article proposes that, in contrast to the Alhambra, a loss of visual harmony is a significant
characteristic of the Alhambresque, or, otherwise stated, that the Alhambresque interiors feature a
disproportionate emphasis on color, consistent with the ideological burden of Orientalism.

This thesis analyzes Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Details of the Alhambra (1836-1842) by British Architect Owen Jones in relation to British conceptions of Spain in the nineteenth century. Although modern scholars often view Jones’s work as an accurate visual account of the Alhambra, I argue that his work is not only interested in accuracy, but it is also a re-presentation of the fourteen-century monument based on Jones’s ideologies and creative faculties. Instead of viewing the Alhambra through a culturally sensitive, historical lens, Jones treated it as an Imaginary Geography, as Edward Said called it, through which he could promote his interests and perspectives.

Although there were many British views of Spain in nineteenth-century, this thesis will focus on two sets of seemingly contradictory conceptions of Spain that were especially important to Jones’s visual and ideological program in Alhambra: Spain’s status as both the Catholic and Islamic Other, and its frequent interpretations through both romantic and reform-oriented lenses. Through a closer look at Arabian Antiquities of Spain by James Cavanah Murphy and the illustrations from The Tourist in Spain: Granada by David Roberts, I show the prevalence of these mindsets in nineteenth-century reconstructions of the Alhambra. Then, I compare portions of these works to plates from Jones’s Alhambra to illustrate Jones’s similar adaptation of these perspectives despite the visual peculiarity of his work as a whole.

The present study discusses a little-known technology developed by Owen Jones for the relievo papier-mâché binding of the book, The Psalms of David, also known as The Victoria Psalter, published in 1861 in London. The essay presents results of the research on the patents for the book and provides evidence about their technological features. After exploring patent archives and libraries in Europe and in America, the author shares commentaries on the patent of Frederick Leake (relievo leather hangings), the patent of William Hancock (adhesive binding improvements in book-binding), and the patent of Samuel Slade and Robert Goldstein (ornamenting leather). Familiarity with the bookbinding patents is essential for the study of the historical structure, which also helps conservators’ technical preparedness and affords a complete scientific understanding of materials and techniques used in the manufacture of all Victorian relievo papier-mâché bindings.

*Belcheva, Malina. Unveiling Secrets of the Trade: Owen Jones and the Relievo Art of The Psalms of David. In book: Suave Mechanicals: Essays on the History of Bookbinding. Editor: Julia Miler, Vol. 7, The Legacy Press, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 2022, 78-108. (ISBN: 9781953421081)

http://www.thelegacypress.com/suave-mechanicals-vol-7.html

While Gottfried Semper’s time in London generally is considered to have been pivotal for his theoretical work, the impact of his associations at the School of Design has been appraised negatively. However, examination of thematically related lectures and writings by other protagonists of the Department of Science and Art exposes a number of concepts, references and rhetorical elements that Semper had in common with his colleagues. This paper presents examples of shared issues from the lectures of William Dyce, Owen Jones and Ralph Wornum to demonstrate that there is sound basis for re-evaluating the theoretical elements of Semper’s London oeuvre within the broader corpus of contemporary theories of design and ornament.

