"...I have discovered the following truth and present it to the
world: cultural evolution is equivalent to the removal of ornament from
articles in daily use. I thought I was giving the world a new source of
pleasure with this; it did not thank me for it. People were sad and
despondent. What oppressed them was the realization that no new
ornament could be created. What every Negro can do, what all nations
and ages have been able to do, why should...
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"...I have discovered the following truth and present it to the
world: cultural evolution is equivalent to the removal of ornament from
articles in daily use. I thought I was giving the world a new source of
pleasure with this; it did not thank me for it. People were sad and
despondent. What oppressed them was the realization that no new
ornament could be created. What every Negro can do, what all nations
and ages have been able to do, why should that be denied to us, men of
the nineteenth century? What humanity had achieved in earlier millennia
without decoration has been carelessly tossed aside and consigned to
destruction. We no longer possess carpenters' benches from the
Carolingian period, but any trash that exhibited the merest trace of
decoration was collected and cleaned up, and splendid palaces built to
house it. People walked sadly around the showcases, ashamed of their
won impotence. Shall every age have a style of its own and our age
alone be denied one? By style they meant decoration. But I said: Don't
weep! Don't you see that the greatness of our age lies in its inability
to produce a new form of decoration? We have conquered ornament, we
have won through to lack of ornamentation. Look, the time is nigh,
fulfillment awaits us. Soon the streets of the town will glisten like
with walls. Like Zion, the holy city, the metropolis of heaven. Then we
shall have fulfillment."
— Adolf Loos. from Ludwig Mnz and Gustav Konstler. Adolf Loos: Pioneer of Modern Architecture. p226-227.
