EVENTS

This series of midday conversations, which explores our understanding of language(s) in relation to various mediums, features MoMA educators in conversation with special guests.

Educator and architecture historian Jennifer Gray and architect Hyun-Tae Jung discuss how we regard architecture as signs: both as literal signs to be read from the road, and as semiotic signs with signifiers. They explore projects such as the Vanna Venturi House in Philadelphia and examples from the 1976 exhibition Signs of Life. They also show how deconstructive architecture—as in Peter Eisenman and Frank Gehry’s early work, which attempted to deconstruct what is readable and functional in a building—problematizes such signs and users’ ability to understand or engage with them.

Jennifer Gray (PhD, Columbia University) is a historian of modern art and architecture, specializing in the relationships between progressive social politics and the built environment. She teaches and lectures at The Museum of Modern Art.

Hyun-Tae Jung is an assistant professor in the Department of Art, Architecture, and Design at Lehigh University. He received a PhD in the history and theory of architecture from Columbia University. Trained as an architect and a historian in both South Korea and the U.S., he teaches modern and contemporary architectural history and theory as well as design studio.

Tickets are free, but required, as space is limited. Free tickets can be reserved online or at the lobby information desk and the film desk. Free tickets will also be available at the reception desk of the Education and Research Building, beginning at 11:00 a.m. the day of the program.

Languages of Art: A Noontime Lecture Series is made possible by an endowment established by Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro and by the gifts of Alan Kanzer.