Architecture of Life
January 31–May 29, 2016
The inaugural exhibition BAMPFA's landmark new building, Architecture of Life explores the ways that architecture—as concept, metaphor, and practice—illuminates various aspects of life experience.
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Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Hand holding a model for BAMPFA, 2012; digital photograph. Courtesy and © Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
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Yuri Ancarani: still from Il Capo, 2010; 35mm; color, sound; courtesy of the artist and ZERO..., Milan.
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Iannis Xenakis: Graphic score for Metastasis, glissandi of chords, 1954; graphite on graph paper; 8 ½ x 10 ⅞ in. Courtesy of the Xenakis family, Paris.
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Mandala of Buddhakapala, Tibet, 19th–20th century; ink on cotton; 15 x 15 in.; University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Bequest of G. Eleanore Murray. Photo: Sibila Savage.
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Lebbeus Woods: Sarajevo, from War and Architecture, 1993; graphite and colored pencil on board; 10 ⅝ x 12 ⅞ in. © Estate of Lebbeus Woods.
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Ruth Asawa: Untitled (S.065), 1962; copper and brass wire; 94 x 17 ½ x 17 ½ in.; private collection, San Francisco. Photo: Laurence Cuneo. © Estate of Ruth Asawa.
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Gustave Caillebotte: Le Pont de l’Europe, 1876; oil on canvas; 49 x 71 in.; collection of the Association des Amis du Petit Palais, Geneva. © Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Michael Albers.
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Past Events
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Thursday, May 19, 6 PMArchitecture of Life Reading Group: Corrine Fitzpatrick with Evan Kennedy
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Sunday, May 15, 2 PMString Figure Workshop
Learn how to make string figures, inspired by those on view in Architecture of Life, with folklorist and storyteller Ruth Stotter.
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Thursday, May 12, 6 PMThe Shape of Things to Come: On Utopian Architecture
A conversation with writer Chris Jennings, author of the recently released Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism.
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Sunday, May 1, 11 AMUp Close with the San Francisco Microscopical Society
Look through a microscope to discover new levels of structure, beauty, and information in the world around us.
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Friday, April 29, 12:15 PMThomas Laqueur on Gustave Caillebotte’s Le Pont de l’Europe
Thomas Laqueur teaches European cultural history at UC Berkeley. He is working on a book about what dogs represent in Western art and has many intriguing things to say about the eye-catching dog in the foreground of Gustave Caillebotte’s Le Pont de l’Europe.
Lunchtime Talk
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Friday, April 22, 12:15 PMSugata Ray on Ganesh Haloi's Gouaches
UC Berkeley professor of South Asian art and architecture Sugata Ray explores the work of twentieth-century Indian artist Ganesh Haloi.
Lunchtime Talk
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Sunday, April 17, 10 AM - 12 PMWalk and Poetic Data Collection
Join poets Denise Newman and Hazel White for a walk along the creek in the UC Botanical Garden and help them poetically reorder the plant collection.
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Friday, April 15, 12:15 PMChelsea Specht on Karl Blossfeldt’s Botanical Photographs
UC Berkeley professor Chelsea Specht, an expert on the evolution of form and function in plants, adds a scientific perspective to Karl Blossfeldt's early twentieth-century photographs of plant forms.
Lunchtime Talk
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Thursday, April 14, 1-2:30 PMTrees of the Garden
Visit trees from around the world in this garden tour, including the kinds that lived when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
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Wednesday, April 13, 12 PMMel Chen and Julia Bryan-Wilson on Science, Art, and Language in Architecture of Life
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Sunday, April 10, 2-5 PMSusan Billy: The Pomo Basket
Susan Billy, a tribal member of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indian and one of few remaining artists practicing traditional Pomo basket weaving, offers insights into this native art form.
Gallery Talk
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Wednesday, April 6, 12 PMSou Fujimoto: Architecture and the Future
In Conversation with Nicholas de Monchaux
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Friday, April 1, 12:15 PMCANCELLED Julia Bryan-Wilson on Ruth Asawa and Louise Bourgeois
Julia Bryan-Wilson, associate professor of modern and contemporary art at UC Berkeley, talks about Ruth Asawa’s wire sculptures and Louise Bourgeois’s hanging bronzes.
Lunchtime Talk
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Saturday, March 19, 1:30 PM
American Sign Language Guided Tour
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Thursday, March 10, 1–2:30 PMPatterns in Nature
At this garden tour, learn how nature’s mathematical designs and patterns are adaptations that help plants to survive.
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Saturday, March 5, 11 AMClaude Ghez on Gustave Caillebotte’s Le Pont de l’Europe: Perspective at Play
Columbia University neuroscientist Claude Ghez analyzes Caillebotte's use of linear perspective in the painting Le Pont de l'Europe, on view in Architecture of Life.
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Saturday, March 5, 1:30 PMLawrence Rinder: Building and Metaphor: The New BAMPFA and Architecture of Life
Cosponsored by UC Extension
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Friday, March 4, 12:15 PMLauren Kroiz on Ad Reinhardt’s Abstract Painting
UC Berkeley art history professor Kroiz brings her current research on Ad Reinhardt to his classic 1960–65 abstract painting from the BAMPFA collection.
Lunchtime Talk
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Friday, February 26, 12:15 PMPatrick Kirch on Marshall Islands Navigational Charts
UC Berkeley professor emeritus of anthropology and curator at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology Patrick V. Kirch discusses the intricate Marshall Islands navigational charts on view in Architecture of Life.
Lunchtime Talk
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Friday, February 19, 12:15 PMDan Feldman on Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s Drawings of Brain Structures
Dan Feldman, of UC Berkeley's Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley neuroscientist, explores Spanish neuroscientist Ramón y Cajal’s pioneering drawings of neural networks.
Lunchtime Talk
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Thursday, February 18, 6 PMJules Kliot with Erin Algeo: Lace in Architecture of Life
Learn about the lace on view in Architecture of Life with Jules Kliot and Erin Algeo of the Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles.
Gallery Talk
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Friday, February 12, 12:15 PMEdmund Campion on Iannis Xenakis’s Architectural Sketches and Musical Scores
Edmund Campion, professor of music composition and director of the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies at UC Berkeley, discusses postwar avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis.
Lunchtime Talk
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Thursday, February 11, 1-2:30 PMPlant Travelers
Discover slingshots, parachutes, hitchhikers, helicopters, and other mechanisms that propel plant seeds in this UC Botanical Garden walk.
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Wednesday, February 10, 12 PM
Lawrence Rinder on Architecture of Life
BAMPFA Director Lawrence Rinder talks about Architecture of Life, the inaugural exhibition in the new BAMPFA.
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Friday, February 5, 12:15 PMEvan Variano on Viktor Schauberger’s Drawings of Water Turbines and Impellers
At this lunchtime talk, UC Berkeley associate professor of civil and environmental engineering Evan Variano responds to the drawings and models of late nineteenth-century Austrian naturalistand inventor Victor Schauberger.
Lunchtime Talk