Urban Shocker
Doyenne
I think they did a lovely job laying the cinderblock on the Clewes buildings that I've seen or been inside - and painting it too. I don't find a disconnect between enjoying his buildings from a distance and enjoying them up close - one expects there to be a transition as you move closer to something. He has a great eye for form and proportion, knows how to simplify and say what he wants to say without clutter: standing in front of 22 Wellesley and looking up is a far more enjoyable experience than standing in front of the cluttered assemblage that is Element and looking up. I'm sure Clewes could do great things with plywood, though materials don't count for everything.
The "Monet" quote indicates how someone with a one dimensional view of a two ( or three ) dimensional object short-changes themselves: the brushstrokes of a Monet can be appreciated close up, just as the whole painting can be appreciated from a distance. In the AGO's little Chuck Close exhibition there's a smallish self-portrait that can be enjoyed in exactly that way. Up close it is a deliciously blobby, smeared mess of colours - and as you move away it becomes something different, but it is still a Chuck Close.
I don't find the limestone on the Gardiner Museum any more attractive after a rainstorm than the concrete on the St Lawrence Centre after a rainstorm.
The "Monet" quote indicates how someone with a one dimensional view of a two ( or three ) dimensional object short-changes themselves: the brushstrokes of a Monet can be appreciated close up, just as the whole painting can be appreciated from a distance. In the AGO's little Chuck Close exhibition there's a smallish self-portrait that can be enjoyed in exactly that way. Up close it is a deliciously blobby, smeared mess of colours - and as you move away it becomes something different, but it is still a Chuck Close.
I don't find the limestone on the Gardiner Museum any more attractive after a rainstorm than the concrete on the St Lawrence Centre after a rainstorm.