Michael Graves: Images of a Grand Tour - Hardcover

Brian M. Ambroziak

4.73

11 ratings by Goodreads

9781568985299: Michael Graves: Images of a Grand Tour

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1568985290 ISBN 13: 9781568985299

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005

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In 1960, before his skyscrapers and teapots made him a household name, Michael Graves set out on a journey once considered obligatory for a young architect: a grand tour of the great monuments of Europe. As a recipient of the prestigious Prix de Rome, Graves traveled through Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain, England, Germany, and France, studying and recording the masterworks of both ancient and modern architecture.

Michael Graves: Images of A Grand Tour collects for the first time the stunning artwork produced during this trip. Delicate pencil sketches, striking ink washes, and colorful photographs show the deep connection Graves had to the places he visited, from the Roman Forum to the Grecian Acropolis to Wiltshires Stonehenge. They also tell something of the education of an architect, bringing to light the classical buildings that caused Graves to reexamine his early devotion to modernism. A foreword by Graves reflects on these travels from the distance of forty years, while author Brian Ambroziak puts the tour into the context of Graves's life and work.

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About the Author:

Brian M. Ambroziak studied under Michael Graves at Princeton University and worked for four years as a project designer for Michael Graves & Associates. In 1999, he co-authored Infinite Perspectives: Two Thousand Years of Three-Dimensional Mapmaking . He i

From Publishers Weekly:

At first, the premise is specific enough to be interesting: Michael Graves, one of the most prolific living architects, goes to Paris in 1960 and takes a grand tour of Europe, documenting-normally with drawings, paintings and photographs-a humble convent near Lyon, France, the grand mosques of Istanbul and plenty of Spain and Italy in between. Perhaps just looking at the pictures is all one should do, because this book takes a sudden downturn in the exposition department when Ambroziak tries too hard to establish a connection between this talented architect's vacation drawings and his fame. "The sketches and photographs of Italy that Graves produced during this two-year period visually imprinted themselves on his mind. The impact of his experiences is revealed throughout the extensive body of his work..." This seems a bit disingenuous, seeing that Graves has put his name on everything from luxury apartment building to high-style toilet brushes. His branding and marketing teams have made him so versatile and commercially viable, that, ironically, these drawings of historic architecture distance his recent work from the traditional works collected here. 90 color, 210 b/w illustrations.
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