Private Adolf Loos: Portrait of an Eccentric Genius - Softcover

Loos, Claire Beck

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0997003480 ISBN 13: 9780997003482

Verlag: DoppelHouse Press, 2020

Inhaltsangabe

Lively, snapshot-like vignettes form an intimate, literary portrait of the infamously eccentric and influential modern architect Adolf Loos.

Written by Loos’ third wife, the photographer Claire Beck (1904–1942), these often humorous, short episodes reveal Loos’ temperament and philosophy during the last years of his life (1928–1933). His irreverent personality and attitudes about post-Imperial Viennese society, the role of the craftsman, and the organic beauty of raw materials are brought to light. Included in The Private Adolf Loos are Claire's photographs of Loos, collected in museums, as well as informal snapshots of the two of them showing the whimsy and theatricality of this relationship between two artistic personalities—one as infamous as he was well-regarded, and one, a youthful accomplice and budding photographer who would also become Loos' intermediary, secretary and proxy. With this bricolage of short tales and its dark conclusion at the brink of death’s door, Claire shows herself to be one of Loos’ great champions and memorialists, despite his shortcoming and debilitations. This is not a book just about architecture, but rather a love story about the Modern revolution that provides a woman’s insight into one of its most radical personalities, set amid the fascinating cultural backdrop of 1920s and 1930s interwar Europe.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Claire Beck Loos (November 4, 1904 – January 15, 1942*) was a Czechoslovakian photographer and writer. She was the third wife of early modernist Czechoslovak-Austrian architect Adolf Loos. She worked in the atelier of Hede Pollak in Prague and studied photography in Vienna at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt. In 1936, she published Adolf Loos Privat, a literary work of anecdotes about her ex-husband's character, habits, and sayings. Published by the Johannes-Presse in Vienna, the book was intended to raise funds for Adolf Loos's tomb, as he had died destitute three years earlier. She moved to Prague at the beginning of World War II and was deported to Theresienstadt at the end of 1941 and from there to Riga, Latvia, where she was killed in the Holocaust. *Her death date is thus only an estimate.

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FOREWORD
I have written this book from memory. I have tried to portray Adolf Loos in a form that will hopefully give the reader an understanding of his strong personality. I am aware of the shortcomings that are inherent to this kind of reporting, but have nevertheless chosen to write this way, as it seemed important to me to preserve in the material the vitality that came from living together with Loos. Should errors in my recollections, which I can no longer verify today, have crept in then I ask that they be forgiven, considering what I have said above. Remaining plans, notes, drawings and letters will be compiled in other books by experts; my book should therefore not be viewed as a reference book but instead simply as a remembrance of my life with Adolf Loos. I am dedicating the royalties from this book as a contribution towards establishing Loos' tomb. — Claire Loos.

HOW IT ALL CAME ABOUT
A stranger asks my father: "How did you make the acquaintance of Loos? How did you get to have Loos do your interior remodel?"
Father tells him: "I lived as a young man in a small provincial Austrian city. At the time, Adolf Loos' essays were being published in the Neue Freie Presse. I was only a very low ranking employee and did not have the money to subscribe to the newspaper. So I looked for it at the coffee house and read it there because I found Loos' articles very interesting. But a lot of people were in the same situation I was. There was always fighting over the newspaper and it was always gone. During one such dispute, a patron just decided to jump up on a table and began reading the article out loud.
"And that is what they did from then on. In those days the coffee house seemed to be more like a meeting place, and afterwards there would be a lot of discussion.
"It was my greatest desire to have Loos do my interior remodel someday… But it was many years until that would happen…"

THIS PICTURE HAS GOT TO GO
[1919] I am fifteen years old. I go into the big living room to get a book. Two men are there. One of them is Professor L., the other one I do not know. The stranger kneels halfway down onto the bench seat and removes a picture from the wall. He is wearing a brown suit and a cream-colored shirt. His face is slender and youthful.
"I would just like to know," he says, "who painted this trash. This picture has got to go."
I say: "I painted this picture, and it was for my father's birthday!"
"Well, well," says the stranger, "for your father's birthday, that is of course another matter." Almost tenderly, he hangs the picture back up on the wall. "So you must be the daughter of the owner?"
"And you," I ask inquisitively, "who then are you?"
The stranger looks at me, smiling: "I am Adolf Loos!"

