Axel Vervoordt Gallery is proud to present a large group show entitled, The Crime of Adolf Loos, curated by British curator, writer and advisor Alistair Hicks. Since the beginning of the 20th century, in a claim to modernity, ‘unnecessary’ decoration was removed from any work of art and architecture. Today, this idea seems obsolete. Most of the artists included in this show believe that it’s possible to be modern and embrace ornament.
In his 1908 essay “Ornament and Crime”, Adolf Loos, declared that you could not be decorative and modern. He makes no good arguments for this outrageous claim, just asserts it. Yet this view of Modernism has under-pinned the last hundred years of mainstream Western art history. This exhibition is devoted to contemporary artists who are resisting Loos' edict. They are finding their own balance between simplicity and ornament. The aim of this show is not only to make people re-examine their prejudice against ornament but rather to show that a curved line is every bit as revealing about the way we think and feel as a straight line.