Lauretta Vinciarelli
March 30–July 20, 2019
101 Spring Street
New York, NY
Judd Foundation presents Lauretta Vinciarelli, an exhibition of architectural drawings by the architect and artist on the ground floor of 101 Spring Street in New York. Vinciarelli (1943-2011) occupies a place of historic importance in the 1970s revival of architectural drawings and architectonic trends in contemporary painting. The exhibition will be on view from March 30 through July 20, 2019.
Vinciarelli’s contributions to the field of architecture are evident in her drawing practice. Using an approach that focused on architectural typologies and the shared fundamental building types that persist over time, Vinciarelli developed a method of “drawing as research” vividly demonstrated in her colored pencil and watercolor architectural proposals and drawings from the 1970s and 1980s. As she described in a 1978 lecture: “Architects are asking the question: ‘how can we do [make] architecture that people can understand?’ …And my question is: ‘in what way can we do an architecture which is recognizable?’ And in my opinion the adherence to historical types can help.”
In the late 1970s, Vinciarelli began a relationship with Judd as both a professional collaborator and partner. Their collaborative work, occurring over the course of a decade, can be seen in numerous realized and unrealized projects in West Texas, including plans for La Mansana de Chinati. The two worked on commissions for a large outdoor work for the plaza in front of city hall in Providence, Rhode Island (1984), and a proposal for a large complex for the Progressive Insurance company in Cleveland, Ohio (1986), neither realized. Vinciarelli also contributed her drafting skills to Judd’s printmaking, making drawings for plates used to create a set of twenty-seven etchings (1983-85).
The exhibition includes twenty-three drawings for gardens and structures in West Texas and in Puglia, Italy. Judd purchased a number of Vinciarelli’s drawings, including the Puglia project, shortly after their realization. The additional drawings and watercolors in the exhibition were generously gifted to Judd Foundation by Vinciarelli’s husband, Peter Rowe, the Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor.
Lauretta Vinciarelli is made possible with support from Ronnie Heyman and Loren Pack & Robert Beyer.
Lauretta Vinciarelli (1943-2011) was an architect, artist, and professor of architecture. Born in Arbe, Italy and raised in Rome, she attended graduate school at the Università di Roma La Sapienza, earning her doctorate in architecture and urban planning in 1971. There Vinciarelli encountered the typological and vernacular approaches to housing and urban design of Ludovico Quaroni and Mario Ridolfi, which established critiques of market capitalism and materialism that permeated Italian architectural discourse in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Vinciarelli moved to New York City in 1969, where she became involved in the Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies until its closure in 1984. She was a vital member of the ReVisions study group, formed in 1981, which hosted public programs that explored the relationship of art, architecture, and ideology. Vinciarelli taught at various architecture schools beginning in 1975 at the Pratt Institute, later teaching at Columbia University (1978-2000), City College New York (1985-1992), and as a visiting professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago (1981) and Rice University, Houston (1982). Notably, Vinciarelli was the first woman to have drawings acquired by the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Vinciarelli’s work is in the collection of museums including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo; and the Archive of the Biennale of Venice. Recent exhibitions of her work include Clear Light: The Architecture of Lauretta Vinciarelli (2012) at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York, and Light Unveiled (2016) at Totah Gallery, New York.
The exhibition was accompanied by public programs in New York and Texas. Participants included Kristin Bonkemeyer, Jim Martinez, and Nick Terry, moderated by Caitlin Murray; and Sean Anderson, Marta Gutman, Mary McLeod, and James Russell, moderated by Barry Bergdoll.
Lauretta Vinciarelli is made possible with support from Ronnie Heyman and Loren Pack & Robert Beyer.
