Marking the 50th Anniversary of Robert Venturi's 'Complexity and Contradiction'

To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of [longtime PennDesign faculty member] Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), Martino Stierli, the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, and David Brownlee, the Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Professor of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, are organizing a three-day symposium on November 10, 11, and 12, 2016, bringing together international scholars and architects to discuss the significance and enduring impact of this remarkable book, published by The Museum of Modern Art 50 years ago, in association with the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in The Fine Arts. The symposium is co-organized by The Museum of Modern Art and the University of Pennsylvania, and will be held in both New York and Philadelphia. Programs on November 10 and 11 will take place at The Museum of Modern Art, while programs on November 12 will be held at both the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. A conversation with [PennDesign alumna and longtime faculty member] Denise Scott Brown, Venturi’s longtime partner and collaborator, will close the symposium. 

It is generally agreed that Complexity and Contradiction, described by its author as a “gentle manifesto,” has lived up to the prediction made by Vincent Scully in the book’s preface: that it would be the most important architectural text written since Le Corbusier’s 1923 manifesto Vers une architecture. Venturi's book is conventionally interpreted as a potent early expression of postmodernism not only as that term applies to architecture, but in the culture at large, as its very title became a popular description of the postmodern condition. The book’s argument, however, is not in all ways congruent with what has come to be regarded as postmodern thinking, and its relationship to this phenomenon invites rigorous analysis. Conference speakers will locate the book in the intellectual and cultural context of its time, exploring its relationship to the diversity of thinking that may be labeled postmodern while also identifying its connections to other (and contradictory) intellectual tendencies. A more nuanced understanding of the work will contribute to contemporary discussions of modernism in architecture and throughout our culture. 

Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture was based in large part on materials Venturi assembled for the lecture course he taught at the University of Pennsylvania from 1961 to 1965, on which he collaborated, in part, with Denise Scott Brown, his future partner and wife. The manuscript was selected by Arthur Drexler, then the director of the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, to inaugurate an intended series of texts on modern architectural theory. With Venturi and Scott Brown’s archive now housed at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, MoMA and Penn are the fitting sponsors for the symposium. 

The conference will open on November 10 with a panel discussion of practicing architects from around the world, moderated by David De Long, Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania. The panelists will be Kersten Geers, Sam Jacob, Momoyo Kaijima, Michael Meredith, Stephen Kieran, and James Timberlake. Over the next two days, three sessions will explore the themes “Post Modernism,” “Creative Contexts,” and “Making the Book,” with papers presented by Lee Ann Custer, Deborah Fausch, Christine Gorby, Andrew Leach, Mary McLeod, Joan Ockman, Emmanuel Petit, Martino Stierli, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Stanislaus von Moos, and Enrique Walker. David Brownlee, Alice Friedman of Wellesley College, and Kathryn Hiesinger of the Philadelphia Museum of Art will moderate these sessions. Following the third session, a bus excursion will enable participants to visit key works of architecture by Venturi and Scott Brown and other members of the so-called Philadelphia School of the 1960s. 

The conference will close at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania with an exhibition viewing, a reception, and a rare conversation with Denise Scott Brown. On view will be the exhibition Back Matter: The Making of Robert Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, organized in conjunction with the conference by William Whitaker, Curator and Collections Manager of the Architectural Archives, and Lee Ann Custer. The exhibition (on view October 28, 2016–January 13, 2017) will display original materials from the Venturi and Scott Brown archive, highlighting Venturi’s teaching at Penn, the production of the manuscript and book, and Venturi’s contemporaneous architectural design work. Whitaker will engage Scott Brown in a discussion about the book’s making, context, and consequences. A reception will follow and close the conference. 

The symposium will be free and open to the public, with the exception of the bus tour, for which a limited number of tickets will be sold, and the closing reception and conversation with Denise Scott Brown, for which seating is limited. The full schedule, including details about purchasing tickets for the bus tour and registering for the reception, will be available in late September at both MoMA’s website (moma.org) and Penn’s website (sas.upenn.edu/arthistory/events/complexity-and-contradiction-fifty). 

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE: 

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10 

Architects’ Roundtable 
6:30 - 8:00pm 
The Museum of Modern Art 
Celeste Bartos Theater 

David De Long, University of Pennsylvania (moderator) 
Kersten Geers, Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Brussels 
Sam Jacob, Sam Jacob Studio, London 
Momoyo Kaijima, Atelier Bow-Wow, Tokyo 3 
Stephen Kieran, KieranTimberlake, Philadelphia James Timberlake, KieranTimberlake, Philadelphia Michael Meredith, MOS Architects, New York 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11 

Session 1: Post Modernism 
10:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. 
The Museum of Modern Art 
Celeste Bartos Theater 

David Brownlee, University of Pennsylvania (moderator) 
Stanislaus von Moos, University of Zurich 
Joan Ockman, University of Pennsylvania School of Design
Andrew Leach, University of Sydney 
Emmanuel Petit, Yale University 

Session 2: Creative Contexts 
2:00 - 4:00pm 
The Museum of Modern Art 
Celeste Bartos Theater 

Alice Friedman, Wellesley College (moderator) 
Martino Stierli, The Museum of Modern Art 
Mary McLeod, Columbia University 
Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Baukuh, Milan and editor of “San Rocco” 

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12 

Session 3: Making the Book 
10:00 am – 12:30pm
Philadelphia Museum of Art 
Van Pelt Auditorium 

Kathryn Hiesinger, Philadelphia Museum of Art (moderator) 
Lee Ann Custer, University of Pennsylvania 
Christine Gorby, Pennsylvania State University
Deborah Fausch, independent scholar 
Enrique Walker, Columbia University 

Bus tour: The Philadelphia School 

1:00 - 4:00pm

With commentary by Alice Friedman, Wellesley College 
Conversation with Denise Scott Brown, exhibition viewing, and closing reception 

4:00 - 7:00pm

Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania 
Harvey & Irwin Kroiz Gallery 

Venue locations: 

The Museum of Modern Art 
Celeste Bartos Theater 
Cullman Education and Research Building 
4 West 54 Street 
New York, NY 10019 4 

Philadelphia Museum of Art 
Van Pelt Auditorium 
2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway 
Philadelphia, PA 19130 

The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania 
Harvey & Irwin Kroiz Gallery 
220 South 34 Street at Smith Walk 
Philadelphia, PA 19104 

No. 37 

Press Contacts: Paul Jackson, The Museum of Modern Art, (212) 708-9593, paul_jackson@moma.org 

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Public Information: 

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