The AR with my piece on Michael Graves, or rather my 'diagnosis of Postmodernism' popped into the letter box today. It's a big letter box by the way- it's important to have have big letter box, and it hangs as a big black box on the outside wall - it is not a slot for letters through the door- highly recommended!
Anyway I like it, the piece I mean, but it was a tough thing to write. 'Reputations' pieces have to be jam packed full of information as much as critique, and I've never met the man, hence they can easily overbalance. But I was educated, seriously educated, in the world where Graves became a considerable figure in architecture, PCL 1984, my best lecturer was Demitri Porphyrios, even in diploma, we went to his third year lecture course in history, and he was blindingly good every time. Porphyrios was very much part of the Academy Editions/St Martins Press PoMo publicity machine.
But Graves is now textbook material, textbook if you want to read those times and work out what happened. Libeskind will also soon be textbook, Zaha of course, but they are not great times.
http://www.architectural-review.com/reviews/michael-graves/8661699.article?blocktitle=Reputations&contentID=6824
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