The UO students who joined PPPMAssistant Professor Gerardo Sandoval’s summer study abroad program in Ecuador, “Breaking borders: creating bioregional communities,” may not have been fully aware of what was in store for their travels. No one can blame them, however. It’s not often that study abroad courses require students to be handy with machetes, haul gallons upon gallons of water over long distances on numerous occasions or plant hundreds of trees. But, the students and professor wouldn’t have asked to change much.
Students with Planet Drum Foundation staffers Orlando and Clay. Photo courtesy of Gerardo Sandoval.
For Emma Newman – a senior environmental studies major – the class experience and its lessons makes up one of her pinnacle experiences while attending the University of Oregon. “I learned so much from the class by doing things in the field, actually engaging in the projects, and physically seeing how change is occurring,” Newman says. “This class reaffirmed that in order for me to learn really well, I need to be physically engaging in whatever I’m doing.”
Sandoval’s course engaged sixteen UO students from multiple disciplines and undergraduate and graduate levels over three weeks this past summer in Bahía de Caráquez (Bahía), Ecuador. Bahía is located on the Pacific coastal region (La Costa) of Ecuador. The city suffered from two natural disasters in 1997 and 1998. The first was due to heavy rains from an El Niño weather pattern, resulting in mudslides that destroyed areas of the city, fatally wounding many citizens and ruining much of the shrimp industry, one of the largest business sectors in the area. While the city was still recovering from this, an earthquake hit in 1998 causing buildings to flood, crack and crumble, and the already saturated clay hillsides to slip. These back-to-back disasters made residents more aware of their natural surroundings and led the way for Bahía to commit to becoming an ecocity (ecociudad) – a more ecologically sustainable city – in 1999.
The coursework focused on how Bahía’s bioregion is supporting the ecocity commitment. “Bioregionalism is about thinking about place and the ecosystem that supports the place, and how the region serves as a key organizing scale for human activity,” says Sandoval. “The idea behind this class wasn’t just about staying in the classroom, but it was a bioregionalism class where the purpose was to really explore the region while at the same time leaving something positive behind.”
Students transplanting trees at Planet Drum greenhouse. Photo courtesy of Gerardo Sandoval.
The class teamed up with the Planet Drum Foundation (PDF) to leave something behind by doing forest restoration work. The mission of San Francisco-based PDF is to promote awareness of sustainable strategies for human inhabitation of Earth, based on the bioregions where people live. PDF has been working in Bahía since 1999, assisting in transforming the city into an ecocity based on bioregional principles.
Students transporting water to forests to water trees. Photos courtesy of Gerardo Sandoval.
“In the mornings we would do 3 to 4 hours of pretty intensive manual labor where we would go to the Planet Drum greenhouse in the city and help grow trees, and then plant and maintain trees throughout the region,” says Sandoval. This required the students to water trees planted throughout the region on steep hillsides in jungle-like areas. To ensure the trees grew and were prepared for the rainy season, students turned to a traditional tool: “We did machete work on really steep hillsides with cacti, tarantulas and grasshoppers that were three inches long,” says Newman.
The labor was taxing but allowed the group to witness the impact. One of Newman’s most lasting memories occurred while watering trees on a hillside known as the “Forest amongst the ruins.” “We were literally watering trees that were holding in the land that had slid down and killed 17 Ecuadorians 14 years ago. That experience was more powerful than sitting in a classroom and learning about stuff that is distant.”
In order to make a connection to bioregional theory, students spent the afternoons engaging in academic seminars that allowed students to further explore what they were witnessing on the ground, and taking educational field trips throughout the region every other day. The students also interviewed area stakeholders, and learned technical knowledge around composting, recycling, and sustainable farming.
Student touring Rio Muchacho with Dario, the organic farm’s director. Photo courtesy of Gerardo Sandoval. Student touring Rio Muchacho. Photo courtesy of Gerardo Sandoval.
One field trip that provided lasting technical knowledge was the journey to Río Muchacho, an organic farm 40 minutes from Bahía. “The farm has set up a school that teaches rural students in the area important life skills, such as how to grow banana trees and coffee plants and all sorts of other plants encircling piles of compost,” says Newman. “This is very sustainable agriculture where plant species grow at different rates so they can be harvested at different times. It is a really important life skill for the students, and all the classes happened outdoors. It is so much more interactive for the students than the classrooms they had previously.”
