Born to be wild : on the work of Frank Gehry

• Los Angeles Vice might be a good name for Frank Gehry's brand of architecture. His work flouts so many conventions that at first sight it looks like sheer materialised male­faction. Using all the discipline's autonomous resources, Gehry tries to shake established architecture out of ils slumber and offer it an invigorating cold shower, ultimately to its own good. First catharsis, and then ... everything is allowed. Frank Gehry was once likened to his fellow Californian Clint Eastwood as the notorious Dirty Harry, the cop who spurns all the stultifying legal niceties and meets crime head on with his Magnum 44. The powers that be at first want to strip him of his badge, but in the end they are visibly pleased with the lone combatant who takes the law into his own hands. At last, the city can breathe easy... Perhaps the analogy looks a bit far fetched: Eastwood's neo-reactionary Harry seldom yields as much as a grudging smile, whereas Frank Gehry's playful avant-garde is closer lo a Dionysian guffaw. But there is also an overriding similarity. In both cases, the nomadic wilfulness and provocative methods are widely enjoyed. And in both cases, too, this is really because whether intentionally or not, their wayward behaviour perpetuates a conventional morality. 

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Arkitektur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Architecture (hsv//eng)

Keyword

The Invisible in Architecture

Frank Gehry

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)