James Stirling: Revisionary Modernist
From the Publisher. James Stirling (1926–1992) was one of the most influential architects of the late 20th century. His formally inventive yet historically informed designs inspired a generation of architects in his native England and throughout the world. Amanda Reeser Lawrence's new book is the first in-depth, book-length analysis of the architect's work.
In James Stirling: Revisionary Modernist, Lawrence focuses on six of Stirling's projects from the early 1950s through the late 1970s, offering detailed formal analysis of the buildings and drawings while also mapping his relationship to a broader architectural and cultural context. Though it is widely held that Stirling took a mid-career turn toward postmodernism, Lawrence shows that he was undeniably modern throughout his career. She clarifies the ways in which Stirling understood modernism as inextricably linked to the past and placed his own work in what he termed a "dialogue with architectural tradition."
James Stirling has been experiencing a bit of a renaissance over the past couple of years, and it's both overdue and unfortunate that he's no longer around to experience it. (He died in 1992, having been tagged with that most unfortunate of labels: "postmodernist.") Not quite a monograph, and not quite a history, but a bit of both, here Reeser Lawrence surveys the arc of Stirling's career by focusing in depth on a series of six projects, some built and others not. While academic studies of this type are typically jargon-ridden and dense to the point of obfuscation, this one is blessedly clear-eyed, written in straightforward and engaging prose that is no less incisive for its transparency. It is serious architectural history as it should be, devoted to a complex and challenging subject that warrants the attention.
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