The crowd fell silent as the Great Gehry replied by slowly curling his hand into a fist and extending his middle finger towards the sky. The moderator asked for the next question. But Gehry was not finished, according to El Mundo (translated back into English by our own Jesus Diaz): — gizmodo.com
Let me tell you one thing. In this world we are living in, 98 percent of everything that is built and designed today is pure shit. There's no sense of design, no respect for humanity or for anything else. They are damn buildings and that's it. Once in a while, however, there's a small group of people who does something special. Very few. But good god, leave us alone! We are dedicated to our work. I don't ask for work. I don't have a publicist. I'm not waiting for anyone to call me. I work with clients who respect the art of architecture. Therefore, please don't ask questions as stupid as that one.
47 Comments
I love everything about this.
HA! Fantastic!
This also happened when Gehry gave a lecture in Savannah several years ago. My roommate at the time asked Gehry a similar type of question, and Gehry basically said "What kind of f****** question is that!?!" He stopped himself short of actually saying the word, but you could tell he wanted to.
Gizmodo always on Gehrys grill for page views. Alisa Walker will continue on where Geoff Manaugh couldn't stomach.
If you don't like the lyrics press fast forward.
Don't hate the player (Gehry) hate the game (clients).
Remember Eisenman's six points? This is Frank's one point.
crotchety old turd...
Why is this fact is a big news and being regurgitated in superficial gizmo journals about architecture? Page view journalism is so stupid. I think 98% of writing about architecture is pure shit and I am not 85 years old.
Orhan, I completely agree with you.
It almost seems like architecture photography is replacing architecture writing.
What an idiot.
There is plenty of good architecture writing out there, it just takes longer to read than does a typical Gizmodo article. Amelia's Screen Print series here even points you in the direction of it!
how much does it cost to get page views again?
If it isn't worth printing, its questionable if its worth reading.
I do think the Frank giving the critics the finger is funny though.
"there's a small group of people who does something special. Very few. But good god, leave us alone! We are dedicated to our work. I don't ask for work. I don't have a publicist."
Leave Frank Alone!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc
Donna, A is part of the two percent in my book. I think she was born with a pen in her hand. She is creative and visual.
Well, lets also accept that good ol' Frank is getting seriously senile.
I'm not sure whether the article ends with a sarcastic twist or not. Could be read either way, a 180 or a 360 degrees. I mean:
"Hey, no need to apologize, Frank! You're 85! And you know what? You can keep on building whatever shit you want!"
followed by a picture of one of his buildings.
And, seriously, the question could have been far worse. "Showy" is after all not a pejorative description in its own right, one that puts itself on display, on show.
Ah well, at least here Thayer-D and co. should be happy at the "finger", after all it is a gesture that harkens back to the classical age of Hellenism. Perhaps we can now christen, in retrospect, Gehry's architecture as Architectura Impudica after his digitus impudicus.
Haha. Best arch pic ever. FG is gangsta.
.
As the founder and chairman of Thayer-D & Co. I would like to distance our corporation from Mr. Gehry and his reprehensible behavior. We do not in anyway condone his flippant additude, esspecially considering the public nature of our beloved profession. He is a disgrace to all principles of decorum and civilized behavior, allthough Bilbao was pretty cool.
Respectfully,
Thayer-D
LOL Thayer.
I admit that if Libeskind flipped someone off I'd call him childish and self-important. Gehry has earned his cantankerousness, and IMO he's truly an artist who uses architecture as his medium, while Libeskind and some others are architects who want the world to view them as artists.
Don’t think I’ve ever given someone the-finger, afraid someone would slug me – can happen, but if I did my arm would get sore holding it up all day.
Gehry is like every successful artist, doomed to be copied and then blamed for the poor quality of his imitators. His work is was loved, then imitated, then hated. Again the media is much to blame for the build up tear down routine.
As Rem says, "critics are best friends in disguise." Notice the room full of sycophants eager to "critique" him...tomorrow they'll be off somewhere else trying to suckle more off the tit of greatness.
RE 'Gehry's 98 percent.... of architecture is crap' is a well known saying and a paraphrase. Coy Howard used to say this 30 years ago about architecture . The orgins come from describing writing. And it is called Stugeons Law , named for science fiction writer Ted Stugeon. His remark was that '98 percent of science fiction is crap'
Not to pull a Richard, but Sturgeon's Law is that 90% of everything is crap. I think he was aiming high.
