WORDLESS ART

“Architecture seems to be confined to drawings and hope. Can this essentially wordless art – that is, this art that lies just beyond the reach of words – negotiate the barriers of its present circumstance?”

This quote is from Steven Holl’s Pamphlet Architecture #5, titled The Alphabetical City. (p71).

Here is a concept definition of building that lies between words and architecture. As an extension of this concept, therefore, is all art just beyond the reach of words? Or is architecture the farthest outlier in the continuom that extends from the literal to the visual?

Holl ends his paragraph with this quote from Louis Sullivan. When Sullivan was told that one of his buildings was being demolished, he was very optimistic. Sullivan said, “If you live long enough, you’ll see all of your buildings destroyed. After all it is only the IDEA that really counts.”

I must confess, that in my heart of hearts, I agree.  And I might make the following modification to Sullivan’s comment, after all, it is only the sketch that really counts.