Michael Graves

Michael Graves was one of the major figures of American Post-Modernism. Graves studied at the University of Cincinatti, Ohio, and then at Harvard. He was a fellow at the American Academy in Rome for two years and in 1964 started his own practice in Princeton, NJ.

He became a professor at Princeton University in 1972. He first came to prominence through the hook Five Architects (1972). The members of the “New York Five” were termed “Neo-Modernist” because of their austere reinterpretation of the rational style of Le Corbusier in the 1920s.

However, at the end of the 1970s, Graves’ work evolved away from concern with the roots of Modernism towards a wide- ranging borrowing from architectural history. His borrowings are eclectic; he uses historical forms in a more abstract and decorative way than some other Post-Modern classicists and puts much emphasis on a painterly use of colour. Famous architect Graves has become an amusing anti-Modern propagandist. Humour is an integral part of his architecture, and much of his recent work, especially for Disney, seems to be a celebration of kitsch.

List of Graves’s major works:

Handselmann House, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1967.

Addition to Benacerraf House, Princetown, NJ, 1969.

Fargo-Moorhead Cultural Center (bridge), Minnesota, designed 1977.

Kalko House, Green Brook, NJ, designed 1978.

Public Services Building, Portland, Oregon, 1982.

Humana Corporation Building, Louisville, Kentucky, 1983.

Witney Museum Extension Project, NY, from 1985.

Dolphin and Swan Hotels, Disneyland, 1989.

Newark Museum, New York, 1990.

Bibliography

Michael Graves, Buildings and Projects, New York, 1982.

K. Frampton et al., Five Architects, Nev. York, 1972; A. Colquhoun and P. Michael Carl, Graves, London, 1979.

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