I still want to know which 2% of his own work Gehry thinks is good.
"Childish and self-important." Thanks, Donna, that's what I was going for...
Miles... thats correct Sturgeon's Law IS 90%. And I agree, he was aiming high.... ever read Sturgeon? The Dreaming Jewels? He wrote a Star Trek. Met his ex.
BTW I like Gehry's house, the inside. the light quality is very nice. Someone told me today about a vacant lot he still own's in Venice. Fenced off for year, abandoned.. Do something with that Frank. e
And we thought he might be too polite to design the Hollywood Imaginarium.
I bet he carries a framing hammer in his brief case just in case he has to take someone out at the knees.....Go Mr. G!
At least he is serious about architecture, unlike a lot of the commercial crap that gets built. But his work is "showy" in all terms of the word. Clients like him because his work stands out, and the world would be just OK without his work. Hence showy.
.
good day.
Guy has been doing his own thing since 1962 and still has a backlog that we could only dream of. I don't particularly like his "architecture" but I sure respect him as an architect.
love the message he went with. not fair to chalk it up to ego. palladio went with the double barrel version. Vasari said was funniest thing he ever saw.
recently saw showy building in paris under construction. guy who did the glass was visitor to our uni last year so we had a unique perspective. its technically amazing and fantastic architecture. The process of construction is pretty cool, but somehow eludes the discussion. such a pity. There is a lot of intelligent effort there that is being dismissed. Like it or not, its significant, as is Gehry. so why waste time asking stupid questions? Surely hes heard them all, and more, in 50 years of being interestingly famous...
maybe he just wants people to insult him with a bit more flair. and why not? Its one of those wife-beater questions that begs a slap isnt it...
Cake? Fuck your cake, this is Pie. My, prize winning, Pie.
Is that American Pie?
I heard once FOG's office wouldn't take jobs on where the fee was less than $6 mil, I'd be lucky to have job with that much in construction budget.
as Will Galloway notes "There is a lot of intelligent effort there that is being dismissed. Like it or not, its significant, as is Gehry. so why waste time asking stupid questions? Surely hes heard them all, and more, in 50 years of being interestingly famous."
his middle finger was justified, Frankly!
There is this thing out there. I have seen it with Hadid and great architects or successful people of any field. Try and let them know, using a mask of criticism, that they may have an inflated ego? See what they say about their failures. Ask: What about the notion you don't care? What do you say to the notion that it is all about you or the money? ---It's human nature and it's ugly. I met Mr. Gehry for just a moment when I was a young architect. A gracious funny gentleman who didn't need to take time to meet me as I pinned up sketches his team was looking at. He is right of course, and tearing at those who strive to create good work is childish when 98% is pure shit. Change the questions. Change the dialogue. Ask these great architects what they think and enjoy the time we have with them while they are here and creating. I would never never ask a great artist or scientist or leader such a rude question. Perhaps I come from another time or was raised differently.
Not sure about the-finger, maybe it was instructional in some sort of way (not being funny). At this point he doesn’t have to put himself out in front of the public, but if he does he needs to expect “public” and that includes stupid. Not sure about his work either, but if architecture is art then it is art and is architecture. I think the public needs to be stirred-up about architecture and his work does and so did the-finger.
When I become a great architect, you can all enjoy the privilege of spending time with me. But if you ask me a question I don't like, you can go fuck yourself. See, I was raised in a different time, when people knew their place and would get throttled if they dare to step out of it. My work IS showy, cause everything I do is so fucking great, so the ballsier I am, the clearer my greatness is to you 98 percent if shit producing dopes. Trying to fit in is for losers, especially when in a foreign land. So sit back and enjoy , when I become great. In the mean time, I gotta practice more...fuck you!
Lot's getting behind or ahead of Frank!
Supporting Frank!
Carrera, for art vs architecture I refer you to this thread.
As for the bird, let's not confuse role playing with reality. While I thought Graves' published comment on the Portland Building was total ego, I find Gehry's one finger salute honest and refreshing.
Miles in honor of an accurate statement - " I find Gehry's one finger salute honest and refreshing." and for the 2% who don't care what the 1% pay for - .this 1% er payment which is supposed to make the other 98-99% desire what the 1% is selling, I am re-posting the entire TED link in its entirety...I'll take 1% er bikers over the wealthy any day.
because Archinect is that kind of place.
