SFMA, MoMA and the Codification of Bay Region Architecture (1935-1953)
| Autor: | Jose Parra-Martinez, John Crosse |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Expresión Gráfica, Composición y Proyectos, Metrópoli, Arquitectura y su Patrimonio (MAP) |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
History
california and eastern criticism Visual Arts and Performing Arts media_common.quotation_subject Geography Planning and Development 0211 other engineering and technologies California y la crítica del Este Modernism 02 engineering and technology Morley-Bauer-Mock connections Conflictos culturales Costa Este-Costa Oeste California and Eastern criticism Exhibition East Coast-West Coast cultural conflicts Politics lcsh:Architectural engineering. Structural engineering of buildings Arquitectura de la región de San Francisco lcsh:TA174 Architecture sfma & moma exhibitions Exposiciones SFMA y MoMA 021104 architecture bay region architecture Bay Region architecture Delayed reaction SFMA & MoMA exhibitions media_common Composición Arquitectónica Media studies Alianzas Morley-Bauer-Mock lcsh:Engineering design east coast-west coast cultural conflicts Urban Studies Interdependence lcsh:TH845-895 morley-bauer-mock connections Bay Autonomy |
| Zdroj: | RUA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante Universidad de Alicante (UA) RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia instname VLC Arquitectura, Vol 6, Iss 2, Pp 1-26 (2019) |
| Popis: | [EN] This paper addresses the under-recognized implications of SFMA’s early architectural exhibition program. Conceived under founding director Grace Morley, a series of pioneering events first presented Bay Area architects’ work as interdependent with the region’s rich geographical and cultural context, offering new lens through which Eastern critics prompted to re-evaluate California modernism. Among these shows, the 1949 landmark exhibition Domestic Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Region would epitomize the postwar discussions upon the autonomy of American modern architecture. Correspondingly, by exploring SFMA-MoMA exchanges during Elizabeth Mock’s curatorship, this essay aims to examine the conflict of perceptions and intentions between the country’s two Coasts that brought about the 1949 show as part of a well-orchestrated campaign that had begun years before Lewis Mumford’s 1947 New Yorker piece triggered a controversy over the existence of a “Bay Region Style.” Contrary to prevailing assumptions that this exhibition was a delayed reaction to the 1948 MoMA symposium organized by Philip Johnson to refute Mumford’s arguments, it was the consequence of an effective regionalist agenda whose success was, precisely, that many influential actors in the United States were exposed, indoctrinated and/or seduced by the so-called Bay Region School’s emphasis on social, political and ecological concerns. [ES] Este artículo investiga el desconocido programa de exposiciones de arquitectura del SFMA durante la etapa fundacional de su primera directora, Grace Morley. Su pionera difusión de la arquitectura de la Bahía como respuesta al contexto geográfico y cultural de la región ofreció a los críticos del Este una nueva perspectiva de la modernidad californiana. Análogamente, el estudio de la colaboración SFMA-MoMA durante el comisariado de Elizabeth Mock examina el conflicto de percepciones e intereses entre ambas costas conducente a la histórica exposición de 1949 Domestic Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Region. Epítome de los debates de posguerra, esta culminaba un infatigable esfuerzo promocional iniciado años antes de que el conocido artículo de Lewis Mumford en The New Yorker desencadenara, en 1947, una encendida controversia acerca del “Bay Region Style.” Contrariamente a la creencia de que el SFMA reaccionó tardíamente al simposio del MoMA de 1948 organizado por Philip Johnson para rebatir a Mumford, aquella exposición fue la consecuencia de una efectiva agenda regionalista que logró exponer, educar y/o seducir a algunos de los más influyentes actores del panorama norteamericano con la idea de una Escuela de la Región de la Bahía profundamente preocupada por cuestiones sociales, políticas y ecológicas. We are most grateful to Peggy Tran-Le, archivist and records manager at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, who has provided a great deal of assis-tance to this project. We are also indebted to Henriette Kets de Vries, manager of the Cunningham Center for Prints, Drawings and Photographs at the Smith College Museum of Art, as well as to Courtney Tkacz, archivist at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. All of them have facilitated this investigation by guiding us through the extraordinary archives of their museums. Many thanks are also due to Erin Kinhart, archivist at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, and to Jeff Gunderson, archivist and librarian of the Anne Bremer Memorial Library at the San Francisco Art Institute, principally for his remarks on Grace Morley’s avant-garde circles. This essay has also benefited from the help of Jennifer Tobias, librarian at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, whose insightful comments and exchanges on Elizabeth Mock have been of the greatest importance to this research. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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