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Quick Facts
Biography
Lauretta Vinciarelli (1943–2011) was an artist, architect, and professor of architecture at the collegiate level.
Background and education
Born in Arbe, Italy, Ms. Vinciarelli was the daughter of Alberto and Annunsiata Cencioni Vinciarelli. The family moved to Rome where she grew up, and her father was an organist in the St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican, and other churches, and her mother was a teacher. She studied architecture at Sapienza University of Rome, and was accepted to the Ordine degli Architetti di Roma e del Lazio (the Italian Board of Architects). Ms. Vinciarelli practiced architecture in Rome before emigrating to the U.S. in 1968. In 1993, she married Peter Rowe, a distinguished professor of architecture at Harvard University.
Career
Education
After moving to the U.S., Ms. Vinciarelli taught architecture design studio for many years at various schools, including Rice University in Houston, Texas, University of Illinois, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, Columbia University, City College, and The Open Atelier of Design and Architecture (OADA), a non-accredited design school founded by Giuseppe Zambonini in New York City.
Architecture
During the 1980s, Vinciarelli worked with Minimalist artist Donald Judd in New York City and the American Southwest. Marfa, Texas became a research site for theoretical postmodern architectural proposals such as Marfa II Project, Marfa, l978 and untitled drawings 1981. Vinciarelli used a rigorously inductive methodology to define and integrate fundamental architecture and design components. On the topic of the Marfa "hangar and courthouse" study, Vinciarelli stated her aim was "to form a fabric." In 1984, Vinciarelli and Judd entered the winning entry for the Kennedy Square Providence, Rhode Island, competition. Their project drew upon Vinciarelli's earlier work, including her landscape architecture proposal of 1977 for a system of urban gardens, commissioned by the Regional Administration of Apulia, in southern Italy. In 1986, Vinciarelli was awarded an Artists Fellowship in Architecture by the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Art
From the early 1980s until the end of her life, Ms. Vinciarelli created evanescent watercolor-and-ink studies of hypothetical architectural spaces. Her work has been analyzed by scholars and critics, including Ada Louise Huxtable and K. Michael Hays in Not Architecture But Evidence That It Exists. Ms. Vinciarelli belonged to an esteemed and influential group of contemporary paper architects, which included, among others, Raimund Abraham, John Hejduk, Gaetano Pesce, Lebbeus Woods, and Aldo Rossi. Vinciarelli created powerful and inspiring, hand-crafted imagery of topological space, on paper, which is a distillation of traditional, historical, and imaginal references. Her use of water elements extend the essence of architecture through transparency and reflection.
About her artwork, Ms. Vinciarelli said, The architectural space I have painted since 1987 does not portray solutions to specific demands of use, it is not the space of a project; at least not a project as the rational answer to a program.
Collections
Ms. Vinciarelli's artwork resides in many private collections and the holding of prominent cultural institutions. Ms. Vinciarelli's paintings and drawings are part of the permanent collections of the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, Columbia University's Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Art Institute of Chicago. A collection of work by Ms. Vinciarelli, including the luminous Orange Sound series is held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A 2015 exhibition at MAXXI, the National Museum for the Twentieth Century Arts in Rome, dedicated to architecture included abstract watercolors of Lauretta Vinciarelli, a collection donated by the artist’s family.
Museum and archive collections
Lauretta Vinciarelli's work is part of major international collections.
- A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna
- Senza titolo
- medium/ media: 3 tecnica mista su cartoncino
- dimensions: each 44, 5 x 57 cm., 1975
- Hangar + Courtyard,
- medium. media: 3 inchiostro e tempera su carta lucida
- dinemsions: each 39, 5 x 64 cm. 1980 ; 1980
- Classification: architectural drawing
- Collezione Francesco Moschini e Gabriel Vaduva, 2002
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
- Atrium in Red, 1992
- Medium/media: watercolor and ink on paper
- Dimensions: 30 in. x 22 3/8 in. (76.2 cm x 56.83 cm)
- Classification: architectural drawing
- Collection: SFMOMA Accessions Committee Fund, 1977
- Night #6, 1996
- Medium/media: watercolor and ink on paper
- Dimensions: 30 in. x 22 5/8 in. (76.2 cm x 57.47 cm)
- Classification: architectural drawing
- Collection SFMOMA: Accessions Committee Fund: gift of Frances and John Bowes, Emily L. Carroll and Thomas W. Weisel, Doris and Donald Fisher, Maria Monet Markowitz and Jerome Markowitz, Madeleine H. Russell, and the Modern Art Council, 1997
- Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
- Garden Structure; Untitled,[perspective], 1986
- Medium watercolor on heavy paper
- Measurements H: 13 1/2 x W: 16 3/4 in. (34.29 x 42.55 cm)
- Collection: The Heinz Architectural Center, gift of the Drue Heinz Trust
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- Long Horizon II [center]. Dimensions: 74 x 102.7 cm (29 1/8 x 40 7/16 in.), 1995;
- Long Horizon II [left]. Dimensions: 74 x 104 cm (29 1/8 x 40 15/16 in.), 1995;
- Long Horizon II [right]. Dimensions: 74 x 104 cm (29 1/8 x 40 15/16 in.), 1995
- Medium: watercolor and pastel over graphite on heavy woven paper
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roger Ferris, Rowland and Eleanor Miller, and Eric and Ellen Somberg, 1998
- Accn. N° 1998.26.2 ; Accn. N° 1998.26.2 ; N° 1998.26.3
- Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
- Orange Sound, project, 7 watercolor series, 1999
- Medium: graphite, and color ink on paper
- Dimensions: each 30 x 22" (76.2 x 55.9 cm)
- Gift of Mrs. Gianluigi Gabetti Purchase Fund
- Annc. N° 1417.2000.1, Annc. N° 1417.2000.2, Annc. N° 1417.2000.3, Annc. N° 1417.2000.4, Annc. N° 1417.2000.5, Annc. N° 1417.2000.6 1417.2000.7
- e-card
- International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA)
- Lauretta Vinciarelli Art Work
- 11 untitled tempera drawings on boards
- IAWA Small Collections; Special Collections 1907-2013
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
- "A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna Fondo Francesco Moschini". FFMAAM.
