Postmodern Analysis of the de Young Museum

 Although it is a notoriously contentious term, Postmodernism is generally used to refer to certain new forms of expression in the arts of the last quarter of the twentieth century. It was originally applied to architecture in the mid-1970s to describe buildings that abandoned clean, rational, Minimalist forms in favor of ambiguous, contradictory structures enlivened by playful references to historical styles, borrowings from other cultures and the use of startlingly bold colours.
“Postmodernist culture comprises a world integrated by identification and manipulation of the universal genetic code, computer programs, communication satellites and multinational corporations, and the absence of major mars. It is however, a world fragmented culturally and aesthetically, a world of subcultures, small-group choices on aesthetic and idiosyncratic, nostalgic recapitulations of the past, but one in which a comprehensive, integrating culture theory is lacking.”
According to Cantor’s definition, Postmodernist culture has several characteristics, including nostalgic references to precedents, and an informed questioning of the past, which she terms “nostalgic recapitulations.” Postmodernists tend to use metaphors: investing their work with symbolic and or spiritual meaning. There is also a tendency towards themes (especially in architecture), that are defined by context. Artists, architects, filmmakers, and other Postmodernists celebrate the contrasts and contradictions of their work: it is ultimately a reaction to modernist traditions but also a selective perpetuation some modern tendencies or features in that Postmodernists combine modern with reassuring forms from the past, and tendencies towards what Cantor terms “fabulism and fantasy.”
Textbook author Amy Dempsey, on the other hand, describes Postmodernism as a rediscovery of ornamentation, color, and symbolic connections. She agrees that it is both a rejection of and continuation of modernism, with special focus on the question of representation: appropriations from the past in new and unsettling contexts, or old styles stripped of conventional meaning (deconstructed). Dempsey also says that Postmodernism is a celebration of late 20thc. Pluralism, rather than a unified moral and aesthetic utopia. Her discussion of Postmodernism acknowledges the influence of the mass media and the universal proliferation of images (both print and electronically). (Reader P201)
In 1966, two books heralded some of the key Postmodernist ideas. In his Architettura della citta (1966;English edition The architecture of the city,1982), Italian architect Aldo Rossi(1931-97) argued that, in the context of historic European cities, new buildings should adapt old forms rather than create new ones. The second, the polemical Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966) by American architect Robert Venturi(b. 1925), advocated a “messy vitality” and parodied the famous modernist phrase “less is more” by declaring that on the contrary, “Less is a bore.” This message was certainly taken to heart by the team who designed the exuberant Groninger Museum (1995) in the Netherlands, Italian designer-architects Alessandro Mendiini (b.1930) and Michele de Lucchi (b.1951) , French designer Philippe Starck (b.1949), and the Viennese architect firm of Coop Himmeblau (b.1968). (Amy Dempsey- Styles, Schools & Movements)
As with many cultural fashions, some of Postmodernism's most pronounced and visible ideas can be seen in architecture. Postmodernity in architecture is said to be heralded by the return of "wit, ornament and reference" to architecture in response to the formalism of the International Style of modernism. The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the modernist style are replaced by diverse aesthetics: styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound. Perhaps most obviously, architects rediscovered the expressive and symbolic value of architectural elements and forms that had evolved through centuries of building, a style that had been abandoned by the modern style. As an example, Postmodern architecture has also been described as "neo-eclectic," where reference and ornament have returned to the facade, replacing the aggressively unornamented modern styles. This eclecticism is often combined with the use of non-orthogonal angles and unusual surfaces.
Modernist architects may regard postmodern buildings as vulgar, associated with a populist ethic, and sharing the design elements of shopping malls, cluttered with "gew-gaws." Postmodern architects may regard many modern buildings as soulless and bland, overly simplistic and abstract. This contrast was exemplified in the juxtaposition of the "whites" against the "grays," in which the "whites" were seeking to continue (or revive) the modernist tradition of purism and clarity, while the "grays" were embracing a more multifaceted cultural vision, seen in Robert Venturi's statement rejecting the "black or white" world view of modernism in favor of "black and white and sometimes gray." The divergence in opinions comes down to a difference in goals: modernism is rooted in minimal and true use of material as well as absence of ornament, while postmodernism is a rejection of strict rules set by the early modernists and seeks meaning and expression in the use of building techniques, forms, and stylistic references.
