The Art-Architecture Complex

October 15, 2011

In this new collection of 11 essays, brimming with ideas and analysis, Foster (art history, Princeton) treats different guises of modernism and the often messy intersections of art and architecture apparent in the global styles of star architects such as Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Herzog & de Meuron. On the artistic side, the minimalism of sculptors Richard Serra, Dan Flavin, and Donald Judd receive prime attention. Foster focuses on high-profile building and art projects where art and architecture are juxtaposed or combined, both to dazzling results and dismissals as banal. He addresses questions about sculptural architecture, design integrity, mixed media and hybridity, collaboration and competition, aesthetics, "imageability," and technologies. The last piece is a fascinating conversation with Serra about influences, techniques, and spatial effects. Versions of about half of the essays appeared in Artforum and the London Review of Books. VERDICT Foster's forceful, informed opinions will appeal to readers interested in the fusion, complexities, and tensions of contemporary architecture and its convergence with modern art.--Russell T. Clement, Northwestern Univ. Lib., Evanston, IL

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