First Impressions
May 16th, 2007As we prepare for our next exhibition, Water, I’ve been revisiting some of the existing statements about water in the Pulitzer’s building. William J.R. Curtis’s “Spaces Between” (2001), the first essay devoted the Pulitzer building, still offers some of the best. Many of the points we plan to elaborate in the upcoming show are already apparent there. He writes
‘For Ando, water is another building material, a surface to be looked at and through. Reflecting and transparent, it combines the poetry of reverie with the practical function of filtering light into interiors through windows placed low down in the side walls flanking the pool. But water is a mental substance as well, and he uses it to hint at the visible and invisible forces in the natural world. Water registers the passage of breezes, the cycle of the seasons, the changing position of the sun throughout the day. It supplies a horizontal “datum” and a surface like a mirror. It also brings the sky down into the building suggesting a vast, ambiguous space.’
The exhibition opens July 20. Just two short months away!