Supporting Frank O'Gehry
"Let me tell you one thing. In this world we are living in, 98 percent of everything that is built and designed today is pure shit. There's no sense of design, no respect for humanity or for anything else"
Carlo Mollino
Ieoh Ming Pei
Charles and Ray Eames
Marcel Breuer
Frank Lloyd Wright
Philip Johnson
Oscar Niemeyer
Peter Eisenman
Richard Rogers
Le Corbusier
Richard Neutra
Louis Kahn
Ludwing Mies van der Rohe
Rem Koolhaas
David Chipperfield
Renzo Piano
Richard Meier
Lord Norman Robert Foster
sponsored by inspired songs by Johnny Cash, the Man in Black, and the 0.05% that give a damn.
Lol
Oh just make a stupid film about it...call it The Finger of an Architect.
The Eames version is hilarious, so cute. Mies is also perfect, and you just know he did that during the photo shoot, but the photographer didn't capture it so someone had to Photoshop it instead.
I've posted this all over FB but it bears repeating: People are hiring Gehry to do exactly what Gehry does. Gehry isn't flinging his designs on an unsuspecting world, his *clients* are.
So ThayerD your little impersonation of Gehry is way off base. Ascribe that personality to his clients, please, not him. Gehry is an artist and need not apologize for doing what people want him to do.
No one is asking Gehry to appoligize for anything a client has asked him to do, but architecture being a public art, he is going to hear from some of those who don't like his work. And while there's a time and a place for showing off, calling him an "artist" won't silence people who might have a negative opinion of his work. Personally, I like some of his work, but it does seem consistantly showy, even when the program dosen't call for it. In fact, if you look at the pictures of the work referenced in the original article, they look ridiculous. Maybe he's a bit defensive becasue of the thrashing he's been getting lately, speaking about the Eisenhower memorial, where he chose to express the humble Kansas boy with 80' tall metal screens. Maybe he thinks he gets a pass after being called the greatest architect of our time so often. Maybe he's a dick, who knows.
From what I know though, the situation that prompted his one gun salute was...
"things were going as well as could be expected, until a reporter asked this: "How do you answer to those who accuse you of practicing showy architecture?"
Not sure that warrents a middle finger, unless ganster rap culture is your thing. But I agree that he's hired for what he does (to be showy). Unfortunatly for his ego, his art is public, not stuck in a gallery one can bypass. And while your desire to desire to separate society into those who "get it" and those who don't is well documented, everybody gets what Gehry's about when he answers a perfectly civil question with a middle finger. The 'great' man who is exempt from the rules of decorum. No thanks.
My son's school teacher "gets" early childhood teaching in a way that I don't, and I'm happy for that. My brain surgeon "gets" brain surgery in a way I don't, and I'm happy for that. My accountant "gets" tax breaks in a way that I don't, and I'm happy for that.
I "get" architecture better than most news media reporters do, and I'm not going to apologize for that.
What makes Gehry's work "showy" exactly?
Donna, we've been over this many times. The fact that your son's teacher 'gets' early childhood education in a way that you don't dosen't preclude you from commenting on how it's done, unlike your brain surgeon. It's not a one size fit's all phenomenom. The fact that you know how to detail flashing or call out the right amount of LVL's dosen't negate others from thinking you have horrible taste or your building functions horribly, regardless of what you think of their credentials. And should they find fault with your work dosen't give you the right to flip someone the bird, unless that's how you roll. Now we know that's how Franky rolls, hardly a surprise if you've followed him and his public statements.
So don't appoligize for 'getting' architecture better than most of the media. But that in and of itself dosen't mean you actually do, it just means it's important to your sense of worth that you believe it and proclaim it. And if we don't agree, I don't think you would tell me to fuck off as some other Frank Gehry want-a-be's on this site. The only thing Frank Gehry should appologize for is being so rude, which he did. Still amazing to me that people woudl excuse his behavior. Different standards for people in society, depending on thier 'expertise' as you say. How very oldfashioned.
Whats actually good about this is that the current generation of students are getting a bit "done" with Starchitecture. But it seems by this forum that some of us "oldies" still want to defend the Starchitects.
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