- "Lauretta Vinciarelli, Atrium in Red, 1992". www.sfmoma.org.
- "Lauretta Vinciarelli, Night #6, 1996". www.sfmoma.org. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
- "Garden Structure; Untitled, [perspective]". http://www.cmoa.org.
- "Artist Vinciarelli, Lauretta". http://www.nga.gov. National Gallery of Art.
- "Vinciarelli, Lauretta". http://www.nga.gov. National Gallery of Art.
- "Lauretta Vinciarelli Orange Sound, project 1999The Collection:". http://www.moma.org.
- McQuaid, ed., Matilda (2002). Revisioning Architecture: Drawings from The Museum of Modern Art,. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. p. 248.
- "Lauretta Vinciarelli. Orange Sound, project. 1999. Watercolor, graphite, and color ink on paper, 30 x 22" (76.2 x 55.9 cm). Mrs. Gianluigi Gabetti Purchase Fund". http://www.moma.org.
- "IAWA Small Collections, 1907-2013". http://ead.lib.virginia.edu. Virginia Tech.
Exhibitions
The work of Lauretta Vinciarelli has been published and exhibited in solo and group shows at galleries and museums around the world.
Solo shows
- 1978: Lauretta Vinciarelli: Projects 1973-78. Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies; Wave Hill, New York, N.Y.
- 1980: Lauretta Vinciarelli: Processo Metafora. Progetti e disegni, 1974-1980. A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy.
- 1981: Lauretta Vinciarelli: Projects 1980-81. Young Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois.
- 1982: Lauretta Vinciarelli: Projects. Princeton University Graduate School of Design, Princeton, N.J.
- 1992: Lauretta Vinciarelli: Red Room, Water Enclosures, and Other Unfolding Spaces. GSAPP, Columbia University, N.Y.
- 1992: Lauretta Vinciarelli: Rotte Raume. Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria
- 1996: Spatial Reverberations: Watercolors by Lauretta Vinciarelli. National Building Museum, Washington
- 1997: Reflections: Watercolors by Lauretta Vinciarelli. Gund Hall Gallery, Harvard Graduate School of Design
- 1999: Incandescence: Watercolors by Lauretta Vinciarelli. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
- 2002: Lauretta Vinciarelli: Intimate Distance. Henry Urbach Architecture, New York City
- 2012: Clear Light: The Architecture of Lauretta Vinciarelli. City College of New York, N.Y.
Group shows
- 1975: Goodbye Five: Work by Young Architects. Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York, N.Y.
- 1975: Architectural Studies and Projects. Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.
- 1977: Drawing for A More Modern Architecture. The Drawing Center, New York, N.Y.
- 1977: Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective. Brooklyn Museum, N.Y. and Hayden Gallery, :::MIT.
- 1978: Architectural Drawings. Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA.
- 1979: Elements of Architecture. Sperone Westwater Fisher Gallery, New York, N.Y.
- 1980: Art by Architects. Rosa Esman Gallery, 70 Greene Street, New York, N.Y.
- 1980: Creation and Recreation: America Draws, Jugend Hall, Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki, Finland
- 1980: Desire As Archetype: The Chicago Tribune Tower Competition/ Late Entries.
- 1980: Young Architects: an Exhibition at Yale School of Architecture. Gallery of Art and Architecture, New Haven, CT.
- 1985: Project for Palmanova. Venice Biennale of Architecture: 3rd International Exhibition of Architecture
- 1991: Contemporary Architectural Drawings. Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery and Arthur Ross Gallery at Columbia University, NY
- 1997: Summer Group Show. Max Protetch Gallery, New York, N.Y.
- 2001: Inside Out: New Perspectives on the Heinz Architectural Center’s Collection. The Heinz Architectural Center Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA.
- 2002: Luminous Void Volume of Light,series (2001). Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City.
- 2002: Italian Architecture Signs Since The War. Dalla Collezione Francesco Moschini, A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna, Florence, Italy.
