Pevsner's Kunstgeographie

Nikolaus Pevsner (1902–83) is widely recognized as one of the twentieth century’s most prolific and influential historians of architecture. In Britain, Pevsner was for many years a household name largely due to his monumental architectural survey series, The Buildings of Britain, and his numerous BBC radio broadcasts. ¹ Internationally he is remembered for such seminal books as the Pioneers of the Modern Movement (1936) and An Outline of European Architecture (1942), and as series editor of the “Pelican History of Art,” all of the titles of which remain in print. ² During his lifetime, and since his passing, Pevsner has also been the subject of a great deal of criticism, which arrived in three broad waves. The first emerged from his treatment as an émigré scholar in Britain. As a German he was criticized for his apparent lack of understanding of British cultural tradition, though more often than not, this reflected a nationalist chauvinism. ³ Secondly, towards the end of his career Pevsner attracted much criticism for his promotion of a teleological view of the development of architectural style, which privileged ideas of historical progress and Zeitgeist and the belief that history writing could also be boldly operative – an approach found most notably in his study and promotion of architectural modernism. ⁴ More recently, several studies have highlighted Pevsner’s attitudes towards the geographical basis of art and architecture, some of which have conspired to bring his oeuvre into further disrepute for its own seemingly nationalist undertones. ⁵