Lauretta Vinciarelli (1943 – August 3, 2011) was an artist, architect, and professor of architecture at the collegiate level.

Background and education

Born in

Arbe Rab �âːb( dlm, Arba, la, Arba, it, Arbe, german: Arbey) is an island in the northern Dalmatia region in Croatia, located just off the northern Croatian coast in the Adriatic Sea. The island is long, has an area of and 9,328 inhabitants ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, Lauretta Vinciarelli was the daughter of Alberto and Annunciata Cencioni Vinciarelli. The family moved to Rome where she grew up, and her father was an organist in the

St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal e ...

in Vatican, and her mother was a teacher. Vinciarelli studied architecture at

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...

, and was accepted to the Ordine degli Architetti di Roma e del Lazio (the Italian Board of Architects). She practiced architecture in

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before emigrating to the U.S. in 1968. In 1993, she married Peter Rowe, a distinguished professor of architecture at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Career

Education

After moving to the U.S., Vinciarelli taught architecture design studio for many years in many schools, including

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, Texas,

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, City College, and The Open Atelier of Design and Architecture (OADA), a non-accredited design school founded by Giuseppe Zambonini in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Architecture

During the 1980s, Vinciarelli worked with

Minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

artist

Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism (a term he nonetheless stridently disavowed).Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In ...

and in the American Southwest, especially in

Marfa Marfa may refer to: Music * Marfa (instrument), an African percussion instrument * Marfa (music), celebratory music of the Hyderabadi Muslims Places * Márfa, a village in Baranya county, Hungary * Marfa, Chad * Marfa, Texas, a city in the hi ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. Marfa quickly became a research site for theoretical postmodern architectural proposals such as ''Marfa II Project, Marfa'', 1978 and ''Untitled Drawings 1981''. Vinciarelli used a rigorously inductive methodology to define and integrate fundamental architecture and design components. On the topic of the Marfa "hangar and courthouse" study, Vinciarelli stated her aim was "to form a fabric." In 1984, Vinciarelli and Judd entered the winning entry for the Kennedy Square

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

, competition. Their project drew upon Vinciarelli's earlier work, including her

landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...

proposal of 1977 for a system of urban gardens, commissioned by the Regional Administration of

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, in southern

. In 1986, Vinciarelli was awarded an Artists Fellowship in Architecture by the

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

Art

From the early 1980s until the end of her life, Vinciarelli created evanescent watercolor-and-ink studies of hypothetical architectural spaces. Her work has been analyzed by scholars and critics, including

Ada Louise Huxtable Ada Louise Huxtable (née Landman; March 14, 1921 – January 7, 2013) was an architecture critic and writer on architecture. Huxtable established architecture and urban design journalism in North America and raised the public's awareness of the ...

and K. Michael Hays in ''Not Architecture But Evidence That It Exists''. Vinciarelli belonged to an esteemed and influential group of contemporary paper architects, which included, among others,

Raimund Abraham Raimund Johann Abraham (July 23, 1933 – March 4, 2010) was an Austrian architect.

John Hejduk John Quentin Hejduk (July 19, 1929 – July 3, 2000) was an American architect, artist and educator of Czech origin who spent much of his life in New York City. Hejduk is noted for having had a profound interest in the fundamental issues of shap ...

Gaetano Pesce Gaetano Pesce (born 8 November 1939) is an Italian architect and a design pioneer of the 20th century. Pesce was born in La Spezia in 1939, and he grew up in Padua and Florence. During his 50-year career, Pesce has worked as an architect, u ...

Lebbeus Woods Lebbeus Woods (May 31, 1940 – October 30, 2012) was an American architect and artist known for his unconventional and experimental designs. Known for his rich, yet mainly unbuilt work and its nonetheless significant impact on the architec ...

, and

Aldo Rossi Aldo Rossi (3 May 1931 – 4 September 1997) was an Italian architect and designer who achieved international recognition in four distinct areas: architectural theory, drawing and design and also product design. He was one of the leading exponen ...

. Vinciarelli created powerful and inspiring, hand-crafted imagery of

topological space In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a geometrical space in which closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric distance. More specifically, a topological space is a set whose elements are called points ...

, on paper, which is a distillation of traditional, historical, and imaginal references. Her use of water elements extend the ''essence of architecture'' through transparency and reflection. About her artwork, Vinciarelli said, "The architectural space I have painted since 1987 does not portray solutions to specific demands of use, it is not the space of a project; at least not a project as the rational answer to a program."

