An Incomplete Education - 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn't

Just as postmodernism was beginning to seem
deconstructivists, most of whom were into a delibera
aggressive look: you know, skewed (not to ment
levered beams and staggered ceilings, trapezoids
slotted dining-room floors (one client actually got
pillar in the bedroom, positioned so as to leave no
in those places where postmodernism had been m
tivism"—a play on Russian constructivism (see pa
intellectual movement known as deconstruction (
but preening, an all-out attack on architectural em
comfort. Most often cited as practitioners: Califor
days, and New York's Peter Eisenman.

The Chicago School

Not to be confused with the Chicago School of Cr
neo-Aristotelianism, or the Chicago School of Ec
its monetarism. The Chicago School of Architectur
turn of the century and comprised such immortals
Dankmar Adler, Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham,
touted as having been the source for modern architec
having invented the skyscraper. Lecturers often sh
Building (Burnham and Root, 1892) and the Sea
Rohe, 1958) side by side to demonstrate this lineag
as simplicity, regularity, and structural candor. This
quite that simple, either. Most standard architectural
ical determinist line with regard to the birth of the s
nal event in the history of American architecture i
which made possible the "balloon frame" (houses
frameworks, nailed together and easy to erect), which
steelmaking process and the Otis elevator—to the r
the profusion of tall buildings that sprang up in Ch
shower. This formulation may be too schematic,
Chicago architects made the first concerted and syst
for the new type of building, often with lovely result

FIVE MODERN ARC

What would architecture be without architects? T
constitute the generally agreed-upon list of the mo

ART HISTORY I07

really cloying, along came the
ately chaotic, fractured, highly
ion windowless) walls, canti-
where rectangles ought to be,
t his foot stuck in his), a stone
room for a bed. Schizophrenic
merely hysterical, "deconstruc-
age 87) and the largely French
(see page 337)—was nihilistic
mbellishment and couch-potato
rnia's Frank Gehry, in his early

riticism, which is known for its
conomics, which is known for
re, which flourished around the
s as William L e Baron Jenney,
, and John W. Root, is widely
cture, American branch, and as
how slides of the Monadnock
agram Building (Mies van der
ge, citing such shared attributes
s isn't really wrong, but it's not
l historians take the technolog­
skyscraper. For them, the semi­
is the invention of cheap nails,
s made of lightweight timber
h in turn led—via the Bessemer
rigid steel frame, and thence to
hicago like mushrooms after a
but there's no doubt that the
tematic effort to find new forms
ts.

HITECTS

T h e five listed here, all dead,
odern immortals.

io8 AN I N C O M P L E T E

Lu

Mi

"M

mo

tho

pro

eas

stre

Th

ess

he

jarg

ture

cou

driv

flue

sky

hou

ties

ity,

The Seagram Building; for
LudivigMies van derRohe, architect laid
thr

Mies, you might admire the w

problem, the corner.

Le Corbusier (1887-196

Le Corbusier (a.k.a. "Corbw or "
a self-appropriated pseudonym

real name was Charles Edoua

was something of a megaloma
that unhygienic old cities like P
replaced by dozens of sparkling
although it did achieve enormo
called "urban renewal." On the
houses, including one for Gertr
Paris, are legendary, supreme ex
tive of which is the Villa Savoie
Later in life, Corb discovered Cu
ticeably. Instead of thin planes a

E EDUCATION

udwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)

ies van der Rohe (always referred to simply as
Mies") is the one behind all those glass buildings,
ost famously the Seagram Building in New York. Al­
ough Mies is hardly to blame for it, one of the big
oblems with this kind of architecture is that it is fairly
sy to copy, and that while one such building on a

eet may be stunning, fifty o f them are Alphaville.
h e reason for the ease of imitation is that Mies was
sentially a classical architect. That is, like the Greeks,

invented a vocabulary (cognoscenti use linguistics
gon as often as possible when talking about architec­
e) of forms and certain rules about how those forms
uld be combined, all of which he then proceeded to
ve into the ground. Although his early work was in­
enced by Expressionism (as with the famous glass
yscraper project of 1921) and de Stijl (the brick
uses of the Twenties), projects after the early Thir­
s were more and more marked by precision, simplic­
, and rectilinearity. Prime among these is the campus
the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, first
d out in 1939, on which Mies continued to work
ough the Fifties. To sound knowledgeable about
way in which he solved that perennial architectural

65)

"Corbu," depending on where you went to school) is
of obscure meaning, like "RuPauT or "Bono." His

uard Jeanneret. Like so many architects, L e Corbusier

niac, who, perhaps because he was Swiss, thought
Paris would be better off if they were bulldozed and

high-rises. Fortunately, Parisians ignored this idea,
ous popularity in the United States, where it was
other hand, Corb's buildings were superb. His early
rude Stein and her brother Leo at Garches, outside
xamples of the International Style, the most defini­
of 1929 (a big year indeed for modern architecture).
ubism and concrete, and things began to change no­
and relatively simple geometries, Corb got into thick

walls and sensuous, plastic shapes. O f this later work
en Haut, a church whose form was inspired by the ki
as the Flying Nun. Toward the end of his life Co
Chandigarh, in India.