Students touring organic shrimp farms at Isla Corazon. Photo courtesy of Gerardo Sandoval.
Sandoval believes he may have learned as much as his students. “This class changed my perspective about doing ecological development work in Latin America. It’s a realistic thing to do, and it’s something that doesn’t have to come from the U.S. or some other developed country. The development can come about organically and come from countries in Latin America. Here you have an example of a city trying to do things in a different way, and in many ways Bahía is much more cutting edge in sustainability than many cities in the U.S.”
“Another key thing that I learned was more about pedagogy, where you have to immerse students in an environment that is conducive to learning, and if you do this and provide students with a framework and academic content, the students will soak it up and learn a ton,” Sandoval says. “I think the environment that we were in was conducive for this to happen because 1) the region is a wonderful bioregion; 2) the city is actually trying to implement policies that relate to sustainability; and 3) there is an NGO that is conducting great work around reforestation. So you had all the elements there for the students to dig into and really think critically about what they are seeing. It made the experience very unique.”
Students touring Isla Corazon. Photo Courtesy of Gerardo Sandoval.
The students in the class deserve a lot of the credit for the course’s success as well. “The students were really passionate about the issues being taught and experienced, which made it really fun to teach,” Sandoval says. “I really learned a lot from my students.”
—
Story by Joe McAndrew;A&AA Writer/Videographer Graduate Teaching Fellow
A world renowned expert in the field of ancient Greek art, Professor Hurwit had been asked by the University of Oregon in Portland School of Architecture and Allied Arts to lecture to a general audience and to focus on works of art on display in The Body Beautiful.
The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece at the Portland Art Museum is an exhibit made possible by a collaboration with London’s British Museum. The exhibit, curated by Ian Jenkins and Victoria Turner, brings to Portland, Oregon what will be the only West Coast showing of the 120 objects usually on display as part of the British Museum’s collection of Greek and Roman art.
In what Professor Hurwit called “an extraordinary collection”, The Body Beautiful is an exhibit that has even managed to awe its curators with the striking majesty of its display at the Portland Art Museum. Hurwit related hearing from the curator, Ian Jenkins that “‘Nowhere has this [exhibit] been displayed better than here in Portland.’ “ And, indeed, as Hurwit illustrated, taken together these works powerfully illuminate a breadth and depth of the Greek and Roman obsession with the human body.
Professor Hurwit’s lecture addressed specific works included in the exhibit and introduced the topic of nudity in ancient Greek art as representational and containing differing meanings dependent upon context and the individual. Nudity, explained the professor is a costume used by Greek artists to depict a range of roles and connotation. “In ancient Greek art,” commented Professor Hurwit, “there are many different kinds of nudity that can mean many different things….Sometimes they are contradictory.”
The content of the exhibit “speaks to us today” said Hurwit, and “reveals and celebrates our nature and physical being and bodies.” Dr. Hurwit began by explaining how the pieces on exhibit in The Body Beautiful exemplify the ideals of the ancient Greek body.
In 440 BC the Greek philosopher, Protagoras wrote “man is the measure of all things.” While much debate and discussion has surrounded this fascinating statement the general consensus is that judgments about qualities are subjective, truth is a relative thing, and the individual is the judge of all things. To the ancient Greek mind, however, beauty was not relative.
Polykleitos Doryphoros. Image Courtesy of Professor Hurwit.
So comes the work of Polykleitos of Argos and his Doryphoros (made between 450-440 BC). Polykleitos wrote a treatise on art called the Kanon and created the Doryphoros to demonstrate his theories. The Kanon was based on the Pythagorean idea of symmetria, the notion that the parts of a form must have a proportional relationship to the whole, a mathematical formula that determines the perfect proportions of the ideal male body.
The Doryphoros is a study in contracts, in bent versus straight, right versus left, and in opposites. Yet upon close study, all of these components are beautifully balanced in perfect equilibrium, right contradicts a flowing left, straight compliments bent, relaxed balances flexed, and stillness counters movement. This vision of highly charged repose collaborates to give the viewer a visual image of harmony.
The Doryphoros stands as a visual manifestation of the Greeks’ relentless obsession with structure and musculature, of the youthful male physique, and the male form defined by sharp lines and deep grooves counter-balanced with the exaggerated ridgey , almost-lovehandle-like quality of the hips (an interesting contradiction to the developed musculature of the rest of the form). This is an idealized perception of what a man ought to look like. It is the “perfect and the ideal,” a balance of curves and thick musculature.
