Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association
Design at Riverside Gallery February 29 – April 10 2016
7 Melville Street South, Cambridge Ontario.
The title of this exhibition refers not only to the imaginary space that architectural drawings evoke, but also to the physical ambience in which they were displayed, collected, and discussed in the 1970s and 1980s under Alvin Boyarsky’s leadership at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA). In the AA’s club-like atmosphere, Boyarsky displayed and encouraged dialogues about drawings. Through a series of purposeful renovations, he further enhanced the inviting Georgian atmosphere of the school’s Bedford Square premises—converted from former residences—by replacing studios with galleries and gathering spaces for lectures and exhibitions, eating and entertaining. The chandelier, fireplace mantle, and bar were important accoutrements to, and even became symbols of, Boyarsky’s pedagogical reform, and the activities and exchange of ideas it generated among participants across the world.
As exhibitions proliferated in the galleries, hallways, and at the popular AA bar, personal encounters and dialogues flourished. Students met with teachers to exchange drawings, ideas, and drinks, frequently in the company of visiting lecturers and practitioners who contributed to the special ambience that characterized Boyarsky’s office and the halls of the AA. Traces of these interactions are found in Boyarsky’s collection, which includes sketches made by teachers and students as well as guests.
*Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association is co-organized by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis and the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. It is co-curated by Jan Howard, chief curator at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and Igor Marjanović, associate professor of architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated scholarly catalog distributed by the University of Chicago Press. The exhibition is made possible by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
Local sponsorship for Drawing Ambience at the Design at Riverside Gallery is provided by the University of Waterloo, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Idea Exchange Art + Design, KPMB Architects, Diamond + Schmitt Architects, architectsAlliance, Blackwell Structural Engineers, Grand Valley Society of Architects, Kohn Shnier Architects, Thompson CAD, Society of Waterlo Architecture Graduates, Walter Fedy Partnership, +VG Architects – The Ventin Group.