Table Of Content“Just as you cannot tell someone how to fall in love—s o the author of this wise,
deeply felt, and beautifully written book tells us— you cannot tell people how to
look at art. Yet artist, architect, and educator Sanda Iliescu shows us by the example
of her penetrating and empathetic way of looking at forms a place to begin. The
nine essays in this book will leave the reader feeling both more alert to visual
experience and more alive.”
Joan Ockman, Distinguished Senior Lecturer, Weitzman School of Design,
University of Pennsylvania, and Vincent Scully Visiting Professor in
Architectural History, Yale University School of Architecture
“I have appreciated Sanda Iliescu’s writings for years, yet the subtlety and
kaleidoscopic abundance of the ideas she explores in her current book surprised
me. Whether she is writing about a child’s sandcastle, a bird’s nest, a Chinese vase,
or masterpieces of art and architecture, she develops profound ideas about the way
artists and architects work, and she mediates essential but hidden meanings in the
realm of artistic creativity. This book is a joy to read.”
Juhani Pallasmaa, architect, writer, Professor Emeritus
“In a brilliant book, full of wisdom, I have just read the most beautiful and insightful
description of what real design is. Not the usual junk about creation, but that of
trial, failure, and evolution, seen in the efforts of a delighted and stubborn boy
refashioning sandcastles despite their erasure by waves. This book is not only about
looking; it’s about seeing clearly.”
WG Clark, Professor of Architecture, University of Virginia
“Artfully descriptive, eminently insightful, and refreshingly accessible, this collection
of essays about art, architecture, and design is a most important addition to the
literature in the field. The focus on a human scaled response to individual works and
the rewards of looking closely are themes that move in profound ways through these
essays. Iliescu’s inimitable ability to draw connections between one’s encounters
with the world and works of art and design and the construction of meaning that
unfolds, yields a feeling of discovery that is, at once, wondrous and affirming.”
Thomas Berding, Professor, Studio Art, Michigan State University
“This is a thoroughly original book. It is the book I wish I had been assigned
in my first art or architecture class, yet one I will return to again and again.
Avoiding the traditional introductory survey approach, Iliescu presents a series of
idiosyncratic essays exploring singular works of art and architecture in depth. She
matches touching personal anecdotes with rigorous critical analysis. She draws her
reader along with gentle questions, while giving permission to skip ahead or circle
back through these delightful essays. She asks us to look carefully, and to forge
our own connections between seemingly disparate, poetic case studies. Ranging
from Rembrandt and Tōhaku to Helen Frankenthaler and David Hammons, and
from Bramante to Jefferson to Latz + Partner, Iliescu’s carefully curated examples
help us understand formal strategies while always placing them in larger historic
and social contexts. Over the course of the book, Iliescu turns her reader into an
active participant, co- creating the experience of looking at, and making, art and
architecture.”
Kim Tanzer, FAIA, architect and Distinguished Professor, ACSA
EXPERIENCING ART
AND ARCHITECTURE
In this multidisciplinary book, Sanda Iliescu articulates a rich, multi- faceted
approach to the aesthetic experience. Through in- depth discussions of her own
lived encounters with art, architecture, and the world around her, she advocates a
way of looking that blends sensory perception, formal analysis, social and political
consciousness, and personal memory. Focusing special attention on the aesthetic
concept of the figure- ground problem, the author challenges this foundational
principle’s presumed hierarchies and shows how a new and more dynamic
understanding of it can enhance our way of looking at and understanding art and
architecture. Works discussed in the book include a wide range of contemporary
and historic art and architecture, among them artworks by Rembrandt, Matisse,
Eva Hesse, and David Hammons; architecture by Zaha Hadid, Peter Zumthor, and
Weiss/ Manfredi; and non- Western works such as a thirteenth-c entury Chinese vase
and the Ryōanji dry garden in Kyoto, Japan.
Personal and engaging, this book is for a wide audience of those practicing,
studying, or with an interest in the creative fields, from beginners to seasoned
professionals.
Sanda Iliescu teaches art and architecture at the University of Virginia. Educated
as an architect, she is a practicing artist who has exhibited her paintings, drawings,
and collages in the United States and Europe. She has received numerous awards,
among them the Rome Prize.
EXPERIENCING ART
AND ARCHITECTURE
Lessons on Looking
Sanda Iliescu
Cover image: Right After, Eva Hesse, 1969
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Sanda Iliescu
The right of Sanda Iliescu to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Iliescu, Sanda, 1959– author.
Title: Experiencing art and architecture: lessons on looking / Sanda Iliescu.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021041238 (print) |
LCCN 2021041239 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367441074 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780367441067 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003007654 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Art–Psychology. | Architecture–Psychological aspects.
Classification: LCC N71 .I35 2022 (print) |
LCC N71 (ebook) | DDC 701/.15–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021041238
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021041239
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 44107- 4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 44106- 7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 00765- 4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/ 9781003007654
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
Access the Support Material: www.routledge.com/ 9780367441067
For my husband Paul,
with love and gratitude
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations x
Foreword xiv
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction 1
1 Play 17
2 Architecture 32
3 Emptiness 50
4 The Space Between 72
5 Fields 89
6 Mistakes 118
7 Transparency 144
8 The Past 171
9 Abundance 191
Illustration Credits 216
Index 218