Walter Gropius (1883-1969)

To be perfectly frank, Gropius was not really su
hot designer. He was, however, the presiding geniu
the Bauhaus School, which, you scarcely need to
told, was the Shangri-la of modern architec
Which makes Gropius, we guess, its high lama.
Bauhaus building—bauen (to build) plus haus
what you'd imagine)—was designed by Gropius an
his most memorable work, the epitome of the Inte
tional Style. During its brief life, before it was clo
by Hitler (whose views on modern art and architec
we won't go into here), the Bauhaus was a vir
Who's Who of the modern movement, a home
everyone from Marcel Breuer to Laszlo Moh
Nagy. Its curriculum, which was ordered along
dieval master-apprentice lines, embraced the w
range of the practical arts, and its output was stag
ing in both quality and quantity. After it was
down, Gropius (and most everyone else associ
with it) came to the United States, bringing mode
them. This was either an intensely important or
depending on where you went to architecture sc
married to a woman named Alma, who was also m
Franz Werfel, although not concurrently, and who
first groupie.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959)

By his own admission, Wright was the greatest ar
any other modernist, he went through several dist
ventional view is that the initial, so called Prairie
dropout, he worked for a time in the office of the
van before setting up on his own in Oak Park, a tow
his work. This early output—mainly houses but
Unity Temple (1906) and the Larkin Building (19

ART HISTORY

k the best known is Notre Dame
ind of headgear Sally Field wore
rb did get to do an entire city:

uch a
us of
o be
ture.
The
(just
nd is
erna­
osed
cture
rtual
e to
oly-
me­
whole
gger­
shut
iated
ern European architecture with
utterly dreadful development,
chool and when. Gropius was
married to Gustav Mahler and
o is sometimes described as the

rchitect of all time. More than
tinct stylistic phases. The con­
e style was his best. A college
Chicago architect Louis Sulli­
wn he proceeded to carpet with
t including such gems as the
04)—was, despite European as

HO AN I N C O M P L E T E

well
ern
Wri
prop
"arti
of a
cont
toge
hous
aw
nati
Wri
over
ing
fuse
som
Mar
ing.
freak
acre City—was somewhat less
Wright ran his office, which
married to Stalin's daughter, S

Alvar Aalto (1896-1976

Aalto, the hardest drinker am
Finland, where dipsomania is
ably, produced more modern a
the customary neoclassicist da
produced a number of masterp
important of these are the lege
both dating from the late Tw
Federation and undergoing res
dulating (and acoustically soun
trademark. No discussion of A
siveness of his buildings to the
cially the way they introduce a
Aalto is the most unabashedly
geous forms. Aalto's best form
him to orient various rooms fo
day; to illustrate this form in co

E EDUCATION

l as Japanese influences, at once very mod­
and very American, deriving its essence from
ght's near-mystical sense of the plains. Unique in

portion, detail, and decoration, these projects also
iculated" space in a new way. Rather than thinking
architecture as segmented, Wright perceived it as
tinuous and flowing, not as so many rooms added
ether but as a sculptable whole. Wright's later
ses preserve this spatial sensibility but come in
welter of styles, ranging from zonked-out Inter­
onal to Mayan. The best-known house from
ght's middle period is Fallingwater (1936), built
r a waterfall in Pennsylvania and designed, accord­
to legend, in less than an hour. Many people, con­
ed by the disparity between the prairie houses and
mething like the Guggenheim Museum or the
rin County Civic Center, find late Wright perplex­
Although Wright was, like L e Corbusier, a power
k, his version of Utopia—which he called Broad-
s threatening, resembling, as it does, the suburbs.
still exists, along feudal lines. His successor was
Svetlana.