But before the Doryphoros, Greek artists were producing Kouroi, those upright youthful males, perfectly idealized who blankly (except for that puzzling Archaic smile) and mindlessly stared past their observers and seemed to be all surface and restrained frozen movement. The Kouroi and their neutral expression seemed to try to resist distracting the viewer by any indication of internal life of the mind. Into this environment of these Archaic era nudes, with their hands on their sides, left foot striding forward, arrived the Doryphoros and the impact was instanteous.
Even the marble sculptors working on the Athenian Acropolis began to alter their work—the youthful horsemen on the Panatheniac frieze of the Parthenon became more infused with movement, with the idealized and almost “Kanon”-like interpretation of the male body that we see in the Doryphoros. And, as Hurwit points out, it is an influence and a way of depicting the nude male figure that never really ends. Just look at the Doryphoros-like stance in Durer’s the Fall of Man….
About a century after the Doryphoros was cast in bronze, a very different statue was made by Praxiteles of Athens. Praxiteles was known for his depictions of the human body and for his figures’ elegant curved poses, relaxed appearance and a unique softness. His Aphrodite of Knidos (330 BC) work stands as an innovative approach to the depiction of the female nude and set a precedent for the “ideal woman.”
For the most part, female nudity in ancient Greek art was unacceptable, shocking and somewhat revolutionary. As Professor Hurwit related, Praxiteles made two of these Aphrodite statues, one clothed, one nude. One island, Kos purchased the dressed figure; the nude statue was bought by the island of Knidos. The impact of this nude female figure, as Hurwit states, was “immeasurable.”
In the history of Greek art, the female form had previously been depicted with sparse detail or was clothed, in such pieces as the Folded Arm Figurines or the full-skirt wearing, bosom-bearing snake-goddess or abstractly on the surfaces of vases [Hirschfeld Krater, Athens, 990 BC]. And so begins what Dr. Hurwit refers to as a “double standard.” The male body could be revealed but the female body would remain relatively hidden, clothed, abstract or only vaguely referenced.
And, of course, Greek artists were well versed in creating Kore or Korai, the definitive female representation. Korai were always clothed, youthful, standing with one leg forward females. When a female was depicted in the nude it was usually to denote slave girl, courtesan, or “call girl” status. There existed a general banning or unacceptance of the female nude in most works, however, a notable exception existed in the depiction of the female nude in sculpture, for example with a work showing Apollo flanked by a nude Leto and Artemis [Relief from a temple at Gortyna, Crete, circa 640 BC].
With the study of the development of the nude in ancient Greek art, it is important to realize that Ancient Greece was not culturally homogeneous. What was happening and acceptable in Athens, might not have been in Sparta, nor Crete. However, it is Athens as a cultural center that helps us define the period from 600-340 BC. From this era and a study of the works of art produced during this time, we can deduce that it was pretty much taboo to depict the female form naked. Women, in art, are generally covered head to toe.
But in order to break through this taboo and this resistance to showing the female form au naturel, the artist, Praxiteles was very clever and thoughtful—he realized the necessity to create a narrative in order to justify the depiction of nudity.
Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos is shown bathing, modestly covering her pubis and blithely unaware of our presence. We are in the position of approaching her, she knows not that we are there, watching her. We are put in the position of voyeur, or voyeurese; we become the ones to blame for violating her privacy, seeing her in a compromising position, watching her while in the nude.
Voyeurs paid a heavy price in ancient Greek times. Seeing a god or goddess without permission or consent or their knowledge was considered an anathema: the violation would not go unnoticed nor unpunished. The irresistible erotic power and sexuality of this statue was what lured viewers and made them its voyeurs. A person approached this piece at his, or her, own risk (stories have been told of young men unable to resist the powerful sexual allure of this Aphrodite succumbing to and physically acting on their lust, and subsequently going mad, later throwing themselves from cliffs. )
The Aphrodite of Knidos was a liberating work as it essentially paved the way to release a torrent of female nudes and precipitated the onset of an acceptance of female form in Greek art as never before. We see works like the Venus de Milo that explore how the addition of fabric can add a sensual layer to our view, enhancing the form within.
