Christopher Alexander wins Vincent Scully Prize

          Central Building of the Eishin Campus, built by Alexander in Japan in 1985. Source:  www.tricycle.com

The National Building Museum has made a fascinating selection for its 2009 Vincent Scully laureate and all of us here are eager to share the news as an auspicious, consensus-building way to remind our constituents of Christopher Alexander's unique and under-appreciated contribution to design pedagogy and practice.   The article form Metropolis Magazine attached sums it up well.  As far as I know Mr. Alexander does not and would not label himself a classicist and traditionalist. In any case, I make no such presumption in marking this tribute. Instead, I recognize his steadfast iconoclasm in the face of all dogma including the hegemony of modernism which inevitably shaped his training and predominant collegial milieu. There is in his work always a central place for nature, the human figure , and the applied endurance of  time-tested patterns,   contrasting his work with most of what has been the overall design zeitgeist of his lifetime.  Combined with his innovative embrace of technology and its resulting tools, his role as universal, provocative asset is secure. Congratulations to him the Museum's selection committee for such overdue recognition.  PWG 

Architectural Watercolor: Reviving a forgotten tradition

In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.       Leo Tolstoy

The inherent dichotomy expressed by Russia’s foremost literary genius in this passionate admonishment has been resolved magnificently by his latter-day native compatriots: Anton Glikin and Irina Shumitskaya.

That fact is revealed well by their exhibition and accompanying catalog and I am pleased to join in heralding its advent here in our design classrooms (the first exhibition we’ve been yet able to feature…) and the fine continuing achievement of both artists.

Anton and Irina long ago learned how to stand still and observe with the patient and discerning eyes of the draughtsman. This act informs their minds and guides their hands.  

They stop in order to work.

Of particular interest to the architects, designers and other classically-inclined constituents of the Institute are their drawings of buildings and interiors, whether old and new, which delight the viewer’s eye while also informing the attentive practitioner in search of exemplary lessons for the sake of their own respective design endeavors.  In this way, they record results and inspire anew; and in this way, they demonstrate above all how drawing is a pathway to seeing. 

Irina Shumitskaya, The Greek House, East View, 2004, Watercolor on paper, 40x25” 

The ICA&CA was pleased in 2003 to recognize Anton with its Arthur Ross Award in Rendering –although it might just as well have fallen in a category of fine art. He transcends categorization. Meanwhile, the work of his wife and fellow traveler, Irina, reveals comparable excellence and reinforces our celebratory impulse on behalf of each.  

Anton Glikin , A Rotunda, 2004, Pen on paper, 7 ½ x 5” 

Likewise their rigorous studies at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, where those enrolled advance to new tasks and assignments only when each sequential assignment has been mastered fully, constitute a fine pedagogical model for the Institute today. This is the case in our fine arts division, the Grand Central Academy of Art, whose curriculum demands years of cast and figure drawing preceding the paint brush, as well as in our classical design certificate sequence and its close ties to a well-tested progression of skills and aptitude.

Irina Shumitskaya, An Empire Style Garden Seat, , Elevation, 2001, Watercolor on paper, 17x12”

Anton and Irina personify the Institute’s work both in the course of study they followed in Russia and in the results of this preparation achieved in America. It is a joy to know that their contributions to contemporary classicism will continue for many years to come.

Paul Gunther

August 2009

 

Anton Glikin, A Mosque at Sunrise, 1995, Watercolor on paper, 18x19”