Benson T. et al. Expressionist utopias: paradise, metropolis, architectural fantasy. Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art , 1993. — 336 p.Timothy O. Benson — Fantasy and functionality: the fate of utopia
Reinhold Heller — Bridge to utopia : the Brücke as utopian experiment
David Frisby — Social theory, the metropolis, and expressionism
Iain Boyd Whyte — The expressionist sublime
Anton Kaes — Metropolis : city, cinema, modernityThe notion of Utopia exists in every culture, capturing shared dreams and common goals. Meaning paradoxically both "no place" and "a good place,"
utopia also challenges humanity to bring this dream into existence. If all the arts offer a realm of fantasy where Utopian ideals can be embodied and shared, then architecture is especially captivating, in part because it provides the communal spaces of cultural identity— meeting rooms, religious structures, and government buildings— and presents the opportunity to conceive and build a new environment for humanity.This volume was prepared in conjunction with the exhibition Expressionist Utopias: Paradise, Metropolis, Architectural Fantasy, organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibition explores how the optimistic and forward-looking themes of utopia and fantasy sustained faith among artists and architects in the power of art to shape a better world during the tumultuous era surrounding World War I in Germany. When the construction of buildings there became nearly impossible, paper became the medium of the unbridled imagination. At the center of this activity were the "utopian architects" of the Working Council for Art and the Crystal Chain, whose architectural inventions ranged from ideal agrarian communities to futuristic worlds dependent on miraculous advances in technology for their creation or discovery.
The exhibition's curator, Timothy O. Benson, presents the diverse manifestations of the utopia metaphor in its progression throughout Expressionism from arcadian to manmade Utopias using selections from the realms of paradise, metropolis, architectural fantasy, anti-utopia, and film and stage.