Great expectations : provisional modernism and the reception of J.J.P. Oud

Abstract

My dissertation analyzes the reception of the work of J.J.P. Oud (1890-1963), the modern Dutch architect, by examining the systems of dissemination and reception of modern European architecture from 1910 to 1953. Reception played an important role in Oud's career since he was internationally famous before World War II and practiced only as a provincial Dutch architect following the war. My study investigates three factors affecting his legacy: Oud's theoretical approach to architecture in his writings and projects-what I term his provisional modernism, its reception in the German and American modern movements before World War II, and its reception in the internationalized American modern movement and in the Dutch modern movement immediately following the war. My study argues that to understand Oud's legacy, one must examine not only his work but also the prevailing expectations of those who received his work. Using the reception theory of the literary theorist Hans Jauss and his concept of a "horizon of expectation," my study contends that Oud was celebrated where the nexus of his work met prevailing expectations, but was maligned when it did not. Seen through this lens of projection and reception, seeming incongruities such as those between his national versus international reception and his pre versus postwar celebrity are the result of exchanges among those who receive his work, and their expectations of Oud's architecture, and his response within these different contexts.