Review: Sketches of Frank Gehry: Markus Heidingsfelder and Min Tesch, directors. Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect. Arthouse Films, New York, 2010, DVD, 97 mins., $19.95, http://www.arthousefilms online.com

Kauffman, Jordan

Abstract

During the past decade, it became clear that the postmodern belief in the death of the author as a narrative construct was greatly exaggerated. As architects realized the marketing value of the authorial persona—labeled the “starchitect” by the media culture of a boom economy—the critical and historiographical tools of recent disciplinary accounts of architectural practice after World War II have become increasingly divorced from the public representation of architects and their practice.1 Still, the same architects who have marketed themselves as brands and their work as singular objects for public consumption have proven willing, within the profession, to acknowledge the team effort required to produce such brands and objects.2 In retrospect, the death of the author failed to predict the brand value of what Michel Foucault has called the “author-function” in a globalized market for architectural products.

Citation

Kauffman, J. (2012). Review: Sketches of Frank Gehry: Markus Heidingsfelder and Min Tesch, directors. Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect. Arthouse Films, New York, 2010, DVD, 97 mins., $19.95, http://www.arthousefilms online.com. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 71(2), 245-246. https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2012.71.2.242

• Journal Article Type: Book Review
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Mar 1, 2024
• Journal: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
• Print ISSN: 0037-9808
• Electronic ISSN: 2150-5926
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 71
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 245-246
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2012.71.2.242
• Keywords: History; Visual Arts and Performing Arts; Architecture
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/31897236