Simone Swan

Simone Swan

Author: Dennis Dollens

Publisher: Lumen Books

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13:

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Ecological adobe vault and dome construction methods based on Egyptian forms introduced into the American Southwest.


Book Synopsis Simone Swan by : Dennis Dollens

Download or read book Simone Swan written by Dennis Dollens and published by Lumen Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecological adobe vault and dome construction methods based on Egyptian forms introduced into the American Southwest.


Saving Abstraction

Saving Abstraction

Author: Ryan Dohoney

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-10-25

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0190948590

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Saving Abstraction: Morton Feldman, the de Menils, and the Rothko Chapel tells the story of the 1972 premier of Morton Feldman's music for the Rothko Chapel in Houston. Built in 1971 for "people of all faiths or none," the chapel houses 14 monumental paintings by famed abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, who had committed suicide only one year earlier. Upon its opening, visitors' responses to the chapel ranged from spiritual succor to abject tragedy--the latter being closest to Rothko's intentions. However the chapel's founders--art collectors and philanthropists Dominique and John de Menil--opened the space to provide an ecumenically and spiritually affirming environment that spoke to their avant-garde approach to Catholicism. A year after the chapel opened, Morton Feldman's musical work Rothko Chapel proved essential to correcting the unintentionally grave atmosphere of the de Menil's chapel, translating Rothko's existential dread into sacred ecumenism for visitors. Author Ryan Dohoney reconstructs the network of artists, musicians, and patrons who collaborated on the premier of Feldman's music for the space, and documents the ways collaborators struggled over fundamental questions about the emotional efficacy of art and its potential translation into religious feeling. Rather than frame the debate as a conflict of art versus religion, Dohoney argues that the popular claim of modernism's autonomy from religion has been overstated and that the two have been continually intertwined in an agonistic tension that animates many 20th-century artistic collaborations.


Book Synopsis Saving Abstraction by : Ryan Dohoney

Download or read book Saving Abstraction written by Ryan Dohoney and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-25 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saving Abstraction: Morton Feldman, the de Menils, and the Rothko Chapel tells the story of the 1972 premier of Morton Feldman's music for the Rothko Chapel in Houston. Built in 1971 for "people of all faiths or none," the chapel houses 14 monumental paintings by famed abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, who had committed suicide only one year earlier. Upon its opening, visitors' responses to the chapel ranged from spiritual succor to abject tragedy--the latter being closest to Rothko's intentions. However the chapel's founders--art collectors and philanthropists Dominique and John de Menil--opened the space to provide an ecumenically and spiritually affirming environment that spoke to their avant-garde approach to Catholicism. A year after the chapel opened, Morton Feldman's musical work Rothko Chapel proved essential to correcting the unintentionally grave atmosphere of the de Menil's chapel, translating Rothko's existential dread into sacred ecumenism for visitors. Author Ryan Dohoney reconstructs the network of artists, musicians, and patrons who collaborated on the premier of Feldman's music for the space, and documents the ways collaborators struggled over fundamental questions about the emotional efficacy of art and its potential translation into religious feeling. Rather than frame the debate as a conflict of art versus religion, Dohoney argues that the popular claim of modernism's autonomy from religion has been overstated and that the two have been continually intertwined in an agonistic tension that animates many 20th-century artistic collaborations.


Living Homes

Living Homes

Author: Suzi Moore

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Published: 2008-02-06

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780811862851

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Profiles more than twenty residences and other structures built in "natural design" style with adobe, rammed earth, straw bale, and reinvented materials, presenting color photos and the stories of their architects and owners.


Book Synopsis Living Homes by : Suzi Moore

Download or read book Living Homes written by Suzi Moore and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2008-02-06 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profiles more than twenty residences and other structures built in "natural design" style with adobe, rammed earth, straw bale, and reinvented materials, presenting color photos and the stories of their architects and owners.


