A POST-MODERN DREAMSCAPE by Kristin Nord New Canaan, Connecticut - It is during the fallow months in New Canaan, when the trees are a constellation of trunks and branches, that many of the town’s modernist houses come readily into view. Boasting one of the most significant collections of such homes in the United States, New Canaan now counts 91 structures still standing from the estimated 118 that were built from 1939 through 1979. At the center of this collection are works by “The Harvard Five,” a band of architects whose only similarity, truly, was that they each studied under Walter Gropius at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Philip Johnson used his New Canaan estate as his personal archi- tectural laboratory. Marcel Breuer and one-time students Eliot Noyes, John Johansen and Landis Gores set up shop for what became an architec- tural industry. Many other … [Read more...] about NEW CANAAN, CONNECTICUT
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PEDAGOGY AND PLACE
100 YEARS OF ARCHITECTURE AT YALE by Kristin Nord New Haven, Connecticut - Later this spring, after almost 20 years, Robert A.M. Stern will be passing the torch as the dean of Yale’s School of Architecture to Deborah Berke, architect and founder of the New York-based Deborah Berke Partners. The exhibition on view through May 7 in the school’s Rudolph Hall gallery was developed in large part from a renowned spring seminar taught by Stern that looked at various studies of architecture — and the at-times tempestuous relationship with the building in which that education has taken place. The exhibition draws upon a large body of work, including video with cameos of the school’s legendary teachers and examples of student projects, fanning out to trace the chronological development and spaces of more than 30 other major schools of architecture throughout the world. Stern’s … [Read more...] about PEDAGOGY AND PLACE
ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2015
THE ART WORLD IS HOT, HOT, HOT by Suzanne Volmer South Beach Miami, Florida - Upon entering Art Basel Miami Beach, one was met with Rosemarie Trockel’s large, abstract, reptilian-looking wall installation, a monochromatic work with scales sprung slightly from the wall in low relief. The trends of relief and monochrome echoed as one progressed through the hallways and booths ahead. Although the color vibrancy for which Miami is known was retained, the current of its profusion was less. Trockel’s swift amplification of textural influences and physical movement was installed adjacent to a large photographic print by Andreas Gursky. Placed at the fore on the outer booth wall of Sprüth Magers Gallery, both works started a dialogue of substrates reflecting trends later evident amid this year’s overall fair content. The artworks explored the idea of process and texture informing … [Read more...] about ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2015
New And Improved at Smith College Museum of Art
Making Artwork More Accessible at Smith by John Paul Stapleton Northampton, Mass. - From the new Whitney Museum of American Art building in New York City to our semi-local Peabody Essex Museum expansion project, renovations seemed to be the hot decision for 2015. The Smith College Museum of Art joined this league with their four-year renovation project that was of officially completed this past fall. Margi Caplan, the museum’s membership and marketing director, showed me around the museum to point out what has changed in their two-phase project. In addition to updated lighting and the removal of the main exhibition gallery’s staircase, the whole observer experience has changed. “We thought about museum methodology and pedagogy,” Caplan said. “The museum’s collection works well, but wasn’t up to date. As a teaching museum, what we wanted to do was make the work … [Read more...] about New And Improved at Smith College Museum of Art
THINKING SMALL AND LIVING LARGE
TINY HOUSES AT FULLER CRAFT by Brian Goslow Brockton, Mass. - For most of his life, Derek “Deek” Diedricksen has had an affinity for small structures. When he was 9 or 10, his father, at the time a high school woodworking teacher, gave him a copy of “Tiny Tiny Houses” by Lester Walker, an architect from Woodstock, New York. The 1987 book has become a guiding light not only for his life, but thousands of others around the world who have used it as inspiration for creating their own special miniature living spaces. More recently, they’ve become attractions at galleries and museums, including the Empty Spaces Project in Putnam, Conn., and this February, the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Mass. “The art is shelter, but also art that you can walk into that’s around you, which is pretty darn cool, I think,” Diedricksen said. “People always have this affinity for being in these … [Read more...] about THINKING SMALL AND LIVING LARGE
JAY SCHADLER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY by Greg Morell Portsmouth, New Hampshire - Feasting and drinking are two of my favorite pastimes, but they are not usually the subjects of contemporary artists. Jay Schadler, however, is not your usual artistic practitioner. A photo-illustrator in a unique niche, Schadler, a Michigan native, first earned a law degree at Syracuse University, but quickly left the law behind and began his adventure as a world-traveling special correspondent for ABC News with a gift for storytelling. He hitchhiked across America, telling the story of the Everyman for his “Looking for America” series. Schadler’s 32-year career as a globetrotting television journalist sent him off to remote locations in Africa, India and Uzbekistan, but his most harrowing assignment was chasing the Ebola Virus in the jungle canopy of Gabon. In his eclectic studio/gallery in … [Read more...] about JAY SCHADLER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE