|
|
|
|
Review: 'A "New and Native" Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene' October 22, 2008 Los Angeles Times By Christopher Hawthorne ARCHITECTURE CRITIC ...Curated by Edward R. Bosley and Anne E. Mallek and timed to mark the centennial of the 1908 Gamble House, the Huntington exhibition concentrates on the most fertile stretch -- from 1906 to about 1914 -- of [Charles and Henry Greene's] partnership. ...There was little of the Bauhaus in the Greenes' work, to be sure, but the curators make the case that it helped pave the way, at least indirectly, to another strain of Modernism: one comfortable with the idea of taking cues from local conditions. The design of the exhibition, by architect Brenda Levin, is in sync with this impulse; it finds a balance between handsomeness and clarity, combining oversized exposed beams atop the displays with plain hanging screens.
In re-creating the Bandini House, now demolished, the curators stitch a line that connects the Greenes with later California architects, including William Wurster and Harwell Hamilton Harris. The title of the exhibition makes the same case: The phrase "new and native," taken from a 1952 citation from the American Institute of Architects rather belatedly honoring the Greenes, is another way to argue that there was nothing necessarily anti-modern about their version of California regionalism. Link: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-greene22-2008oct22,0,7273482.story Education | Arts & Culture | Civic & Social | Urban Revitalization About Levin & Associates | News | Home |
