With its lack of ornamentation, and clear glass revealing its mechanism, this recently acquired Clock epitomizes the design philosophy of the Viennese architect Adolf Loos. Loos rejected innovation for its own sake. He believed in either using traditional vernacular forms for furnishings, or, having produced a "pure" form determined by function, in altering it only slightly over time. Although Loos was active at the same time as the Wiener Werkstätte, the design collaborative that elevated decorative arts to the status of fine arts, his aesthetic was based on abolishing all embellishment in the name of purity, truth, and functionality. Clock, made for the Vienna apartment of factory owner Arthur Friedmann between 1906 and 1907, is the first object to enter LACMA's collection that represents this contrasting approach to modernism.
