08th October/James Wines Lecture/Darwin Lecture Theatre Bartlett/London

What is an Idea?'It’s a great idea!!' appears to be one of the more hyperbolic and ubiquitous mantras, used to introduce new cultural phenomena today. James Wines’ presentation is based on the cautious premise that ‘everything can’t be THAT great’. For this reason, he explores the most significant ideas in the arts and architecture, which have been shaped by social, political, psychological, economic and cultural influences, from the early 20th Century to the present. His choice of content is intended to reinforce Dadaist advocate Richard Huelsenbeck’s enduring observation: 'The highest art is that which, in its conscious content, reflects the problems of the day'. Prof. Wines also evaluates the vast difference between aesthetic choices, which are merely predicated on scavenging recent history, versus ideas that liberate the arts from past-due stylistic baggage. Crediting many conceptual exchanges between art and architecture, he discusses the seminal work of such movements as Constructivism, Futurism, l’Architetture Radicale, L’Arte Povera, Performance Art, Earth Art, Fluxus, Conceptual Art, Arch-Art ...concluding with observations focused on some potentially fertile sources of ideas for the future. 

James Wines is founder and president of SITE, a New York City-based architecture and environmental arts organisation, founded in 1970. He is also a Professor of Architecture at Penn State University. He has designed and built more than one hundred and fifty architecture, environmental art, landscape, interior, and exhibition projects for private and municipal clients in eleven countries. He has lectured on environmental issues in fifty-two countries and contributed essays to many books and magazines in the USA, Europe, and Asia. In 1987 his book De-Architecture was released by Rizzoli International and, during the past two decades, there have been twenty-two monographic books and museum catalogues published on his projects for SITE. In 2000, Taschen Verlag released Professor Wines’ book on Green Architecture. He lives and works in New York City. His major interests are in environmental design, public space, the fusion of buildings with context and the connections between art and architecture.

6.30pm – 8pm
No booking required / first come, first seated