An important resource for scholars of contemporary art and architecture, this volume considers contemporary art that takes architecture as its subject. Concentrated on works made since 1990, Contemporary Art About Architecture: A Strange Utility is the first to take up this topic in a sustained and explicit manner and the first to advance the idea that contemporary art functions as a form of architectural history, theory, and analysis. Over the course of fourteen essays by both emerging and established scholars, this volume examines a diverse group of artists in conjunction with the vernacular, canonical, and fantastical structures engaged by their work. Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Matthew Barney, Monika Sosnowska, Pipo Nguyen-duy, and Paul Pfeiffer are among those considered, as are the compelling questions of architecture's relationship to photography, the evolving legacy of Mies van der Rohe, the notion of an architectural unconscious, and the provocative concepts of the unbuilt and the unbuildable. Through a rigorous investigation of these issues, Contemporary Art About Architecture calls attention to the fact that art is now a vital form of architectural discourse. Indeed, this phenomenon is both pervasive and, in its individual incarnations, compelling - a reason to think again about the entangled histories of architecture and art.

About the Author

Isabelle Loring Wallace is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, USA.

Nora Wendl is Assistant Professor of Architecture in the School of Architecture at Portland State University, USA.

Reviews

'While scholarship on the intersection between art and architecture is by no means novel, the editors and authors of Contemporary Art about Architecture: A Strange Utility illuminate a developing area of this crossing that is distinct and for which no other volume of its extent exists. The text's tone is highly academic and intended for audiences versed in contemporary art history ... This book is a welcome addition to the interdisciplinary literature of art and architecture, and it is highly recommended for libraries collecting in both contemporary art and architecture.' Arlis

'While the essays are rich in historical and archival evidence, they are also ontological investigations, grounded in theory. And together, they offer a framework for understanding the unique nature of contemporary art's relation to architecture in light of poststructuralism and the institutional critiques of the 1970s and 1980s.' Journal of Architectural Education

Book Information
ISBN 9781138254572
Author Isabelle Loring Wallace
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g