Class Week 3

We talked about the book From Bauhaus to our House in class the other day, so probably some of this post will sound similar to my reading post this week, but only the first part. We talked about the points Tom Wolfe made in his book and about specific architects. Really, I have to think that the architects that decided they didn't want to be the same as those who committed themselves to the international style made a greater impression. I the book there were a few people mentioned who were a part of the "compound," but they were only mentioned briefly. People like Morris Lapidus and John Portman almost got an entire page. So even though they were sneered at, and given "the look," they were remembered. I think one of the greatest problems with the box, besides the fact that it had a flat roof and flat siding and was thus more exposed to the elements, was that it allowed the peoples of America to become less creative. There wasn't anyone carving out the stone ornamentation, because there wasn't any. It makes the buildings of America less inspiring, less bespeaking of the American dream. They are quite impressive in their own right, but not quite on the same level of countries who have architecture dating back hundreds of years.

Another part of the lesson I really liked was learning about the visual arts. I have to admit that I sort of skimmed a little through the section on visual arts in the book and so I didn't remember all of the interesting effects things like color have on a piece of work. It was really neat to see the pictures of pure color and to hear what they made people think about, whether they were thinking something along the same lines as I was, or something totally different that made me take a second glance. I remember one in particular that honestly made me feel a little bit nauseated. It was red green and blue. They were very nice colors, in fact two of them are my favorite, but somehow the combination made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Also, the painting by Van Gogh was interesting to look at. It was hard for me to think merely about the painting and the effect it had on me without thinking about the troubled life of the artist. While the colors were vivid, a word I would normally use to describe something full of life and somehow happy, they instead had the reverse effect. The yellow was somewhat sickly and the contrast between the red and the green again made me uncomfortable. They colors were also pretty dark. Normally I actually quite like the colors green, red and yellow together, but these were calculated to have an almost negative connotation. Colors really do have a lot of power.