Настоящото изследване има за цел историческо, библиографско, художествено  и  структурно  проучване  на  книгата  „Псалмите  на  Давид“ (The Psalms of David. The Victoria Psalter). Представя характеристиките на викторианската епоха и мястото, което заема творчеството на Оуен Джоунс (Owen Jones) в историята на изкуството. Акцентира  върху  постиженията  му  в  развитието  на  архитектурата  и теорията на декоративните изкуства, като отделя специално внимание върху приноса на Оуен Джоунс в технологията на печата и литографията. Най-високото постижение на Джоунс, считано за шедьовър в декоративните изкуства, е дизайна на книгата „Псалмите на Давид“. Предисторията на „Псалмите на Давид“ разкрива данни от постъпването на книгата в специалните колекции на Музея за изящни и приложни изкуства на Чикаго (The Art Institute of Chicago) и разказва за проучване върху непубликувани досега сведения свързани с книгата. Описанието на книжното тяло и на подвързията включва наблюдения върху състоянието на книгата при постъпването ѝ в ателието за реставрация на музея. Реставрацията на книгата разкрива ръчно написана бележка, прикрита във вътрешните слоеве на подвързията. Направеното проучване, след разчитането на бележката установява, че тя е адресирана до Д. Е. Удхеад (J. E. Woodhead), което отвежда изследването до архивите на Д. Е. Удхед в Университета на Калифорния, САЩ (University of California (UCLA)). В Университета на Калифорния е открит втори артефакт – платежна бележка за проведена реставрация на „Псалмите на Давид“ в ателието на Рингер и Херцберг „Манастирски възвишения“ (Ringer & Hertzberg, Monastery Hill Bindery, Chicago) в Чикаго, която внася нова насока в изследването на книгата. Последва проучване на останалите до днес копия от първото издание на „Псалмите на Давид“, като резултатите от това изследване, в специалните колекции на институции в Европа, Америка  и  Австралия  потвърждават  заключението,  че  реставрацията на книгата, проведена в музея на Чикаго, е единствена по начина на изпълнение, и че детайлното познаване на технологията на релефната папиемаше подвързия на „Псалмите на Давид“, допринася за успеха на последвалата реставрация и е от съществена важност за бъдещото развитие на реставрационната практика при този неизследван до сега албум от викторианската епоха.

// The article Victorian Design Binding: Preliminary Studies for the Conservation of The Psalms of David. The Victoria Psalter, emphasizes the historical, bibliographical, artistic, and structural examination of the book, describes the preliminary studies undertaken for the conservation of The Psalms of David and the presentation of its Victorian design binding at the Beauty and the Book: 19th and 20th Century Folios on Decorative Arts exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago. This conservation research focuses on the history of the book from the Victorian era to the present days, and provides commentaries on the circumstances surrounding the book’s entry into the museum collections, examines the design and structure of its bookbinding, and the materials and patents for the manufacture of this innovative relievo papier-mâché album-style binding.

*Белчева, Малина. Викторианският дизайн на подвързията – предварителни проучвания за реставрацията на „Псалмите на Давид. Псалтир на Виктория“, Годишник на Софийски Университет “Св. Климент Охридски”, Факултет по журналистика и масова комуникация, Том 27, София, 2020, 99-130. (ISSN: 1311-4883).

* Belcheva, Malina.Victorian Design Binding: Preliminary Studies for the Conservation of The Psalms of David. Victoria Psalter. Annual of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, University Press St. Kliment Ohridski, Vol. 27, Sofia, 2020, p. 99-130, (Part of ISSN: 1311-4883)

As the conservative promise of law, order and economic stability remains just as unfulfilled as the social-democratic promises of peace and social justice, we are experiencing what the philosopher Antonio Gramsci (1975) has labelled a “crisis of authority”. This is defined as a situation in which the ruling class is no longer able to rule in the same way as before. At the same time, low levels of unionisation in the Global North, the decline of social democratic parties (apart from Corbyn’s Labour Party in the United Kingdom) and the decimation of communist parties are symptoms of a crisis of the working class. Arguably, this amounts to a twin crisis in which the ruling class can no longer “lead” and the working class is unable to advance an alternative vision for society. This ultimately raises the question of how these crises reconfigure working-class politics. In this article I seek to address this question by discussing “popular books” on the working class. In doing so, I investigate how these books seek to explain the twin crises, how and where they locate “class”, how working-class families are portrayed, how the relationship between class, gender and immigration is conceptualised, and lastly how the role of working-class organisation features in these accounts.

