I saw Alain de Botton and Michael Kimmelman last night at the 92nd St. Y, and both gentlemen were quite impressive. I know almost nothing about architecture, so I was rather expecting to be left in the dark for significant portions of the talk, but de Botton was successfully funny and engaging enough to override my weaknesses. Between this talk and the good reviews, The Architecture of Happiness may be on my to-read list.
A few highlights (the de Botton quotation at the top aside):
Michael Kimmelman on Andrew Wyeth: “I did his obituary a while ago; you know, he’s not dead but he eventually will be.”
Alain de Botton: “We’re very used to, these days, thinking of the natural as beautiful and the man-made as ugly, thanks, mostly, to property developers.”
And finally, some advice from both for youngsters: there’s no right way to do any one thing, although there’s often a tradition. de Botton likened finding one’s voice to hosting a dinner party (“I know it’s vulgar,” he said, speaking of the analogy “but it works.”): there is what you want, and there is the traditional form, and often the two don’t exactly match up. Both gentlemen spoke of the importance of intelligent irreverence–of knowing what is expected and ignoring it to give the audience what it wants but is too polite to ask for. Kimmelman emphasized that it was important to know the form before breaking its rules, simply so that one knows what it is he isn’t doing.
All in all, a lovely talk.