American, born Iran, 1939
Dictionary For Building: Door In Window #2, 1982-1983 Painted wood, Plexiglas and screen, 88 x 48 x 20 1/2 in. (223.5 x 121.9 x 52.1 cm.)
Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, Dallas, Texas
1985.A.30
Label Text
The Dictionary for Building is a subtheme in the "archi-sculpture" that Armajani began in 1979, invoking historical lexicons of architecture and positing a vocabulary of mixed architectural details in an abstract sculptural language. These works reexamine architectural fragments for their formal value, take up structural themes such as physical entry and the expression of the overall construction in individual elements, and also conjure images of a highly personal and innovative architectural style. Their roots lie in the functionalist sculpture of Russian Constructivist such as El Lissitzky and Gustav Klutsis and in the work of a number of young American sculptors who attempt to bridge personal and social values using architectural metaphors.
Janet Kardon has noted that the slightly earlier Door in Window #1 (1979-82, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam) introduced
"…a cluster of works investigating the ideal of container and contained, since the doors or windows contain other windows. At this point, the materials became more decorative. Black, painted wood frames bronze screening; slender wood circles or ovals surmount doors, quoting the circular fan-lights of eighteenth century doors. Door in Window #1 is Armajani's version of a window that also functions as a door in Jefferson's "Honeymoon Cottage" at the University of Virginia." [Armajani, Institute of Contemporary Art, 1985, p. 50]
Door in Window #2 (1982-83) concentrates on the elegant play of oval within oval and bronze against black while also exploiting spatial complexities of open and transparent forms.