6)

mong the twentieth-century masters, came from
the national pastime, and which has, unaccount­
architects per capita than any other country. After

alliance, Aalto took up the International Style and
pieces in a personalized version of same. The most
endary Viipuri Library and the Paimio Sanitorium,
wenties. The Viipuri Library, now in the Russian
storation, had an auditorium with a beautifully un­
nd) wooden ceiling—the first instance of an Aalto
Aalto can omit mention of the tremendous respon­
eir particular (generally cold) environments, espe­
and modulate natural light. O f the five immortals,

sensuous and tactile, full of swell textures and gor­
mal move was probably a fan shape, which allowed

or best exposure to the sun over the course of the
onversation, hold your hand parallel to the ground

and stretch the fingers. As who wouldn't be, comin
on the use of wood both in his buildings and in h
Unfortunately, most of Aalto's work—like the
(1952)—is located in places whose names are com
forces people to refer constantly to the several proj
that they can pronounce.

FIVE MODERN BUI

The Barcelona Pavilion

Built for an exposition in 1929, this is modern arch
tus further enhanced by the fact that the pavilion
was built; such are the rules of expositions. What
everyone knows about it must be received from
medium of architectural communication. The Bar
tion that it's by Mies?—is one of the most disti
plan," that is, a plan not primarily based on the
rather on a sensibility derived from Suprematism
yielding something rather like a collage. The res
moving through large openings and expanses of g
right on down the street. The Barcelona Pavilion is
ern attitude toward materials. While retaining the
tion for crisp lines and planes, Mies enriches their
a variety of posh materials, including chrome, gree
and onyx, and travertine. Many conclusions to be
ing affirms the displacement of craft (the hand) b
stead of carving the stone, Mies polished it. Seco
planes not as deep and solid (like a Gothic church)
so much International Style shtik) but as highly
Barcelona Pavilion, everything either reflects or ge
again in two shallow pools, one inside and one out
for the design of the famous Barcelona chair, the m
of furniture ever.

ART HISTORY III

ng from Finland, Aalto was big
his famous bentwood furniture.

great Saynatsalo Town Hall
pletely unpronounceable. This
jects (e.g., the Imatra Church)

ILDINGS

hitecture's holy of holies, a sta­
was torn down shortly after it
t this means is that everything
m photographs, the preferred
rcelona Pavilion—did we men­
inguished examples o f a "free
e symmetrical imperative but
m and de Stijl (see page 90),
ult: spaces that flow and eddy,
glass into the out-of-doors and
s also remembered for its mod­
International Style's predilec­
r formal potential by the use of
en glass, polished green marble
e drawn here. First, the build­
by precision (the machine); in­
ond, Mies treats the surfaces of
) or as smooth and white (as in
y reflective, like glass; in the
ets reflected, then gets reflected
t. Finally, this was the occasion
most definitively upscale piece

112 AN I N C O M P L E T E

Top to bottom:
L'Unité d'Habi
(1909)

E EDUCATION

The Barcelona Pavilion (1929);
itation (1952); The Robie House





ii4 AN I N C O M P L E T E

L'Unité d'Habitation

Finished in 1952, this is the be
to simply as "the Unité" desp
(The original is at Marseilles,
Well, you might say that it wa
of an idea whose time had com
good old days of modernism,
progressive political transforma
densers" and theorized vaguel
collective harmony if only they
Corb, having glommed on to
were dotted with "Unités" of h
nately, he was only able to bu
some call it) is notable for a nu
portant ones—formal. The s
upper floor, recreation and day
dors, really) on every other floo
imprison. Formally, things ar
for learning some key vocabul
which the entire building is rai
scape from the building (the
neath), but they had the reve
(we've had this one already), a
soleils (sun screens) and are hea
chimneys, elevator housings,
they make for a lovely silhouet

The Robie House

The Robie House (1909) is t
Prairie style was both a style
the turn of the century the pra
on the brain: their endless flat
romance. As a result, the longn
not the only architect so move
cluding decorative treatments
speak such influences as an e
Louis Sullivan's office. The Ro
controlled but asymmetrical bi
metrical decoration, vertical w

E EDUCATION

est of Corb and the worst of Corb, always referred
pite the fact that there are actually three of them.
the other two at Nantes and Berlin.) So what is it?
s an apartment house with social cachet, the result
me. Also gone, some thirty years before. Back in the

when architecture was seen as an instrument for
ation, architects talked about building "social con­
ly about how people would learn to live in happy
y had the right kind of structures in which to do it.
o this idea, thought that if the whole countryside
his own design, everyone would get on fine. Fortu­
uild the three. By itself, the Marseilles Block (as
umber of reasons, some social and others—the im­
ocial program includes a shopping arcade on an
y care on the roof, and interior "streets" (big corri­
or: a variety of conveniences designed essentially to
re more positive and provide a golden opportunity
lary words. L e t s start with pilotis, the big legs on
ised. Corb thought that these would free the land­
former is supposed to flow uninterrupted under­
erse effect. T h e Unité is constructed in béton brut
and its heavily sculpted facades incorporate brise-
avily polychromed in primary colors. The roof vents,
and such are done in free-form shapes; together
tte.

