The Modern Interior: A Space, a Place or a Matter of Taste?

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article provides an overview of the work that has addressed the subject of the "modern interior," showing how it has been discussed within a wide variety of contexts, including that of architectural and design modernism (which emphasized the concept of "space"); that of the social, cultural, and psychological links between interiors and their modern inhabitants (which focused on the idea of "place"); and that of the decorative arts (which prioritized the importance of "taste"). It offers a historiographical approach to the "modern interior" and seeks to demonstrate both the subject's fundamental multidisciplinarity and its inherent complexity. The article suggests that the study of the modern interior must embrace that complexity, recognizing and acknowledging the importance of both modernism and modernity, as well as that of the roles of "interiority" and "representation," both visual and literary.KEYWORDS: moderninteriorspaceplacetaste