Double Vision

Double Vision

Author: William Middleton

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 2018-03-27

Total Pages: 817

ISBN-13: 0375415432

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**NAMED ONE OF THE BEST ART BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY ARTNEWS** The first and definitive biography of the celebrated collectors Dominique and John de Menil, who became one of the greatest cultural forces of the twentieth century through groundbreaking exhibits of art, artistic scholarship, the creation of innovative galleries and museums, and work with civil rights. Dominique and John de Menil created an oasis of culture in their Philip Johnson-designed house with everyone from Marlene Dietrich and René Magritte to Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. In Houston, they built the Menil Collection, the Rothko Chapel, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel, the Cy Twombly Gallery, and underwrote the Contemporary Arts Museum. Now, with unprecedented access to family archives, William Middleton has written a sweeping biography of this unique couple. From their ancestors in Normandy and Alsace, to their own early years in France, and their travels in South America before settling in Houston. We see them introduced to the artists in Europe and America whose works they would collect, and we see how, by the 1960s, their collection had grown to include 17,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, rare books, and decorative objects. And here is, as well, a vivid behind-the-scenes look at the art world of the twentieth century and the enormous influence the de Menils wielded through what they collected and built and through the causes they believed in.


Book Synopsis Double Vision by : William Middleton

Download or read book Double Vision written by William Middleton and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 817 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **NAMED ONE OF THE BEST ART BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY ARTNEWS** The first and definitive biography of the celebrated collectors Dominique and John de Menil, who became one of the greatest cultural forces of the twentieth century through groundbreaking exhibits of art, artistic scholarship, the creation of innovative galleries and museums, and work with civil rights. Dominique and John de Menil created an oasis of culture in their Philip Johnson-designed house with everyone from Marlene Dietrich and René Magritte to Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. In Houston, they built the Menil Collection, the Rothko Chapel, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel, the Cy Twombly Gallery, and underwrote the Contemporary Arts Museum. Now, with unprecedented access to family archives, William Middleton has written a sweeping biography of this unique couple. From their ancestors in Normandy and Alsace, to their own early years in France, and their travels in South America before settling in Houston. We see them introduced to the artists in Europe and America whose works they would collect, and we see how, by the 1960s, their collection had grown to include 17,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, rare books, and decorative objects. And here is, as well, a vivid behind-the-scenes look at the art world of the twentieth century and the enormous influence the de Menils wielded through what they collected and built and through the causes they believed in.


Solar Adobe

Solar Adobe

Author: Albert Narath

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2024-03-05

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 1452970769

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How a centuries-old architectural tradition reemerged as a potential solution to the political and environmental crises of the 1970s Against the backdrop of a global energy crisis, a widespread movement embracing the use of raw earth materials for building construction emerged in the 1970s. Solar Adobe examines this new wave of architectural experimentation taking place in the United States, detailing how an ancient tradition became a point of convergence for issues of environmentalism, architecture, technology, and Indigenous resistance. Utilized for centuries by the Pueblo people of the American Southwest and by Spanish colonialists, adobe construction found renewed interest as various groups contended with the troubled legacies of modern architecture and an increasingly urgent need for sustainable design practices. In this period of critical experimentation, design networks that included architects, historians, counterculture communities, government weapons labs, and Indigenous activists all looked to adobe as a means to address pressing environmental and political issues. Albert Narath charts the unique capacities of adobe construction across a wide range of contexts, consistently troubling simple distinctions between traditional and modern technologies, high design and vernacular architecture. Drawing insightful parallels between architecture, environmentalism, and movements for Indigenous sovereignty, Solar Adobe stresses the importance of considering the history of the built environment in conjunction with architecture’s larger impact on the natural world.


Book Synopsis Solar Adobe by : Albert Narath

Download or read book Solar Adobe written by Albert Narath and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2024-03-05 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How a centuries-old architectural tradition reemerged as a potential solution to the political and environmental crises of the 1970s Against the backdrop of a global energy crisis, a widespread movement embracing the use of raw earth materials for building construction emerged in the 1970s. Solar Adobe examines this new wave of architectural experimentation taking place in the United States, detailing how an ancient tradition became a point of convergence for issues of environmentalism, architecture, technology, and Indigenous resistance. Utilized for centuries by the Pueblo people of the American Southwest and by Spanish colonialists, adobe construction found renewed interest as various groups contended with the troubled legacies of modern architecture and an increasingly urgent need for sustainable design practices. In this period of critical experimentation, design networks that included architects, historians, counterculture communities, government weapons labs, and Indigenous activists all looked to adobe as a means to address pressing environmental and political issues. Albert Narath charts the unique capacities of adobe construction across a wide range of contexts, consistently troubling simple distinctions between traditional and modern technologies, high design and vernacular architecture. Drawing insightful parallels between architecture, environmentalism, and movements for Indigenous sovereignty, Solar Adobe stresses the importance of considering the history of the built environment in conjunction with architecture’s larger impact on the natural world.


