Photograph: courtesy of Manchester University Press

The Culture of Regionalism: Art, Architecture and International Exhibitions in France, Germany and Spain, 1890–1939
Eric Storm

Manchester / New York: Manchester University Press, 2010, 336 pp., 12 colour and 40 b/w ill., £ 60
ISBN 978-0-7190-8147-7

One of the hallmarks of industrial Modernism in art and architecture is that it constantly provoked counter-movements, and therefore can be said to have generated its own criticism from the outset. Regionalist tendencies are an example of such counter-movements. They were discussed intensively during the nascent Post-Modernism of the late 1970s—a period coloured by the search for alternatives to the supposed dead-end of the International Style. They only play a minor role in the current architectural environment, and have become the trademark of a handful of highly individualistic architects who, far from being folkloric, have elevated the bond with their respective region and discourse with the modern age to a special form of architecture (for example Gion Caminada in Switzerland). This situation makes one forget easily that there was once a time when regionalism could almost be referred to as mainstream, and had a considerable influence on the architectural scene.

The era in question is the first half of the twentieth century, and it is this period to which the Dutch historian Eric Storm has turned his attention in The Culture of Regionalism: Art, Architecture and International Exhibitions in France, Germany and Spain, 1890–1939. A lecturer in European history at Leiden University, throughout the past decade Storm has regularly returned to the relationship between art and nation building. His new book presents the results of a research project, completed in 2007, focusing on ‘visualization of the region.’. It compares three nations (France, Germany, and Spain) on the basis of three core strands: painting, architecture, and international exhibitions (which also exhibited architecture). The years under review extend from 1890 to 1939, yet none of the three issues is being dealt with over the whole period. Painting is only examined up to the First World War, architecture between 1900 and 1925, and exhibitions from 1910 onwards.

This choice of structure presumably comes as a result of the material available in this field. Despite at first appearing somewhat arbitrary, it does not diminish the value of the analytical results that Storm presents in a clearly structured way. The most important finding is that the regionalism of the first half of the twentieth century was an international phenomenon of predominantly uniform ideology, and was supported by a generation of artists and members of the middle-class elite born between 1860 and 1875. It is also identified as having a distinct political intention. Its genesis was social unease, whilst its double aim was to create a self-evident national consciousness backed by a (political) majority on a foundation of regional roots, and to employ aesthetic education that would also give the uneducated social strata a sense of ‘belonging’—thereby taking the sting out of any revolutionary tendencies.

Regionalism was not a popular movement, and certainly not an attempt to achieve political independence for the respective regions. Instead, its proponents understood it as something other than a backward looking ‘neutral middle-ground to which every right-minded citizen could adhere’ (p. 292). In Germany it was primarily a question of searching for values that could appeal to and connect the citizens of the various German lands, whilst in France the fight against political and aesthetic centralism was emphasized. On balance, however, this simply represented the expression of specific national characteristics. From today’s perspective, it is of far more interest to consider Storm’s assertion that ‘the avant-garde […] in the end defined itself in large measure in response to regionalism (or were [sic] defined in such a way by later propagandists). Thus regionalist culture functioned as an almost forgotten trigger for the development of new innovative cultural movements’ (p. 298).

In the case of architecture, Storm focuses, perhaps too strongly, on country houses and villas found in contemporary publications. Though he mentions that the problem of social housing made regionalism a key issue in Germany in 1919, he does not pursue this trail any further (which contrasts with his consideration of the French garden cities of the same period). As a result, an important aspect of regionalism—traditionalist architecture in interwar Germany—is not addressed. This in spite of Storm’s explicit recognition of the direction in which development was heading, namely towards an almost non-committal, ‘more generic regionalism’ only identifiable on the basis of a few elements such as ‘an inclined, tiled roof, shutters and a garden’ (pp. 286, 287).

Though the publication doubtlessly contains a number of other points similarly open to criticism, they are essentially limited to details and in no way affect the validity of Storm’s analysis. On the contrary, the author makes an important contribution by selecting examples with which to conduct appropriate analyses, critical assessment, and competent conceptualization of a period of European artistic and architectural history, a period that, despite having been neglected in the past, had an enormous influence on the architectural and artistic developments of the twentieth century. The fact that he has done so in a clear, readable style makes this book even more enjoyable—and highly recommendable for anyone interested in the complex interplay between the artistic avant-garde, tradition, and nation building in the twentieth century.

Hans-Georg Lippert
Technische Universität Dresden
Dresden, German