Art Moderné Detail No.1

By Scott Lockwood

Piece description from the artist

This architectural detail is part of a series I've been working on that features a wonderful and historical, Art Moderné elementary school building I discovered in the City of Berkeley, California called the Whittier School. Built in 1892 as a six-room school house it was one of the city’s original schools and was built with funds from the city’s first school bond. However, in 1939 the original buildings were demolished and a new building constructed and designed in the Art Moderné style by Dragon, Schmidts, Hardman and Officer Associated Architects. While appearing somewhat streamlined, (my personal favorite), it actually lacks the curvature and roundedness of that style, which is also usually absent of any decorative motifs other than maybe a set of three speed lines. Art Moderné preceded Art Deco and was actually what the style was called before that term was coined in the 1970s to describe the first post-war exhibition that featured it. However, this building also lacks Art Deco's considerable use of strong, geometric decoration. That said, I really liked how it seems to be soaring up into the late afternoon sky with its strong, modernist attitude that suggests the positivity of a new future, even though that, unfortunately, would be pretty much eliminated within a few years, at least for a while, by the coming of WWII. Regardless, it continues to soar today, at least in my photograph.