Jackson Pollack and Peter Blake

“A GRATEFUL READER” writes:

Architect and author Peter Blake, who died at age 86 in 2006, was a modern designer who had moments of repentance — almost.

Born in Berlin in 1920 to Jewish parents, educated in war-torn England, and divorced three times, Blake easily succumbed to the modernist movement and became a prominent writer and advocate for the movement. While he came to regret some of the fruits of the “modern movement,” he never recognised that the ultimate flaw of modernism lay in its rejection of tradition. In a 1977 People-Magazine interview, Blake admitted:

“Every magazine I edited folded, and my books did absolutely no good; America is uglier than ever.”

While he remained somewhat attracted to ugliness, he recognised some of modernism’s failings:

“Modern chairs are wonderful pieces of sculpture—but you shouldn’t sit in them. I have two beautiful Le Corbusier chairs; they look like early MG sports cars. They are lovely, but they are carefully designed to tear your pants, rip your stockings and puncture your principal arteries on the side straps. I admire them while sitting on my cozy Victorian chesterfield.”

He acknowledged the worth of traditional materials and styles:

“A lot of architects have gone back to building with brick, once considered treason… And near Aspen, some Yale Architecture School students built a new school out of logs… The recycling of old buildings is becoming more and more attractive… In New York, [for instance,] one of the best libraries, the Jefferson Market, was a courthouse.”

Unfortunately he did not realise why tradition itself mattered. His obituary in The Washington Post stated:

“The modern movement, to Mr. Blake’s great regret, gave way to postmodernism, which he considered an abomination, and then to deconstructivism and other “isms.” In his view, they all failed to live up to the ideals that he believed were intrinsic to the modern movement.

“Wouldn’t it be refreshing to start from scratch — to start from the First Principles that were once so crystal-clear?” he mused in the closing line of his memoir.”

Even in recognising the ugliness born of modernism, Blake never lost faith in “the ideals that he believed were intrinsic to the modern movement.” To the true believer, the implementation must have been flawed but the ideology remains pure. He could not understand that true communities – who love God and each other – over many generations, create beautiful things to last; but an individual starting from “First Principles” cannot see far enough to do so.

Moreover, without God, all horrible things are possible.

A Blake design

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