Suddenly the female form, post-Aphrodite of Knidos begins to experiment with a sense of allowable depictions that seem to encourage a sensual and sexual appreciation of the female form. A winged Nike approaching Athena on the Temple of Athena Nike is in a full length clingy, dress-like garment, her body beautifully revealed by every thin fold of what must be a soft, flowing diaphanous fabric. Curves of breasts and thighs seem almost celebrated beneath waves of revealing fabrics that cascade in anatomy clinging sensuality. Dresses fall off bodies, and while these females are not completely naked, they might as well be—the sensuality and hedonistic visual we are given is nothing but entirely effective. And, so the progression takes us from a cold, column-like hard, shaft clothed Kore to a new female nude defined as something almost always sensual, draped in folds and poses that accentuate her curves and softness. She bends to adjust her sandal.
The male nude remains another story and a much more complex one, at that.
Greek men strode about in the nude in private bedrooms, and at parties called symposia, sort of aristocratic drinking parties, if you will. In the public sphere, male nudity was limited to the bathhouses, and the athletic games or gymnasia. There was also the erotic nudity element in artistic depictions of homosexual and hetereosexual, both youth and adult liaisons—art limitating life, and vice versa.
In some cases, partial nudity of woman and girls was acceptable in the athletic games. In the Games of Hera, where virgins competed, females competed with one breast exposed but otherwise wearing a tunic. Hence, for the most part, full nudity was the privilege of men.
One of the centerpieces of The Body Beautiful exhibit, the Myron Diskobolos illustrates the aspect of nudity in athletics in ancient Greek art. This nude body certainly asserts the beauty of the body and shows us an example of what is beautiful also being equated with what is good. And, brings us further into our discussion of nudity in Greek art as having many different forms and meanings.
We have seen nudity with the male form as a way to define and show perfection and the ideal human form. Nudity is also a custom of the gods, and therefore, a costume worn by god-like men.
The greatest of all civic heroes, we can say, is Pericles. And our model of a hero par excellence, Theseus. When we see these men depicted in the nude in war or battle, we can acknowledge that their physical prowess is being shown-off; but going into battle naked was not realistic, highly dangerous, and not the best way to fight. Yet depictions of nudity in these battle-scenarios symbolizes an elevated and exhalted status, showing a sense of impending victory and courage, and of physical power. This is “heroic nudity.”
We also see examples of “political nudity”—where political heroes are shown in the costume of democracy. The removal of their clothes effectively distinguished them as “great leaders” and physically fit leaders in the political realm.
Common laborers can be depicted nude, as well. Shown naked, their sweat and muscles revealing how hard they work. Even nudity is used to show age from youth to the elderly: one nude illustrating the fresh, strength and slenderness of youth to the other revealing the sickness and weakness possible with the dead, dying and aged. But both show us a vulnerablility, a fragility, if you will,—one of the young, one of the old.
Nudity can give us a glimpse of suffering, defeat, and impending death as we see in Ajax as he prepares to throw himself on his own sword and take his own life: he is the fallen, isolated, tortured hero as nude. [Black Figure Amphora, The Suicide of Ajax, Greek, 540 BC.] Perhaps “pathetic nudity.”
We see a full frontal of a nude Cassandra in a Red Figure Hydria, [Naples, Kleophrades Painter]; or a naked Hector bound to Achilles’ chariot…both strong and emotional depictions of nudity. [Attic Hydria, Achilles Dragging Hector, 520-510 BC.]
And, this brings us to the concept of the difference between sexual nudity, soft nudity, nudity for nudity’s sake and actual nakedness, as well as the comparison between male and female nudity. Nudes and nudity in Greek art do not always divulge the same connotation or meaning. We have the presentation of nude versus clothed and the revelation: there is much more to a Greek nude than just perfect flesh and “heroic nudity.”
Following his lecture, Dr. Hurwit led a public tour of The Body Beautiful at the Portland Art Museum. His tour continuing and illustrating points made in his lecture, provided insightful scholarly commentary on numerous works in the exhibit including the many iconic marble and bronze sculptures, vessels, and funerary objects most coming from the second and third millennium BC. For more information on the exhibit at the Portland Art Museum please refer to, The Body Beautiful.
[This article is a brief summary of the lecture Professor Hurwit gave on October 28. A full recording of the lecture will be available shortly and will be linked to this article.