The monograph "Innovative Design and Experimental Structures in Victorian Design Binding (1800-1900) – Technology and Conservation of Relievo Papier-mâché Binding by Owen Jones for The Psalms of David. The Victoria Psalter", is the first complete theoretical study of the complex conservation treatment of the album The Psalms of David designed by Owen Jones in 1861, and currently a part of the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries special collections at The Art Institute of Chicago. The research of The Psalms of David technology focuses on the relievo papier-mâché binding and the text block structure of the book, reveals a broad and comprehensive analysis of bookbinding materials, and techniques, typography, paper and leather technology, and provides an overview of prior conservation treatments. The author studies the history of The Psalms of David from the Victorian era to the present, presents the reinforced conservation binding model, created for the reconstruction of the album flexibility and solidity, and illustrates the binding conservation process, through conservation research, documentation, diagrams, tables and documentary photographs. The monograph portrays a comparison between the latest conservation of the album and other copies of the first book publication from 1861 preserved in public collections in Europe, America, Australia and New Zealand. The monograph emphasizes the uniqueness of the latest album restoration, carried out in accordance with the characteristic features of the album and the structural changes, made in the past one hundred and sixty years, and highlights the author’s contribution to the scientific understanding of the binding technology, thus enhancing conservators’ theoretical knowledge of bookbinding and book conservation, and encouraging further preservation of all Victorian relievo papier-mâché style bindings.

// "Книгата на д-р Малина Белчева е приносно, цялостно теоретико-практическо изследване върху релефния дизайн на подвързията на книгата „Псалмите на Давид“ от специалните колекции на библиотеката „Райерсън и Бърнам“ в Музея за изящни и приложни изкуства на Чикаго. В него автора прави широк обзор на научните трудове и изследванията върху викторианския стил подвързии и на публикациите, свързани с технологията на релефната подвързия на „Псалмите на Давид“, проучва статии, дисертации и документи по темата от обществени и частни архиви, изследва патентите и постига значими резултати в изследователско отношение. Така на базата на широки изследвания на структурата на викторианския дизайн и подвързия, както и технологията на хартията, кожата, украсата, вариантите за свързване на книжното тяло с кориците и на обзор на направените в миналото реставрационни намеси върху книгата от колекцията на музея в Чикаго д-р Белчева демонстрира един оптимален модел за реконструкция на книжното тяло при „Псалмите на Давид“, като защитава неговата реализация с визуални документи от реставрационния процес, със съпътстваща документация, с диаграми, графики, таблици и фотографии. Направен е обстоен анализ на патентите, асоциирани с книгата „Псалмите на Давид“, представени са резултатите от проведеното от д-р Белчева изследване върху запазените до днес екземпляри от първото издание на книгата от колекциите на институции в Европа, Америка, Австралия и Нова Зеландия. Пространно са анализирани историята на „папиемаше“ структурата и техническите и естетическите аспекти на подвързията на изследваното издание „Псалмите на Давид“." - проф. д-р Веселина Вълканова, - Във: Вълканова, Веселина. За иновацията и експеримента в реставрацията на книгата. In: Newmedia21.eu. Медиите на 21 век: Онлайн издание за изследвания, анализи, критика [online], 02 февруари 2022 [cited 24 February 2022]. Available from: https://www.newmedia21.eu/kritika/za-inovatsiyata-i-eksperimenta-v-restavratsiyata-na-knigata/

*Малина Белчева. Иновативен дизайн и експериментални структури във викторианската книга (1800–1900) – технология и реставрация на релефен дизайн подвързия на Оуен Джоунс за “Псалмите на Давид. Псалтир на Виктория”, Университетско издателство „Св. Климент Охридски“, София, 2022, (464 стр.). (ISBN: 978-954-07-5369-0)

*Malina Belcheva. Innovative Design and Experimental Structures in Victorian Design Binding (1800-1900) – Technology and Conservation of Relievo Papier-mâché Binding by Owen Jones for The Psalms of David. The Victoria Psalter. “St. Kliment Ohridski” University Press, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022, (464 pp.). (ISBN: 978-954-07-5369-0)

https://unipress.bg/inovativen-dizayn-i-eksperimentalni-strukturi-vav-viktorianskata-kniga-1800-1900-tehnologiya-i-restavratsiya-na-relefen-dizayn-podvarziya-na-ouen-dzhouns-za-%E2%80%9Epsalmite-na-david-psaltir-na-viktoriya

