Subscribe to download
Hosies Hotel

A Mid-Century Hotel in Melbourne, Australia, feauturing a modernist mural depicting 3 (beer) glasses being cheers'd together.



Hosie's Hotel, designed by Mussen Mackay & Potter, and completed in 1956, is important at the State level for
architectural and historic reasons.

Historically, Hosie's is notable as amongst the very first of the new wave of high-rise construction in the city
following the lifting of construction restrictions in 1953, in striking contrast to the pre-war, largely 19th century
development that provided its context. It was one of the few commercial projects especially built in anticipation of
the 1956 Olympics, an event seen as catapulting Melbourne into the modern post war era.

The Richard Beck mural on the eastern exterior wall of the former Hosies Hotel is significant.
The work is the first major abstract mural produced in Melbourne and occupies a most prominant city corner. In many ways it is a pre-curser to the current government-sponsored program to integrate public art into the city streets and buildings. The mural forms an early example of an artist successfully reinterpreting the Art/Architecture relationship in the age of mechanical building techniques and the functionalist theory of architecture.

The mural presents a group of clean and strong shapes integrating well into the hotel design. It has its own
unmistakable presence as an artwork, but at the same time Beck has taken full account of the building and its
location in creating the work. It operates very well with the light, machine-like structure the building suggests.
Unfortunately, recent renovations have made it harder to see this important aspect of the work, but in spite of
this, the general quality of the relationship has been maintained.



All my assets are free for you to use, and it's payment enough just see people subscribing and using them, but they do take a lot of my free time to make and upload, so any small donation you might be able to make really helps me continue to make more, as does a rating or thumbs up!
^^^
[url][www.paypal.me]