A new reincarnation of classicism is causing a strong impact on interior architecture globally
October, 09; 2020. By Arscodex
The Maker Hotel interior at Hudson, NY
Thus, we can mention two clear examples that have reached the newsroom of this magazine: the Maker Hotel in New York and the Four Season's Canalejas hotel (by Carlos Lamela's studio) in Madrid. In both cases, the prevailing style is a confluence between art-deco or art-nouveau, or styles prior to modernism, with industrial touches, but taking us back to the pre-twentieth century in an astonishing way: empire lamps or other details fill the spaces in the purest classic style. As an example we can mention the old tapestry -if it is a tapestry- or trompe l'oeil, or simply a reproduction, of a faded floral detail in The Maker hotel, as can be seen in the image that illustrates this article. This figurative motif could not have been like this in a hotel in the second half of the 20th century, such audacity would be unthinkable.
The path started by the now a littlebit outdated shabby-chic style, which although it showed a "washed" or very off-white appearance in colors had classic elements since it was nourished by industrial or rustic elements, or a mixture of both, is firmly established with this new trend, which for the taste of this publication is the correct path to be followed by Western art, led in this case by interior architecture, which is the spearhead of a change that looks greater to the eyes of the staff of this magazine.
And it is that that stagnant path - in our opinion - initiated by Picasso in the twentieth century, which brought communism, brush strokes, daubing, neglecting the technique and embracing plastic freedom, in contrast to the order and concert that the classical style supposed, that path, we say, is, in our opinion, near its end. Badly finished lines, graffiti (which of course we think should be carefully cleaned from cities) and other manifestations associated with the twentieth century are giving way to murals, trompe l'oeils, frescoes, and other more orderly artistic manifestations that exploded in their day in Italy and other parts of the world (see Palladio's palaces, for example). We can even take a look at the future and see how in the futuristic movie Star Wars architectural elements of the Plaza de España in Seville were used, creating what might seem like a new order of architecture but knowing that it is simply the beauty of that square that it is reflected in these films. At the present time we can appreciate that the Marlborough gallery, once a champion of modern art of the 20th century, is going through bad times, both at an artistic and administrative or management level, one derived from the other or perhaps the other derived from the one.
As we have already commented on other times in this publication, chaos, disorder, the anarchist style of the modern movement is like experimental music, close to noise; while classicism plays with order and good taste and is, in the opinion of this editor, a safe value and one that we will never tire of. It is not, however, about "sending twentieth century art to the corner to meditate", rather we would like it to be integrated into the new trend, that they could coexist to enrich the new architectural spaces.
So welcome is this new "reincarnation of classicism" to our current art; we hope that it will truly settle down and that decorators and architects, as well as painters and other artists, will be able to dust off those chairs that are stored in the attic so that they look especially bright in these times, and that in this way Western art continue its path, firm, undaunted, innovating within tradition, towards the future, and thus accompany us, humanity, on our journey.
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