Architecture, as they say is - or traditionally has been - "the mother of the arts." To name but three among her most gifted children: pedimental sculpture from the Parthenon, stained glass from Chartres Cathedral, and church frescoes from the early Renaissance. Other children (more numerous if less talented) include mosaics, tapestry, woodwork, and metalsmithery. They all form an unbroken line, so the story goes, until the birth of Modernism in the early twentieth century, when architecture is said to have embraced structure and function, become barren, and remained without artistic issue for nearly seventy years.
Since the late sixties, however, American "art and architecture has been coming together more and more." Yet, this coming together again is one with a difference: "Unlike the architectural art of the past, traditionally secondary to architecture, today's architectural art retains its integrity, its own power." Often, this new work is created for a specific environment. Less often, artist and architect integrate their work right from the inception of a project. In either case, the result is claimed to be "a new synergetic relationship, a charged dialogue between the work of art and its context." That bold claim is made by Architectural Art: Affirming the Design Relationship--a polemical and problematic exhibition organized by the American Craft Museum in affiliation with the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Modern Challenge
Guest curator for Architectural Art is architect and architectural historian Robert Jensen. Asserts Jensen: "The exhibition substantiates the premise that the separation of art and architecture, characteristic of Modernism in the twentieth century is now being fundamentally challenged. Now is the right time for this exhibition, because only now is there a critical mass of work we can show and examine."
Concentrating on work produced in the United States since 1980, Architectural Art is presented in four sections:
1.historical antecedents in New York City; 2.site-specific work by eleven artists; 3.major projects by four collaborations of established artists and architects; 4.commissioned "enclosures" by four collaborations of emerging architects and artists.
Containing over one hundred pieces, the exhibition not only fills all four floors inside the new Craft Museum (Fox and Fowle Architects, 1987), it spills onto the sidewalk outside it. Architectural Art lacks a catalogue; instead, the museum has published A Discourse. Edited by Jensen, this document includes a lead commentary by the editor and thirteen interpretive essays by a variety of artist, architects, academics, and public art administrators. The fifty-two-page Discourse also includes a checklist of the objects, models, maquettes, photographs, and drawings in the exhibition. In addition, an expanded June/July issue of American Crafts magazine has been devoted entirely to the exhibition theme. The museum has also organized a lecture series, as well as walking and bus tours to selected sites around town.
The exhibition is a commendable effort. Regrettably, however the organizational effort put into Architectural Art does not pay commensurate critical dividends. This is because the exhibition never
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