Talk Thoughts in Space: Long-Term Lessons of Álvaro Siza
NAKED ARCHITECTURE
CYCLE OF TALKS NAKED ARCHITECTURE
Bilheteira
3€ (Amigos de Serralves, estudantes e maiores 65 anos: 50% desconto)
William J.R. Curtis, well-known as a historian of architecture, is one of the most respected critics in the world of visual perception, whether it concerns architecture, drawing, photography or any other medium of visual expression. His own foray into artistic practice (creations known as ‘Mental Landscapes’) was supported by a sort of ‘uncle’, whose name is Álvaro Siza and whose work one now (re)discovers.
Set on the newest Álvaro Siza Wing of the Serralves Museum, this first session will focus on the perennial and transversal lessons of Siza’s body of work, from the seminal swimming pools in Leça da Palmeira to his first museum in Santiago de Compostela, followed by a talk on the approach and visceral reaction to the expansion of the Serralves Foundation’s built ensemble, with the presence of Álvaro Siza and moderated by António Choupina.
The Naked Architecture programming, talks and tours, will continue to take place in the Álvaro Siza Wing throughout 2023, until the opening of the Collection Exhibitions in the beginning of 2024.
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William J.R. Curtis (1948) is a historian, critic, artist and photographer.
He was educated at the Courtauld Institute of Art, in London, and Harvard University, where he has taught the history and theory of architecture at the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies and the Graduate School of Design, as well as in many international universities, including the Architectural Association and the University of Cambridge, where he was Slade Professor of Fine Art.
His best known works include Modern Architecture Since 1900 and Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms, both widely translated and referred to as ‘classics’. Among other books, Curtis wrote Balkrishna Doshi: an Architecture for India; Denys Lasdun: Architecture, City, Landscape; Le Corbusier at Work, The Genesis of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts; Teodoro González de León, Obra Reunida; and Structures of Light.
He has published on a vast range of other subjects, from mud buildings of the Sahara to Australian aboriginal spear throwers, and is an engaged critic who contributes to international journals such as the Architectural Review, Arquitectura Viva and El Croquis. He has also written several texts on modern architects in Portugal, Spain and Latin America, including Álvaro Siza, Fernando Távora, Alejandro de la Sota, Rafael Moneo, Rogelio Salmona and Luis Barragán.
In 2015, a retrospective of his artistic work was held in the Palace of Charles V, in Granada, with the title Abstraction and Light: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs, which was accompanied by a book prefaced by Álvaro Siza.
In recognition of his professional activities, Curtis has received several international awards, including the Gold Medal of the Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society in Architecture and Allied Arts (USA), in 1999; the 50 Year Commemoration Medal from the Museum of Finnish Architecture, in 2006; the Golden Award for Global Contribution to Architecture (India), in 2014; and the Médaille de l’Académie d'Architecture (France), in 2022.