he finest example of Wright's Prairie-style work.
and—as with so much great art—an anxiety. At
airies still abutted Chicago, and Wright had them
tness, their windsweptness, and, dare we say, their
ness and lowness of Prairie buildings (Wright was
d) is fairly easy to understand. Other elements, in­
and Wright's characteristic "flowing space," be­
early dose of Japanese architecture and a stint in
obie House itself is long, low, and brick. A tightly
i-level plan, a mature application of Wright's geo­
windows arrayed in strips, and a low-hipped roof

each does its bit. Next time you stroll past the Gug
tion the Robie House and how incredible you fi
have done both.

Carson, Pirie, Scott

Designed by Louis Sullivan and built between 189
Scott department store (originally built as the Sc
ment store) is the hottest product of the Chicago
has great structural clarity, which is to say, it is
steel structure in the lines of the facades, which
posts and beams filled in with glass. The propo
(the distance between columns, framed by floors
long side, a proportion that is considered particula
bear, the corner, is dealt with especially neatly by
scribes a cylinder there, accelerating the window
viewer around the block. Less frequently noted is
covers all surfaces (not counting the windows, du
great apostle of ornamentation, and the intricate s
not so very different from Art Nouveau.

The Chrysler Building

The good news is that it's once again O K to lik
years seen as a detour on the way to boring mode
that the flowering of Art Deco (after the 1925 Ex
in Paris), which took place in the Twenties and T
points in modern design. In every sense, Deco's
Building, designed by William Van Alen and, brie
world. It is still the most beautiful, most "classic" s
vention in talking about skyscrapers is to analogi
with their three-part division of base, shaft, and ca
ning, middle, and end. T h e Chrysler is great bec
The lower portion contains a handsomely decorate
well related to the scale of the street. The shaft
based, appropriately enough, on automotive theme
mouths), and the crown is that wonderful stainle
universal symbol.

ART HISTORY

ggenheim with a friend, men­
nd it that one architect could

99 and 1904, the Carson, Pirie,
chlesinger and Meyer depart­
o School. Why? For starters, it
easy to "read" the underlying

look like an arrangement of
ortions of the structural bays

above and below) are on the
arly "Chicago." That old bug­
y Sullivan, who, in effect, in­

proportions to help zing the
the incredible decoration that
mmy). Indeed, Sullivan was a
system he finally arrived at was

ke the Chrysler Building. For
ernism, we now acknowledge
xposition des Arts Décoratifs
Thirties, was one of the high
highest point is the Chrysler
efly, the tallest building in the
skyscraper ever built. T h e con­
ize them to classical columns,
apital, or, if you prefer, begin­
cause it succeeds at all levels.
ed lobby and dramatic entries,
makes use of an iconography
es (flying tires, a frieze of Ply-
ess steel top, the skyscraper's

n6 AN I N C O M P L E T E

FIVE M

After all, what's a style withou

L E S S I S M O R E : Mies van
much fun turning this on its h
you're advised to give it a rest

ORNAMENT IS CRIME:
only aphorist in the family), an
recent upsurge of interest in o

FORM FOLLOWS FUNC
uted to Mies, but actually use
The earliest use appears to be
Yankee sculptor remembered f
toga.

T H E PLAN IS T H E GENE
you should start (if you happe
with all its implications of rati
"artistic" vision on a building
what he preached.

ROAM HOME TO A DOM
42), that is, the aposde of geo
ness, and other benign nonsens
the Range." N o doubt you'll be

Sna

An intelligent, and quite c
Edwards.

No one really knows that muc
larly sure what he likes. The
Niépce made the first photogr
if you point out that Thomas
will be impressed)—that its sa
the exact nature of photograph

E EDUCATION

MODERN MAXIMS

ut a slogan? Here are our favorites.

der Rohe's coinage. Postmodernist wags had so
head—"More is more," "Less is a bore," etc.—that
for a decade or so.

Adolf Loos penned this goody (Anita wasn't the
n obvious reaction to fin de siècle excess. Given the
ornament, be sure to keep your delivery ironic.

