The role of the architect as artist is an ancient one, but it was de-emphasized with the rise of modernism, which rejected the drawing-based Beaux-Arts tradition in favor of a more technocratic approach. — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century exponents of prefabrication were certain it would supplant age-old traditions of individualized design and handcrafted construction. The building art would be revolutionized by freeing designers and construction workers from repetitive tasks, and democratized by making high-style architecture… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
Elevated locations imply elevated purposes, even in American cities departing as radically as Los Angeles does from the traditional planning patterns of the Eastern… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
Architecture is not a profession for the faint-hearted, the weak-willed, or the short-lived. — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
The danger for any artist whose work is both recognizable and critically acclaimed is complacent repetition - the temptation to churn out easily identifiable,… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
Architectural kitsch is most common in the commercial pop vernacular - typified by the Big Duck of 1931 in Flanders, New York, a Long… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
The Frankfurt Museum of Decorative Arts is a handsome building, which takes its cues from the riverside Biedermeier villa next to it, and it… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
The most basic task of any museum must be the protection of works of cultural significance entrusted to its care for the edification and… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
Postmodernism came nowhere close in quality to Modernism at its apogee, not least because that later style wholly lacked the social impetus that animated… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
One reason I've never been a fan of graphic novels is because a central aspect of literature for me has always been imagining what… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
The truth be told, the World Trade Center was neither a very good work of architecture nor a very successful piece of urbanism. Its… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
During the modern period, the vanguard architect has usually relied on small residential jobs both to supply a steady income and to serve as… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
We take from the art of the past what we need. The variable posthumous reputations of even the greatest artists and the unpredictable revivals… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
Masterpieces of art possess immense potential to advance a worldview that could help assuage the societal terrors posed by globalization, the most thoroughgoing socioeconomic… — Martin Filler Copy Share Image
