17th century Italian drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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guest-edited by Neil Spiller

We are entering a new era of architecture that is technologically enhanced, virtual and synthetic. Contemporary architects operate in a creative environment that is both real and digital; mixed, augmented and hybridised. This world consists of ecstasies, fears, fetishisms and phantoms, processes and spatiality that can best be described as Surrealist. Though too long dormant, Surrealism has been a significant cultural force in modern architecture. Founded by poet Andre Breton in Paris in 1924 as an artistic, intellectual and literary movement, architects such as Le Corbusier, Diller + Scofidio, Bernard Tschumi and John Hejduk realized its evocative powers to propel them to 'starchitect' status. Rem Koolhaas most famously illustrated Delirious New York (1978) with Madelon Vriesendorp's compelling Surrealist images. Architects are now reviving the power of Surrealism to inspire and explore the ramifications of advanced technology. Architects' studios in practices and schools are becoming places where nothing is forbidden. Architectural languages and theories are 'mashed' together, approaches are permissively appropriated, and styles are not mutually exclusive. Projects are polemic, postmodern and surreally media savvy. Today's architects must compose space that operates across the spatial spectrum. Surrealism, with its multiple readings of the city, its collage semiotics, its extruded forms and artificial landscapes, is an ideal source for contemporary architectural inspiration.

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Andy Goldsworthy

"British artist Andy Goldsworthy, known for creating art outdoors and from natural materials, has now built a 2,278-foot stone wall at Storm King Art Center, a sculpture park on the Hudson River in Mountainville, New York. This sensitive and detailed response to the land - former farmland in an area rich in stone walls - is one of his most impressive and important sculptures.". "The book's stunning color photographs show the wall from every vantage point and in all four seasons, and document ephemeral work made around it. Kenneth Baker's essay considers the Storm King wall in the context of Goldsworthy's previous work, in particular the other walls he has made in the United States, France, and Britain."--BOOK JACKET.

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Daniel Marchesseau

"This volume presents Diego Giacometti's oeuvre almost in its entirety and offers many heretofore unpublished insights into his life and work. From his childhood in a small village in Switzerland, through his adolescent wanderings, his collaborative efforts with his brother in Paris, and his coming-of-age as a furniture-maker and sculptor, all the way up to the pinnacle of his career - his last and greatest commission, the furniture and lighting fixtures for the Musée Picasso in Paris - Diego's intellectual and technical developments are probed in this book. Daniel Marchesseau examines the work that made Diego famous: his bronze-cast tables, chairs, and accessories, and the tiny bestiary that decorated them; his bronze and plaster sculpture; and the work he completed with his brother Alberto."--book jacket.

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Doris von Drathen

"A few years ago, The New York Times's Ken Johnson wrote of a series of Pat Steir paintings that "Beauty and Intellect join forces" in them, and that "what saves them from being just pretty pictures is the way they weave together several strands of meaning into a more complex conceptual fabric." Over the decades Steir has been carrying on just the sort of A-list painting career that pulls in accolades like that, putting up installations of her paintings in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. This monograph contains complete biographical and bibliographical information, an essay and an extensive interview between Doris von Drathen and Steir."--BOOK JACKET.