Review: Hans Hollein and Postmodernism: Art and Architecture in Austria, 1958–1985, by Eva Branscome

Throughout the 1980s, one could barely open an architectural magazine without finding an article about Hans Hollein. He created two of the most memorable icons of postmodernism: the Strada Novissima at the Venice Biennale (1980) and his Haas Haus in Vienna (1987). These, along with the Pritzker Prize he received in 1985, made his name synonymous with postmodern architecture.

But stardom is fickle, and by the beginning of the 1990s, postmodernist star architects had become victims of their own success. The sensational Deconstructivist Architecture show at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1988 was the final blow. For postmodernism, it was curtains. More is the pity when...