Venetian architect, artist and professor Massimo Scolari had a retrospective exhibition at Yale this past winter. “Massimo Scolari: The Representation of Architecture” opened at Rudolph Hall to a very large turn-out of friends and supporters.
He makes very complex, imagined landscape paintings representing a certain kind of personal vision that is unique in art. And as a draftsman he is no slouch. At a symposium before his 9 Feb 2012 opening party he said, “The prevalence of computer design raises the problem of whether or not we need hand drawing in the design process, but I think freehand drawing is a very fundamental step.”
I would agree with him on this point wholeheartedly. In fact, not only is drawing a fundamental step, it is the language with which artists communicate among themselves and, secondarily, to the world. All of the arts require basic skills. Drawing is one that will never be replaced by computers and all of these horrid CAD programs etc. (Good for repeating floors in office buildings but completely useless as a creative tool). I know for a fact that 'younger' generation designers who only draw on electronic programs are not as good as those who sat for months-years holding Conté crayons in life drawing classes. They can't even compose a decent page layout. It's the Dwell Magazine hipster generation substituting pixels for thinking.
Let's even go so far as to say that in the plastic arts drawing by hand is thinking.
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| Massimo at his opening signing books. |
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| 'Gate for a Maritime City' |
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| L-R: Athens-based architect, furniture designer and artist Chi Wing Lo; New York's brilliant, charming and generous Dan Sherer at the opening. (photo: JES) |
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| Massimo's library in Venice. L-R: Swiss architect Felix Wettstein, Chi Wing Lo, Massimo Scolari. (photo: JES) |
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