Pictorialist resource

[Struan Gray]

Thanks to a link on the Bibliodyssey blog I have been browsing the following:

http://www.research-design.co.uk/trial.php

Deutsch Kunst und Decoration is in German (well, duh!) but the pictures are universal, and hidden among the issues are several articles about or illustrated by pictorial photographers, including Nicola Perscheid.

The Studio doesn't include much photography, but I found both it and the German periodical hugely useful when trying to learn more about the (late) pictorialist mindset. Both these magazines date from the high water of the Gesamtkunstwerk, when artists like Klimt or Rennie Mackintosh would design everything in your house from the chimneypot to the fire irons. Parodied then, and later, as aestheticism carried to excess, it's a useful antidote to the spectacle of today's Gallery Art scene, and a reminder that the intended audience of photographic 'art' wasn't necessarily people standing in a hushed white box looking at an isolated object on a white wall.

[Nathan Potter]

Struan, many thanks. This is a splendid resource of period design.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Brian Bullen]

Struan, Thanks for the posting, I look forward to checking it out.

[venchka]

Thank you!

An early review of Aubrey Beardsley. Way cool.

I can see myself wasting many an hour wading through all of this information.