Beaux Arts at the MetropolitanTonight I skipped the New York Film Festival and attended my first lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I've always wanted to learn more about architecture with a particular interest in the styles that influenced the building of New York. Tonight's lecture focused on Richard Morris Hunt and the Beaux Arts movement. David Garrard Lowe was the speaker and he has a wonderful way of intertwining history, humor, and quotable people of the day into his very accessible talk. Mark Twain quotes, humorous antidotes about the Vandelbilts and Astors, along with archival photos kept the audience engaged and entertained. He even challenged the crowd to meet up with him after the lecture at the obelisque behind the Met to jointly lift the monolithic structure to the front of the museum to give it proper placement like the more prominent version in Paris on the Palace de la Concorde. If ornate, showy architecture was what you wanted, Hunt was your guy. In fact, Mark Twain used Hunt's interior decorating style to coin this time as The Gilded Age. Soon it became a battle of the wealthy elite to build bigger and more ornate homes, first in New York and then in Newport. Personally I find this style garish and rather wasteful, but I sure did enjoy Lowe's commentary. Luckily not many people could afford such style but I'm sure it if it hadn't been for Hunt, I wouldn't have to suffer through Trump's style.
Hunt in a Singer Seargent painting
6 comments:
Okay, I'm sure Hunt is a sweet dude, but Sargeant appears to have grafted Hunt's head onto this portrait as an afterthought. It looks like one of those teenage movie posters where the movie stars heads were clearly glued onto some generic models' bodies to achieve the desired poses required by the marketing campaign. Did you go try to lift the obelisk?
Now you are talkin! Movies are fine but keep foing to these lectures! As a yound man, I used to love the Beaux Arts movement... and still like it. But as I get older and see more, my eyes seem to like simpler/cleaner lines.
I love a good Beaux Arts garden still.
We didn't move the obelisque. This likely has to do with the average age of the audience hovering somewhere around 72. One lady several rows back was going through a coughing fit of rather disturbing proportions one usually only hears in retirement homes or the geriatric wing of the hospital. Being New York and all, there were some plasticized and coiffured women in the crowd, too. My friend had a funny story about how one of these grande dames arrived, in a white chauffeured luxury car driving up on the curb and sidewalk so she could enter with minimal difficulty. At first notice, she thought such driving must be for a handicapped patron. This was firmly proven assumptive when the woman hopped out with high-heals and had no mobility problems whatsoever, unless you count her high nose as a sight impediment.
Interesting about the big, garish house contest - seems like history is repeating itself here in my 'hood in NC.
Now come on. Don't put "The Donald" and the écoles des beaux arts in the same thought.
Sure the Beaux Arts movement was ornate (leading to the completely austere Bauhaus reaction to it). But don't make the mistake that all ornamentation is bad. The stone carver's craft is a beautiful thing too. Classical forms are proven. Enduring.
It is too easy to lump artful embellishment and gaudy imbellishment into the same bucket. But they aren't the same. And the difference isn't even quanity. I've been in highly embellished spaces that were comfortable, functional and even inspirational. Ornamentation isn't the enemy... just spend some real time in a bauhaus structure. Not too fun. Nice to visit but...
I don't care for the guilded excess of Trumpism but it isn't aimed at me. And what Donald Trump does is not anywhere nearly as artful as good Beaux Art design. Bad is bad during any age.
Look around today. Question: Who builds ANYTHING? Answer: People with money. Why and how? How THEY want it.
Rare is the architect who get to dictate a design. Invariably they work within constraints. It is a service for fee. Most clients want what they want regardless.
A non-beaux arts example: How many faux chateaux are on your street? Why? Because for some unknown reason people buy them. That doesn't make 'em good. And also, it doesn't 'em NOT French inspired. Bad is bad.
And just as there is good design and bad design today (terrible large homes and beautiful large homes) there was good design and bad design THEN.
Let's not lump the excesses of the guilded age into an indictment of there architecture. Beaux Arts design is beautiful, classical and important. A beautiful beaux arts mansion is something to behold; an acheivement of proporations, artisanry and space.
Donald Trump... please.
Never said all ornate = bad but Trump style (gold bathroom fixtures, marble bathtubs, massive scale, and big mirrors - owe a great deal to Beaux Arts. Aesthetics and style are so personal. Enjoy your beaux! But don't think for a second that this interior photo doesn't have inspiration from homes like the Breakers!
http://www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/leibovitz/
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