Art | Tag (page 8)

Why Architecture Isn't Art (And Shouldn't Be)

March 08, 2016

In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion about what architecture's ultimate purpose might be - with answers ranging from the creation of form to the correction of societal ills. But according to Lance Hosey, perhaps the least useful definition currently in circulation is that architecture is "art." In this article, originally posted to his blog on the Huffington Post, Hosey argues that the concept of architecture as a form of art is not only misleading to the public, but also potentially damaging to society.

In July, I wrote that when architects use the bodies of specific women such as Marilyn Monroe or Beyoncé as "inspiration" for buildings, they objectify both women and architecture. Many readers didn't like this: "Anyone complaining about where an artist gets thier [sic] inspiration dosn't [sic] understand what an artist or art is," protested one. "What's wrong with using the female form for artistic inspiration?" asked another; "I can think of nothing more beautiful." And another: "Music, Structures, Paintings, anything artistic is not degrading. It's beauty."

The message: Architecture is art, and where artists get their inspiration isn't up for debate, since it's personal to the artist.

Have Your Portrait Done in the Style of Your Favorite Architect-Artist with DeepArt

February 20, 2016

"Pardon my face," says designer Daniel Voshart in the opening to his latest blog post on Medium, "I’ve been throwing things into DeepArt’s algorithm for a few hours and the results are surprisingly good."

DeepArt is an online service created by Leon Gatys, Alexander Ecker and Matthias Bethge, Łukasz Kidziński and Michał Warchoł. It uses a neural network algorithm to combine the subject of one image with the style of another. It seems particularly adept at applying striking, abstract art styles to photographic images, which means that many of the twentieth century's most celebrated architect-artists are perfectly suited to it. So, if you've ever wondered what your portrait (or indeed anything else) might look like when drawn by Le Corbusier, Lebbeus Woods, or Daniel Libeskind, now might be the perfect time to find out. Voshart has kindly shared his examples of what DeepArt can do - read on to see more.

AD Classics: Palazzo Santa Sofia / The Ca d’Oro

February 15, 2016

Sitting on the northern bank of Venice's Grand Canal is a great house whose ornately carved marble facade only hints at its original splendor. The Palazzo Santa Sofia—or the Ca D’Oro (House of Gold), as it is also known—is one of the most notable examples of late Venetian Gothic architecture, which combined the existing threads of Gothic, Moorish, and Byzantine architecture into a unique aesthetic that symbolized the Venetian Republic’s cosmopolitan mercantile empire. Built to serve as the grand residence of wealthy Venetian businessman and politician Marin Contarini, the palazzo has seen a number of owners and renovations over its lifetime before ultimately coming to serve as a museum for medieval painting and sculpture.[1]

+ 5

The Spirit of Cities Captured in Collage

January 31, 2016

Sweden based visual artist, Anastasia Savinova, has created a series of collages that seek to capture the spirit of cities. Titled “Genius Loci,” her collages form a big house that is composed of many buildings characteristic of each city, visualizing the way of life, the atmosphere, and the feeling of each place. Photographs of architecture are the foundational components of her art work, representing the feeling as a whole.

+ 9

Chinese Artist Makes Bricks from Beijing's Smog

December 01, 2015

From the Bird’s Nest to the CCTV headquarters, for the past 100 days Chinese performance artist "Nut Brother" has been wandering the streets of Beijing collecting smog with an industrial vacuum so that he can eventually turn it into bricks. He has now began to form his bricks by mixing a combination of the collected "dust and smog" with clay. As he told Quartz, the project is meant to be a symbol. Read the whole story here.

Cy Twombly Painting Sells for $70.5 Million to Fund OMA's LA Synagogue Extension

November 12, 2015

#AuctionUpdate: Thousands of visitors came to view Cy Twombly's 'Untitled (New York City)', which sold moments ago in our #NY salesroom for a record-setting $70.5 million. The auction continues now – updates to come! #SothebysContemporary #Twombly #NewYorkCity

A video posted by Sotheby's (@sothebys) on Nov 11, 2015 at 5:19pm PST

OMA's first ever building for a religious institution will be constructed with a little help from one of the United States' greatest 20th century artists. In an auction at Sotheby's in New York yesterday, Cy Twombly's 1968 "Untitled (New York City)" - one of the artist's notable "Blackboard Paintings" - sold for $70.5 million, $30 million of which will be donated to LA's Wilshire Boulevard Temple by the painting's owner, Audrey Irmas, to fund the temple's OMA-designed extension.

As reported by the LA Times, the synagogue's new "Audrey Irmas Pavilion" has been designed to be "clearly in dialogue" with the 1929 Byzantine revival temple, and will be used in the celebration of weddings and bar mitzvahs, as well as for meetings, conferences, and gala events by other nonprofit groups. Though the design has not yet been unveiled, the pavilion is currently slated for a 2019 opening.

Happy Hour Design Studio: LEGO® Challenge

October 16, 2015

Let your inner designer out and explore the playful side of architecture at this hands-on program for adults. Join other kids at heart and build amazing structures with BSA Space’s LEGO® collection, while enjoying beer, wine, snacks, and conversation. This month’s session is inspired by Canstruction’s 2015 theme: get inspired by Boston!

