Frank Lloyd Wright: Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona

Two or three weeks ago I wrote about the 300th anniversary of the death of Christopher Wren, the architect who rebuilt the chunk of medieval London destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Wren300 was his effective and extensive yearlong fête.

He deserved it. That architects are artists is a discounted, even flouted concept. Great artists such as Dürer, Titian, Goya, Whistler, and Picasso do flat art that hangs on museum walls or, here and there still, in church chapels. Yes, Michelangelo’s and Bernini’s sculptures are sublime and icons of their time. Both were architects, too, and made Rome glorious enough for God and saints to call it a second home. Architecture’s art on a big scale, as well as art that we enter and leave, experience on city streets, and live and work in. A great building’s enigmatic, inviting, provocative, and poetic, as is a great painting. Its magic changes reality.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Two or three weeks ago I wrote about the 300th anniversary of the death of Christopher Wren, the architect who rebuilt the chunk of medieval London destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Wren300 was his effective and extensive yearlong fête.

He deserved it. That architects are artists is a discounted, even flouted concept. Great artists such as Dürer, Titian, Goya, Whistler, and Picasso do flat art that hangs on museum walls or, here and there still, in church chapels. Yes, Michelangelo’s and Bernini’s sculptures are sublime and icons of their time. Both were architects, too, and made Rome glorious enough for God and saints to call it a second home. Architecture’s art on a big scale, as well as art that we enter and leave, experience on city streets, and live and work in. A great building’s enigmatic, inviting, provocative, and poetic, as is a great painting. Its magic changes reality.