Beauty and the beasts

By Alain de Botton Alain de Botton 2006-03-25T00:00:00

Source: Illustration by Paul Caplan. Photograph of Villa Savoye: FLC/DACS

The kitsch excesses of the Victorians made decoration a dirty word, and the triviality of many early postmodernists didn't do the cause any favours either. But the austerity of modernism has held sway long enough. It's time to decriminalise ornament.

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