On January 8 in 1903 Ryerson and Burnham Libraries received a gift from John Edward Woodhead, one of his most valuable books, the first edition of The Psalms of David (The Victoria Psalter). Designed by Owen Jones this oversize relievo papier-mâché binding was dedicated to Queen Victoria: ”To Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria this illuminated Psalter is with permission dedicated.” Owen Jones created both the interior ornamentation of the chromolithographed plates and the exterior aspect of the book. The binding was carried out by Leighton, Son & Hodge and printed at Remnant & Edmonds, London in 1861, where the covers were moulded in relief and embossed on calf leather after Frederick Leake’s patented process. Upon request by J. E. Woodhead in the late eighteenth hundreds the book was reformatted to an album structure binding. New cloth hinges and paper stubs were added to plates. The binding was ”rebound in old covers”, read the unknown binder’s note, uncovered under the front pastedown leaf during the book conservation. New endsheets and guilt to textblock edges were added. Over the years, this beautifully designed book had been on display exhibited standing on a pedestal as intended by Owen Jones. The heavy binding structure and oversewing of the textblock caused significant damages to the spine and plates of the binding. The book had been set apart from library collections for years awaiting conservation, and when it was received in the book conservation laboratory of the Art Institute of Chicago it was in a poor, unstable condition, falling apart after multiple repairs, with a missing leather spine, and plates detached. With losses and deterioration the endsheet marbled papers were brittle, textblock sewing and stubs collapsed. Covers were detached, with abraded edges and parts of corners missing. From this condition of the binding the restoration process began. The poster for the conservation treatment of The Psalm of David includes - historical background, bibliographic information, provenance, and acquisition information about the book. Binding description before conservation and detailed description of the reconstruction of the binding from compositional information of the original binding materials, through making of a model for the new binding structure, to the finishing processes of the latest book conservation. In conclusion I include information on the exhibition of the binding at the Art Institute of Chicago, and discuss future directions and perspectives for The Psalms of David. Additional information on the conservation process of the binding at the Art Institute of Chicago website - http://www.artic.edu/aic/resources/resource/2346?search_id=1&index=0

*Belcheva, Malina. A Novel Conservation Treatment Developed for the Restoration of The Psalms of David Relievo Papier-mâché Binding Designed by Owen Jones. Annual Conference - Treatment 2017: Innovation in Conservation and Collection Care, American Institute of Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works National Conference, Presentation and poster for the conservation of the book “The Psalms of David”, American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, Chicago IL, USA, May 2017. [DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35437.59361]

Au milieu du XIXe siècle, alors que les progrès de l’industrialisation et la production en série transforment la vision matérielle et symbolique de l’ornement, des théoriciens, des artistes et des architectes s’interrogent sur son origine et son renouveau dans la culture contemporaine. Le contexte britannique offre une étude de cas intéressante. Au Department of Practical Art et au Museum of Ornamental Art de Marlborough House émerge un discours sur l’ornement où ce dernier apparaît comme l’élément central dans une stratégie de compétition économique et de réforme morale. Les formes stylisées des arts des pays de l’Islam et de l’art tribal sont perçues comme de potentielles sources de renouveau pour l’ornement britannique. Il ne s’agit toutefois pas d’en copier les formes mais de les étudier afin d’en extraire des principes fondamentaux, essentiellement formels et bidimensionnels. Ces ornements apparaissent alors comme la source d’un savoir ancestral de nature rationnelle, pouvant être réemployés dans l’élaboration d’un discours moderne et normatif de l’ornement.

The article presents the history of papier-mâché technology from its first implementation in the construction of objects designed for military armor during the Chinese Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.) to the present days focusing on the Victorian era and on the introduction of papier-mâché for decoration of the Victorian interior design. Handmade and machine made methods for papier-mâché are presented, visually illustrated through graphics from the conservation of Owen Jones’ relievo papier-mâché binding for The Psalms of David.

*Малина Белчева. История на папиемаше технологията и приложението и във викторианския дизайн на подвързията от началото на XIX век. Списание за библиотечни и информационни науки, книгоиздаване и литературна история Библиотека, Издание на Министерство на културата на Република България, София, 2020, 47-57. (ISSN: 0861-847X)

*Belcheva, Malina. History of Papier-mâché Technology and Its Implementation in the Victorian Design Binding from the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Journal of Library and Information Science, Vol. 4., Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, Sofia, 2020, p. 47-57, (Part of ISSN: 0861-847X)

This dissertation comprises an analysis and a critique of a theory of ornament formulated during the 1840s and 1850s by a small circle of artists, architects, and critics for use in Britain's Schools of Design, a new system of State-sponsored institutions set up to educate industrial designers and inspired by certain Utilitarian political ideals.  The analysis focuses on texts by Owen Jones, Richard Redgrave, Ralph Wornum, M.D. Wyatt, and William Dyce - above all, Jones's "Grammar of Ornament" (1856) and "The Journal of Design and Manufactures" (1849-52) published by Henry Cole.

