Clean Machines at the Modern

Lawrence, Sidney. "Clean Machines at the Modern." Art in America Feb. 1984: 127 f.

According to Tomiko Thiel, " Lawrence's article described the evolution of the idea of functionalism, showing how the Museum of Modern Art in New York had elevated the Bauhaus emphasis on "material and proportion rather than applied ornament" to serve as the exclusive canon of good design and good taste. In MoMA's dictum I recognized the source of our own ideas on design: "it was precisely the inner workings of mechanical objects that offered an appropriate standard and inspiration for contemporary design.... Functional design should expose and clarify function, not disguise it.""[1]