Eric de Maré: between the functional and the beautiful

Abstract

Eric de Maré’s photographs were very widely published in post-war Britain and his images may be seen to have influenced a generation of architects. Perhaps more than any polemic or lengthy rationale they expanded the possibilities of architectural design; his pioneering work on the photography of early industrial buildings seen in ‘The Functional Tradition’, published as an article in The Architectural Review in 1957 and subsequently as a book, helped to create a new language at a time ready for such change.De Maré was part of the wider architectural culture of the Architectural Press and The Architectural Review, and acknowledged the influence of the long-time proprietor de Cronin Hastings as well as other contributors such as John Piper, Gordon Cullen and J.M. Richards. There are clear links with another major position in British architectural work of that period, the ‘New Brutalism': the Smithsons’ ideas of honesty of form and materials are very close to the lessons which were drawn from de Maré's photographic evidence, whilst drawing attention to the ordinary and unvalued was the common ground basic to both positions. More than this, his images of worn surfaces and ageing structures are informed by an acute architectural sensibility. De Maré's work represents a repudiation of the utopianism of Modernist practice and theory, in favour of a new kind of beauty, redemptive in the harshly utilitarian modern world.