Collections

Vinciarelli's art is part of many private collections and cultural institutions, including the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) at

Virginia Polytechnic Institute Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

and State University,

the National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of cha ...

, Washington, D.C., the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

's Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library,

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

. A large body of work by Vinciarelli, including the luminous ''Orange Sound series'' is held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A 2015 exhibition at

MAXXI MAXXI ( it, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, italic=no, "national museum of 21st-century arts") is a national museum of contemporary art and architecture in the Flaminio neighborhood of Rome, Italy. The museum is managed by a foundation ...

, the National Museum for the Twentieth Century Arts in Rome, dedicated to architecture included a group of Vinciarelli's abstract watercolors donated by the artist’s family.

Museum and archive collections

Lauretta Vinciarelli's work is part of major international collections. * A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna * ''Senza titolo'' :: medium/ media: 3 tecnica mista su cartoncino :: dimensions: each 44, 5 x 57 cm., 1975 * ''Hangar + Courtyard,'' :: medium. media: 3 inchiostro e tempera su carta lucida :: dinemsions: each 39, 5 x 64 cm. 1980; 1980 :: Classification: architectural drawing :: Collezione Francesco Moschini e Gabriel Vaduva, 2002 * San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA * ''Atrium in Red,'' 1992 :: Medium/media: watercolor and ink on paper :: Dimensions: 30 in. x 22 3/8 in. (76.2 cm x 56.83 cm) :: Classification: architectural drawing :: Collection: SFMOMA Accessions Committee Fund, 1977 * ''Night #6,'' 1996 :: Medium/media: watercolor and ink on paper :: Dimensions: 30 in. x 22 5/8 in. (76.2 cm x 57.47 cm) :: Classification: architectural drawing :: Collection SFMOMA: Accessions Committee Fund: gift of Frances and John Bowes, Emily L. Carroll and Thomas W. Weisel, Doris and Donald Fisher, Maria Monet Markowitz and Jerome Markowitz, Madeleine H. Russell, and the Modern Art Council, 1997 * Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA * ''Garden Structure; Untitled,'' erspective 1986 :: Medium watercolor on heavy paper :: Measurements H: 13 1/2 x W: 16 3/4 in. (34.29 x 42.55 cm) :: Collection: The Heinz Architectural Center, gift of the Drue Heinz Trust * National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC * ''Long Horizon II

enter Enter or ENTER may refer to: * Enter key, on computer keyboards * Enter, Netherlands, a village * ''Enter'' (magazine), an American technology magazine for children 1983–1985 * ''Enter'' (Finnish magazine), a Finnish computer magazine * Enter ...

'' Dimensions: 74 x 102.7 cm (29 1/8 x 40 7/16 in.), 1995; *''Long Horizon II

eft A newt is a salamander in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Unlike other members of the family Salamandridae, newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Not all aqu ...

'' Dimensions: 74 x 104 cm (29 1/8 x 40 15/16 in.), 1995; *''Long Horizon II ight'' Dimensions: 74 x 104 cm (29 1/8 x 40 15/16 in.), 1995 :: Medium: watercolor and pastel over graphite on heavy woven paper :: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roger Ferris, Rowland and Eleanor Miller, and Eric and Ellen Somberg, 1998 :: Accn. N° 1998.26.2; Accn. N° 1998.26.2; N° 1998.26.3 * Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY * ''Orange Sound, project,'' 7 watercolor series, 1999 :: Medium: graphite, and color ink on paper :: Dimensions: each 30 x 22" (76.2 x 55.9 cm) :: Gift of Mrs. Gianluigi Gabetti Purchase Fund :: Annc. N° 1417.2000.1, Annc. N° 1417.2000.2, Annc. N° 1417.2000.3, Annc. N° 1417.2000.4, Annc. N° 1417.2000.5, Annc. N° 1417.2000.6 1417.2000.7 :: e-card * International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) * ''Lauretta Vinciarelli Art Work'' :: 11 untitled tempera drawings on boards :: IAWA Small Collections; ''Special Collections 1907-2013'' :: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Exhibitions

The work of Lauretta Vinciarelli has been published and exhibited in solo and group shows at galleries and museums around the world.

Solo shows

* 1978: ''Lauretta Vinciarelli: Projects 1973–78.''

Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies The Institute for Architecture & Urban Studies is a non-profit architecture studio and think tank located in Manhattan, New York, United States. IAUS (1967–1984) The Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies was founded in 1967 as a non-pr ...

