Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

De Berlín a Berlín, desde las viviendas para intelectuales construidas antes de 1914 hasta la Neue Nationalgalerie, última de sus obras maestras realizada en 1968, este libro analiza la vida y la obra de un maestro excepcional, un gigante equiparable a Frank Lloyd Wright y a Le Corbusier. La Bauhaus, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal y Nueva York, con el famoso Seagram Building sobre su pedestal de Park Avenue, serán las etapas de una carrera gloriosa. El autor, Jean-Louis Cohen, subraya las paradojas de esta personalidad fria, refinada, elegante y misteriosa: constructor del monumento a Rosa Luxemburg, llegará sin embargo a flirtear con el regimen nazi; autor de aquel célebre aforismo que dice "less is more" ("menos es más"), no dudará en utlizar en sus edificios los materiales más sofisticados.Nota: Escaneado del libro en papel original a doble página. This book (no dust jacket but printed cover HB) calls itself the "second and updated edition." However, I don't think the first edition (1994) ever made it here from France. This edition contains some beautiful color photos and a list "principal projects," so that not all of LMvdR's work is included. It is a much smaller tome than the two books produced in 2001 for the exhibits in New York (MoMA and Whitney): "Mies in America" and "Mies in Berlin" although they are not listed in the bibliography. Unfortunately, this volume suffers from the same graphic "design" flaw as the former (but not the latter): the pages are numbered in the edges of the spine, makling them almost impossible to find!