This exhibition features recent videos and older archival films about some of the most influential architects of the 20th century, from Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry. While many artists have tried, with varying degrees of success, to render architecture in moving images, these works offer a unique perspective on the architects themselves, who are seen either at work, in formal interview, or through the eyes of peers and critics. Illuminating portraits of Wright, Louis Kahn, and Paul Rudolph are accompanied by three new documentaries having their New York premieres: A Constructive Madness, about Gehry, Two of a Kind, about Philip Johnson, and Lagos/Koolhaas, about Rem Koolhaas.
The greatest architects of the modern era have been distinguished as much by their boldness of character as by the buildings they have created. They have been uncannily sophisticated in using the media to magnify their architectural messages and mystique. As an observer in Two of a Kind wryly notes, “Everybody wants to see architects.”
Organized by Terence Riley, Chief Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, and Joshua Siegel, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Media.