The Whitney Art Museum is named after the founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who was, herself, a well-regarded sculptor and art collector. Before founding this museum Gertrude Whitney started an organization called the “Whitney Studio Club.” The Whitney Studio Club was an exhibition space, which she created to display the works of avant-garde and unrecognized American artists. The Whitney art museum is said to house one of the most important collections of twentieth century American art. The Whitney’s permanent collection holds 1800 pieces of work in a large variety of media.
The current building in which the Whitney art collection is located was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1963-66. Breuer studied and taught at the Bauhaus in the 1920s, which focused on a combination of art and technology. Eventually Breuer became the head of the school's cabinet-making shop. He then moved to Berlin and started designing houses and commercial spaces, as well as some furniture pieces. Some of the furniture he designed is still in production today.
In the 1930s Breuer relocated to London because of Nazi conflict in Germany. In London, Breuer was employed at the Isokon company. The Isokon company was one of the first to introduce modern design into the United Kingdom. Here Breuer designed his Long Chair as well as experimenting with bent and formed plywood. He eventually to the United States and taught at Harvard's architecture school
Breuer established his own firm in New York. “The Geller House I of 1945 is the first to employ Breuer's concept of the 'binuclear' house, with separate wings for the bedrooms and for the living / dining / kitchen area, separated by an entry hall, and with the distinctive 'butterfly' roof (two opposing roof surfaces sloping towards the middle, centrally drained) that became part of the popular modernist style vocabulary.”
The Whitney art museum is now at it’s third location in the past thirty-five years. This location is an art gallery district in NY. Because the building was chosen to house changing exhibitions rather than a permanent collection the structure of the building had to have certain qualities so that it could morph to the needs of the different pieces of artwork. In order to do this three of its floors have open gallery spaces. The ceilings are suspended precast concrete open grid ceilings made to accommodate movable wall panels and lighting that can change depending on the needs of each art piece.
The Whitney art museum has been put in the category of brutalism and is also considered a modern piece. “The line between brutalism and ordinary modernism is not always clear since concrete buildings are so common and run the entire spectrum of modern styles. Designs which embrace the roughness of concrete or the heavy simplicity of its natural forms are considered brutalist. Other materials including brick and glass can be used in brutalism if they contribute to a block-like effect similar the strongly articulated concrete forms of early brutalism.” “Brutalism is a French term used to describe buildings that are heavy and unrefined with coarsely molded surfaces, usually exposed concrete. They tend to be crude and block shaped.” Modernism is an art form that “aims to break with classical and traditional forms.” Although there is a distinction between these two art forms they have many similar characteristics. There is much overlapping between the two. For example, by having heavy unrefined surfaces such as exposed concrete the building is breaking away from classical forms, so it fulfills both Modernism and Brutalism.
The Whitney Museum of Art is very modern because of it’s extremely unique shape. Breuer broke away from everything else he knew and created a shape that broke away from anything traditional. He did not choose, however, to break away from the idea of exposed concrete or stone that resembles the materials of the surrounding buildings.
The structural integrity of the building is unconvincing from the exterior because of how it extends further horizontally as the building raises. This structure is known as an inverted pyramid. This relates this building back to the ancient architecture of the pyramids. The building also achieves a completely modern look while maintaining an ancient structure. The building seems to levitate, and defy gravity. This was Breuer’s solution to having to work with a large program in such a small space.
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Whitney_Museum.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Museum_of_American_Art
2 comments:
the quotes help to tell the story...but the reader needs to hear more about what YOU think. decide what of the background information included is critical to the interpretation you undertake. work to streamline your writing accordingly...and be sure you offer your own insights alongside connecting them to the greater conversation about the building.
I think you have a really descriptive and informative paper, and now all that needs to be added is a little more on its effects on the design world. I also would recommend that you end it with a final sentence or paragraph that summarizes and ties everything together. Other than that it is really well written.
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