Macau Architecture Promenade

October 13, 2015

This coming October, the international month of architecture, BABEL is launching a new project: Macau Architecture Promenade. MAP opening is schedule for 10/10 at 6.30 at the Creative Albergue and it will last until 1/11. MAP is a month long celebration of Architecture, and its relations to other arts in the public space. MAP celebrates urban culture, experimentation and innovative practices in order to inspire new ways of thinking about the city.

White on White: Churches of Rural New England

October 02, 2015

Presenting 40 images by Boston photographer and trained architect, Steve Rosenthal, this exhibition showcases rural New England churches of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From the early meetinghouse through the changing patterns of Greek and Gothic revivals, Rosenthal’s black and white depictions will trace the evolution of church styles in New England and capture what remains of these architecture gems around the region. The exhibition is organized by Historic New England.

BSA Space Announces Canstruction 2015

September 30, 2015

2015 marks the 20th Anniversary of Canstruction Boston. The 2015 theme is "Celebrate 20 years in Boston!" Canstruction Boston is a charity event and exhibition in which teams of Boston-area architects, engineers, contractors, designers and students compete to display colossal sculptures made out of canned goods. After the sculptures are dismantled, all the canned goods will be donated to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank in Lowell, Massachusetts.

The Best Structures of Burning Man 2015

September 14, 2015

A photo posted by Kyle Krieger (@kylekriegerhair) on Sep 10, 2015 at 9:22am PDT

It has been a week since the conclusion of this year's Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, Nevada, and images of its most imaginative structures are still surfacing. Even Bjarke Ingels has published a few of his favorite findings from the week-long event. Read on to see of the best structures and installations found at Burning Man 2015.

Exhibition: The Art of Architecture

August 24, 2015

On the 25th and 26th September The Gallery on the Corner in Battersea is opening its doors for the first solo exhibition of the Architectural Artist Minty Sainsbury.

Studying Architecture at Cambridge has not only influenced her choice of subject matter but has also taught her to draw with an eye for detail and a spatial understanding of composition.

Part of the exhibition will be a series of street views in which the building in focus is drawn in rich detail and the contextual surroundings are left as silhouettes. By concealing the focal building behind the faceless structures, Sainsbury references a visual experience that you would experience yourself walking in the city streets.

Architecture is the Protagonist in These Intricate Illustrations

August 08, 2015

Through her project "Cities and Memory - the Architecture and the City" Architect Marta Vilarinho de Freitas has created a set of illustrations that focus on architecture and the fantasy worlds it can create. The project arose from her thesis on “Communicating Art” at the Superior Artística School in Porto, and seeks to tell stories of the “cities and the life that inhabits in each of them.”

View more images and a text from the architect after the break.

+ 9

Inés Esnal’s Prism Installation Brings Vivid Colors and Optical Illusions to NYC Lobby

July 11, 2015

Artist and architect Inés Esnal’s Prism installation uses colorful elastic rope to form triangular spaces that filter light into the lobby of a new residential building in New York.

The installation's vivid colors and optical illusions provide a bold contrast to the concrete walls.

View images and learn more about the project after the break.

+ 12

Gallery: Assemble's Brutalist Playground Opens at RIBA

June 11, 2015

An exploration of "post-war design for play," The Brutalist Playground by Assemble and artist Simon Terrill has opened to the public at RIBA's Architecture Gallery. The immersive installation draws on a number of historic London estates - Churchill Gardens, Pimlico; the Brunel Estate, Paddington and the Brownfield Estate in Poplar - where playgrounds were once made from concrete and cast into sculptural forms to offer children an abstract landscape for play. Now deemed unsafe, these playgrounds no longer exist. Thus, The Brutalist Playground was envisaged to explore play, "the Brutalist way."

Images of the complete installation, after the break.

+ 15

Brooklyn Academy of Music Showcases 5 Murals by Michael Graves

May 29, 2015

Brooklyn Academy of Music is showcasing five murals by the late Michael Graves as part of the institution's permanent visual art collection. All completed in 1974, the paintings were originally commissioned by Charles Gwathmey - one of the New York Five, along with Graves. And, as the New York Times reports, their "heightened use of color and ornamentation" portray a "general shift away from minimalism." Read more about the murals, here.

Inside studioMET’s Studio for LEGO Artist Sean Kenney

May 26, 2015

With a budget of less than $250,000, studioMET Architects was tasked with transforming a 4,000-square-foot parking garage with a leaky roof and no plumbing, gas or electricity, into a modern and open studio space for LEGO artist Sean Kenney.

Due to Kenney’s constantly changing scale of work, which can range from a life-sized sculpture to a celebrity portrait, the studio needed to have a flexible workspace. The result is a front area -- containing a desk, lounge and kitchenette -- that can be easily transformed into a loading dock. The workspace also includes a video/stop animation studio and woodshop as well as a storage room for sculptures.

View photos of the studio space in Brooklyn after the break.

+ 24

Lonely Houses: Sejkko’s Surreal Photos of Traditional Portuguese Homes

May 25, 2015

The son of Portuguese immigrants in Venezuela, Manuel Pita, also known as “Sejkko,” is a scientist and photographer who expresses his creativity on Instagram. In his latest series, “Lonely Houses,” Sejkko’s surreal photos capture the traditional houses of Portugal, edited to “bring them as close as possible to the way my eyes see them,” he explains.

+ 12

Art: The Latest Architecture and News