Fountains Splash & Spectacle

Catalog of an exhibition

This is a companion publication to a Smithsonian Institution exposition on fountains running through October 1998, and the text describes hundreds of fountains, from the prosaic drinking fountain to the fabulous, monumental fountains of Rome. Noting that designers must decide whether the structure or the water will predominate, editor Symmes commences with the fountain's origin as the public's access to a clean water supply, a practical purpose overshadowed by the age of Louis XIV, when fountains were used for political display. Keeping up with Louis' aqua ostentation at Versailles kept royal imitators across Europe busy, and adding the amenity of fountains is still a fine strategy for showing off, as a chapter on artificial geysers at international exhibitions shows. Flowing water makes a powerful design element in memorials, as shown recently in the FDR memorial and architect Maya Lin's Civil Rights Memorial. This work's photographs of them and 300 other fountains in Europe and the U.S. awakens an appreciation of water's artistic potential in urban spaces. Gilbert Taylor