Making Houston Modern

Making Houston Modern

Author: Barrie Scardino Bradley

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2023-11-15

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1477329978

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Complex, controversial, and prolific, Howard Barnstone was a central figure in the world of twentieth-century modern architecture. Recognized as Houston’s foremost modern architect in the 1950s, Barnstone came to prominence for his designs with partner Preston M. Bolton, which transposed the rigorous and austere architectural practices of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to the hot, steamy coastal plain of Texas. Barnstone was a man of contradictions—charming and witty but also self-centered, caustic, and abusive—who shaped new settings that were imbued, at once, with spatial calm and emotional intensity. Making Houston Modern explores the provocative architect’s life and work, not only through the lens of his architectural practice but also by delving into his personal life, class identity, and connections to the artists, critics, collectors, and museum directors who forged Houston’s distinctive culture in the postwar era. Edited by three renowned voices in the architecture world, this volume situates Barnstone within the contexts of American architecture, modernism, and Jewish culture to unravel the legacy of a charismatic personality whose imaginative work as an architect, author, teacher, and civic commentator helped redefine architecture in Texas.


Book Synopsis Making Houston Modern by : Barrie Scardino Bradley

Download or read book Making Houston Modern written by Barrie Scardino Bradley and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2023-11-15 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Complex, controversial, and prolific, Howard Barnstone was a central figure in the world of twentieth-century modern architecture. Recognized as Houston’s foremost modern architect in the 1950s, Barnstone came to prominence for his designs with partner Preston M. Bolton, which transposed the rigorous and austere architectural practices of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to the hot, steamy coastal plain of Texas. Barnstone was a man of contradictions—charming and witty but also self-centered, caustic, and abusive—who shaped new settings that were imbued, at once, with spatial calm and emotional intensity. Making Houston Modern explores the provocative architect’s life and work, not only through the lens of his architectural practice but also by delving into his personal life, class identity, and connections to the artists, critics, collectors, and museum directors who forged Houston’s distinctive culture in the postwar era. Edited by three renowned voices in the architecture world, this volume situates Barnstone within the contexts of American architecture, modernism, and Jewish culture to unravel the legacy of a charismatic personality whose imaginative work as an architect, author, teacher, and civic commentator helped redefine architecture in Texas.


Marfa and Presidio County, Texas

Marfa and Presidio County, Texas

Author: Louise O'Connor and Cecilia Thompson

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2014-10-16

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 1499010087

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In their quest to complete their study and to share a better knowledge and understanding of a part of Texas that is still somewhat a frontier, authors Louise S. O'Connor and Cecilia Thompson reveal the first volume of their book Marfa and Presidio County, Texas: A Social, Economic, and Cultural Study 1937 to 2008 Volume One, 1937-1989. In a book that offers a closer look at the past and the present, readers will see how a place known as a tourist area and a center of contemporary art came to be. It returns to the pre-historic era of Far West Texas and bring readers up to the present with yearly reports on the region as well as extensive formal research and personal interviews with present day people who live in Presidio County. A case study worth reading, this book is an eye-opener for a better understanding of how this small yet historically rich land is what it is now. Packed with the economic, social, and cultural history of Presidio County; this book gives readers, both lay and the historians, a clear and complete picture of the events that lead to the preservation, industrialization, and the improvement of one of the frontiers of the United States of America.


Book Synopsis Marfa and Presidio County, Texas by : Louise O'Connor and Cecilia Thompson

Download or read book Marfa and Presidio County, Texas written by Louise O'Connor and Cecilia Thompson and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2014-10-16 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In their quest to complete their study and to share a better knowledge and understanding of a part of Texas that is still somewhat a frontier, authors Louise S. O'Connor and Cecilia Thompson reveal the first volume of their book Marfa and Presidio County, Texas: A Social, Economic, and Cultural Study 1937 to 2008 Volume One, 1937-1989. In a book that offers a closer look at the past and the present, readers will see how a place known as a tourist area and a center of contemporary art came to be. It returns to the pre-historic era of Far West Texas and bring readers up to the present with yearly reports on the region as well as extensive formal research and personal interviews with present day people who live in Presidio County. A case study worth reading, this book is an eye-opener for a better understanding of how this small yet historically rich land is what it is now. Packed with the economic, social, and cultural history of Presidio County; this book gives readers, both lay and the historians, a clear and complete picture of the events that lead to the preservation, industrialization, and the improvement of one of the frontiers of the United States of America.