JOSEPHINE BAKER DANCES IN VIENNA
[1928] Josephine Baker is dancing in Vienna.
Loos, who has a business meeting with my father, invites all of us to the Variete where Josephine Baker is dancing. Sitting beside the beautiful, intelligent Frau X. he looks eagerly at the stage and says: "Did you know that Josephine counts me among the best Charleston dancers in Paris?"
"That is certainly a compliment, dear Loos," says the beautiful woman, smiling.
"I have even earned money by dancing," Loos says proudly.
"Money by dancing?" Frau X. asks slowly, raising her eyebrows. "You really must tell us about that," she adds, amused.
Loos looks at Frau X. with an expression of pure, unadulterated joy. "It was quite simple: at an elegant bar, I asked a stranger to a dance. After the dance, she pressed a large coin into my hand."
"And you took the money?" asks Frau X., truly shocked.
Loos looks astonished at the dismayed expression on her face. "But of course. I have never been as proud of any money I earned as I was of that. Just think how well I must have danced and how wonderful I must have looked for her to have thought I was employed as a dancer there! But then, I had a perfect instructor: Josephine Baker! – – – Long live Josephine," Loos cries out loudly and applauds. Josephine appears, dressed in a few green feathers, and gracefully curtsies to all sides. "She did not recognize me," Loos says, hurt, "or else she definitely would have come over to our table."
Josephine dances. Loos watches her attentively. "I consider Josephine to be a very great artist," he says softly. "Just look at what grace and what strength there is in her movements. She always reminds me of an animal in the wild. But the people here have no understanding of her great art," he adds sadly. "They only see her beautiful body. In Paris it is quite different. There the whole house cheers with enthusiasm when Josephine dances." Loos falls silent. When Josephine finishes, he applauds with all his might, spurring the rest of the audience again and again to new roaring ovations.
Josephine now selects a partner from the audience. Amid general laughter, a good-natured elderly gentleman gets up on stage. "This number," Loos says, "was a huge success for Josephine in Prague. She had chosen a thin, agile man from the audience. It was none other than Vlasta Burian, the greatest Czech comedian. It would be impossible to describe her growing astonishment as Burian did the most amazing capers, for she was completely unaware who he was. The audience was screaming with laughter. But Josephine kept animating him to do new tricks." Loos laughs softly.
"Yes, Josephine is unique… Still, recently I did get upset with her. It was in Paris. She came to me and was in a bad mood. Just think, Loos, she pouted, I want to do big, big remodeling in my house and do not like plans of architects. I was beside myself. What, you did not come to me first? Don't you know that I can design the most beautiful plan in the world for you? Josephine stares at me with her childlike eyes and slowly asks: You are an architect??? – She had no idea who I was. – I drew up a plan for Josephine… I consider it one of my best. The exterior wall is covered with white and black marble slabs – diagonally striped. The most beautiful thing in the house is the bathroom – with its ethereal lighting…" Just at that moment a red rose comes flying onto our table. Josephine has discovered Loos. With a graceful leap she is now at our table herself. "Loos," she calls, "dear Loos, I so happy that you here," and with that she stretches out both hands to him. The great man blushes like a little boy.
After the performance, Loos says to me in a low voice so our companion cannot hear him: "Why don't you call me sometime? My number is in the telephone book. We could go out once by ourselves."
It seems incomprehensible to me that Loos can be reached by telephone like any other mortal – – –

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: DoppelHouse Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2020
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0997003480
• ISBN 13: 9780997003482
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 176
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar