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Irving Gill: A Neglected Design Visionary
Author(s) -
Bicknell Catherine
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of interior design
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.229
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1939-1668
pISSN - 1071-7641
DOI - 10.1111/j.1939-1668.1986.tb00096.x
Subject(s) - certainty , interpretation (philosophy) , formative assessment , phenomenon , period (music) , manifesto , style (visual arts) , expression (computer science) , history , aesthetics , sociology , epistemology , philosophy , law , political science , computer science , archaeology , pedagogy , linguistics , programming language
Summary It is hard to know with certainty who influenced whom in the period of architectural ferment around 1910. There is no doubt that American architects received and perused progressive journals and portfolios from Europe. However, it is unlikely that Gill was significantly influenced by Adolf Loos. There is not even a chance that they met, and it is clear that the two architects built their first experimental works at the same time. What may have been the more formative influence that threads through the ideas of both Loos and Gill is the core of the Sullivan concepts that each man was able to develop and expand so similarly in design expression but so differently in their writings. The strength and determination shown by Irving Gill in his own interpretation of pure form is surely a unique phenomenon. While around him the leading architects in California were indulging in Churrigueresque ornament, he held fast to his principles. This was a remarkable achievement when one considers his isolation from the pioneers of design in Chicago and Europe. On the evidence of his buildings and writings it is clear that he was a pioneer in his own right. Indeed, his writings may be regarded as a missing manifesto.