Architectural Ornament: Banishment and Return

by Brent C. Brolin

Book Overview

Architectural Ornament reveals the fascinating interplay of art, society, politics, and commerce from antiquity through modernism and explains ornament's near demise and recent revival. It is a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393730468
• ISBN13: 9780393730463
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.5" x 11.8"

Customer Reviews

Makes sense of a great many things.

This book made sense of a great many things for me. In explaining the banishment of ornament, it explores the evolution of the elaborate con-game that makes up our present concept of art, of artistic genius, and of good taste. I expect many people will find this book incredibly offensive. It is truly a wonderful book.

Provocative & sensible

The first reviewer has snippily dismissed Brolin as "delusional," apparently assuming that a one-sentence, ad-hominem swipe qualifies as an intellectually honest review. I'd love that reviewer to return to his or her pulpit and cite us chapter & verse. Maybe then we'd all have a chance to see just who is being delusional here. I confess that I haven't yet read Brolin's book, but I have just read a meaty excerpt from it, published in the magazine "Old-House Interiors" (Nov. 2002 issue). I found Brolin highly informed and wonderfully articulate, and I thought he made terrific sense. So, apparently, did the magazine's editor, who chose the excerpt for her lead article. And so, surely, did the tough-minded editorial staff at W.W. Norton, who published the book in 2002.