So yes, I'm going to continue blogging… Not because anyone reads this (even though I do appreciate those that do), but because the act of writing this serves as a decent intellectual and personal release even if it goes completely unread. So on with the things that don't really matter, and thanks to the two friends that happen to have the same name even though they are spelled differently.
I just finished watching a documentary on I.M. Pei, and I'm back into the pondering mode about architecture, public space, and all that in-between. I knew Pei's name from the Louvre, but my relatively recent immersion into architecture revealed a few other amazing structures I'd experienced that were also works of Pei (IU Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art).
Within the past few years, I've seen feature documentaries focusing on the individual works of Louis Kahn, Maya Lin, Frank Gehry, and now I.M. Pei. Let’s split this into the two categories of what I think of their architecture, and what I thought of the documentary.
Pei and Lin are tied for the weakest documentary. The biggest reason for this is that they were both made for TV and mostly an attempt at a rounded view of the architect and their work. Both the content and quality were sub par, but that is also in comparison to the Kahn and Gehry documentaries which are both modern with better production value. The Gehry
documentary is a visual powerhouse, but where it stuns visually, it lacks in everything else. The Kahn documentary is the complete package of great visuals, and a great story to boot.
Judging these four as architects is not as easy. Lin has the weakest portfolio due to her age, but her promise is evident. Kahn was lesser known than most of his contemporaries and not as prolific, but many of his few works are extremely masterful. Gehry's power is his greatest strength, and his biggest weakness in that his works are so wildly imaginative. Pei is the most commercial of the four with arguably the most important pieces.
Lin's most pivotal piece to date is the Vietnam Memorial, and it is going to be hard to out do in a career, but it is a memorial and not a building. Kahn seems enigmatic and brilliant much ahead of his time, but his lack of a complete career portfolio leaves much to wonder. Gehry can't do any work without some level of public opposition, but his work can
open public minds with wonder. Pei has this highest profile works, and a consistency not shown by any of the other architects.
This isn't some cage match where I can declare a clear winner, but it does seem that Pei has a distinct advantage. Having been to the Louvre and the National Gallery, I can pay tribute to the amazing work he is capable of. But if you want to see a well rounded documentary, see My Architect (Louis Kahn).
2 Comments
1 Anonymous wrote:
I saw something on Gehry (sp?) that I enjoyed, but it might be a different program than the one to which you allude. I think it was an old 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace or something, but they turned it into a longer form piece. Might have been PBS now that I think about it. Anyway, I appreciated it because it was basically a one-on-one interview with him, interlaced only with images of his buildings. There were no interviews of others. This provided a nice juxtaposition to "My Architect," which seemed to have nothing by Kahn on Kahn. Don't misunderstand -- I loved My Architect, as much as a film for its own value as an instructive piece about Kahn. But it's good to see a different style employed in this era where every documentary seems to be tacking toward the Ken Burns style.
2 B wrote:
The Gehry film I speak of is "Sketches of Frank Gehry" directed by Sydney Pollack who is a close friend of Gehry. Ian reviewed it here, and I commented on it after I saw it... Anyway, it's more about the visuals than the content because Pollack's friendship with Gehry seemed to blind the film from the controversy of Gehry's architecture.