In 1838, Gottfried Semper (1803–1879) decided to adopt what he called the ‘Rundbogenstil’ for the conception of the Dresden Synagogue, which was commissioned by the City’s Jewish Community. The exterior of the building was inspired by the traditional Roman style from 12th century Germany, especially with its West front and the two towers, however the interior developed from another architectural language. The inner space of the Synagogue is placed on a rectangular ground, and can therefore be characterized as ‘gerichteter Zentralraum’.
During the winter of 1831/32, Semper had been, together with Jules Goury, in Athens and had worked alongside with him researching Greek antiquities. Although he did not follow Goury to Granada, where the latter made designs and draw plans of the Alhambra two years later. The posthumous publication of Goury’s plans by Owen Jones in the first edition of "Plans, élévations et coupes de l’Alhambra" (Paris /London, 1836/1840) can nevertheless be considered a important sources for the Dresden synagogue, a fact until now ignored by researchers in the subject. When Semper had to design the Dresden synagogue, he was somewhat embarrassed by the fact, that he could neither go back to a Jewish architectural tradition, nor to a proper Jewish ornamentation, and this by the fact that both scarcely existed. So he chose an architectural concept which he called ‘Oriental’. This term in Semper’s writings has still to be analyzed and is waiting for a concise definition within the work of the Dresden architect. This chapter analyzes the plans and drawings for the Synagogue, regarding the ideas and concepts he took from the Alhambra. Up until now, not all of Semper’s drawings concerning the Dresden synagogue are published. This presentation is therefore to be considered in the context of a wider scientific study, which aims to publish all documents and drawings by Semper for the Dresden Synagogue.

By 1929 Frank Lloyd Wright made a series of black drawings of some of his works. Black because of the weight that black areas have in them and because of the uniqueness it constitutes in Wright's usual style. They are different from what he used to do and in a style he did not repeat. On one of them Wright wrote the phrase "Grammar of the Protestant". This article deals with this drawing, pretends to understand its raison d'être and the autobiographical part that Wright projected on it.

Généalogie de l'idée de forme dans la critique littéraire au XIXe et au XXe siècle.

Extrait:
« On ne peut parler de la forme de façon persuasive qu’à travers d’autres formes. Il n’existe aucun autre langage dont l’ordre soit supérieur aux formes, qui puisse les expliquer, les rendre fonctionnelles avec autre chose. » S’il en est ainsi – et pourquoi non ? Roberto Calasso met le doigt là où ça fait mal, on ressent soi-même cette infirmité du langage –, il ne reste plus qu’à se taire – ou bien à parler à côté. N’essayons donc pas de penser la forme en littérature. On se contentera de la raconter, autrement dit, d’en retracer l’histoire compliquée, voire contradictoire, à travers les différents discours critiques qui se sont emparés de ce… De ce quoi, justement ? "Concept" serait trop dire. "Étiquette" suffira pour l’instant, car il ne s’agit souvent que de cela : une étiquette commode commodément placée sur un impensable ou un indicible.

The article examines the relevance and renewed interest in 19th century architectural theory in relation to contemporary architectural production. Theories by Gottfried Semper, Owen Jones, Alois Riegl, John Ruskin or Heinrich Wölfflin are contrasted with Rem Koolhaas's curatorial concepts for the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, Foster + Partners' Apple Campus in Cupertino CA, 6A Architects George Romney Studio London and AAVP Vincent Parreira's Casarès-Doisneau educational complex Saint-Denis. Copyright © archithese Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, CH-Sulgen / Zürich

Ateliergeheimen, het Art nouveau ornament, Brussels, éditions du musée Horta, 2020.

