Slog - Comments on Why I Like Christopher Hawthorne http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/05/why_i_like_christopher_hawthorne At the top of ArtsJournal this morning is a link to LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne's review of the new Seattle Art Museum. The ArtsJournal teaser reads: A Museum Where Art And Architect Cooperate Christopher Hawthorne loves the Seattle Art Museum's new home, mainly because it manages to properly showcase the art inside it without subsuming the architect's skill and vision. And then I read the review, which is a sly one. Hawthorne doesn't love the Seattle Art Museum's new home at all. If I'm reading correctly, he seems to find it decent, fairly good, but lacking in the... Copyright 2008 Wed, 02 May 2007 09:05:09 -0800 Sat, 12 May 2007 17:11:37 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Wondering Willa Couldn't agree more about the Venturi building. It was awful. I was surprised to find out from this post that it was an attempt at wit! Was it such a failed attempt at wit that it couldn't even be perceived, or was that on purpose and I am too dull to pick up on it? Meh, I guess it doesn't matter now that it's gone. Let's see what this new building has to offer.

I liked that Hawthorne took a dig at MoMA which I felt was kind of awful, but felt my judgment questionable given that I am only an art dabbler and that, at 38, I might be entering an inflexible stodgy stage.

]]> Wondering Willa http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/05/why_i_like_christopher_hawthorne#c706198 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/05/why_i_like_christopher_hawthorne#c706198 Arts Wed, 02 May 2007 11:29:28 -0800 Comment by vegetable lasagna MoMA does feel corporate (maybe it's the $20 price tag and the fact that it's midtown). It has some interesting sight lines, but it doesn't feel like it was designed as an art museum. Also, when it opened, there was a big space upstairs that seemed empty and oddly planned. I confess to knowing little about architecture (basically, limited to knowing what I like), but the Noguchi Museum is hands-down the best designed art museum that I've ever seen. Well, actually, the Getty in LA is definitely the best, but seemingly in its own category (given the view and the garden, it's being an art museum seems kind of secondary).

]]> vegetable lasagna http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/05/why_i_like_christopher_hawthorne#c706276 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/05/why_i_like_christopher_hawthorne#c706276 Arts Wed, 02 May 2007 13:13:27 -0800 Comment by 35 straight hours? Forreals? Is it really open 35 straight hours? So we can go at 3 or 5 am and avoid the crowds?

]]> 35 straight hours? Forreals? http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/05/why_i_like_christopher_hawthorne#c706349 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/05/why_i_like_christopher_hawthorne#c706349 Arts Wed, 02 May 2007 14:38:45 -0800 Comment by double j I kinda like the eccentric curve of the Venturi galleries and now that they have been opened up a bit they work much better. Also, after the debacle of the Venturi wing did anyone actually expect SAM to risk another clunker?

Seattle has plenty of showy buildings and Hawthorne is dead right on his assessment of Cloepfil's SAM but Seattle has literally nothing to prove in terms of architectural jewelry.

It might not be an a paradigm shifting piece of architecture but it makes for a good museum. I hate it when museums try to coast on their architecture as a way to earn respect, SAM's gonna have to do that through programming. My best advice let Darling originate national shows. Seattle needs to produce, not merely import.

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