Arcahic representations

Henrich Wölfflin has warned that the "rigidity" of archaic representations must not be judged as though later "Formmöglichkeit" (possibilities of form) was already known.

Rudolf Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception 1974, page 184

Experiencing architecture

There are monumental and very simple buildings that play on only one effect, like the hard and heavy. But most buildings are a combination of hard and soft, of light and heavy, of loose and tight, and of many different kinds of surfaces. All this are elements of architecture, something the architect can play with. And it is necessary to be able to sense these things if one wants to experience architecture.

Steen Eiler Rasmussen

[translated from Danish by me]

Kai Nielsen

Peter Schjeldahl podcast on bike through town

I normally don't have earphones on when biking but did today; a hour long podcast from the The National Gallery of Arts' amazing selection of art podcasts. It's called Let's Talk: A Conversation with Peter Schjeldahl, my first meeting with this [I gather legendary] art critic working for the New Yorker. Funny and original guy and it made the bike tour. First, my headphones are not plugs, so I needed to bike slow because of the wind which made the tour special [slow biker ahead] because of this kind of pace made me see the known stretches of streets and other familiar sights afresh, kind of, and since the whole reason for the bike tour was to listen to this one hour show, it really did not matter where I was biking. This way I discovered the form of baroque Church of Holmen from the corner of the Admiralgaden and Holmens Kanal [the street, not the canal].
Schjeldahl had some really funny and interesting things to say, especially his answers of questions from the audience, but I could not hear the questions from the audience, only Mr. Schjeldahl's answers. I'm not finsihed with this guy [written a book called "Let's See: Writings on Art from the New Yorker"].