We extend a sincere thank you to Professor Hurwit for his lecture, Nudes and Nudities in Greek Art and his tour of The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art. Also, many thanks to the Portland Art Museum for their cooperation and assistance with this event.]
About Dr. Jeffrey Hurwit: Dr. Hurwit has degrees in Classical Languages and Literatures from Brown University and a Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from Yale. He has taught at Yale, subsequently joining the UO faculty in the History of Art and Architecture. He holds a co-appointment in the Classics Department and holds a Philip H. Knight Professorship.
A leading scholar of the archaic and classical periods in Greek art, Professor Hurwit has appeared in major documentary films and lectures at the world’s top universities, museums, and archaeological institutes. The recipient of many prestigious awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the University of Oregon’s Faculty Excellence Award, Professor Hurwit is the author of many works on the art and civilization of Archaic and Classical Greece. Among his many influential publications that are regarded as standards in the field, his recent book, The Acropolis in the Age of Pericles is considered the definitive work on the subject.
Professor Hurwit regularly conducts research in Greece and Italy, and has been selected four times to teach in the Northwest Council for Study Abroad programs in Siena and Athens. He has spoken widely across the United States and Canada and has also served three times as a study leader for Smithsonian Institution tours of Greece and the Mediterranean. In 2000, he was appointed to the prestigious Martha S. Joukowsky Lectureship for the Archaeological Institute of America, and in 2003 became the inaugural Dorothy Burr Thompson Memorial Lecturer at University of British Columbia. He has also served on the editorial board of the College Art Association’s Art Bulletin and on the Publications Committee of the Getty Research Institute.
Professor Hurwit is also currently working on Palaeolithic cave-painting in addition to his studies in ancient art.
Read one of Dr. Hurwit’s articles on this subject, The Problem with Dexileos: Heroic and Other Nudities in Greek Art.
At the Oregon Historical Society's exhibit, the Architecture and Legacy of Pietro Belluschi, Anthony Belluschi stands in front of a model of his father's Belluschi House, Portland, Oregon.
A Summer to Celebrate Jewels in Oregon’s Crown
On May 17th, 2012 the Oregon Historical Society’s History Museum opened the exhibit, The Architecture and Legacy of Pietro Belluschi, a collection showcasing the work and life of Oregon architect, Pietro Belluschi, FAIA. Belluschi is known as one of the most important architects to have lived and worked in Oregon, his designs and aesthetic influencing the emergence and development of Pacific Northwest Regionalism. The exhibit brings to OHS an overview of Belluschi’s architectural contributions and tells a story through the display of personal mementos, an actual wood “room within the room” constructed in the museum gallery, and eight architectural models of Belluschi buildings in Oregon. One of the most crucial components of the exhibit is the models. As Oregon Historical Society Director of Museum Services Marsha Matthews explains,
Any exhibit is enhanced by 3-dimensional objects. In the case of architectural exhibits it is extremely useful as it renders a 2-dimensional plan or photograph into a “real” building. It is difficult for many to see the building in their mind’s eye when they look at a plan. Seeing a model can inspire a visitor to go see the real building, become interested in learning more about Pietro Belluschi or Northwest Style architecture.
The exhibit is a careful and thoughtful collection designed, curated, and collaborated on by Belluschi family members. Pietro Belluschi’s son, architect Anthony Belluschi, FAIA, and his wife, Martha Belluschi worked together to present an exhibit that would “showcase [Pietro’s] architecture, life and legacy,” commented Anthony Belluschi. He continued, “My father would be very proud of what we have done to honor his legacy….I have often said that I think he left me all of his archives because he would want us to do something like this on his behalf.” Pietro Belluschi was an architect for over 60 years and practiced in 25 states and a number of countries overseas. He is lauded as one of the foremost definers of and contributors to Northwest Regionalism in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a respected design consultant and was also involved in educating, lecturing, and writing in the field of architecture spanning the years from 1950-1990. He not only worked in and operated his own 25-person firm in Portland (1950) but progressed to hold the appointment of Dean of Architecture and Planning at MIT. In a 1963 essay written by Pietro Belluschi, the architect commented on his design philosophy and his preference for “those simple qualities that are the basis or at the basis of all enduring architecture”— architecture he commented that “imparts a serene quality, a simplicity that avoids dullness, and an architecture that requires humility on the part of the architect.” [Oral history interview with Pietro Belluschi, 1983 Aug. 22-Sept. 4, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.]
