Saler Michael T. The Avant-Garde in Interwar England: Medieval Modernism and the London Underground

Oxford University Press, 2001. — 256 p."Descending, both literally and metaphorically, into the subterranean world of British modernism, Michael Saler returns with a fresh and arresting account of its productive contradictions. His impressively researched and elegantly written analysis of a cultural garde as much deriere as avant will
force students of modernist aesthetics as a whole to reexamine many of their most cherished assumptions."--Martin Jay, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley "This major reinterpretation of an indigenous avant-garde aesthetic in interwar England challenges conventional views about the origins of modernism in art and design. Focusing on Frank Pick's visionary efforts to transform the London Underground into a 'people's picture gallery,' Saler movingly portrays the struggle of medieval modernists to integrate modern art and craftsmanship into contemporary life."--F. M. Leventhal, Boston University "Saler's work reshapes our understanding of British modernism. Perhaps even more importantly, this book addresses many of the central issues in twentieth-century British history. It speaks directly to the ongoing debate about the formation and shape of national identity in Britain and England, and underlines the importance of regional and provincial identities in molding a sense of nationhood. At the same time, Saler's study extends Linda Colley's argument about the centrality of Protestantism to English national identity into the twentieth century."--Meredith Veldman, Louisiana State University "This is an original, fascinating, and highly readable study that gives a new perspective on the history of modernism in Britain. Saler succeeds in connecting the visual modernism of the interwar period with the famous arts and crafts tradition of the late-Victorian years. The formalist definition associated with Fry and Bell, Saler shows, was not the only meaning of modernism."--Thomas William Heyck, Northwestern University "Medievalists take note. Michael Saler brilliantly argues that the development of the London Underground in the interwar period marks the culmination of the arts and crafts movement inspired by John Ruskin and William Morris. Its medievalism, appropriated by the moralizing developers of the Underground, enabled the adoption of controversial avant-garde station architecture and advertising." --Kathleen Biddick in The Medieval Review "This is in many ways an admirable study, wide-ranging, thoughtful in its treatment of crucial issues in modern art and culture, exemplary in its imaginative use of materials from the Pick archives."--American Historical Review
"Saler's book is an antidote to those who would either foreclose British modernism or define it too narrowly...The time is right for more inductive definitions of modernist enterprises; scholarship like Saler's enables better descriptions and fewer prescriptions."--Modernism/modernity