Journal of Art Historiography (Jun 2016)
Between history, criticism, and wit: texts and images of English modern architecture (1933-36)
Abstract
It has often been remarked that modern architecture in Britain began late and that its emergence largely depended on the contribution of a massive influx of European exiles seeking refuge from the political and racial persecution of totalitarian regimes. In the attempt to discard the tired narrative of Britain’s insular modernism as a mere echo of continental European achievements, an alternative historiography has recently directed attention to Britain’s own distinctive and original version of modern architecture in the 1930s. Through the examination of a small group of articles, books and pamphlets on English modern architecture written by English authors and published in the mid-1930s, this paper argues that the emergence of a distinctive version of architectural modernism in Britain was paralleled by the development of an equally original brand of architectural criticism and historiography.
