Frank Gehry

Gehry is considered a 'deconstructionist' - fair enough. The Guggenheim at Bilbao, Spain, possibly his masterstroke so far, is certainly deconstructionist, with the easily viewable shape of a seagoing ship broken up into zoomy silver planes. It makes you feel like you're headed out on a voyage, and I'm told that it's wonderfully functional inside. But look at some of his other buildings. What exactly is he deconstructing? All those twisted boxes and warped windows, caved-in cylinders wrapped in corrugated aluminum. They're cool, they're functional... they're from someplace totally foreign to us bores. Gehry really isn't a deconstructionist, unless if he is deconstructing his own imagination.

And that's what (to me) Gehry is all about - imagination. And fun. Lots and lots of fun. Check out his cheap lines of furniture (well, cheap to make... can he help it if his name recognition boosts up the price?) Squiggles abound. Put that stuff in your living room, and it's like the party never stops. His commision for the offices of the innovating, far-seeing ad agency Chiat/Day has a front facade of... binoculars. Heck, this is the guy who's built buildings shaped (very realistically) like a fish on a hook. For a sushi bar, of course.

Second, unlike Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect who he is often compared to, he is quite shy and humble. He seemed uncomfortable with the fame his work has brought to him and often has negative things to say about his own buildings, if he comments at all.

Third, this is an artist who sees structures and spaces in a way few have every done. He perceives all modern architecture to be "at odds" with older work, and so extrapolates that to the extreme. He also finds inspiration in other art forms: citing the Dutch artist Vermeer and the movie idols Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He fashioned a flowing, fabric like roof after seeing a painting that captured the feel of folded linen and he designed an office building in Prague that mirrors a couple dancing close together, with what appears to be one side folding into the other.

When asked how computer generated blueprints and design had changed his work, he laughed.

"I don't have any idea how any of that works"

_{sources:CBS news-Sunday morning -7/28/02
frank-gehry.com}