DRAWING IS DEAD

I respectfully note the passing of Michael Graves, Architect, who died yesterday at the age of 80.

The Postmodern Movement, which Graves championed, was gaining its’ full strength while I was in architecture school. It was difficult to resist the influence of the movement at such a young and impressionable age. As one of the New York Five, he certainly had a huge influence on the trajectory of architecture. I have never forgotten the stories of the Five, under the tutelage of Phillip Johnson, orchestrating the simultaneous course of their careers.

If we set aside his buildings for the moment, his most iconic output, at least for me, was his drawings. If you are not familiar with them, just Google Image Michael Graves Drawings. His prismacolor drawings on yellow tracing paper remain a touchstone. Of course he basically drew two dimensionally and opaquely. But what was phenomenal was how these seemingly innocent drawings were so celebrated.

Another story that I will never forget was that when he was teaching, any line that he drew in his discussions with his students was drawn in his sketchbook and not on the student’s trace.  In fact I remember that some of these student conversation sketches were published at some point.  As this story suggests, Mr. Graves was a consummate self promoter, for which I give him all the credit in the world.

In a 2012 article in the New York Times titled “Architecture and the Lost Art of Drawing,” Michael Graves wrote, “I’m personally fascinated not by what architects choose to draw but also by what they choose not to draw.” He goes on to say that “…by the art of drawing…the composition stays open.” “It stays wet.” The article goes on to ask whether analogue drawing will be killed by the digital onslaught.

So first of all, the concepts of compositions that stay open, and stay wet, are certainly near and dear to our hearts.  While I don’t see as much compositional openess in his drawings as I would like, I’m sure they absolutely worked in this regard for him.

And secondly, the prevention of the digital onslaught is one of the missions of these pages. It is fervently hoped that architecture cannot be separated from drawing. The technology will progress as it always has. It may very well be that there will be a time in which digital drawing is the only drawing anyone does. But there will always be some form of drawing.

So we thank Mr. Graves, above all, for his belief in the analogue drawing. May we all be inspired by this belief.  May his pencils rest in peace.