A Wigwam in Venice: the National Gallery of Canada Builds a Pavilion, 1954-1958
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ANALYSIS I ANALYSE A WIGWAM IN VENICE: THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA BUILDS A PAVILION, 1954-1958 MICHELANGELO SABATINO (Ph.O.J is Assistant >MICHELANGELO SABATIN0 1 Professor at the Gerald D . Hines College of ArchitectUI'e of the University of Houston. His publications have appea1'ed in "Casabella," "Harvard Design Magazine," "Rotunda," and "JSAH." He has contributed an essay to Foro ltalico (20031 Ca nada has built an intricate wigwam of and co-edited II nuovo e if moderno in architettura glass and wood around a t ree, presumabl y to symbol ize lov e o f nature. In tru th, 12001 J. Sabatino's forthcoming book is entitled perhaps all the p avili ons are, to some Or'dinary Things: Folk Art and Architecture in Italian extent, folkloric. Modernism. - Lawrence Alloway, The Venice 8 iennale 1895-1968. Canada's first permanent international pavilion for the display of art opened to the general public on the grounds of the Venice Biennale in June 1958.' The Milanese architectural firm Studio Architetti BBPR designed the brick, glass, wood, and steel wigwam-like structure on commission from the National Gallery of Canada acting on behalf of the Cana dian Government (figs. 1-3). The pavilion opened the same year in which BBPR's controversial Milanese Torre Velasca and Brussels Pavilion were completed. The English critic Reyner Banham hailed those two works as evidence of Italy's "retreat" from the modern.3 Compared with the international style Canadian Pavilion by Charles Greenberg at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, the Venice Pavilion offers a distinct Canadian character for spec tators to contemplate. It is a testimony to engagement with issues of national identity in architecture during difficult years following the end of World War II. The modernism of the Canadian Pavilion opposed the neutrality of the interna tional " white box" that would dominate art exhibition spaces in the 1960s. That divergence was typical of Italian archi tects during the 1950s. Carlo Scarpa, Franco Albini, and the Studio Architetti BBPR came up with singular responses to the design of museums; rather than FIG. 1. BIRDS EYE VIEW, CANADIAN PAVILION, VENI CE. JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007 > 3-14 3 M ICHELANGELO S ABATINO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE ;; -B L----------------------------------------------------~~ FIG. 2. IN TER IOR , CANADIAN PAVI LI ON, VENIC E. FIG. 3. PER SPECTIVE DRAWING, CANADIAN PAVI LIO N, STU DIO ARC HI TETT I BBPR . viewing the buildings as containers of move in such an aesthetic w ay that you could States of America. Perhaps the architects able objects, the architects permanently not decently see one painting on its w alls, w ere able to view the monumental col embedded art objects in the architecture. because of the tree in the centre and the lection of photographs assembled by Such an approach w as encouraged by the continuous moving areas of light and the US photographer Ed w ardS. Curtis.' 0 fact that architects in postwar Italy were shadow its creates" 6 (figs. 4-5) . The efforts of cultural professionals in faced w ith the delicate task of restoring Canada and Italy to construct an image or adapting extant buildings for museums Irritation at the aw kwardness of the exhibi of national identity that w as modern and rather than designing new ones 4 tion space con ceals a more deep-seated-- indigenous makes the pavilion, despite its if unspoken--criticism of the underlying shortcomings as a place to exhibit art, a The qualities that make this quirky and mess age ofthe pavilion. By using an indig site that discloses contradictions embed idiosyncratic pavilion significant in the enous w igw am as a source of inspiration ded in the contemporary cultures of both history of Italian as w ell as Canadian for the pavilion, the designers w ere ven nations, for w hich the fusion of modernity architecture and culture ha ve also made turing into national identity building, an and the "primitive" promised to w ork as it difficult for art curators over the last arena that rarely finds all parties in agree- a solvent. decades to display w ork of various shapes ment. The pa vilion w as designed and built and sizes. Th e pavilion was conceived for at a time w hen Canada began its move The w igw am image that BBPR utilized to paintings, draw ings, and sculpture, with from a Franco-English bicultural identity to construct identity recalls the dw ellings out considering the possibility that new a multicultural identity in order to dissolve of some