Some years ago, when an architect friend of mine asked Clement Greenberg why he hadn’t written more about architecture, I was surprised to hear him say, “Too hard.” Did he mean that there were too many factors to be taken into consideration: the building in itself as a work of art, its relation to both past traditions and present innovations, and, most vexing, the intricate tangle of personalities and realities, of artist’s intentions, client’s needs and desires, economic and structural constraints, and all the rest of it, necessary for the realization of any architectural project? Perhaps, too, Greenberg was thinking of how elusive architecture can be, of how dependent we are upon memory and temporal sequence in experiencing buildings (even more than we are in experiencing most sculpture) since it is clearly impossible to see all exterior views of even a modest building at the same time, just as it is impossible to perceive even...

 

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