- 2003: Visions and Utopias: Architectural Drawings from the Museum Of Modern Art. New York, NY; Museum of Finish Architecture, Helsinki, Finland
- 2004: Watercolor Worlds : Lauretta Vinciarelli, et al. Dorsky Gallery, New York
- 2004: Envisioning Architecture: Drawings from the Museum of Modern Art, New York. National Building Museum, Washington, D.C.
- Ballantine, Christa. "Obit> Lauretta Vinciarelli, 1943-2011". http://archpaper.com. The Architect's Newspaper.
- "Arte, Fotografia, Disegni e Progetti di Architettura Collezione Francesco Moschini e Gabriel Vaduva A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna: Lauretta Vinciarelli". A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna. Francesco Moschini Foundation: A.A.M. Architecture Modern Art.
- International Archive of Women In Architecture. "Biographical Database: Lauretta Vinciarelli". Virginia Tech. IAWA.
- "Red Rooms, Water Enclosures and Other Unfolding Spaces". OZ. 17. 1995.
- "entlichungen" (PDF). http://www.museenkoeln.de.
- "Past Exhibitions 1985-2002". http://www.nbm.org. National Building Museum.
- Rowe, Peter G; Vinciarelli, Lauretta (1997). Reflections : watercolors by Lauretta Vinciarelli. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Design.
- MUSCHAMP, HERBERT. "THE ARTS: NEW SEASON/ARCHITECTURE". http://www.nytimes.com.
- Kalb, Peter R. (2002). "Lauretta Vinciarelli at Henry Urbach Architecture". Art in America. 90 (9): 130.
- Peter Rowe, Camille Farey, George Ranalli, (2015). Clear Light : The Architecture of Lauretta Vinciarelli. Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers. p. 296. ISBN 978-988-16195-9-4.
- Filler, Martin (2012). "dates & events : "Clear Light: The Architecture of Lauretta Vinciarelli" in New York City,". Architectural Record. 200 (5): 216.
- Frank, Suzanne S. (2011). IAUS: The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, An Insider’s Memoir. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. ISBN 9781452086965.
- "Architectural Studies and Projects: Press Release" (PDF). www.moma.org. The Museum of Modern Art.
- "Drawings For A More Modern Architecture". www.drawingcenter.org. The Drawing Center.
- "Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective". www.brooklynmuseum.org.
- "Contributors". Oz : Journal of Architecture, Planning & Design. 17 (10). 1995.
- "Gorup Show: Elements of Architecture : May 08 to Aug. 31, 1979". speronewestwater. Exhibitions: Sperone Westwater.
- "Rosa Esman Gallery records, [ca. 1965 -1997]". Archives of American Art. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
- Juhani Pallasmaa (Ed), Gerald Allen and (1980). Creation And Recreation: America Draws. Helsinki: Museum of Finnish Architecture.
- "Late Entries to the Chicago Tribune Competition Collection: Ryerson and Burnham Archives, Ryerson and Burnham Libraries". http://digital-libraries.saic.edu. The Art Institute of Chicago.
- Ranalli, George (curator) (1980). "Young Architects". New Haven, Ct.: Yale School of Architecture. OCLC 702321262.
- Pirovano, ed., Carlo (1985). Terza Mostra Internazionale Di Architettura =Third International Exhibition of Architecture. Venice Project. 2 Volumes. Milano: La Biennale di Venezia / Electa Editrice. ISBN 884351198X.
- Contemporary Architectural Drawing. San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks. 1991. p. 0876547676. ISBN 0876547676.
- "Media Archive: Heinz Architectural Center". http://press.cmoa.org. Carnegie Museum of Art.
- Rinder, Lawrence; ; Whitney Museum of American Art. 2002 biennale exhibition. Whitney Museum of American Art. p. 291. ISBN 0810968320.
- Iovine, Julie V. (February 21, 2002). "The Whitney Biennial Invites Architecture In". The New York Times.
- "Italian architecture designs since the war". Dalla Collezione Francesco Moschini A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna.
- "Mostre: VISIONS AND UTOPIAS Architectural Drawings From The Museum Of Modern Art, New York". http://architettura.it.
- "CHANGING EXHIBITIONS". http://www.mfa.fi. MUSEUM OF FINNISH ARCHITECTURE:.
- Watercolor worlds : Roger Andersson, Jennifer Bartlett, Robert Bechtle, Louise Bourgeois, Cecily Brown, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Francesco Clemente, Lydia Dona, Till Freiwald, Barnaby Furnas, Margaret Harrison, Al Held, Jane Kaplowicz, Joyce Kozloff, Yayoi Kusama, Charlene Liu, Steve Mumford, Elizabeth Murray, Philip Pearlstein, Judy Pfaff, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Robert Rauschenberg, Alexis Rockman, Shahzia Sikander, Lauretta Vinciarelli, Roger Welch, William Wiley. New York: Dorsky Gallery. 2004.
- Quaid, Matilda; Riley, Terence, eds. (2002). Envisioning Architecture: Drawings from The Museum of Modern Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 0870700111.