Denman Ross And American Design Theory

The life and thought of one of the founders of twentieth-century American design

The extraordinary life and work of architect Amaza Lee Meredith, and the role modernism and material culture played in the aspiring Black American middle class of the early twentieth century. Amaza Lee Meredith Imagines Herself Modern tells the captivating story of Amaza Lee Meredith, a Black woman architect, artist, and educator born into the Jim Crow South, whose bold choices in both life and architecture expand our understanding of the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance, while revealing the importance of architecture as a force in Black middle-class identity. Through her charismatic protagonist, Jacqueline Taylor derives new insights into the experiences of Black women at the forefront of culture in early twentieth-century America, caught between expectation and ambition, responsibility and desire. Central to Taylor’s argument is that Meredith’s response to modern architecture and art, like those of other Black cultural producers, was not marginal to the modernist project; instead, her work reveals the tensions and inconsistencies in how American modernism has been defined. In this way, the book shines a necessary light on modernism’s complexity, while overturning perceived notions of race and gender in relation to the modernist project and challenging the notion of the white male hero of modern architecture.

Histories of Architecture Education in the United States is an edited collection focused on the professional evolution, experimental and enduring pedagogical approaches, and leading institutions of American architecture education. Beginning with the emergence of architecture as a profession in Philadelphia and ending with the early work, but unfinished international effort, of making room for women and people of color in positions of leadership in the field, this collection offers an important history of architecture education relevant to audiences both within and outside of the United States. Other themes include the relationship of professional organizations to educational institutions; the legacy of late nineteenth-century design concepts; the role of architectural history; educational changes and trans-Atlantic intellectual exchanges after WWII and the Cold War; the rise of the city and urban design in the architect’s consciousness; student protests and challenges to traditional architecture education; and the controversial appearance of environmental activism. This collection, in other words, provides a relevant history of the present, with topics of concern to all architects studying and working today.

Thanks to Salem sea captains, Gilded Age millionaires, curators on horseback and missionaries gone native, North American museums now possess the greatest collections of Chinese art outside of East Asia itself. How did it happen? The China Collectors is the first full account of a century-long treasure hunt in China from the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion to Mao Zedong's 1949 ascent. The principal gatherers are mostly little known and defy invention. They included "foreign devils" who braved desert sandstorms, bandits and local warlords in acquiring significant works. Adventurous curators like Langdon Warner, a forebear of Indiana Jones, argued that the caves of Dunhuang were already threatened by vandals, thereby justifying the removal of frescoes and sculptures. Other Americans include George Kates, an alumnus of Harvard, Oxford and Hollywood, who fell in love with Ming furniture. The Chinese were divided between dealers who profited from the artworks' removal, and scholars who sought to protect their country's patrimony. Duanfang, the greatest Chinese collector of his era, was beheaded in a coup and his splendid bronzes now adorn major museums. Others in this rich tapestry include Charles Lang Freer, an enlightened Detroit entrepreneur, two generations of Rockefellers, and Avery Brundage, the imperious Olympian, and Arthur Sackler, the grand acquisitor. No less important are two museum directors, Cleveland's Sherman Lee and Kansas City's Laurence Sickman, who challenged the East Coast's hegemony. Shareen Blair Brysac and Karl E. Meyer even-handedly consider whether ancient treasures were looted or salvaged, and whether it was morally acceptable to spirit hitherto inaccessible objects westward, where they could be studied and preserved by trained museum personnel. And how should the US and Canada and their museums respond now that China has the means and will to reclaim its missing patrimony?

Rethinking Basic Design in Architectural Education provides historical and computational insights into beginning design education for architecture. Inviting the readers to briefly forget what is commonly known as basic design, it delivers the account of two educators, Denman W. Ross and Arthur W. Dow, from the turn of the twentieth century in Northeast America, interpreting key aspects of their methodology for teaching foundations for design and art. This alternate intellectual context for the origins of basic design as a precursor to computational design complements the more haptic, more customized, and more open-source design and fabrication technologies today. Basic design described and illustrated here as a form of low-tech computation offers a setting for the beginning designer to consciously experience what it means to design. Individualized dealings with materials, tools, and analytical techniques foster skills and attitudes relevant to creative and technologically adept designers. The book is a timely contribution to the theory and methods of beginning design education when fast-changing design and production technology demands change in architecture schools’ foundations curricula.

The Tender Detail tells a story about the repression of sentimentality through architectural ornament. The protagonists are Louis H. Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, two of the most important architects and designers of ornament in American history. Interweaving close readings of their architecture and writings with wide-ranging discussions about sexuality, gender, and philosophy, the book explores how both men worked to solve the problem of late nineteenth-century ornamentation. It suggests that their solutions, while widely different, were both intimately rooted in the tender emotions of sentimentality. Viewing ornament in this way reveals much, not only about Sullivan and Wright's artistic intentions, but also about the role of affect, the value of beauty, and the agency and ontology of objects. Illuminated by personal stories from their respective autobiographies, which add a level of human interest unusual in an academic work, The Tender Detail is a readable, scholarly study which sheds fresh light on Sullivan and Wright's relationship, their work, and on the nature of ornament itself.

This new edition of The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists has been fully revised and updated as well as including dozens of new entries offering an insightful and informative view of America's artistic heritage. An indispensable biographical and critical guide to American art from colonial times to contemporary postmodernism, this valuable resource provides readers with a wealth of factual detail and perceptive analysis of America's leading artists. This new edition has been updated to include a number of entries on prevailing topics such as body art, light and space, Indian-American art, scatter art, and transactional art, and features many new or greatly expanded biographical entries on artists such as Ida Applebroog, Guerilla Girls, Peter Hujar and Shirin Neshat. Morgan offers readers a wealth of authoritative information as well as well-informed analysis and criticism of artists and their work. Filled with fascinating historical background and penetrating insight, The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists is an essential resource for art lovers everywhere.

A Theory of Pure Design By Denman W. Ross