above> remembered landscape | acrylic on canvas | 20″ x 24″ | in 2011

Architecture is how Michael Graves made his name, and he continues to work with his firm Michael Graves & Associates designing buildings and complexes around the world. Studio Vendome aims to call attention to the accomplishments of architects who have elevated their constructions to “habitable sculpture.” The studio will be a space where the public can learn about and experience architecture as “inspiration-by-the-square-foot” and design as “functional fine art.” It is fitting for this new gallery space devoted to architecture and design to open with the works of designer, architect, and painter, Michael Graves. Curated by Jane Adlin, formerly of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the inaugural exhibit will present over 60 paintings of landscapes and still lifes, remembered forms from other times and places in the artist’s life.

still life | acrylic on canvas | 12″ x 12″ | 2009

Michael Graves has always been a painter. Graves color and form choices can be seen the buildings he has designed for over 40 years. One wonders if the arrangement of forms in Graves buildings and design work can be summed up in this statement about his own painting from NYT article. “I thought it would be interesting for me to arrange my buildings in a landscape that would be not unlike Morandi rearranging his bottles every week to paint them,” he said.

There is a mix of classicism in the colors and memories that show his love of Italian art and landscape; terracotta, warm oranges and browns may be “remembered landscapes” that he first encountered in 1960- when he became a fellow at the American Academy in Rome. There Michael Graves spent two years immersed in renaissance art practices- pencil drawings and sepia ink sketches of the rich classical architecture of the city. Mixed with this classical recall, there is an expression of movement in the paintings. The paintings come alive and the geometric forms do not sit still, just like the artist.

event> michael graves paintings: landscapes and still lifes
venue> studio vendome | 330 spring street new york city | 646.650.2466
date> 6 october > 31 december 2014

1> arabesque | acrylic on gesso board | 11″ x 14″ unframed | 12.5″ x 15.5″ framed | in 2008
2> shaker barn | acrylic on canvas|14”x18” | in 2009
3> still life | acrylic on canvas | 16″ x 16″ | in 2010
4> imagined landscape | acrylic on canvas | 12″ x 12″ | in 2010
5> sketch | graphite on paper | image is 7″ x 10″ | in 2011
6> remembered landscape | acrylic on canvas | 8″ x 10” | in 2014