Source: Weekend Pictorial
Architect Frank Gehry became famous for the Gallery of Guggen, Bilbao, Spain and Louis Vuitton Art Center in Paris, and won the highest honor in the architectural industry Pritzker Prize . He is 92 years old and is still active in the front line of architectural design, saying that he will never retire. In May, the 15-year transformation of the Philadelphia Museum of Art was completed and opened. He will launch his own sculpture exhibition this year and also devote himself to public welfare architecture and art projects. He is never influenced by external evaluations, nor is he afraid to express his views. Some architectural media commented that the design of Gerry is "simple and complex, original and exquisite, open and in line with the needs of human society": "He is still asking the world: Do you think I'm doing it right here? This Is the design useful? ”
2011, Gary is in his office.
Architect Frank Gehry is 92 years old this year, but he doesn't like others asking when he will retire, and his busyness is not reduced at all. Gehry has designed buildings such as the Gallery of Bilbao Gugenheim in Spain and the Louis Vuitton Art Center in Paris, and has won the Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in the architectural industry. In May, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which he transformed for 15 years, was completed and opened. He designed housing for homeless veterans and set up a public welfare organization that promotes art education. At the age of 90, he also learned to fly a plane - "What else can I do (besides design)? I like these things." When " New York Times 》This year, when asked whether Gehry would choose to reduce workload or take a break, Gehry denied it.
"Now I'm free, I don't have to worry about money." Gary replied. With his works such as Czech "Dancing House", Gary was rated as one of the most famous architects of the contemporary era by some media, and he also played himself in the longevity TV series "The Simpsons". His design style is unique, he is outspoken, and he does not hesitate to offend the media or peers, but he is always popular in the market. In addition to designing buildings, he has also joined charity organizations that train young musicians, create sculptures, and hold exhibitions in recent years. Gehry's partner said that Gehry, 92, "finally had the opportunity to create freely on his own": "He can now create whatever he thinks."
In 2016, then-US President Obama awarded Gehry's President Medal of Freedom .
Uncompromising design life
Geeri is never afraid to attract the attention of the public and the media. His designs often have a strong personal style and complex lines. But in the Philadelphia Museum of Art project, some architectural media have commented that his design has fewer sharp marks than in the past. He retained the appearance of the museum that was completed in 1928, focusing on renovating the interior decoration and infrastructure to expand outdoor public spaces. After 50 years of closure, the museum has finally reopened to the public.
's unpretentious design style is beyond the expectations of some people. In 2006, the Philadelphia City Government commissioned the Gehry team to renovate the museum. This decision has caused some controversy. At that time, Gary had just designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in , California, . The concert hall had a strong personal style and the roof was designed into unique metal blocks. Some people are therefore worried about whether Gary will use the same exaggerated method to deal with the Philadelphia Museum of Art project. Gary often disagrees with the outside world. In 2015, a reporter asked him, "Does your work care more about dazzling appearance than practical functions?" Gary, who was 86 years old at the time, openly raised his middle finger to express his dissatisfaction with the reporter. He then said without hesitation: "In the world we live in, 98% of the buildings are pure garbage. There is no sense of design, no respect for humans or anything. Of course, occasionally there will be a group of people doing something special. Things, although this is rare. For God's sake, stop us and let us focus on our work. "
From the beginning of life, Gary was very interested in creating. He was born in , Toronto, Canada, and his real name is Frank Irving Gordonburg. The parents are Polish and Russian immigrants respectively.Gary grew up in his grandfather’s hardware store and often used the wood and metal from the store to build his imagined buildings, which became one of the important inspiration for his future design. When he was a teenager, Gary moved to , California, with his parents. He worked as a truck driver, radio anchor, and studied chemical engineering, but eventually decided to study architecture. Get a degree in architecture at Los Angeles City College and Southern California . In order to give yourself a louder name and avoid the harm of anti-Semitism in society at that time, Geri changed his name to "Frank Geri" with the encouragement of his first wife Anita. He then enlisted in the army, and during his service he also designed rooms and furniture for soldiers in the army, and then studied urban planning at Harvard University . Architectural critic Paul Goldberg wrote in his book The Biography of Frank Gehry that Gehry is a "society misunderstood by society". He is actually shy and sensitive, often in the duality of self-doubt and conceit. Struggle under pressure. His father struggled to support his family and had a very bad relationship with Gehry. Gary and Anita have two children, but he rarely participates in family life and is often not with the children. In the end, he cheats with Anita separately. But Gary's demeanor is that he never hides his pain. When creating the biography, Goldberg made an agreement with Gehry that he could verify the facts and could not ask for deletion and modification. Gary finally kept his promise.