; Wave Hill, New York, N.Y. * 1980: ''Lauretta Vinciarelli: Processo Metafora. Progetti e disegni, 1974-1980.'' A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy. * 1981: ''Lauretta Vinciarelli: Projects 1980–81.'' Young Hoffman Gallery,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. * 1982: ''Lauretta Vinciarelli: Projects.''

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

Graduate School of Design,

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

* 1992: ''Lauretta Vinciarelli: Red Room, Water Enclosures, and Other Unfolding Spaces.'' GSAPP,

, N.Y. * 1992: ''Lauretta Vinciarelli: Rotte Raume.'' Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria * 1996: ''Spatial Reverberations: Watercolors by Lauretta Vinciarelli.''

National Building Museum The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private Non-profit org ...

, Washington * 1997: ''Reflections: Watercolors by Lauretta Vinciarelli.'' Gund Hall Gallery,

Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...

* 1999: ''Incandescence: Watercolors by Lauretta Vinciarelli.''

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, CA * 2002: ''Lauretta Vinciarelli: Intimate Distance.'' Henry Urbach Architecture, New York City * 2012: ''Clear Light: The Architecture of Lauretta Vinciarelli.'' City College of New York, N.Y.

Group shows

* 1975: ''Goodbye Five: Work by Young Architects.''

, New York, N.Y. * 1975: ''Architectural Studies and Projects.''

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York, N.Y. * 1977: ''Drawing for A More Modern Architecture.''

The Drawing Center The Drawing Center is a Manhattan, New York, museum and a nonprofit exhibition space that focuses on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary. History The Drawing Center was founded by former assistant curator of drawings at ...

, New York, N.Y. * 1977: ''Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective.''

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, N.Y. and Hayden Gallery, :::

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

. * 1978: ''Architectural Drawings.''

Otis Art Institute Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, CA. * 1979: ''Elements of Architecture.'' Sperone Westwater Fisher Gallery, New York, N.Y. * 1980: ''Art by Architects.'' Rosa Esman Gallery, 70 Greene Street, New York, N.Y. * 1980: ''Creation and Recreation: America Draws,'' Jugend Hall, Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki, Finland * 1980: ''Desire As Archetype: The

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

Tower Competition/ Late Entries.'' * 1980: ''Young Architects: an Exhibition at

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSOA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University, and is generally considered to be one of the best architecture schools in the United States. The School awards the degrees of Master of Arc ...

.'' Gallery of Art and Architecture, New Haven, CT. * 1985: ''Project for Palmanova.''

Venice Biennale of Architecture Venice Biennale of Architecture (in Italian Mostra di Architettura di Venezia) is an international exhibition of architecture from nations around the world, held in Venice, Italy, every other year. It was held on even years until 2018, but 202 ...

: 3rd International Exhibition of Architecture * 1991: ''Contemporary Architectural Drawings.'' Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery and Arthur Ross Gallery at Columbia University, NY * 1997: ''Summer Group Show.''

Max Protetch Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

Gallery, New York, N.Y. * 2001: ''Inside Out: New Perspectives on the Heinz Architectural Center’s Collection.'' The Heinz Architectural Center

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art, is an art museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsbur ...

, Pittsburgh, PA. * 2002: ''Luminous Void Volume of Light, series (2001).'' Whitney Biennial,

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, New York City. * 2002: ''Italian Architecture Signs Since The War.'' Dalla Collezione Francesco Moschini, A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna,

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, Italy. * 2003: ''Visions and Utopias: Architectural Drawings from the

.'' New York, NY; Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki, Finland * 2004: ''Watercolor Worlds: Lauretta Vinciarelli, et al.'' Dorsky Gallery, New York * 2004: ''Envisioning Architecture: Drawings from the Museum of Modern Art, New York.''

, Washington, D.C.

References

External links # Agrest, Diana, Patricia Conway, and Leslie Weisman, eds. ''The Sex of Architecture''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996. # Judd Foundation. “Lauretta Vinciarelli.” Accessed October 24, 2021. https://juddfoundation.org/programs/lauretta-vinciarelli/. # Siefert, Rebecca. “Lauretta Vinciarelli and Historical Types as Generative Device.” ''Cite: The Architecture and Design Review of Houston'', no. 102 (January 1, 2021): 60–67. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vinciarelli, Lauretta 1943 births 2011 deaths Architects from Rome Italian women architects American women architects Architecture educators 20th-century American architects Italian emigrants to the United States 20th-century Italian painters 21st-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian women artists 21st-century Italian women artists Italian contemporary artists 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists