Painting Into Architecture: Shared Speculations On the Nature of Modern Space, 1900 to Present

3 units

A graduate seminar exploring the rich tradition within the Modern arts since 1900, where shared concepts of space, order and perception have been engaged in parallel developments in the pedagogy and practice of painting and architecture. The major part of the course will consist of the examination of these shared principles through their 'educational deployment' in selected schools of art and architecture around the world, as well as in their 'practical implications and applications,' exemplified through a series of selected pairings of architects and painters, from the early Modern period and from contemporary practice. Three types of parallels between individual painters and architects are proposed to be found with the Modern tradition: 'parallels in practice,' an actual relationship of contemporary equals; 'parallels across time,' an actual albeit one-way relationship of chronologically distant practitioners; 'parallels of principle,' a purely speculative relationship of contemporary equals on non-crossing paths. Introductory lectures and required readings will examine the pattern of shared principles through their 'critical engagement' in the writings of Jose Ortega y Gassett, Sigfried Giedion, Colin Rowe, Robert Slutzky, Yves Alain Bois, and John Berger, among others. Following the introductory lectures, each class will consist of a student presentation of 'educational deployment,' and two presentations of 'practical implications and applications' (artist/architect pairings), one by a student and one by the professor. Among the painters and architects to be examined are Le Corbusier, Paul Klee, Carlo Scarpa, Richard Diebenkorn, Steven Holl, Ben Nicholson, David Chipperfield, Richard Paul Lohse, Aldo van Eyck, Robert Slutzky, Peter Eisenman, Georges Braque, Alvar Aalto, Josef Albers, Louis Kahn, Piet Mondrian, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, Sean Scully, Herzog and Du Meuron, Mario Radice, Giuseppe Terragni, Fritz Glarner, Henri Ciriani, etc.. Students, working in teams of two, will be responsible for researching and analyzing one example of 'practical implications and applications,' and one example of 'educational deployment' (from list provided0; preparing two in-class presentations, and providing summary documentation. Open to graduate students in architecture, art, and art history. Fulfills Graduate Architecture History/Theory elective requirement; enrollment limited to 20. The course, and the syllabus of examples that will be engaged in the classes, originates in the book-length study, Spatial Speculations, currently being written by Professor McCarter.