Again, Postmodern architecture evolved from the modernist movement, yet contradicts many of the modernist ideas. Combining new ideas with traditional forms, postmodernist buildings may startle, surprise, and even amuse. Familiar shapes and details are used in unexpected ways. Buildings may incorporate symbols to make a statement or simply to delight the viewer. (Oshkosh Scholar- “Robert Venturi and His Contributions to Postmodern Architecture” pp. 55-63)
The key ideas of Postmodernism are set forth in two important books by Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture and Learning from Las Vegas. In Learning from Las Vegas, Venturi stated that “Many architects find the vernacular of the middle class of America to be so repugnant, distasteful, and unappealing that they have a difficult time in examining it open-mindedly to discover its true functionality” (1977, p. 153). He previously surmised in Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture that the “desire for a complex architecture, with its attendant contradictions,” was fundamentally a reaction to Modernism and the architecture of the 1960s and 1970s (1966, p. 19). He recognized that most people yearn for the use of symbolism within their buildings, a kind of symbolism that they could understand.
Venturi believed that middle-class Americans preferred homes “that [were] nostalgic echoes of the past, rather than those dwellings that [were] ‘pure’ and austere statements of orthodox Modernism” (Carren, 1982, p. 30). While Venturi conceded that his buildings were never thought of as monuments, they were more successful than the Modernist behemoths because everyday people could relate to them in a much more personal way. Simply put, Venturi believed that “good architecture is regional architecture” (Giovanni, 1983, p. B3). He had identified a breach in the acceptance of Modern architecture by the American public and believed his new style, a style that involved tradition and history, was the best way to fill it.
Modernism had become “stale and rigid,” according to Venturi, and his new style of architecture offered a way out (“American Wins,” 1991, sec. 7, p. 4). To be clear, Venturi had no intention of creating a signature style. Unlike many architects of the 1970s, and even in the following decades, he was not out to make a name for himself. Venturi stated that he and his firm “don’t try to do a signature... that can be a real egotistical thing” (Klass, 1992, sec. 7). He explained that “It used to be considered a sign of weakness if your buildings were different, without the architect’s personal vocabulary stamped on it” (“American Wins,” sec. 7, p. 4). Venturi pushed the envelope in this area, making difference and variety more accepted. His style of architecture worked to provide the best possible building for a given site, offering a type of double coding that mixed traditional symbolism with modern building techniques, all to make the structure more readable to a broader regional audience. Venturi stated that “The main approach of mine, of our firm, is that we have emphasized an architecture which promotes richness over simplicity” (Owens, 1986, p. C13).
New trends became evident in the last quarter of the 20th century as some architects started to turn away from modern Functionalism which they viewed as boring, and which some of the public considered unwelcoming and even unpleasant. These architects turned towards the past, quoting past aspects of various buildings and melding them together (sometimes in an inharmonious manner) to create a new means of designing buildings. A vivid example of this new approach was that Postmodernism saw the comeback of columns and other elements of premodern designs, sometimes adapting classical Greek and Roman examples (but not simply recreating them, as was done in neoclassical architecture). In Modernism, the traditional column as a design feature was treated as a cylindrical pipe form, replaced by other technological means such as cantilevers, or masked completely by curtain wall façades. In other words, the revival of the column was an aesthetic rather than a technological necessity. Modernist high-rise buildings had become in most instances monolithic, rejecting the concept of a stack of varied design elements for a single vocabulary from ground level to the top, in the most extreme cases even using a constant "footprint" (with no tapering or "wedding cake" design), with the building sometimes even suggesting the possibility of a single metallic extrusion directly from the ground, mostly by eliminating visual horizontal elements .
Another return of the “wit, ornament and reference” was seen in older
buildings with terra cotta decorative façades and bronze or stainless steel embellishments of the Beaux-Arts and Art Deco periods. In Postmodern structures this was often achieved by placing contradictory quotes of previous building styles alongside each other, and even incorporating furniture stylistic references at a huge scale.
In January 1999, a selection committee looking to build a new de Young museum chose the Swiss firm of Herzog & de Meuron. A conceptual design for the museum was submitted in June. The team created a museum with an interior that is a seamless joy to explore, and an understated exterior that catches one by surprise– for example, when the cantilevered roof viewed from below turns out to be a delicate knit of beams an mesh.
The new de Young occupies the same site as its predecessor along the northern edge of the music concourse near the east end of Golden Park. It includes a basement gallery for special exhibits, two floors of permanent galleries and, at the northeat corner, a 144-foot-high tower with an observation deck. (John King- “The De Young: Not Your Average Art-filled Box”)
Constructed of warm, natural materials including copper, stone, wood and glass, the new de Young blends with and complements its natural surroundings. Ribbons of windows erase the boundary between the museum interior and the lush natural environment outside, and four public entrances segue naturally from the park's pathways, welcoming visitors from all directions.
