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Distributed for Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

Drawing Ambience

Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association

With Contributions by Nicholas Boyarsky, Beau Johnson, and Sarah Rovang

Distributed for Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

Drawing Ambience

Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association

With Contributions by Nicholas Boyarsky, Beau Johnson, and Sarah Rovang
This richly illustrated volume showcases the impressive collection of drawings assembled by Alvin Boyarsky during his pivotal tenure as chairman of the Architectural Association (AA) in London from 1971 until his death in 1990. As chairman, Boyarsky orchestrated an ambitious exhibition and publication program that situated drawing as not only a representational tool but as a form of architecture in its own right. This book brings together an iconic set of drawings by some of the most prominent architects and artists of our time—including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Mary Miss, OMA–Rem Koolhaas, Eduardo Paolozzi, Bernard Tschumi, Shin Takamatsu, and others. The combination of critical texts and close-up reproductions of prints, drawings, and the limited edition AA Folio series provides an unprecedented opportunity to explore both the techniques and the imaginative spirit of drawing practices that permeated this time of change and experimentation in architecture worldwide.
 
Copublished with the RISD Museum

156 pages | 125 color plates | 6 1/2 x 9 3/4 | © 2014

Architecture: Architecture--Criticism

Art: Art--General Studies


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Reviews

“Offers an excellent number of thoughts on what the AA school was in Boyarsky’s years and, more specifically, in the first decade of his tenure.”
 

Domus

“Well-written and beautifully produced.”
 

Architect’s Newspaper

“Upends familiar ideas about progression, succession and antecedence.”

Guardian, on the exhibition

"The works on display in Drawing Ambience reveal that some of the finest architectural minds of our time were indeed visionaries."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on the exhibition

“A treasure trove of early architectural drawings from the world’s leading architects.”

ArchDaily, on the exhibition

Alvin Boyarsky was a great collector with an abiding passion not only for drawings but also for the people who made them and their ideas.

Peter Eisenman

This intelligent and clearly written analysis of architecture of the 1970s and 1980s reminds us once again of the central role that drawing played, perhaps for the final time, in the architectural experiments of the period. A sophisticated account of architectural education, the volume recounts how the Architectural Association functioned as a school under Alvin Boyarsky’s leadership and the role that drawing played in shaping its unique spirit.

Kathleen James-Chakraborty

As chairman of the Architectural Association Alvin Boyarsky was amazingly astute at spotting creative talents. From each he extracted a drawing, sometimes two, which were in time to make up a remarkable collection. The story of this episode, vital to the history of contemporary architecture, is fully explored here, as nowhere else, illustrated with a host of the drawings that punctuated it.

Robin Middleton

At a time when the art of architectural representation has all but ceded the field to the computer render, this delectable collection of drawings, accompanied by illuminating commentary, is most welcome.

Joan Ockman

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