Drawing Ambience

Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association

April 24 - August 2, 2015

Introduction

Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association highlights the impressive collection of drawings assembled by Alvin Boyarsky during his pivotal tenure as chairman of the Architectural Association (AA) in London, from 1971 until his death in 1990. During his time leading the school, Boyarsky orchestrated an ambitious exhibition and publication program that situated drawing as not only a representational tool, but as a form of architecture in its own right.

Drawing Ambience features an iconic group of drawings by some of the most prominent architects and artists of our time, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, Mary Miss, Eduardo Paolozzi, Bernard Tschumi, and Shin Takamatsu. The drawings are complemented by a series of related folios published by the AA representing the work of Peter Cook, Peter Eisenman, Coop Himmelblau, and Kisa Kawakami, among others. Together, these works provide an unprecedented opportunity to explore both the techniques and the imaginative spirit of drawing practices that permeated this time of change and experimentation in architecture worldwide.

Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association is co-organized by the RISD Museum and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis; the exhibition was on view at the Kemper Art Museum in late 2014. Drawing Ambience is co-curated by Jan Howard, Chief Curator and Houghton P. Metcalf Jr. Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the RISD Museum, and Igor Marjanovic, Associate Professor of Architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University. Exhibition design is by Boyarsky Murphy Architects in London and 3SIXØ in Providence.

A richly illustrated 160-page catalogue, also titled Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association, accompanies the exhibition and is available at RISD WORKS, the Museum shop.

Jan Howard