C T I O N : The functionalist credo, generally attrib-
ed by several eminences, including Louis Sullivan.
by Horatio Greenough, a mid-nineteenth-century
for his statue of George Washington in a peekaboo

E R A T O R : Corb's version of the above. It means
en to be designing a building) from the floor plan,
ional relationships, rather than impose some sort of
a priori. Fortunately, Corb did not always practice

M E : From R. "Bucky" Buckminster Fuller (see page
odesic domes, Dymaxion houses, positive effective-
se. And meant to be sung to the tune of "Home on
e keeping your delivery ironic.

ap Judgments

cheeky, view of photography, by contributor Owen

ch about photography, and no one is even particu-
e history of the medium is so short—Nicéphore
raph, a grainy litde garden scene, in 1827 (though

Wedgwood might have been first, in 1802, many
alient points can be picked up in an afternoon. And
hy is so much in dispute that you can call it an art,

a fraud, or a virus without much danger of being p
however, there are categories, giving such comfor
what you ought to know about each.

LANDSCAPE

Not long ago, everything you needed to say a
was Ansel Adams. The straight, somewhat unim
Adams is the greatest landscape photographer ev
that Adams is passé by about a century, and that af
tographed the West following the Civil War, landsc
anyway. Neorevisionism, however, says it's O K to
Kate Smith of photography. Or you can end the disc
great landscape pictures nowadays are being made
limits of the solar system.

A trendy group of landscapists now shows up a
Weegee homing in on a gangland hit in 1940s Ne
and sheep, shot and skinned deer, and other gloo
what the full moon rises on in the pictures of such a
Balog. It pays to know that nowadays, pretty pictu
hipper than plain old pretty pictures.

FASHION

Though it was discovered only recently that fash
artists, no one has ever mistaken them for plain wo
photographer of note was Baron de Meyer. His title
theless; he created the archetype of the social photo
not only knew about haute couture, but knew the
Then Edward Steichen came along and did a bette
did everything better; when in doubt, say Steichen
journalist named Munkacsi appeared in the mid-Thi
ion photography by making his models run along be
Then Richard Avedon got out of the Coast Guard an
from then on, wannabes like Patrick Demarchelier,
Steven Meisel have been raking in mind-boggling fe
a better Avedon. Only Avedon could really manage
ing himself right up until his death in 2004.

ART HISTORY 117

provably wrong. Indisputably,
t as categories do, and here's

E

about landscape photography
maginative wisdom holds that

ver. T h e revisionist stance is
fter Timothy O'Sullivan pho­
cape was played out as a theme

like Adams even if he is the
cussion by saying that the only
by N A S A robots in the outer

at environmental disasters like
w York City. Poisoned horses
omy slices of outdoor life are
as Richard Misrach and James
ures of awful scenery are a lot

hion photographers might be
orking stiffs. The first fashion
was suspect, but useful never­
ographer, the inside man who

women who could afford it.
er de Meyer. (Steichen always
n.) Then a Hungarian photo-
irties and revolutionized fash­
eaches and jump over puddles.
nd did a better Munkacsi. And
Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, and
ees trying, unsuccessfully, to do
e that trick, however, reinvent­

n8 AN I N C O M P L E T E

The answer to the tedious an
yes, but almost never when it th
the nineteenth century are con
pictures that have pried mon
Fotomat used to promise not
been made by people doing som
Paris, or August Sander, trying
Penn (arguably America's gre
helping fill the pages of Vogue.
pher as hopelessly misguided.
can't be blamed for his failures.
more things you did wrong, the

The great muddler of art p
saint, Alfred Stieglitz, who, e
Secessionists to blur, draw on,
ensure that the hoi polloi woul
not Steichen, though even p
think so. Steichen was a discip
to make a bundle in advertisin

E EDUCATION

FINE ART

nd irrepressible question "Is photography art?" is
hinks it is. Most of the avowed art photographers of
sidered quaint at best, grotesque at worst, while the
ney out of the arts endowments look like what
to charge you for. T h e great photographic art has
mething else: by Eugène Atget, trying to document
g to codify all the faces in prewar Germany, or Irving
atest artist/photographer since Steichen) dutifully
. It's perfecdy safe, then, to dismiss any art photogra-
Except M a n Ray, who was really a painter, and so
And Lâszlo Moholy-Nagy, who discovered that the
e better the photograph looked.
photographers is also the medium's most revered
early in this century, encouraged his fellow Photo
, scratch, or otherwise manipulate their pictures to
ld know they were artists. Stieglitz, by the way, was
people with vast collections of lenses continue to
ple of Stieglitz who fell out of favor when he began
ng. (Stieglitz, being a saint, was not much fun.) In

Left: Edward Steichen,
The Flatiron Building
Below: Man Ray, Nusch Eluard

1961, Stieglitz discovered Paul Strand's unmanip
that his followers were hopeless and misguided, an
The resulting confusion has never quite cleared up

The photographers most likely to be granted acce
of the art world are those who have been careful
precincts of the world of photography. David Hock
Polaroids command rapt respect, is one of these dro
a painter who makes unspeakably kitschy dogs-as-p
is Cindy Sherman, high priestess of high conce
female stereotypes with a few props—wigs, go-
provocative reflections of the American psyche. M y
uses the word "artist," reach for your gun.

