I found the article by Jencks very interesting and a new way to look at Postmodernism. While I was abroad last semester I took an Art and Architecture class and studied a lot of Roman and Greek architecture. The different styles and techniques are all so unique and beautiful and are a good representation of what life was like during those eras. The 11 different cannons of postmodern architecture had a lot of quotes that caught my attention. “Instead of a perfectly finished totality ‘where no part can be added or subtracted except for the worse’ we find the ‘difficult whole’ or the ‘fragmented unity” (Jencks 281). This movement involved the mixing of different ideas and styles and creating something new and more beautiful. This is a very postmodern idea and is much like bricolage, mashing up different genres or themes to create something completely different and unique. Another example of this was represented in the section on radical eclecticism describing James Stirling’s addition to the Tate Gallery. Stirling used so many different mediums to create his masterpiece, from stone, to brick, to glass. The “disharmonious harmony” makes the building so much more special than if it were just to follow one specific style. Radical eclectism is defined as “the mixing of different languages to engage different taste cultures and define different functions according to their appropriate mood” (Jencks 283). The mixing of different ideas and cultures is so much more appealing to others and has much more meaning and power behind it. While abroad I was able to spend a lot of time in the Tate Gallery and it really is an amazing place, it was my favorite museum in London.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It is by reading your post about your experience in London and with the architecture of certain buildings such as the Tate Museum that I actually made connections between Postmodernism and architecture. When I first read Jencks reading, I understood what he was saying but it is by having an example of reality that made everything click. It automatically made me think of the National Center of art and culture George Pompidou also known as Beaubourg, which is our Modern and contemporary art museum in Paris. What id interesting about this building is its architecture. Everything about it screams post- modernism but even though I saw it almost everyday, I never realized this of made the link when I was reading the article. It was completed in 1978 by the architect Renzo Piano creating a giant transparent structure with all its tubular system on the outside of the building, painted in bright red, green and blue. It looks like a massive lego brick in the center of Paris, surrounded by old Haussmanian buildings. This contrasts is what Jencks was calling a "disharmonious harmony", an "oxymoron". the different in the styles between the Museum and the rest of its surroundings is what creates this post-modernist architecture. I had seen this building all my life and never new I had post-modernism right in front of me! It's pretty cool to realize that and to think that now we may be able to spot it around us and be less clueless of our surroundings!
ReplyDelete