The Architecture and Design of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates - Brief Article

ArtForum, May, 2001 by Philip Nobel

PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART

Hopes are high that this show, the first major retrospective of Robert Venturi's career, will answer the prickliest question about pomo architecture's Patient Zero: Is there anything in his buildings that can match wits with the sharp and influential rhetoric of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966) or Learning from Las Vegas (1972)? With free access to the firm's archives, PMA curator Kathryn Hiesinger, in collaboration with University of Pennsylvania scholars David Brownlee and David DeLong, brings together some 250 drawings, models, photos, videos, and pieces of furniture representing Venturi's work from 1958 on--which should give fans and doubters alike a chance to connect words with deeds. June 10-Aug. 5.