FINE ART, ABSTRACT

Abstract photography is a disaster, invariably borin
nature an abstract of reality, it's always of somethin
nothing seem silly. T h e viewer wants to know wha
and closer, and ends up frustrated and peeved. The
tion a photographer can manage is to take somethin
ing. Most grants are awarded to photographers who

FINE ART, STILL-LIFE

The most overrated still-life photograph in the
jumbo-sized pepper, made in the classic More-Tha
has since accounted for more than half a century
(Weston is probably the most overrated photographe
efforts of sons, lovers, and half the population of C
legend alive.) T h e real contest for World s Greatest
tween Irving Penn, who studied drawing and illustr
in Philadelphia, and Hiro, who worked as a pho
Harpers Bazaar. (Remember Brodovitch—he was
said, "If you look through the viewfinder and see s
don't click the shutter," and was guru to two genera
Everybody knows about Penn; his prints are at le
Microsoft stock. Few people know about Hiro exce

PHOTOJOURNAL

This is the most problematic kind of photography
san Sontag, who couldn't bear the idea that the came

ART HISTORY

pulated masterpieces, decided
d consigned them to oblivion.
p.
eptance by the haute scribblers
to stay clear of the low-rent
kney, whose cubist collages of
p-ins. And William Wegman,
people pictures, is another. As
ept who time-travels through
-go boots, girdles—to create
advice: When a photographer

DIVISION

ng. Though photography is by
ng, so attempts to make it of
at he's looking at, leans closer
e closest thing to true abstrac­
ng and make it look like noth­
o are good at doing that.

DIVISION

universe is Edward Weston's
an-Just-a-Vegetable style that
y of abysmal amateur efforts.
er, too, in large part due to the
armel, California, to keep the
Still-Life Photographer is be­
ration with Alexei Brodovitch
otographer for Brodovitch at
s tough, selfish, often drunk,
something you've seen before,
ations of great photographers.)
east as good an investment as
ept the knowing.

LISM

for everybody, especially S u ­
era might tell an occasional fib.

120 AN I N C O M P L E T E

It's what most people think of
most photographers start out w
retire from. The word—an aw
was invented by Henri Cartier-
art while he made art, and it w
tell a story. Without words—u
but dumb.

Life magazine started the wh
but in truth Life was just a very
never allowed to wander unat
Lewis Hine, who made pictur
the century. Its greatest hero w
concern for human suffering
lighting, and a very cranky disp
bastian Salgado, whose harrow
Third World workers manage
ion shot. When the question a
ethically and morally proper, it
to derail the conversation long

PO

Cartier-Bresson (not to menti
forty, we have the faces we des
tween those who hide the ev
Karsh represent the first group
people are more interesting th
whether what we see jibes wit
outrage and/or delirium caused
the nineteenth-century portra
Parisian hobnobber whose pict
unparalleled. Then again, sinc
ever made is probably moulder
velop over who is the Greatest
on the side of the aforementio
Wàlder before World War II, c
stereotypes. Add Manhattan
Diane Arbus. Throw in mud-
and the blithe belief that anyth
ing for the ages, and you have
and you have Robert Mappleth

EDUCATION

f when they think of photography at all, and what
wanting to be, and then spend a lifetime trying to
wful-sounding hybrid (why not "journography"?)—
-Bresson so that he wouldn't be accused of making
wrongly implies that one or more photographs can
usually a thousand or more—pictures are powerful

hole myth of photojournalism's storytelling power,
y good illustrated press, in which photographs were
ttended. The patron saint of photojournalists is
es of child laborers and sweatshops at the turn of
was W. Eugene Smith, who combined an honest

with a canny eye for dramatic composition and
position. Now the reigning saint of the form is S e ­
wing coverage of starving Ethiopians and miserable
s, somehow, to be as glamorous as any high-fash­
arises about whether this sort of agony 'n' ecstasy is
t's best to mention Picasso's Guernica, which ought
g enough for you to slip away.

