What's On - The Life and Death of Buildings

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The Life and Death of Buildings

23 Jul 11 – 6 Nov 11

Danny Lyon, View South from 100 Gold Street, 1967

princeton. “The Life and Death of Buildings” at the Princeton Museum of Art focuses on photography’s ability to freeze architecture in time.

“Photography breaks the illusion we live with that buildings are permanent,” said Joel Smith, the curator of photography at the Princeton University Art Museum, who has organised the exhibition, which includes painting and sculpture as well as photography.

The show marks the tenth anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center. “We’re trying to absorb the issue of 9/11 in what I consider the deeper issue of memory and architecture,” said Smith.

At the heart of the exhibition is Danny Lyon’s series “The Destruction of Lower Manhattan”, 1967. The images record the demolition of the 19th-century neighbourhoods to make way for the Twin Towers and other buildings.

Smith added, “It was only there in the first place because something had disappeared before it.” A group of 72 images from the series was donated to the museum in 2008 by the photography collector and Princeton alumna, Robin Krasny.

Eighteen of these images are in the show. Gordon Matta-Clark’s Splitting: Four Corners, loaned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, consists of roof corners from a demolished house, and a Yuan Dynasty painting of a seventh-century royal pavilion from the Princeton museum’s collection are also included. n B.R. Categories: Curious Thematic

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Princeton University Art Museum

Princeton University, Princeton 08544-1018, USA
+1 609 258 3788
www.princetonartmuseum.org

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