This is a model of Schröder-House, around 1960. The architect was Gerrit Thomas Rietveld. This model really reminded me on a Mondrian painting, because of the idea of balance, horizonality and verticality. This model represents Modern architecture because of the large blocks and the simple forms from no ornament. There is a sort of simplicity to the work, because of the clean-cut geometric shaping. The bands of window panes are also very typical of Modern architecture. This model stood out to me because usually, one expects a modern building to be lacking in colour, like the example we saw in class, ‘Villa Savoye’ by Le Corbusier. However, this building has strips of blue, red and yellow. The colours still conform to the geometric style and they also give it that Mondrian-like feel.
Fernand Léger painted ‘Still Life with Nature’ in 1927. This piece represents the 20th century style of Cubism. Honestly, this piece did not particularly stand out to me initially, until we looked at it closer and concluding that is was synthetic cubism. Because I had thought that synthetic cubism included lots of colour, I find it interesting and useful to know that the colour does not necessarily have to be really bright and sort of flamboyant , like the example we saw in class, ‘The Three Musicians’ by Picasso. I also found this piece a little easier to interpret than a lot of the other cubist pieces we have seen - in Still Life with Nature, I could clearly see the leaves and the fruit. It is interesting how Léger combines the realistic fruit figures and with the geometric shapes. The three-dimensionality and the flatness together gives the painting a sort of illusion.