That blend of in and out, the flow between landscape, facade, and interior is something Fong finds most pleasing about the building. "It's more of a people oriented museum... you don't have to go through any grand staircase to walk in. You kind of just flow right in. and once you're in, we incorporate landscape [by Walter Hood] inside with these deep courtyards that penetrate into the heart of the museum." The courtyards serves both to bring the park into the museum and to assist with way finding one’s way inside.
The outdoor environment of the new de Young features a public sculpture garden and terrace beneath a cantilevered roof; a children’s garden; and landscaping that creates an organic link between the building and the surrounding environment on all four sides. The landscape design integrates historic elements from the old de Young—including the sphinx sculptures, the Pool of Enchantment, and the original palm trees—as well as sandstone, redwood, ferns and other plants and materials relevant to the site, creating a museum that is permeable, open, and inviting to the public. (http://deyoung.famsf.org/about/architecture-and-grounds)
The new 293,000-square-foot (27,000-square-meter) building opened in October 2005. It was the twisting tower – the iconic image of the museum – that generated the strongest criticism. It was likened to many things, all unflattering: a "huge shed," an "Internet start-up company," an "aircraft carrier," a "Howard Johnson's of the future," "atrocious" and "ugly," to name a few.
However, the tower’s controversial beauty is only a part of the interesting story surrounding the tower. The tower and the three-story main building represented different engineering problems. While the tower is not seismically isolated, it needed an extreme solution to counteract its roughly 40-degree torque as it rises to the observation deck. Project manager Nuno Lopes of Fong & Chan explains it can move up to three feet (91 centimeters) due to a unique system of ball-bearing sliding plates and viscous fluid dampers that absorb kinetic energy and convert it to heat. "During a seismic event, that building essentially is going to shake itself loose from the ground," Lopes says. The building would shift within a concealed moat, pushing up loosely fixed pavers around the building. Typically, the moat would be a covered, podium-like device, but that seemed incompatible with the design imperative of harmony with the park setting. "Obviously for us to create that illusion of the building sitting grounded into the landscape, the idea of putting the building up on this podium was not very exciting," Lopes said. "So we early on decided that we needed to bury this podium."
The architects decided to apply an innovative use of vertical post-tensioning cables in the walls. Lopes explains: "The top of the wall of the ninth floor is sitting on a staggered wall, so there's nothing directly below it. During a seismic event there are pressures for it to keep rotating in that direction. So you need to have a post-tensioning cable that is constantly pulling back on the tower, so you don't over-rotate."
The dramatic tower lookout is a gift to the public. Going up is free, independent of museum admission. But the original plans had called for a much different view. The initial design called for cloaking the entire tower with perforated copper. However, Lopes says, "The more everyone thought about it... they quickly realized it was probably not going to be a breathtaking view anymore if you have copper in front of it."
“We are not interested in making prophetic statements about the future of architecture,” the pair said in a speech in 2001 when receiving the Prizker Architecture Prize, the profession’s most prestigious award, “we look for materials that are as breathtakingly beautiful as the cherry blossom in Japan or as condensed and compact as the rock formations of Alps or as unfathomable as the surfaces of the ocean.” There’s the drama of the Oceanic gallery, a 9,500-square-foot space with an energy all its own. The ceiling pulls up like a shallow tent, and the room narrows in the middle like a streamlined hourglass. The wood covering the floors slides up the display cases and then cloaks the ceiling. One could be inside an exotic treasure chest.
The galleries in the main building flow from one to the next in a way that makes the journey between disparate forms of art feel perfectly natural. And each route traces back to the central court where most visits to the museum will begin. The broad strokes of fabric-covered lighting close in on themselves, pointing toward the Richter mural. The staircase to second floor grows wider ach step of the way and is cladding an unusually dark variety of eucalyptus. (John King- “The de Young: Not Your Average Art-Filled Box”)
The art galleries flow together and support the art collections' styles. The size, style, and lighting of galleries differ based on the art itself. The light variance is most pronounced in areas that allow views out of the museum to the park's beautiful surrounding gardens. The museum's intent is to connect the museum viewer with the outside world. The de Young Art museum allows people, art, San Francisco, and nature to be joined as one. The museum is a combination of tourist attraction and City icon that continues to wow crowds from around the globe.
写完长了四个痘。