At the beginning of his career, Geri's architectural style was influenced by modern architects such as Richard Neutra. He later developed a larger and more unique architectural style. In 1977, Gary and his second wife Berta bought a small house in Santa Monica, and then transformed it with materials such as glass, metal, tiles, etc. The sharp design made neighbors at the time very angry, and passers-by criticized it as "like a sausage factory", and the house has become a landmark there now. Architecture magazine reported that the house is a concentrated expression of Gary's design style, and he will deliberately make the building look unfinished because he believes that "the design in progress is always more poetic than the finished work." In 1989, Gary won the Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in the construction industry. The organizing committee commented in the award speech that Gary "has good control, he has great talent, and dancing on the dividing line between architecture and art, there is always a way to prevent himself from falling."
More famous works were born after he won the award. In 1991, he designed the "Teleoscope Building" in California and completed the project of Guggenhan Art Museum in Bilbao, Spain in 1997. Gary uses light and light titanium plates as the exterior design, which is considered to be a representative work of deconstructive architecture. Gary loves listening to music and is interested in symphony, jazz , rock , etc. In 2000, he created the Popular Culture Museum in Seattle , boldly using three different colors of materials to design the exterior wall. His works can always arouse reactions from both sides of the outside world. Some people believe that the deconstructionist movement only emphasizes appearance and not architectural practicality. Reporter Patrick Hazard once criticized: "Gerry is a conceited man. He believes that the only important art in the world is the so-called art he used titanium or other materials to play with it. It is futile to try to destroy him. When Geri used strange materials and techniques such as galvanized fences to make his already inappropriate designs even more inappropriate, his reputation became even greater... He only had that kind of annoying trick."
Geri said this The response was very open. He told Stephen Cohen, a reporter for the Cultural Critic website of the cultural and art criticism website, that the accusation was not true, and that his designs were all thinking from the inside. Goldberg also said in "The Legend of Geri" that he believed that Geri's design works were "flashy" because of the outside world's misunderstanding of him. "He is very, very concerned about functions. He cares about where the bathroom should be built, where you should come in, where you go out, where closets should be placed. He is not an authoritarian architect, his imagination is beyond doubt, But what is not often understood is that he wants to position his work at the junction of imagination and problem-solving."
Geeri's design works.
92 years old new start
Geeri said at the opening press conference of the Philadelphia Museum of Art that he fully understood when he should give up some personal style appropriately and consider the overall effect of the project: "The design goals of the Philadelphia Museum It is to let it lead us forward. Our outstanding designers before us already had powerful, intelligent designs, and we must respect it and, in some cases, emphasize it. Our primary goal is to create space for art and people. ”
Two years ago, Gary expressed that age is not an excuse for retirement. He still has endless pursuit of the world. At that time, he had just turned 90. One day after dinner, he followed his friends to the outdoors to learn to fly the plane. Gary loves sports , he has been practicing hockey before he was 72 years old. He still drives his own yacht to the Pacific to play. "I like to work, I like to do things well, and I like to interact with customers. "One of his competitors blatantly mentioned Geri's age during the bidding and questioned his energy, Geri was very angry at it: "It's too unfair and too stupid. Age has nothing to do with work. "He tried to keep up with the pace of world development. Gehry's studio is one of the first construction companies in the world to use computers to create. He maintains good relationships with cultural celebrities such as pop singer Jay-Z, and listens to classical music and Rap , trying to get in touch with various cultures. In the face of clients he doesn't like, Gary still maintains that indifferent personality. He once commented that Turkey President Erdogan is "a monster", Boris Johnson "is a bastard". Trump invited Gary to design a tall building in New York, but he refused. The two met at a dinner later. Trump turned around and left, and Gary looked at him on the spot. The back said, "Don't be so rude, be civilized." ”
In addition to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gary, 92, is also working on many projects at the same time. He designed residences in New York and Los Angeles, and designed sets for the jazz opera "Iphignea". Due to the epidemic, his company had to Eight employees were laid off, all of whom had to work from home, but all the company's projects were underway one by one. Gary got inspired to create sculptures from her granddaughter's children's books, which will be painted on Gagosian on June 24 Gallery on display. Gary told The New York Times that he would rather give back today. He designed welfare housing for homeless veterans and began designing public welfare art for California’s poorest schools six years ago Course. Gary calls these charity projects "Labor of Love".
" This is Gary's real achievement: his design shows that architecture can be both simple and complex, original and refined, open and in line with the needs of human society. "Architectural design magazine "Dezeen" commented. "For more than 70 years, Gehry's career has not only been very long, but also full of diversity and originality. He is still asking the world: Do you think I'm doing it right here? Is this design useful? ”
Written by Lin Pai Editor-Y Pictures-AFP
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