In the fall of 2011, OHS had approached the Belluschis and advised them of a plan to exhibit Pietro Belluschi’s work in the spring of 2012. To begin the process of putting together the exhibit, Anthony Belluschi embarked upon a search to find any existing suitable models of his father’s architecture that could be included in the show. Pietro Belluschi’s son realized that the success of an exhibit of his father’s work would reside, in large part, in the display of accurate and beautifully rendered models. According to Anthony Belluschi, he approached the Portland AIA (an exhibit of Belluschi’s work had been displayed here in 1993) for previously exhibited models but found little he felt was appropriate, except two models that were in need of repair. A subsequent request to the architecture department at Portland State University also yielded nothing suitable. Anthony next ventured down to the UO campus in Eugene to see if the Pietro Belluschi collection would have anything appropriate to include. He even inquired with a former colleague of his father’s, Joachim Grube. All to no avail. It seemed as if there were very limited existing, exhibit-quality models of Pietro Belluschi’s architecture.
Upon hearing of the need for models, the head of the UO AAA Department of Architecture, Christine Theodoropoulos quickly stepped forward, and generously offered to create a special course to make models that would have the specific intent of display in the Oregon Historical Society History Museum exhibit. Anthony Belluschi, a part-time resident of Portland, requested that, if at all possible, the models be built at the University of Oregon in Portland at the White Stag Block; keeping a Portland connection seemed logical as Belluschi planned on taking an integral role in production of the models and participating in the class itself. The University contacted Dave Collins, a professional model-maker and owner of Architectural Prototypes. Collins was available to work with the students and, consequently, became the instructor who would lead this venture. The new course emerged early in 2012 and offered to students in Portland a chance to work with the designs of a Northwest architectural icon.
Thus also began the collaborative approach to the exhibit that would involve the partnership between students in the University of Oregon Department of Architecture program in Portland and the Oregon Historical Society under the guidance of the Belluschis and Dave Collins. Matthews comments on the collaboration:
All exhibits are a collaborative effort. Tony Belluschi facilitated the collaboration between OHS, himself, and the university to offer the model-making course. The OHS library provided plans from which the students were able to develop the plans for the models, Tony provided insight and inspiration regarding Pietro Belluschi’s designs, Dave Collins needs to be commended for teaching the course and providing his model-making expertise to the students – this joining of resources and talent is a good example of the kind of collaborative effort that it takes to create exhibits.
The beginning of the course introduced Pacific Northwest Regionalism to the students with Anthony Belluschi, himself, providing lectures about his father’s life and work, and conducting tours of the Sutor House and the Belluschi House to the students. Belluschi fondly recalls the excitement he felt translated from the students, most, but not all, of them newly exposed to his father’s architecture: “I felt that the students were quite impressed with mid-century architecture and they found it very enlightening to discover Pietro’s work. I noted that, with their building of the models for the OHS exhibit, they would all then become part of the Belluschi legacy.”
Student Scott Kosmecki offered his opinion on working with Anthony Belluschi,
It has been a great pleasure to work with Anthony. His ability to coalesce the parts of the exhibition into an orchestrated and unified whole was wonderful to be a part of. He directed the work on the models at many of the Saturday morning meetings and really brought a sense of purposefulness to the exhibit. Because of his personal involvement, the projects felt as if they were important work and more than just a modeling class.
The process to get to a complete exhibit with exceptional models that would accurately inform and educate a public audience many of whom might not yet be aware of Pietro Belluschi nor of architectural terms like mid-century modern, Pacific Northwest Regionalism, or International Style became the goal of both the students, their instructor Dave Collins, Anthony and Martha Belluschi and the Oregon Historical Society. The exhibit certainly illustrates and provides an introduction to Pietro Belluschi’s simple elegance in design and his ability to integrate art, science, and culture in his buildings. As a representation of Belluschi’s built legacy, the models in the exhibit beautifully exemplify Belluschi’s design intelligence both visibly and tangibly on a diminutive scale bringing the realities of the buildings indoors and to an approachable scale. Details such as the presentation of the models is well-thoughtout adding to the overall experience of the exhibit and aiding in the chronological explanation of Pietro Belluschi’s legacy. One very intriguing placement is of the Equitable Building. Anthony and Martha Belluschi carefully situated the model of the Equitable Building in front of a large west-facing, light-filled window within clear site of the Portland Art Museum building, (another of Pietro Belluschi’s designs). It is perhaps intentional how the model of the Equitable Building, with all that glass (and at the time of its actual 1948 completion, quite innovative), captures the essence of the architect’s own words referring to the original building as bouncing, reflecting and reacting to changes in the light and sky outside:
… the first thing that came on the Equitable Building with all that glass, new use of glass, we found how the sky was reflecting. The clouds moving through the sky– you could see it, and the building looked like it was moving, because the clouds were moving….It’s very exciting….[Oral history interview with Pietro Belluschi, 1983 Aug. 22-Sept. 4, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.]
