Hal Foster, author of the acclaimed Design and Crime, argues that a fusion of architecture and art is a defining feature of contemporary culture. He identifies a “global style” of architecture—as practiced by Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano—analogous to the international style of Le Corbusier, Gropius and Mies.
More than any art, today’s global style conveys both the dreams and delusions of modernity. Foster demonstrates that a study of the “art-architecture complex” provides invaluable insight into broader social and economic trajectories in urgent need of analysis.
“A worldview expansive enough to see dominant tendencies in contemporary architecture and (fairly) recent art as flipsides of the same coin … criticism with vaulting ambitions.” Art Review “I find it refreshing to encounter a degree of intellectual rigour you don’t find too often on my side of the fence.” Rowan Moore, Observer
“Brimming with ideas and analysis.” Library Journal
“Prepares the ground for a wide-ranging and nuanced discussion of the contemporary links between artistic and architectural practice.” Stephen Walker, Times Higher Education
“A timely tome with an urgent message.” Time Out “Foster is terrific at unearthing the unintended consequences of our consumer-oriented culture on architectural/artistic ideas, in particular on those architects who imagine their work as critiques of consumerism.” JM Cava, Arcade
“The Art-Architecture Complex is a persistently insightful, elliptical account of an ambiguous symbiosis.” Owen Hatherley, Building Design
Hal Foster is Townsend Martin Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. A coeditor of October magazine and a number of books, he is the editor of The Anti-Aesthetic as well as the author of Design and Crime, Recording, The Return of the Real, and Compulsive Beauty.
Hal Foster, author of the acclaimed Design and Crime, argues that a fusion of architecture and art is a defining feature of contemporary culture. He identifies a “global style” of architecture—as practiced by Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano—analogous to the international style of Le Corbusier, Gropius and Mies.
More than any art, today’s global style conveys both the dreams and delusions of modernity. Foster demonstrates that a study of the “art-architecture complex” provides invaluable insight into broader social and economic trajectories in urgent need of analysis.
Reviews
“A worldview expansive enough to see dominant tendencies in contemporary architecture and (fairly) recent art as flipsides of the same coin … criticism with vaulting ambitions.” Art Review “I find it refreshing to encounter a degree of intellectual rigour you don’t find too often on my side of the fence.” Rowan Moore, Observer
“Brimming with ideas and analysis.” Library Journal
“Prepares the ground for a wide-ranging and nuanced discussion of the contemporary links between artistic and architectural practice.” Stephen Walker, Times Higher Education
“A timely tome with an urgent message.” Time Out “Foster is terrific at unearthing the unintended consequences of our consumer-oriented culture on architectural/artistic ideas, in particular on those architects who imagine their work as critiques of consumerism.” JM Cava, Arcade
“The Art-Architecture Complex is a persistently insightful, elliptical account of an ambiguous symbiosis.” Owen Hatherley, Building Design
Author
Hal Foster is Townsend Martin Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. A coeditor of October magazine and a number of books, he is the editor of The Anti-Aesthetic as well as the author of Design and Crime, Recording, The Return of the Real, and Compulsive Beauty.
