One More Time

The art and architectural historian Giulio Carlo Argan (1909-1992) played a major role in Italy's cultural life for six decades--in his scholarly work and cultural criticism, his direction of academic and state institutions and his roles as mayor of Rome (1976-1979) and as senator of the Italian Republic (1983-1992). The paucity of English translations of Argan's writings has long obscured this influential body of work for Anglo-American readers. Addressing this lacuna, the 14 essays gathered in this volume trace Argan's confrontation with some of the key actors, movements and problems of modern art and architecture. The essays grapple with the ideological ambiguities of the modernist project and its relationship to the cultural crises of the twentieth century, from the Futurist visions of Antonio Sant'Elia to the work of Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus, to Expressionism, Abstraction, Informale and Pop art.