In the 1983 oral history interview with Pietro Belluschi referenced above, he had observed aspects of his philosophy on style, aspects that the students who were involved in the model making experienced themselves while working on the models:
I still believe that style comes from understanding all the elements of a problem: space, access, view, sun, scale, intimacy, even love. And if you are a poet or an artist, then architecture will have real style in an authentic not artificial way. Not try to introduce a gable or other features because they are fashionable and have no bearing with the experience of living. To be an architect, you have to study, study, and live with a problem, suffer with it, and lay awake at night. If you’re aesthetically oriented, aesthetics will come out, not by preconceived things or something you have seen or by copying some kind of feature which may have caught your eye. [Oral history interview with Pietro Belluschi, 1983 Aug. 22-Sept. 4, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.]
The Belluschis visualized the exhibit as an opportunity to introduce and celebrate Pietro Belluschi’s contribution to Northwest Regionalism and Modernism to both young emerging designers, such as students studying architecture, as well as to the larger, metropolitan audience of museum visitors. Citing that “since [Pietro Belluschi] died over 18 years ago, many [young students of architecture] had never heard of him,” Belluschi sought to provide an exhibit that displayed “information about [Pietro’s] career and his numerous buildings in Oregon and around the country, particularly in his early career.” Anthony relates “there is a better appreciation of who he was and what he did, especially locally, because of this exhibit. [Martha] and I chose the title carefully to give the public a new awareness of Pietro.” To accomplish this, the models of the buildings that were of significant importance to explain the life and work of Belluschi had to be included. It became the opportunity of the group of University of Oregon students to make these models that would epitomize Pietro Belluschi’s most significant works.
The course was an incredible learning experience in model making. We were given free-rein over how we were going to construct our models, which allowed us to experiment with different materials, joints, and adhesives. With every mistake [model-making partner Alice Peterson] and I made we were able to better understand how everything would fit together and where we messed up. We were taught many different techniques that would have never crossed my mind before. I am extremely proud of our work and the work of everyone else in the course.” –Kate Fehrenbacher, a student in the studio commented on her experience.
The six models that were ultimately created by University of Oregon in Portland Department of Architecture students under the guidance of UO adjunct instructor, Dave Collins and Anthony and Martha Belluschi are currently on display at OHS. The models of Pietro Belluschi’s buildings crafted by the UO students are: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco by Brett Santhuff and Scott Kosmecki; the First Presbyterian Church, Jacob Spence and Liz Manser; the Sutor House, Alice Peterson and Kate Fehrenbacher; the Belluschi House, Dan Scofield; the Zion Lutheran Church, Alex Jackson and Sitabha (Mimi) Songsermsawas; and the Equitable Building, Ryan Tyni and Greg Swift. Photos of the models may be viewed on the University of Oregon: School of Architecture and Allied Arts Facebook page.
The models will all remain part of the OHS permanent collection. The success of the students’ work to showcase Pietro Belluschi’s design genius is evident as the students were meticulous and observantly aware of the architect’s design philosophy. Matthews speaks to the models’ exceptional craft and creativity:
These models are extremely well-done – they are sited in a landscape approximating the terrain and plantings, they provide clean lines without the coloration of building materials so that the design is what is the most apparent allowing a better understanding of Northwest Style. The models are beautiful and the skill with which they were made enhances the rendering of the architectural design of the buildings themselves. A visitor can imagine that they’ve seen the building by looking at the models because of the skill with which they were made. They are all very impressive works of art.
After the exhibit closes in September at the Oregon Historical Society, Belluschi and his wife are optimistic that all or part of the collection, including the models, will travel to other locations. Belluschi has made contact with the University of Oregon Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Syracuse University Department of Architecture, MIT Department of Architecture and Planning and the University of Bologna, Italy. All institutions have expressed a keen interest in hosting the exhibit. Belluschi will remain involved with coordinating the exhibit and the move of the models on behalf of Oregon Historical Society. Taking the exhibit for display internationally will provide “an opportunity to educate [on a global scale] about the significance of Pacific Northwest Regional Modernism,” says Belluschi.
