I think I've mentioned before that Hubby is a listing machine. He gets into listing mode and nothing distracts him. He does research on the item at hand...but that's it. But I've found a way to justify all my blog-reading, store-scoping, twitter-trolling that I do throughout the day: Vintage Education!! So recently when I was on shopgoodwill.com (looking for inventory, I swear!) and came across a clock, the word "Brutalist" popped into my head. I searched Ebay for 'brutalist clock' and found similar pieces. I was justified!! I really don't know what 'Brutalist' means...but I know it when I see it now. I decided to do some research. Most of the references I found referred to Brutalist Architecture, so I'm assuming that's where the movement began. It's definitely a mid-century thing. According to this Wikipedia article, the Brutalist style "spawned from the modernist architectural movement. Examples are typically very linear, fortresslike and blockish, often with a predominance of concrete construction. Initially the style came about for government buildings, low-rent housing and shopping centres to create functional structures at a low cost, but eventually designers adopted the look for other uses such as college buildings"
Habitat-67 in Montreal
Trellick Tower in London
Concrete was used a lot, often revealing the texture of the boards that were used in the forms. Le Corbusier used the French phrase "beton-brut" or 'raw concrete' to describe his work...and from this French phrase, the term "Brutalist" was coined. Of course, there is a lot more to it...those are just the basics touched on. Where it gets interesting (for me anyway, is how it spills over into smaller objects of the time. I've seen the term 'Brutalist' applied to jewelry, home decor objects, wall hangings, sculptures and so on. Instead of a lot more words, I'll show you some examples. It's how I learned, after all.
Is this helping give you an idea? As you can see, this style commands some solid prices, so worth it to keep your eyes open. A piece hasn't really jumped out at me yet...but I'm reminding myself to keep my eyes peeled.
