Frank Gehry, design modelo te atri ofthe Bank Bulg etn, 195-20, | Ssneniin ve mwovinwe “Frank Gehry, Architect” GusceNnEM Musto For a building as conducive to play as Frank Lloyd Wright's spiraling Goggenheim, thece exists, as this spec: tacular retrospective illustrated, no ‘more fitting a partoer than the free wheeling designs of Frank Gehry Scores of grandly scaled, elaborate ‘models for everything from the archi- tect's career-blazing Santa Monica 5 home to the undulating museum in Bilbao that made Gehry a household |. name lined Wright's ramp like floats ____| ina parade. Gorgeous and loosely | lined ink-on-paper sketches looked as if they em anated from a single point. And components of | massing and design-process models—colored and Lucite blocks, waxed red velvet, corrugated card- board, crumpled paper, and blobby high-gloss futur istic forms—inspired ideas for a 2istcentury version of Lincoln Logs, a favorite toy of Gehry the kid. Co-organized by Mildred Friedman and J. Fiona Ragheb, who edited the accompanying catalogue (Abrams), the exhibition consisted of 40 projects chronicling Gebry's development from upstart—his use of oblique angles and unorthodox ‘materials like chain-link fencing is infs- ‘mous—to architect of the moment. Along the way were the Vitra museum and factory (1987-89), whose exterior staircases represent Gebry’s frst experi- ‘ments with curves; the Lewis Residence (1989-95), an unbuilt house Gebry dubbed his Macarthur genius grant; and the fish sculpture (1989-92) designed for the Vila Olimpica in Barcelona, the frst project he built using CATIA. This mod- ifed aerospace software has ever since enabled Gehry to realize his gestural vol mes ata cost his clients can afford. The curators also found solutions to the challenge of how to extibit buildings within a building—and a coiled one at that. Visitors could sit inside a mock-up of the auditorium of the as-yet-unfin- ished Walt Dimey Concert Hall, recline in one of four Easy Edges chairs, thumb txough whole sets of construction docu ‘ments, and step out onto the sculpture terrace, for which Gebry designed a temporary canopy, inviting the curious fo get under his slippery skins Only the display of Gebry's design for the Guggen- heim's proposed 500,000-square-foot museum on the East River in lower Manhattan threatened to detract from the show's success. A roomful of sedactive incamations of the building —for which museum off Cials must still secure nomerous epprovels—inappro- priately opened the exhibition and came off as an attempt to curry favor from New Yorkers with the promise of a new public space to call their own, Un- ortunately, the decision to draw so mich attention to ARTnews WoW ROKK mw the project introduced a discordant promotional air. Nevertheless, the mis- step wasn’t enough to undermine the semackable lightness—and depth—of this touchstone retrospective. —Jessica Dheere The show travels to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, October 29 through February 3, 2002.