The Horta Museum’s spring 2020 exhibition is dedicated to ornamentation from the Art Nouveau era. The real question is why such a subject is so decisive in this period straddling the 19th and 20th centuries: a point of time in the history of art that is exalted right across Europe while crystallizing into patterns so varied that it is sometimes difficult to see a coherent style. It is the last moment of grace of
interior decoration, a blazing sunset before ornamentation falls into disgrace.

I give context to the Celtic Revival art of Scotland around 1900 by situating it with respect to earlier and later work, both in Scotland and elsewhere. At the core of the paper will be attention to Mary Carmichael’s work for Carmina Gadelica (published in Edinburgh in 1900) and the cultural activism of her daughter, Ella. The start date of 1760 marks the publication of the first elements of James Macpherson’s Ossian. That work became a key driver of northern European traditional cultural revival. Little known explorations of Ossian by J M W Turner in London in 1802 and Luigi Zandomeneghi in Venice in 1817, will be noted. 1955 is taken as the end point because it marks the publication of J. D. Fergusson’s Celtic influenced illustrations for Hugh MacDiarmid’s In Memoriam James Joyce, which will be considered in relation to George Bain’s remarkable Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction issued in 1951 by the same publisher, William MacLellan. A key concern will be the interdependence of revivalism and modernism.

El arquitecto Owen Jones estableció los 37 principios que rigen la forma «auténticamente bella», según expuso en su Grammar of Ornament (1856) un manual de Diseño que se publica tan sólo tres años antes del Origen de las Especies de Darwin, y donde desarrolla metodologías afines a las que se están empleando en las Ciencias Naturales del momento. Como en el campo de la zoología y botánica, Jones busca unos principios estructurales mediante los cuales explicar las metamorfosis de la forma. El artículo encuentra que entre las propuestas decorativas de Jones y las de Darwin hay patrones de evolución y desarrollo coincidentes a la hora de explicar la evolución
del ornamento y del desarrollo de las especies.
Three years before Darwin published his famous work on the Origin of the Species, Owen Jones published The Grammar of Ornament (1856). In this book –which was a reference handbook for the School of Design–, Jones stablished 37 laws that ruled over form and color in the «true beautiful» ornament, and he did so by applying a methodology similar to the one Natural Sciences were using at that moment. Jones searched for those principles which are present in
every style of the History of the Ornament and he explained through them the metamorphoses of the decorative patterns. This paper finds that there are connections between the way Darwin explains the sequences of the evolution of the species and the way Jones describes the evolution of form in the ornament patterns.

A blog post about a project I am working on at the Warburg:
http://iconology.hypotheses.org/1864#more-1864
Looks at the technique of papier mache and 'wet paper' moulding of archaeological and architectural surfaces in the 19th century, with a particular focus on the work of Owen Jones and Carl von Diebitsch at the Alhambra in Granada, and of Alfred Maudslay in Mexico. Presented at Central Saint Martins college at the University of the Arts London in collaboration with the Bilderfahrzeuge Project of the Warburg Institute, London (March 2016). Part of an ongoing collaboration between the Bilderfahrzeuge Project and staff at Central Saint Martins, London.

Recensione del volume di ARIANE VARELA BRAGA, "Une théorie universelle au milieu du XIXe siècle. La Grammar of Ornament d’Owen Jones", Roma 2017, Campisano Editore, 344 pp., 128 ill. b/n e a colori.
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Lo studio di Ariane Varela Braga puntualizza come il lavoro teorico di Owen Jones sull’ornamento non sia concepito tanto come strumento utile al decoratore, quanto a dimostrare il suo enunciato artistico indipendente, alla pari delle altre arti, con regole e principî suoi propri. La difesa della policromia, l’attenzione ai valori di superficie, le regole autosufficienti dell’immagine e del quadro, la giustapposizione di elementi piatti e in accordo ritmico tra loro, la libertà espressiva della linea, sono solo alcuni dei risultati di tali premesse e saranno parte fondamentale della base operativa su cui si imposteranno le ricerche pittoriche di Post–impressionismo e Simbolismo, fino a Matisse, colui che raccoglierà i frutti più originali di tali intuizioni.