The Art Museums of Louis I. Kahn

The Art Museums of Louis I. Kahn

Author: Patricia Cummings Loud

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9780822309987

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Book Synopsis The Art Museums of Louis I. Kahn by : Patricia Cummings Loud

Download or read book The Art Museums of Louis I. Kahn written by Patricia Cummings Loud and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


Descendants

Descendants

Author: Abdel-moniem El-Shorbagy

Publisher: BookRix

Published: 2020-06-26

Total Pages: 82

ISBN-13: 3748747411

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Hassan Fathy's (1900-1989) ideas and philosophy opened opportunities and became a source of inspiration for architects to recognize and appreciate their traditional architecture. The response to Fathy’s approach from architects in the Developing World differed from that of Western architects. When Fathy’s architecture began to be widely known from the 1970s onward, these architects were influenced by his works, not only because of their links to the vernacular, but also because of their associations with Islamic architecture. The common response of these architects to Fathy’s architecture was that they regarded his buildings as prototypes for the contemporary Islamic architecture of the Middle East as his traditional forms and techniques epitomize their national and regional features. On the other hand, the response of Western architects to Fathy’s architecture and ideas varied. While some architects admired the new possibilities of building domes and vaults with a primitive material such as mud, others were inspired by Fathy’s philosophy and his humanistic approach.


Book Synopsis Descendants by : Abdel-moniem El-Shorbagy

Download or read book Descendants written by Abdel-moniem El-Shorbagy and published by BookRix. This book was released on 2020-06-26 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hassan Fathy's (1900-1989) ideas and philosophy opened opportunities and became a source of inspiration for architects to recognize and appreciate their traditional architecture. The response to Fathy’s approach from architects in the Developing World differed from that of Western architects. When Fathy’s architecture began to be widely known from the 1970s onward, these architects were influenced by his works, not only because of their links to the vernacular, but also because of their associations with Islamic architecture. The common response of these architects to Fathy’s architecture was that they regarded his buildings as prototypes for the contemporary Islamic architecture of the Middle East as his traditional forms and techniques epitomize their national and regional features. On the other hand, the response of Western architects to Fathy’s architecture and ideas varied. While some architects admired the new possibilities of building domes and vaults with a primitive material such as mud, others were inspired by Fathy’s philosophy and his humanistic approach.


A Memoir of Creativity

A Memoir of Creativity

Author: Piri Halasz

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 526

ISBN-13: 1440123233

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A Memoir of Creativity chronicles one woman's life journey as she derives a theory, revealing meaning in abstract painting, from varied personal and professional experiences, and tells how she locates this theory within a broader social context. In 1966, Piri Halasz became the first woman within living memory to write a cover story for Time (and not just any cover story, either: the notorious one on "Swinging London"). With wit and wisdom, she provides a glimpse into her "red-diaper" childhood, as well as reporting on her climb at Time from research to the writing staff. Vividly, she describes her controversial career as a female journalist during the sixties, offering an inside view of newsweekly rivalries during that tempestuous decade. Halasz then moves on to her initiation into the art world, her lively interaction with some of its most distinguished denizens and her immersion in graduate school. She concludes with what she has learned about art, art history, and history itself since the early eighties, applying that knowledge to better understand the twenty-first century. Through sharing her life story, Halasz encourages others to remain open to new experiences, to try different ways of seeing, and to use creativity to tackle hurdles.


Book Synopsis A Memoir of Creativity by : Piri Halasz

Download or read book A Memoir of Creativity written by Piri Halasz and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2009 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Memoir of Creativity chronicles one woman's life journey as she derives a theory, revealing meaning in abstract painting, from varied personal and professional experiences, and tells how she locates this theory within a broader social context. In 1966, Piri Halasz became the first woman within living memory to write a cover story for Time (and not just any cover story, either: the notorious one on "Swinging London"). With wit and wisdom, she provides a glimpse into her "red-diaper" childhood, as well as reporting on her climb at Time from research to the writing staff. Vividly, she describes her controversial career as a female journalist during the sixties, offering an inside view of newsweekly rivalries during that tempestuous decade. Halasz then moves on to her initiation into the art world, her lively interaction with some of its most distinguished denizens and her immersion in graduate school. She concludes with what she has learned about art, art history, and history itself since the early eighties, applying that knowledge to better understand the twenty-first century. Through sharing her life story, Halasz encourages others to remain open to new experiences, to try different ways of seeing, and to use creativity to tackle hurdles.