Modern Times

The Untold Story of Modernism in Australia

Ann Stephen, Philip Goad, Andrew McNamara (eds)

Modern Times reveals how modernism transformed all aspects of Australian culture across five tumultuous decades from 1917 to 1967.

About this Title

Modern Times: The Untold Story of Modernism in Australia reveals how modernism transformed all aspects of Australian culture across five tumultuous decades from 1917 to 1967. The influence of modernism was wide reaching and popular, and encompassed areas as diverse as art, advertising, photography, film, animation, fashion and architecture.

Modern Times traces how modernism became nearly as pervasive as industrialised technology in everyday life. It reveals the role of émigrés and expatriates in translating key international avant-garde experiments such as the Bauhaus.

Richly illustrated and beautifully designed, Modern Times includes contributions from more than twenty authorities on the modernist movement; examination of key modernist figures such as Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, Harry Seidler, Grant and Mary Featherston, Robin Boyd and Wolfgang Sievers; and more than 300 images.

This is the first time that such diverse material has been brought together in one volume, illustrating the ways in which modernism transformed Australian culture and cities in the twentieth century.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Part 1: Abstract in Australia
1. The Bauhaus in Australia
2. Colour in art
3. Modern rooms
4. Design on Aboriginal culture
5. Abstract fountains

Part 2: Bodies and Bathers
6. The body at the scene of modernism
7. Annete Kellerman
8. Crossing the dotted line
9. Speedo
10. Modern pools

Part 3: CIty Living
11. Tall tales
12. Melbourne modern
13. Blue-collar bars
14. The architect's studio, 1948-59
15. Milk bar moderne

Part 4: Designs on the Space Age
16. Shells, spires and a dome
17. Industralia
18. Rocketing into a new era
19. The 'House of Tomorrow'
20. Controlled spirals

Part 5: Electric Signs and Spectacles
21. Good evening America
22. Speaking for Australia
23. MoMA's exports
24. Animating geometry
25. Signs of the times

Notes
Bibliography
Timeline
Acknowledgements
About the authors
Index

About the Author

Between 2003 and 2006 the editors, working on an Australia Research Council grant, co-edited Modernism and Australia: Documents on Art, Design and Architecture 1917-1967 (Miegunyah Press, 2006), which was awarded Best Art History Book, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, 2008.

Dr Ann Stephen is an art historian and curator at the Powerhouse Museum. She is the author of On Looking at Looking: The Art and Politics of Ian Burn (2006); co-author of The Necessity of Australian Art (1988); editor and co-author of Pirating the Pacific: Images of Travel, Trade and Tourism (1993) and Visions of a Republic: The Work of Lucien Henry (2001). Stephen is principal curator of the exhibition Modern Times: The Untold Story of Modernism in Australia.

Philip Goad is Professor of Architecture at the University of Melbourne. Internationally known for his research and publications on modernism and Australian architecture, he is the author of Melbourne Architecture (1999), New Directions in Australian Architecture (2001), editor and co-author of Bates Smart: 150 Years of Australian Architecture (2004) and co-author of Australian Modern: The Architecture of Stephenson & Turner (2004).

Dr Andrew McNamara is Associate Professor, Art and Design, Queensland University of Technology. He is the coordinator of a new research grouping at QUT: the Arts, Media, Design and Modernity (AMDM) research group. He is also an editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art. Recent publications appear in The Dreams of Interpretation (2007) and Image and Narrative, Belgium (2008).