Stanley Tigerman Exhibition

 

Cecin’est pas une reverie (This is not a dream) is both a retrospective and a reexamination of the architectural concepts of Stanley Tigerman. Throughout the exhibition. Tigerman’s texts, sketches, cartoons, object designs, architectural drawings, and models are organized in relation to nine themes that single out certain motifs of his thought since 1960. Utopia. Allegory, Humor, Death. Division. (Dis)Order, Identity, Yaleiana, and Drift. Evident in this work is Tigerman’s insistence on the transitory nature of architectural interpretations and on the spiritual and ethical value of ambivalence. The installation spreading through all three floors of the Graham Foundation’s Madlener House builds on the playful, oneiric, and surrealist undercurrent of Tigerman’s work and underscores the enduring importance of his approach. 

 

A Chicago native, Stanley Tigerman (b. 1930) has undertaken nearly 400 projects, resulting in more than 175 built works. Following his graduation from Yale University, where he received both his BArch (I960) and MArch (1961) under the leadership of Paul Rudolph. Tigerman established his own firm, working with several partners, before founding Tigerman McCurry Architects in 1986 with his wife Margaret McCurry. Tigerman It the author of several books, most recently Schlepping through Ambivalence and his autobiography Designing Bridges to Burn, both published in 2011. and he has edited many others. Tigerman has taught at numerous universities, including Yale and Harvard, and he was the director of the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago (1985-1993). He was also a founding member of The Chicago Seven. In 1994 with Eva Maddox he co-founded ARCHEWORKS, a school and “socially oriented design laboratory.” Tigerman’s work has earned him critical acclaim and countless awards, especially in Chicago, where his practice has flourished for more than a half century.