Modern Architecture + Tiki Obsession = ??? - General Tiki

B bigbrotiki Tiki Socialite Tiki Island, above the Silverlake Joined: Mar 25, 2002 Posts: 11621	B bigbrotiki Posted posted on Mon, Jul 23, 2012 4:49 PM As you said, mid-century modernism and Tiki go together well, but you can forget about Mies, Neutra, and those name architects. Those guys where way too high-brow to ever pay any attention to Tiki, which was a purely populist, middle-brow style. Even forefather Frank Lloyd Wright denied that many of his early works had anything to do with Mayan Revival style (though they clearly did). That's why Tiki was never appreciated and defined as a genre in its own day: The culture critics and "taste police" pooh poohed it as popular kitsch. I divide Tiki into two basic aesthetics, which both work, depending on your personal taste: There is the classic multi-layered, floor-to-ceiling Tiki style that can be seen in many home bars nowadays: Tropical materials and woodcarvings everywhere, a horn-of-plenty of South Seas paraphernalia ....and then there is the "Tiki Modern" look of select primitive art pieces, standing by themselves in a modernist environment, placed so that their primitive, organic forms contrast but augment the clean, sleek lines of a modernist exterior/interior. The stripped-down glass box house really had only one use close to Tiki, that of a display case for the sophisticated "primitive art" collector. "Tiki Modern" style was much more exuberant, along the lines of Googie, with amoeba shapes and jetting A-frames, and its architect heroes were the likes of Armet & Davis and Pat DeRosa.

As you said, mid-century modernism and Tiki go together well, but you can forget about Mies, Neutra, and those name architects. Those guys where way too high-brow to ever pay any attention to Tiki, which was a purely populist, middle-brow style. Even forefather Frank Lloyd Wright denied that many of his early works had anything to do with Mayan Revival style (though they clearly did). That's why Tiki was never appreciated and defined as a genre in its own day: The culture critics and "taste police" pooh poohed it as popular kitsch.

I divide Tiki into two basic aesthetics, which both work, depending on your personal taste:
There is the classic multi-layered, floor-to-ceiling Tiki style that can be seen in many home bars nowadays:

Tropical materials and woodcarvings everywhere, a horn-of-plenty of South Seas paraphernalia

....and then there is the "Tiki Modern" look of select primitive art pieces, standing by themselves in a modernist environment, placed so that their primitive, organic forms contrast but augment the clean, sleek lines of a modernist exterior/interior.

The stripped-down glass box house really had only one use close to Tiki, that of a display case for the sophisticated "primitive art" collector. "Tiki Modern" style was much more exuberant, along the lines of Googie, with amoeba shapes and jetting A-frames, and its architect heroes were the likes of Armet & Davis and Pat DeRosa.

Post #645286 by bigbrotiki on Mon, Jul 23, 2012 4:49 PM