The Death and Life of the Total Work of Art – Henry van de Velde and the Legacy of a Modern Concept

2 Casabella-Continuità 237 (March 1960), monographic issue dedicated to
Henry van de Velde.
Henry van de Velde
The monographic issue on van de Velde is compiled and edited mainly by Rogers
himself. It begins with his long editorial “Henry van de Velde o dell’evoluzione”
(Henry van de Velde, or the evolution), which immediately identifies the fundamental
approach to the reader 27 —namely, to recognize the history of an epoch in
the direct life experiences of an artist, and thus to derive chapters in the history of
modern architecture from the interpretation of Henry van de Velde: “In his long
life”—Rogers writes—“the most important artistic movements of a century mold
him, imbue his spirit, affect him, derive from him, or are devised by him: Naturalism,
Symbolism, Impressionism, Expressionism, Rationalism, and maybe even a
little Surrealism.” 28 According to Rogers, influencing the “environment”—Rogers
170 The Notion of the Total Work of Art and Italian Building Culture after World War II