of North America's indigenous media might one day expand the field the contradictions biculturalism posed.' In population before European settlement. of art. Its inflexibility is one reason for light ofthat pluralism, Studio BBPR's use of By evoking one of Canada's most ancient the paucity of studies on the building's a form associated w ith Canada's First Na dw ellers, the Italian architects (and the history.5 The conflict betw een form and tions might seem naive and opportunistic8 National Gallery Board ofTrustees, w ho ulti use-not unlike Frank Lloyd Wright's Despite the obvious reference, La w rence mately approved the design) circumvented Guggenheim Muse um in New York Allow ay w as one of the first commentators the diplomatic tug-of-w ar that w ould have (1959)-emerged early on; just t w o years to explicitly compare the Canadian Pavilion follow ed a decision favouring either Anglo after the grand opening in 1958, Claude to a w igw am .• There is no documentary or Francophile sources." BBPR sought to Picher-a National Gallery Liai son Offi evidence to suggest that the architects express an "original" Canadian identity cer for ea stern Canada-raised concerns w ere prompted by their Canadian patrons that could be shared by the entire nation. about the pavilion's capacity to fulfill its to adopt or reinterpret the w igw am model Despite the pavilion's functional short program : "I w as told by se rious people or that they had ever visited Native-Indian comings, that pursuit of "authenticity" that the Venice Pa vilion w as constructed communities in Canada and the United reflected the momentum of the Report 4 JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N·• I > 2007 MICHELANGELO S ABATINO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE of the Royal Commission on National in 1945). Despite Development in the Arts, Letters and Sci the explicitly col ences (informally known as the Massey laborative nature Report), issued in 1951, whose aim was to of the group, ar free the arts of the country from colonial chival materials subservience12 (fig. 6) . The recommenda and official ac tions of the Massey Report led, amongst counts attribute other things, to the establishment of the the design to Canada Council for the Arts, which con En rico Peressutti tinues to play an important role in the alone.15 The im cultural life of the nation. petus for a Ca - nadian Pavilion The Massey Report emerged from a desire in Venice came to project a position of cultural indepen when the pres dence for Canada by reducing its reliance tige and fame of on England, France, and the United States. Studio Architetti The document did not yield immediate BBPR in both and quantifiable results in terms of ar North America chitecture and art, but it stirred debate." and Europe was The authors of the report asserted : at its height. Of the three archi- A specific proble m of architecture in Canada tects in the firm, has bee n t he tendency t owar d imitative Enrico Peressutti and derivative st yles of ar chitecture. Th e and Ernesto N. FIG . 4. INTERIOR, CANADIAN PAV ILION, VENI CE. aut hors of both the special st udies prepared Rogers enjoyed for us dealt severely w ith t he longst andin g the greatest international exposure; both started to lay the groundwork before the and widesp r ea d practice of imi t ati ng taught at American ivy-league universities arrival of Jarvis: inappr opriat ely st yles of past generations and both were involved with the ClAM or of other c ou nt r ies w hich have ind eed (Congres international d'architecture The Director po inted out that as in the fifty solve d t heir ow n ar chi tectura l problem s moderne). Along with the engineer Pier years since t he Biennale di Venezia was fir st but not necessarily in a manner which can Luigi Nervi, Pe ressutti and Rogers were opened in Ve ni ce all the principa l European be sui table at t his t ime and in t his cou ntry the most visible Italian architects in North countri es as wel l as the United States .. I It was drawn to our attent io n t hat t here America and they gained that renown and Argent in e have built nat ional fine arts is in cr easin g con sciousness of t he nee d in just as the arts in Canada were undergo pavilio ns w ithin t he grounds of the Bi ennale Ca nada for t he development of a r eg io na l ing a "coming of age." In 1955, Harry Orr and as the art of t hese count r ies has in archi t ect ure adapted to t he landscape and McCurry retired as Director of the Nation t hi s way been brought regularly before the t he climate and also to t he material typical al Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, giving in formed international publi c, the Canadian of t he area .