Some of the world's greatest architecture has risen in the Pearl District. It may be only on the walls of the S.K. Josefsberg Studio photography gallery through Nov. 25, but it's impressive just the same.
From early Modernist masterpieces like [Richard Neutra's] Kaufmann House to Frank Gehry's latest bending stretch of what a building can be, the gallery is presenting a cavalcade of great 20th-century buildings. They are paired with portraits of the men -- and one woman -- behind them, among others, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Mario Botta, Santiago Calatrava, Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas.
Simply titled "Architecture in Photography" and curated by Josefsberg assistant director Jennifer Stoots, the exhibit is easily the best and, perhaps, the only architectural photography show Portland has ever seen. The show is more about fun than education. But the buildings speak a language Portland -- and particularly local developers -- need to hear more of.
Stoots studied [art] history at the University of Oregon, but, as her current job would suggest, [the history of photography is her love and her muse]. The show's inspiration actually comes from photography and music: Edward Weston's famed 1935 portrait of Igor Stravinsky.
"It made me think of Andre Steiner's portrait of Le Corbusier," Stoots recalls. "It's a picture of a powerful vision as a character and within a
field."
"It's not an architecture show," she underlines. "It's a show about architecture in photography."
Stoots says the show curated itself, based on what portraits of architects she could find to match with images of their work. She discovered thatfamous buildings do not necessarily equal famous architects: The designers whose personal publicity skills didn't match their building talent became doomed to photo-obscurity. Consider the zillions of images of the Chrysler and Flatiron buildings in Manhattan, yet portraits of William Van Allen and Daniel Burnham, Stoots discovered, are virtually nonexistent.
As well, Stoots discovered the largest harvest of great architectural photographs -- not unlike crops of buildings -- date from the boom times
of the 1920s, '50s and '90s.
But for architectural buffs and regular folks alike, the show offers plenty. The history of 20th-century architecture arguably has been driven more by photographs than the actual buildings through architecture magazines and, particularly in the mid-20th-century, through the rise of architecture in the popular press. Stoots has assembled such important icons as [Iwao Yamawaki's] golden-hour photo of Walter Gropius' Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, and Klaus Kinold's 1929 image of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye.
But for laypeople, the enchantments will lie in Paolo Rosselli's nighttime views of Santiago Calatrava's Volantin Bridge in Bilbao, Spain, or Thomas Mayer's twilight picture of Frank Gehry's newly finished Der Neue Zollhoff in Düsseldorf, Germany, which looks more like a clay animation set than a building.
Of the portraits, there's the usual highly mannerist "hero architect" pictures, such as the [famous] Le Corbusier image and Arnold Newman's
pose of Louis Kahn. But here, too, Stoots has found less-expected gems such as young and old portraits of Walter Gropius and Richard Meier and a rare picture of Japanese master Tadao Ando in his studio.
The only downside is that Stoots missed some great opportunities to localize the show. It was an early '40s photograph of the late John
Yeon's Watzek House hanging by Wright's Fallingwater in the Museum of Modern Art -- its pitched roofs echoing Mount Hood -- that
single-handedly launched the Northwest Regional Style. And Yeon himself was beautifully photographed by George PlattLynes. Pietro
Belluschi's Equitable Building, one of the earliest aluminum-and-glass, curtain-wall high rises, is Portland's most important Modernist building. The building was shot by the great architectural photographer, Ezra Stoller, and local portraitist Marion Kolisch made some excellent images of the architect.
Finally, Stoots might have invited one of Portland's better architectural photographers to shoot Wright's Gordon House in Wilsonville, now in jeopardy of being demolished by its new owners.
Those omissions aside, gallery-goers will find fine pictures; and architecture fans, great inspiration. Indeed, the show should be required
for those operating the cranes of Portland growth. Walk out of the gallery and the River District's preponderance of brick boxes masquerading as luxury residences seem exponentially duller. Perhaps somebody will lock some of the developers building our ever-architecturally duller city inside Stoots' show for inspiration or at least penance.
You can reach Randy Gragg at 503-221-8575 or
randygragg@news.oregonian.com
