Paul Robeson Spent His Life Fighting Against America’s Extreme Right
Paul Robeson, the socialist actor, musician, and civil rights campaigner, dedicated his life to battling against right-wing red-baiting that has echoes in reactionary crusades against progressive education and “critical race theory” today.
https://jacobin.com/2022/07/paul-ro…
What Landscape Architects and Urban Designers Can Learn About Public Space From Cuba
It was certainly what I had come for: I was sitting on broad, cobbled steps, watching people interact in the public realm.
https://commonedge.org/what-landsca…
David M. Roth on Andrew Schoultz
Andrew Schoultz may be tempering his more extravagant theatrical impulses, but his desire for wide-angle views of the human condition remains intact.
https://squarecylinder.com/2022/07/…
Architecture Media in the Attention-Economy Era
Australian sociologist Robert van Krieken has argued that we live in a celebrity-obsessed society driven by an economy where “attention has become a form of capital in the Information and Internet age.”
https://commonedge.org/architecture…
Design practices must lead the way in rethinking capitalism to save the planet
The environmental crisis is rooted in the same systems of oppression as capitalism and colonialism.
https://dezeen.com/2022/07/14/desig…
Wild waves, perfect pipes: Milton Avery, the original abstract expressionist – review
As this brilliant exhibition shows, Avery was an experimental dreamer whose sublime landscapes and beach scenes paved the way for Rothko, Pollock and Newman.
https://theguardian.com/artanddesig…
Why Are We Still Talking About Black Mountain College?
In 1933, a handful of renegade teachers opened a school in rural North Carolina that would go on to shape American art and art education for decades to come.
https://nytimes.com/2022/07/07/t-ma…
Messages from Angel Island: Powerful Personal Histories at a Former U.S. Immigration Station
Around December of 1923, Mrs. Lee (born Jeong Hing Tong) boarded a steamship in Hong Kong, bound for San Francisco.
https://savingplaces.org/stories/me…
Grace Jones: The Design Evolution of a Superstar
So perfect was the cultivation of Jones’ public image that it has become embedded not only in our retinas but in pop culture itself.
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/grace-…
How Do the Critics of Yesteryear Think About Urban Density?
In the 1960s and 1970s, a series of critiques of the modern city appeared.
https://commonedge.org/how-do-the-c…
Los Angeles Architects and Leaders Take on Their City’s Homeless Crisis
Christopher Hawthorne, L.A.’s chief design officer, discusses how a culture of design innovation is helping tackle a growing calamity and provide dignity, shelter, and gracious interior spaces to thousands.
https://metropolismag.com/viewpoint…
Is There a Difference Between a Cult and a Brand?
The recent slew of TV shows on cults + tech titans proves that they’re way more similar than we think.
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/what-m…
How to Decolonize the Capitol
Art historians, legislators, and activists have long decried themes of White supremacy in the art collection of the U.S. Capitol. Can this place be decolonized?
https://placesjournal.org/article/h…
La Grande Motte – France’s Modernist City
La Grande Motte means "The Big Mound".
https://darrenbradleyphotography.co…
Cannupa Hanska Luger Is Turning the Tables on the Art World
His work playfully critiques what white audiences want — and upends long-held ideas about what Native American art should look like.
https://nytimes.com/2022/06/16/maga…
Why can’t Paul Rudolph’s buildings catch a break?
To be a preservationist is hard. To be a preservationist for Paul Rudolph’s buildings is even harder.
https://archpaper.com/2022/06/why-c…
“I Want You to Feel Cheated”: A Conversation with Lee Bey
A month into his new ‘Chicago Sun-Times’ column, one of America’s last architecture critics reflects on his work, and its fragile role in our culture.
https://dwell.com/article/chicago-s…
The Ecstasy of Nigel Coates
Aaron Betsky dives into the 2022 autobiography by the narrator of English punk and queer architecture.
https://architectmagazine.com/desig…
Theaster Gates’ Serpentine Pavilion asks: how do you create a sacred space?
As Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates unveils his much-anticipated Serpentine Pavilion, Black Chapel, he speaks to art historian and curator Aindrea Emelife, who reflects on the space’s power to unify people, cultures and creative disciplines.
https://wallpaper.com/art/theaster-…
In Memory of Colin Forbes, Celebrated Co-Founder of Pentagram
The acclaimed designer has passed away at age 94. Pentagram partner Michael Gericke remembers his former mentor and lifelong friend.
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/in-mem…
Alexandra Lange on Malls as “A Resource of Semi-Public Community Space”
Alexandra Lange’s new book, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall, is aptly titled.
https://commonedge.org/alexandra-la…
Spirits in the Material World: A Trip to the Eames Institute
Kenneth Caldwell visits the Eames Ranch in Petaluma, California to unpack the goals and secrets of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity.
https://metropolismag.com/viewpoint…
Joan Didion’s Magic Trick
What was it that gave her such power?
https://theatlantic.com/magazine/ar…
Christopher Wool on What Brought a ‘Sunday Painter’ Back to Life
“I had been on the treadmill for so long. And then suddenly I felt like I could just be an artist again,” he says. His long obsession with photo books has now taken full flight.
https://nytimes.com/2022/05/30/arts…
The Renovated and Expanded Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Has a Complicated Relationship With Its History
Critic Mimi Zeiger finds beauty and serenity in Selldorf Architects’ new cultural project, but misses much of its building’s accumulated quirk and soul.
https://metropolismag.com/projects/…
Fleur Cowles and the Making of Flair, History’s Most Beautiful Magazine
Wild risks, a blank checkbook, and one impossibly fabulous editor.
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/fleur-…
