David Macaulay: Fact Sheet
The Art of Drawing Architecture Exhibition Fact Sheet
Exhibition
David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture
When
June 23, 2007 through May 4, 2008
Where
National Building Museum, second-floor galleries
Overview
For more than 30 years, since the publication of his first book Cathedral in 1973, David Macaulay’s drawings have unearthed “the way things work.” Trained as an architect, Macaulay has long been fascinated by large-scale constructions, and his accessible illustrations teach viewers to see and understand the architectural and engineering processes behind buildings. Macaulay’s unique brand of drawing, which can be described as visual archeology, not only peels back exterior facades and interior walls to reveal what is beneath them, but also shows us how a building was designed and constructed from the ground up. The National Building Museum’s exhibition, David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture, focuses on the artist’s use of drawing to research historic buildings, to render architecture from engaging perspectives, to reveal underlying structures, and to critique and redesign, in a playful manner, the contemporary landscape of American architecture.
Exhibition Layout
Divided into five sections, the 3,000-square-foot exhibition opens with a display of David Macaulay’s original sketchbook for Mosque and a brief introductory video in which Macaulay shares his passion for sketching the “way things work.”
The second section, examines the concept of Visual Archeology. Displaying extensive notes, photographs, and sketches created during Macaulay’s two year exploration of the visual archeology of the Golden Age of Ottoman architecture for his publication Mosque, this section immerses the visitor in his research process. Additionally, there is a hands-on activity table that asks “what makes a mosque, a mosque?” and a library alcove that features a selection of Macaulay’s titles, reference materials on Ottoman architecture, and an audio interview with Macaulay.
The third section transitions from the “linear chaos” of Macaulay’s research process into a series of drawings in which he is Playing with Perspective. Preliminary sketches and finished drawings from seminal books such as Cathedral (1973), Castle (1977), and Underground (1976) highlight Macaulay’s unique ability to inform and entertain by stretching the definition of perspective through challenging worm’s and bird’s eye views of the built environment. Another hands-on activity table focused on one-point perspective and quick sketching spans the third and the fourth section of the exhibition.
The next section explores Macaulay’s methods for Revealing Structure in his work. Drawings from the enormously popular book Building Big (2000), as well as an oversized composite “sketchbook” reproduced from Macaulay’s visually rich sketchbooks filled with his research on bridges and skyscrapers are featured.
Inspiring Imagination closes the exhibition with an impressive selection of original, finished drawings from Great Moments in Architecture (1976-1978), Motel of the Mysteries (1979), Unbuilding (1980), and original commissions drawn for The Washington Post and The New York Times. Taken as more playful and ironic critiques of architecture, these works not only reveal Macaulay’s imagination at work but encourage a new way of seeing—and understanding—the world around us through the power of pen on paper.
Artifacts
David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture features the following artifacts:
- More than 100 original sketches and finished drawings from Cathedral (1973), Underground (1976), Castle (1977), Great Moments in Architecture (1978), Motel of the Mysteries (1979), Unbuilding (1980), Mill (1983), Rome Antics (1997), Building Big (2000), and Mosque (2003).
- Original sketchbooks from Mosque, Building Big, and Rome Antics.
- Reproductions from Macaulay’s sketchbooks used during his research for Mosque and Building Big.
- Audio interviews with Macaulay from National Public Radio.
- Video interview with Macaulay about sketching from Teachingbooks.net.
Curators
The exhibition is guest-curated by Kathleen Franz, assistant professor and director of Public History at American University in Washington, DC. Franz served as curator for the National Building Museum’s exhibition On Track: Transportation and the American City (2000). At the National Building Museum, the exhibition is organized by Coordinating Curator Chrysanthe Broikos and Curatorial Associate Deborah Sorensen.
Exhibition Design
Award-winning design firm Malcolm Grear Designers, Inc, of Providence, Rhode Island, provided the exhibition and graphic design for David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture.
Sponsors
David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture is made possible by American Society of Civil Engineers; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP; Dale Chihuly; Lamy writing instruments; Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, LLP; Edward W. Rose III Family Fund of The Dallas Foundation; STUDIOS Architecture; Turner Construction Company; Blick Art Materials; Sunrise Foundation; The American Architectural Foundation; and other generous contributors.
