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Martin Filler

Martin Filler Books

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“Museum architectural search committees have invariably included the Kimbell in their international scouting tours of exemplary art galleries (a practice pioneered by Velma Kimbell, the founder’s widow, in 1964). Those groups no doubt respond to the Kimbell with suitable reverence, but given the buildings they later commissioned, many post-Bilbao museum patrons obviously wanted something quite different. The disparity between Kahn’s museums and recent examples of that genre parallels the discrepancy he saw between postwar Modernism and ancient Classicism: “Our stuff looks tinny compared to it.” At a time when commercial values are systematically corrupting the museum - one of civilized society’s most elevating experiences - the example of Kahn, among the most courageous and successful architectural reformers of all time, seems more relevant and cautionary than ever.”

ArchitectureMuseumsLouis Kahn
Book:Makers of Modern Architecture: From Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry (New York Review Books
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“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 more affordable.”

ArtWould BeAgeCertainCenturyStyleDesignBuildingTraditionTasksWorkersArchitectureDesignerConstructionTwentieth CenturyAffordableRepetitiveExponentsConstruction WorkersOld TraditionsHandcrafted
Author:Martin Filler
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“The tall building, concentrating man in one place more densely than ever before, similarly concentrates the dilemma of our public architecture at the end of the twentieth century: whether the new forms made possible by technology are doomed by the low calculations of modern patrons and their architects.”

MenMadeEndsFormTechnologyModernCenturyBuildingLowsArchitectureTallArchitectDoomedTwentieth CenturyDilemmaCalculationsConcentratingPatronTall Buildings
Author:Martin Filler
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“Although prefabrication has a long history - the ancient Romans shipped pre-cut stone columns, pediments, and other architectural elements to their colonies in North Africa, where the numbered parts were reassembled into temples - the idea took on a new impetus with the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution.”

LongIdeasCuttingRevolutionElementsStonesAncientTemplesTechnologicalColumnsColonyIndustrial RevolutionImpetusNorth Africa
Author:Martin Filler
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“Architecture traditionally has been the slowest of art forms. It was not unusual for great cathedrals to take centuries to complete, with stylistic changes from Romanesque to Gothic or Renaissance to Baroque as common as the addition of chapels or spires. But because the function remained the same, the form could be flexible and its growth organic.”

Has BeensArtFormGrowthCommonCenturyFunctionArchitectureUnusualFlexibleGothicRenaissanceCathedralsChapelBaroqueSpires
Author:Martin Filler
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“Cost overruns are not uncommon in architecture, particularly for designs that depart from structural or technological norms, or demand a finer quality of execution than commercial schemes - conditions typical of buildings for cultural institutions. Budgets are exceeded for many reasons, not all of them within an architect's control.”

ReasonQualityConditionsDesignBuildingCostDemandInstitutionsArchitectureBudgetsArchitectExecutionSchemesTypicalTechnologicalNormUncommon
Author:Martin Filler
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“During the nineteenth century, the rapid emergence and proliferation of new manufacturing methods and building technologies led to the establishment of polytechnic schools that concentrated on the practicalities of engineering and construction rather than the niceties of stylistic correctness or adherence to established precedent.”

SchoolTechnologyCenturyBuildingMethodConstructionEstablishmentEngineeringRapidsManufacturingNineteenth CenturyCorrectnessEmergencePrecedentProliferationPracticalityAdherenceNiceties
Author:Martin Filler
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“Experimental architecture by its very nature is more prone to the depredations of time and natural elements than buildings made from conventional materials through traditional methods. Avant-garde architects often simply do not know how the products of their imagination will perform when implemented, especially if untested components are involved.”

IfsKnowsMadeImaginationNaturalKnow HowBuildingMaterialsProductsInvolvedElementsMethodArchitectureTraditionalArchitectConventionalComponentsAvant GardeNatural Elements
Author:Martin Filler
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“Masterpieces of art possess immense potential to advance a worldview that could help assuage the societal terrors posed by globalization, the most thoroughgoing socioeconomic upheaval since the Industrial Revolution, which has set off a pandemic of retrogressive nationalism, regional separatism, and religious extremism.”

ArtHelpingReligiousRevolutionTerrorNationalismImmenseMasterpieceGlobalizationExtremismWorldviewReligious ExtremismIndustrial RevolutionUpheavalPandemics
Author:Martin Filler
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“The magnificent lobby of the Chrysler Building - faced with rare marbles, aglitter with decorative metalwork, and surmounted by a ceiling painted with a totemic image of the tower itself - leads to elevator cabs inlaid with exotic woods in fanciful patterns. The entire route from street to office is invested with ceremony, dignity, and delight.”

StreetsBuildingOfficeDignityPatternsDelightWoodsMagnificentTowersRoutesCeremonyCeilingsMarbleExoticElevatorsCabChryslerChrysler Building
Author:Martin Filler
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“Winning the Pritzker assures a flood of work in one's seventies and eighties, jobs necessarily carried out by assistants as the demands of modern-day cultural stardom and the inevitable waning of physical capacities prevent many architects from attaining the transcendent final phase more easily achieved by artists in other mediums.”

JobsArtistWinningModernDemandCapacityFinalsMediumsInevitableArchitectPhasesFloodSeventiesEightyAssistantsTranscendentStardomModern Day
Author:Martin Filler
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“What a museum chooses to exhibit is sometimes less important than how such decisions are made and what values inform them. To have the crucial role of museum professionals usurped by self-serving tycoons in the name of economic imperative threatens not only the integrity of individual institutions but the very principle of art held in public trust.”

ArtMadeImportantSelfSometimesValuesNamesIndividualDecisionPrinciplesRolesEconomicTrustIntegrityInstitutionsServingMuseumsCrucialImperativesExhibitsSelf ServingPublic TrustTycoons
Author:Martin Filler
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“The most basic task of any museum must be the protection of works of cultural significance entrusted to its care for the edification and pleasure of future generations. This imperative rightfully takes precedence over acquisition, interpretation, outreach, or any number of other activities now believed to be crucial to the survival of our great art repositories. Sometimes a museum gains its holdings with much strategic forethought, and at other times serendipitously, as when a long-coveted neighbor’s plot suddenly becomes available. Yet the moral responsibility remains the same.”

LongArtSometimesCarePleasureNumbersResponsibilityMoralGenerationsActivitySurvivalGainsTasksRemainsAvailableProtectionNeighborPlotSignificanceInterpretationMuseumsCrucialGreat ArtImperativesFuture GenerationStrategicAcquisitionPrecedenceMoral ResponsibilityForethoughtOutreachEdification
Author:Martin Filler
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“The popular mythology of creative genius depends on beloved stereotypes of the artist in youth and old age: the misunderstood upstart who forces us to see the world afresh; and the revered sage who shows us depths of insight attainable only through a lifetime of hard-won experience.”

WorldHardShowsAgeArtistForceCreativeYouthDependsGeniusLifetimeDepthInsightMythologyOld AgeBelovedStereotypeSageMisunderstoodYouth And Old AgeCreative GeniusUpstart
Author:Martin Filler
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