buildings Article The Impact of Avant-Garde Art on Brutalist Architecture Wojciech Niebrzydowski Faculty of Architecture, Białystok University of Technology, ul. Oskara Sosnowskiego 11, 15-893 Białystok, Poland; [email protected] Abstract: Brutalism was an architectural trend that emerged after World War II, and in the 1960s and 1970s, it spread throughout the world. The development of brutalist architecture was greatly influenced by post-war avant-garde art. The greatest impact on brutalism was exerted by such avant-garde trends as art autre, art brut, and musique concrète. Architects were most inspired by the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Schaeffer, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Nigel Henderson. The main aim of the research was to identify and characterize the most important ideas and principles common to avant-garde art and brutalist architecture. Due to the nature of the research problem and its complexity, the method of historical interpretative studies was used. The following research techniques were employed: analysis of the literature, comparative analysis, multiple case studies, descriptive analysis, and studies of buildings in situ. The research found the most important common ideas guiding brutalist architects and avant-garde artists: rejection of previous principles and doctrines; searching for the rudiments; mirroring the realities of everyday life; glorification of ordinariness; sincerity of the material, structure, and function; use of raw materials and rough textures. Citation: Niebrzydowski, W. The Keywords: art; construction engineering; cubature architecture; design method; design paradigms; Impact of Avant-Garde Art on brutalist architecture Brutalist Architecture. Buildings 2021, 11, 290. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings11070290 1. Introduction Academic Editors: Oleg Kapli´nski, It is hard to imagine greater integration of art and engineering than in brutalist archi- Agata Bonenberg, tecture, especially in its beginnings. This connection did not only concern the architectural Wojciech Bonenberg and space, into which works of art (paintings, sculptures, tapestries) were introduced, nor Marco Lucchini only buildings decorated with ornaments, reliefs, and mosaics. Brutalists brought archi- tecture into an existential relationship with art that went far beyond the mere function Received: 10 June 2021 of beautification. In brutalism, integration between architecture and art took place at the Accepted: 2 July 2021 most basic level. It was the level of rudimentary ideas, common foundations, the most Published: 4 July 2021 deeply rooted principles and values from which architecture and art grew. These ideas also concerned strictly engineering issues, such as construction, materials, technical elements, Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral and installations. Artist and architects considered their meaning, aesthetics, and ways of with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- designing and exposing. iations. Brutalism was the architectural style that spread throughout the world after World War II. It reached the culminating point in the 1960s and faded away at the beginning of the 1980s. The architects who contributed most to the development of brutalism were Alison Smithson, Peter Smithson and Le Corbusier. They all collaborated with artists but also created art themselves. Knowledge of brutalist architecture is not sufficiently deepened. Copyright: © 2021 by the author. While the most famous works of the most eminent architects have been analyzed many Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. times, the issues related to the theory of this style require further research. In particular, This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and the relationship between brutalism and the ideas of avant-garde art should be explained. conditions of the Creative Commons When reviewing the state of the research field, significant publications and their au- Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// thors should be identified. In this context, it should be stated that the most important creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ researcher of brutalist architecture was Reyner Banham. He was at the same time a pro- 4.0/). moter, and even a co-creator, of the New Brutalism doctrine. Two of Banham’s publications Buildings 2021, 11, 290. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11070290 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings Buildings 2021, 11, 290 2 of 30 are of fundamental importance—the article “The New Brutalism”, which appeared in December 1955 in “The Architectural Review” [1] and the book “The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?” [2], which was published 11 years later. The analyses contained in the article concerned the beginnings of brutalism and included, among others, its definition. The book was largely their continuation and extension. Despite the passage of time, it is to this day the most important study on both brutalist architecture and the doctrine of New Brutalism. In the short chapter “Brute, non and other art”, Banham mentioned the influence of avant-garde art on brutalism [2] (pp. 61–67). He also presented the issues of cooperation between architects and artists in articles about two significant exhibitions: “Parallel of Life and Art” [3] and “This is Tomorrow” [4]. Tight relationships between brutalist architects and representatives of various arts took place within the Independent Group. The literature on the work of this group is quite rich. The publications of Anne Massey, including the book “The Independent Group: Modernism and Mass Culture in Britain, 1945–1959” from 1995 [5], as well as a monograph edited by David Robbins, “The Independent Group: Postwar Britain and the Aesthetics of Plenty” from 1990 [6], should be mentioned here. An important publication is also the book “As Found: The Discovery of the Ordinary” by Claude Lichtenstein and Thomas Schregenberger, which was published in 2001 [7]. The authors presented the idea of As Found, which is essential to both brutalist architecture and avant-garde painting, sculpture, photography, and film. In research on brutalism, the publications of its precursors are important. Alison and Peter Smithson were involved in intensive publishing work [8–11]. In the 1953 article “House in Soho”, they used the term “New Brutalism” for the first time [12]. Significant publications on the brutalist phase of Le Corbusier’s work were books from the “Oeuvre complete” series, especially volumes 5, 6 and 7 [13–15]. The achievements and ideas of other important architects related to brutalism are presented in monographs. Books about the following architects helped obtain research material: Denys Lasdun [16], James Stirling and James Gowan [17], Ern˝oGoldfinger [18], Louis I. Kahn [19], Josep Lluís Sert [20], Paul Rudolph [21], John M. Johansen [22], Kenzo Tange [23], Kunio Maekawa [24], Gottfried Böhm [25], Sigurd Lewerentz [26], Vilanova Artigas [27], Lina Bo Bardi [28], and Balkrishna Doshi [29]. The works and ideas of avant-garde artists are also presented in individual mono- graphs or articles. These include books about two of the artists most connected with the New Brutalism doctrine, Nigel Henderson [30] and Eduardo Paolozzi [31]. The au- thors of articles relating to the influence of individual artists on brutalist architecture are Ben Highmore [32,33], Hadas A. Steiner [34,35], Alex Kitnick [36], and Dirk van den Heuvel [37]. The analysis of the current state of the research field has shown that so far, only fragmentary research has been carried out on selected issues, artists, and architects. There is a lack of studies dealing with the issue of the influence of ideas of avant-garde art on brutalist architecture in a holistic manner. The most important artistic ideas in this respect should be identified, characterized, and systematized. The research should also go beyond the theory aspect and include practice: architectural forms, building structure, architectural elements and details, and textures. It should be shown that architectural solutions show similarity, or even identity, with artistic and architectural ideas. Therefore, this article will present the fundamental ideas and assumptions of avant-garde trends in the art of the post-World War II period. It will be proved that the precursors of brutalist architecture not only adopted these ideas but also co-created them. Artists used the common creative principles in their works of art, music, and literature, and architects used them in their architectural doctrines and buildings. This ideological connection between certain trends in art and brutalist architecture is evident, especially in the formation of brutalism, i.e., in the 1950s and early 1960s. A special place here is occupied by the theoretical activity of British architects of the young generation, which is led by the Smithsons. They developed the architectural doctrine of Buildings 2021, 11, 290 3 of 30 New Brutalism, which left a deep mark on brutalist architecture. Another precursor of the brutalist style in architecture was Le Corbusier. His work and concepts were particularly analyzed in the study. Summarizing this introduction, the basic hypothesis should be emphasized. Post- war avant-garde art and brutalist architecture shared common ideas. These ideas and assumptions influenced the spatial, aesthetic, construction, and engineering solutions characteristic of brutalist buildings. The main purpose of the research was to identify and characterize the most important ideas and principles common to avant-garde