The importance of the models to this exhibit cannot be underestimated. Early in its inception when OHS asked to discuss the exhibit with the Belluschis, the question arose as to how the exhibit should begin. It was at the suggestion of Anthony Belluschi, himself an architect for over 40 years, that the need for architectural models was imperative. The models once made, quickly became the “jewels” of the exhibit literally making, as Belluschi says, “the exhibit complete….[the students’] hard work and dedication creating the highest quality models.” The models effectively contribute to the “exhibit [as] a beautiful, serene space” says Marsha Matthews. “The ‘room-within-a-room’ along with the models provide insights into Pietro Belluschi’s architectural genius that could not be as easily conveyed otherwise.” It is the models, however, Matthews points to as “evok[ing] an emotional response to the use of space and the space that buildings occupy….;” Matthews continues, and in a most complimentary comment sums up her thoughts, “[and] that to me is the purpose of architecture.”
The presentation of this University of Oregon, Oregon Historical Society and Belluschi family collaboration and the celebration of Pietro Belluschi’s architecture comes at a time when there is a renewed interest in and revival of mid-century architecture. It is perhaps fitting that this is also the summer we are celebrating another Northwest great, John Yeon. And while the models that the students created for the Belluschi exhibit are, undoubtedly, as Anthony Belluschi says, “jewels,” the work of both Pietro Belluschi and John Yeon embellishes the Northwest as indisputable “jewels in the crown” of our built environment.
Much has been written on both Belluschi and Yeon by scholars, critics, and those simply enamored with regionally-inspired architecture. Helping to awaken a more public awareness of regionally significant design was the recent attention given to the Aubrey Watzek House. In 2011, John Yeon’s Aubrey Watzek House (1937, Portland, Oregon) was approved for historic landmark status thus becoming Oregon’s 17th site and only the seventh building to receive this national honor. Credited with the design of several other Portland-located and architecturally important buildings, Yeon had also been the visionary behind his glorious Columbia Gorge property, The Shire, a unique picturesque designed landscape.
This summer you have a chance to immerse yourself in the life and legacy of Pietro Belluschi and to enjoy and learn about his contribution to architecture and design by visiting the OHS exhibit. The season is also an opportunity to experience more of the Northwest’s exquisite built and designed environment, perhaps at its splendiferous best during mid-summer, by taking a tour or joining an exclusive dinner experience at The Shire. Come rain or shine, The Shire picnic promises to be enlightening with two key leaders, experts in landscape design and the study and critique of Northwest architecture: Robert Melnick (Director of the John Yeon Center) and Randy Gragg (editor-in-chief of Portland Monthly and longstanding champion of Yeon’s place in Northwest history). Melnick and Gragg will welcome you to the en plein air garden folly and natural grandeur of The Shire’s mid-summer glory. The Shire events are a collaboration between the UO John Yeon Preserve for Landscape Studies and Portland Monthly magazine, both joining forces to help promote the vitality of the John Yeon Center at the University of Oregon.
Whether you chose to wander the cool and shaded exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society or relish the shimmering summer sunlight at The Shire, the options to appreciate and educate one’s self in the ways of designing for Northwest environment and to discover the genius of two of our region’s iconic masters of design and fundamental pioneers in sustainability rest at our doorstep. The sun is high, the days are long, proving an ideal time to languish in the greatness that is the legacy of Pietro Belluschi and John Yeon. We hope you join us in celebrating our collaborations this summer.
[The author wishes to thank both Anthony and Martha Belluschi for their time and comments for this article as well as Marsha Matthews of Oregon Historical Society for taking the time to so generously comment on the exhibit and this collaboration.]
Author’s Note: There exists another University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts connection to Pietro Belluschi, the The Pietro Belluschi Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Architectural Design. This is a Distinguished Visiting Professorship created at the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts in 1993 as a perpetually endowed fund to foster and promote education in architectural design. The endowment supports a short-term appointment for a prominent architect to teach and lecture. You may read about the two most recent recipients of this position on our blog, Johnpaul Jones, FAIA and Edward Ford.