ORTRAITURE

ion Coco Chanel) observed that after the age of
serve. Portrait photographers tend to divide up be­
vidence and those who uncover it. Bachrach and
p, Avedon and Penn the second. Portraits of known
an all the rest because we have a chance to decide
th what we think we know about them—thus the
d by Avedon's warts-and-all celebrities. The best of
aitists, and one of the best ever, was Nadar, a
tures of that great self-imagist Sarah Bernhardt are
e faces are the landscapes of lives, the best portrait
ring in your family attic. Should an argument de­
t Portraitist of Photography, come down staunchly
ned August Sander, a German who wandered the
chronicling his countrymen in a series of haunting

neurosis and the Age of Anxiety and you have
wrestling sitcom stars, body-painted movie stars,
hing celebrities do, however silly, is worth record­
Annie Leibovitz. Pile on hype and homosexuality
horpe.

DOCUMENTAR

In one way or another, all photographs are docume
documentarists. Some, of course, are more so than
tographer is a photojournalist whose deadline is a h
is the point. The first great large-scale documentar
Brady and a group of photographers he hired to c
Timothy O'Sullivan, who, as has been noted, later
what has become the Ansel Adams songbook). Th
documentary project was the misery-loves-compa
Stryker to photograph sharecroppers, sharecropp
occasional other types during the Great Depressio
the bribe in photography: If we take everybody's p
and leave us alone.

Ironically, one of the great working-class heroe
nalism was Walker Evans, a patrician sort who did
Fortune magazine. It seems highly likely that Ev
photography with some embarrassment, since man
rooms, or people photographed from behind.

Much of the devotion and energy that used to
phers has been co-opted by television. Generation
way cooler to gather up old photographs, film them
movie stars, and get famous. After all, Walker Eva

SURREALISM

In one way or another, all photographs are surrea
Uncle Frank smirking on the beach, but just a li
chemicals. But some photographers insist on being
they try to put things together in odd and unsettl
they fail. Jerry Velsmann's cloud-covered ceilings
problem is that life as we know it is already odd an
alism, we are right back with documentary photog
by people who know where to look for the kind of ju
tend we don't see.

Robert Frank is one of the great unofficial sur
jukebox certainly has the Magritte touch), as w
wasn't bad, though the credit is due mostly to the fa
rible print. The reigning king of the form these day
terful monster monger with a disturbing taste
severed heads. Somehow, Witkin presents your wo
want to shell out big bucks to take one home. Surr

ART HISTORY 121

RY

entary, so all photographers are
n others. A documentary pho­
hundred years hence; posterity
ry work was done by Matthew
cover the Civil War (including
r played the first, best notes in
he most famous and exhaustive
any team put together by Roy
pers, more sharecroppers, and
on. This led to the discovery of
picture, maybe they'll go away

es of documentary photojour­
d much of his paying work for
vans viewed the whole idea of
ny of his pictures show empty

o fuel documentary photogra­
ns X , Y, and Z figure that it's
m, add music and the voices of
ans never won an Emmy.

M

al, too, since that isn't actually
ittle slip of paper coated with
g official surrealists. The harder
ling ways, the more miserably

are pretty obvious stuff. T h e
d unsettling. So for true surre­
graphy—especially when done
uxtapositions the rest of us pre­

realists (his shot of a glowing
was Diane Arbus. Bill Brandt

act that he's a genius at the ter­
ys is Joel-Peter Witkin, a mas­

for amputees, dwarves, and
orst nightmares and makes you
real, isn't it?

122 AN I N C O M P L E T E

T h e best of all women photogra
the only person on earth who c
ish instantly. Other notable wo

Lisette Modell, one of the
gravitational attraction to large
of southern France look like m
gifted photographers, Modell w
of her career. She has been call
admit and deny at the same tim

Imogen Cunningham, who
been archivally processed. Lik
benefit from great age (althou
ningham was never better than
and territory that eventually sh
mascot, a position she labored a
old Johnny Carson displayed h
the millions who thought wom
The Eyes of Laura Mars.

