Aldo Rossi advocated the use of a limited range of building types and concern for the context in which a building is constructed. This postmodern approach, known as neorationalism, represents a reinvigoration of austere classicism. In addition to his built work, he is known for his writings, numerous drawings and paintings, and designs for furniture and other objects.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: MAXXI Archive
Aldo Rossi advocated the use of a limited range of building types and concern for the context in which a building is constructed. This postmodern approach, known as neorationalism, represents a reinvigoration of austere classicism. In addition to his built work, he is known for his writings, numerous drawings and paintings, and designs for furniture and other objects.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: MAXXI Archive
Architecture
Aldo Rossi
Aldo Rossi (3/5/1931-4/9/1997)has achieved distinction as a theorist, author, artist, teacher and architect, in his native Italy as well as internationally. He accomplished the unusual feat of achieving international recognition in four distinct areas: theory, drawing, architecture and product design. Noted critic and historian, Vincent Scully, has compared him to Le Corbusier as a painter-architect. Ada Louise Huxtable, architectural critic and Pritzker juror has described Rossi as “a poet who happens to be an architect.”
By Efi Michalarou
Unflinching and at times dark, he captured intellectuals, luminaries, and members of New York City subculture in moments of disarmed vulnerability. Hujar embraced male sexuality unabashedly and was unafraid to examine death and dying. In her introduction to “Portraits in Life and Death”, Susan Sontag wrote, “…Fleshed and moist-eyed friends and acquaintances stand, sit, slouch, mostly lie – and are made to appear to meditate on their own mortality…Peter Hujar knows that portraits in life are always, also, portraits in death”.By Dimitris LempesisPhoto: Raven Row Archive
Michael Kenna is best known for his black-and-white landscape photography in which he often utilizes drawn-out exposure times, some up to 10 hours in length. Most of Michael Kenna’s photography is taken at dawn or at night, and he has commented that you can’t always see what’s otherwise noticeable during the day … with long exposures you can photograph what the human eye is incapable of seeing.By Dimitris LempesisPhoto: Robert Mann Gallery
Nobuyoshi Araki
Today is the occasion to bear in mind Nobuyoshi Araki (1940). For over half a century, Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki has devoted himself to plumbing the depths of that which is most intimate – the invisible, intangible spirit that animates our very flesh. In his hands, the erotic transcends the mere functionality of pornography and reveals the raw intensity of the emotional, physical, and psychological self that gives sex its power. Through documents or interviews, starting with: moments and memories, we reveal out from the past-unknown sides of big personalities, who left their indelible traces in time and history…By Dimitris Lempesis
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| "Treasures of a Cimarrón", Photojournalism/Documentary Category. by Pedro Genaro |
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| Vivienne Westwood Shoe New York City, 1993 Photo by Albert Watson |
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| Nobuyoshi Araki |
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Usually reviews of Nobuyoshi Araki’s work start by pointing out the contradictions “monster,” “genius,” “pornographer,” “artist,” etc. The greatest negative routinely cited is his attitude toward women, photographed smeared with paint or bound in bondage ropes, images that reflect attitudes rooted in Edo’s ancient past or Tokyo’s modern sexual underworld.
The dustjacket of Ryu Murakami's latest novel, Audition, somewhat pompously describes the author as a "renaissance man for the modern age". This contention is amusingly backed up by citing his previous incarnations as drummer in a rock band and TV chatshow host. Clearly, someone at either Bloomsbury or the original publisher in Japan does irony in spades.
The bestselling writer, known as Japan’s enfant terrible, explored the dark underbelly of Japanese society in more than 40 works of subversive fiction including Audition, later made into a landmark indie horror movie
There’s always been some kind of allure of reading the classics. Take for instance Rory Gilmore curled up with the book or Maeve Wiley casually dropping sharp references to Virginia Woolf. They inspired the whole Lit Girl aesthetic, attracting viewers by their intellect, depth, and wit.
