The Art-Architecture Complex

by Hal Foster

Overview

Hal Foster, author of the acclaimed Design and Crime, argues that a fusion of architecture and art is a defining feature of contemporary culture. He identifies a “global style” of architecture—as practiced by Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano—analogous to the international style of Le Corbusier, Gropius and Mies. 

More than any art, today’s global style conveys both the dreams and delusions of modernity. Foster demonstrates that a study of the “art-architecture complex” provides invaluable insight into broader social and economic trajectories in urgent need of analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781682302
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	07/23/2013
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	103 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Hal Foster is Townsend Martin Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. A coeditor of October magazine and a number of books, he is the editor of The Anti-Aesthetic as well as the author of Design and Crime, Recording, The Return of the Real, and Compulsive Beauty.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

1 Image-Building 1

Part I Global Styles

2 Pop Civics 19

3 Crystal Palaces 34

4 Light Modernity 52

Part II Architecture Vis-À-Vis Art

5 Neo-Avant-Garde Gestures 71

6 Postmodernist Machines 87

7 Minimalist Museums 104

Part III Mediums after Minimalism

8 Sculpture Remade 133

9 Film Stripped Bare 166

10 Painting Unbound 182

11 Building Contra Image 215

Endnotes 245

Illustration Credits 287

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

A worldview expansive enough to see dominant tendencies in contemporary architecture and (fairly) recent art as flipsides of the same coin … criticism with vaulting ambitions.” Art Review
“I find it refreshing to encounter a degree of intellectual rigour you don’t find too often on my side of the fence.” Rowan Moore, Observer

“Brimming with ideas and analysis.” Library Journal

“Prepares the ground for a wide-ranging and nuanced discussion of the contemporary links between artistic and architectural practice.” 
Stephen Walker, Times Higher Education

“A timely tome with an urgent message.” Time Out
“Foster is terrific at unearthing the unintended consequences of our consumer-oriented culture on architectural/artistic ideas, in particular on those architects who imagine their work as critiques of consumerism.”
JM Cava, Arcade

“The Art-Architecture Complex is a persistently insightful, elliptical account of an ambiguous symbiosis.” Owen Hatherley, Building Design

From the Publisher

The Art-Architecture Complex is a persistently insightful, elliptical account of an ambiguous symbiosis.

Owen Hatherley - Building Design

Hal Foster’s newest contribution to the genre stands alone … Foster is terrific at unearthing the unintended consequences of our consumer-oriented culture, in particular on those architects who imagine their work as critiques of consumerism

JM Cava - Arcade

A timely tome with an urgent message for anyone on the art or architecture axis.

Time Out

Prepares the ground for a wide-ranging and nuanced discussion of the contemporary links between artistic and architectural practice.

Stephen Walker - Times Higher Education

As an architecture writer reading Foster, who comes from the direction of art theory, I find it refreshing to encounter a degree of intellectual rigour you don’t find too often on my side of the fence.

Rowan Moore - Observer

A worldview expansive enough to see dominant tendencies in contemporary architecture and (fairly) recent arts as flipsides of the same coin, and both as reflective of the contemporary political order. This, then, is criticism with vaulting ambitions.

Art Review

As an architecture writer reading Foster, who comes from the direction of art theory, I find it refreshing to encounter a degree of intellectual rigour you don't find too often on my side of the fence.

Rowan Moore - The Observer

The Art-Architecture Complex is a persistently insightful, elliptical account of an ambiguous symbiosis.

Building Design - Owen Hatherley

Hal Foster’s newest contribution to the genre stands alone … Foster is terrific at unearthing the unintended consequences of our consumer-oriented culture, in particular on those architects who imagine their work as critiques of consumerism

Arcade - JM Cava

Prepares the ground for a wide-ranging and nuanced discussion of the contemporary links between artistic and architectural practice.

Times Higher Education - Stephen Walker

As an architecture writer reading Foster, who comes from the direction of art theory, I find it refreshing to encounter a degree of intellectual rigour you don’t find too often on my side of the fence.

Observer - Rowan Moore

Hal Foster’s newest contribution to the genre stands alone … Foster is terrific at unearthing the unintended consequences of our consumer-oriented culture, in particular on those architects who imagine their work as critiques of consumerism

Arcade

As an architecture writer reading Foster, who comes from the direction of art theory, I find it refreshing to encounter a degree of intellectual rigour you don’t find too often on my side of the fence.— Rowan Moore

Observer

As an architecture writer reading Foster, who comes from the direction of art theory, I find it refreshing to encounter a degree of intellectual rigour you don't find too often on my side of the fence.— Rowan Moore

The Observer