Architecture Apropos Art

This seminar provides a foundation for critical discussions on architecture, art, and philosophy.

It focuses on idea-driven thinking processes and the relationship between art and architecture in the works of 21st-century architects. The seminar examines architecture for art schools and museums designed by Steven Holl. Additional activities, such as viewing the documentary Body in Space by M. Blackwood and a field trip to the studio, are included in the curriculum.

The late Arthur Danto’s book What Art Is summarizes a lifetime of this great philosopher’s reflections on visual art. He wrote “Ontology is the study of what it means to be something. But knowing whether something is art belongs to epistemology — the theory of knowledge.”

‘The End of Painting’ predicted by many at the center of the movement of conceptual art in the 1960’s and 1970’s was perhaps the last gasp of a ‘grand narrative’ for art of our time. The development of painting continues today in strong works by Brice Marden, Gary Stephan, and Susan Francon, to name a few. Likewise, sculpture has developed new territory in the works of Carol Bove, Olafur Eliasson, and Oscar Tauzon; while video art and performance art grow from their own dimensions. In terms of growth, the blurry territory between art and architecture is particularly exciting today.

At the seminar historic examples and recent built museums and art schools will be presented by Steven Holl in very deep detail.

Our cultural epoch has proven the art museum as a new center of metropolitan life. Museums have become social condensers as well as institutions of real educational force. Educational programs are central to our new extension of the Mumbai City Museum, situated in the center of the largest city in India. In a country where 300 million people live on less than one dollar per day, education is an urgent transforming force.

Today there are basically three types of new art museums. (1) Expressionistic, where the architecture overpowers the art, (2) White box, where the endless so-called neutral galleries draw the life out of the art (such as the new MoMA), (3) A third type where there is spatial energy via the architecture which excites and draws one through gallery spaces of fine proportions and light foregrounding the art.

We have tried for particular and unique developments in this third type. First in the Kiasma Museum at the center of Helsinki (1998) and the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City (2001), the Sifang museum in Nanjing (2012) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2020).

Art Schools today are increasingly considering that the architecture of the school itself, its inspiring proportions and space, can be a catalyst for programs of educational excellence. In our School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa (1999), and our second Iowa Visual Arts Building (2016) or the Franklin and Marshal Art Building (2020), the movement through spaces of interaction, the materials, light, and proportions of the architecture all have the capacity to contribute to the inspiration of the artworks.

It is with inspired dedication that we are fortunate to develop architecture from ideas as art. As Kant said “Partly because they at least strive for something, which lies beyond the bounds of experience…”

Each student chooses and architect to make a study. Each student is required to discuss their progress, make a 20 minute illustrated analytical presentation to the entire class as well as present at the final review to invited jury.