Berenice Abbott, who mad
handedly saved the work of Atg
it or not, became an institution

Helen Levitt, almost unknow
and furtive mien, who crept ar
street life. She's a genius in bl
phatically that Levitt is Ameri
the rare pleasure of being both

The natural inheritor of Lev
Hungarian immigrant with a w
Plachy chronicled life at groun
tourists in Central Park to ped
ern Europe. Today, Plachy has
York Times, but she retains her
that are sharp, surprising, and

Finally, we'd better mention
is the antithesis of Plachy s (an
rest of her clothing—for a seri
internalized the personal-is-pol
stories shot in tight, interior sp
it through pictures of herself an
timate snapshot and the portrai

EDUCATION

WOMEN

aphers is my aunt Isabel, who for several years was
could take my picture without causing me to van­
omen are:
world's smallest photographers, who had such a
e people that her first pictures made in the resorts
onuments come to life. As is the case with certain
was as good as she would ever get on the first day
led the mentor of Diane Arbus, which she used to
me, for reasons known only to her.
lived so long that rumors circulated that she had
ke photographs, photographers almost inevitably
ugh they fade, their value inevitably rises). Cun­
n just all right, but she had covered so much time
he became the art-photography world's unofficial
at by becoming adorably "feisty." A s a result, feisty
her to the world on The Tonight Show, shocking
men photographers looked like Faye Dunaway in

de the best portrait ever of James Joyce, single-
get from the trash bin, and who, whether she liked
n without ever being a great photographer.
wn, shy, brilliant, virtually invisible in shabby coat
round New York for forty years or more taking in
lack-and-white or color, and when you state em­
ica's greatest woman photographer, you will have

esoteric and right.
vitt's mantle {and shabby coat) is Sylvia Plachy, a
wry, Frank-like eye but a far kinder heart. For years
nd level, from sex workers in Times Square and
ddlers in Romania and refugees in war-torn East­
moved uptown from the Voice to work for the New
r edgy downtown sensibility, cranking out images
slightly off-kilter.
Nan Goldin, a photographer whose body of work
nd who has famously shed her coat—as well as the
ies of nude, postcoital self-portraits). Goldin has
litical mantra of Sixties feminism to spin intimate
paces. Drawn to the social underbelly, she explores
nd her close friends; her photo diary is both an in­
it of an era. One Goldin series documents the tra-

jectory of her relationship with an abusive partner;
of a friend from A I D S ; still others capture the w
beloved poster child of the seedy counterculture, G
an adorably feisty guest on the Jay Leno show.

CELEBRITY

Last and least among photographers are the papara
right to hold them in contempt, it's not O K to igno
is going, and for that matter Life (or what's left o
Andy Warhol predicted that someday everybody
minutes—the paparazzi work hard at reducing that
dictorian of all celebrity photographers is Ron G
Jackie Onassis, punched by Marlon Brando, and d
plorable of his subjects. None of this has affect
Brando are gone, and Ron, whose photos have re
expensive art book, a major gallery show, a museum
passage of time, now gets star treatment himself. Le
may be pond scum, but pond scum evolved into th
Greta Garbo, so there's still hope. On the other han
doch and reality TV, the ever-smarmier paparazz
Greta doing the nasty in the back of a Hummer to w
attention. So much for evolution.

ART HISTORY 123

another chronicles the demise
world of drugs and drag. The
Goldin is not likely to age into

Y

azzi. But while it's perfectly all
ore them; they know where life
of it), People, and Vanity Fair.

would be famous for fifteen
t to l/125th of a second. Vale­
Galella, who has been sued by
deplored by even the most de­
ted him adversely. Jackie and
ecently been legitimized by an
m retrospective, and the sheer
et's face it—celebrity snappers
he likes of Albert Einstein and
nd, in the age of Rupert Mur­
i would have to catch Al and
win a few minutes of audience





THRE

Contents

$ Now, What Exactly Is Economics, and What Do E
$ EcoSpeak 126
$ EcoThink 130
$ EcoPeople 132
S Five Easy Theses 135
$ Action Economics: Or, Putting Your Money Where
$ Adventure Economics: Or, Putting Your Money W
$ Economics Punch Lines: Or, Putting Your Mouth

A good day on the stock market—a month before th

E

Economists Do, Again ? 126

e Their Mouths Are 13 7
Where Your Mouth Is 143

Where Your Mouth Is 147

he Crash of '29

126 AN I N C O M P L E T E

Now, What
and What

Economists are fond of say
dismal science." As with
true: It is dismal.

An equally helpful definitio
mist Jacob Viner, who said, "E

More to the point, perhaps,
use of resources. It is about ch
is about the efficiency of the
It is, in a word, about wealth.
tion.

Over the past several decad
of interest and notoriety. Sud
studying wealth but also enjoy
with politicians. Where once
they use economists. Virtually
a favorite economist to forecas
didate's views.

Besides, even if being in a
constitute a sufficient lure, pe
neighbors are all rushing out
Alan Webber is about to sh
them.

One reason economics is
in tongues whenever po
with a lot of fancy guesswor
everyone else guessing about
your guess is as good as theirs.
really mean.

E EDUCATION

Exactly Is Economics,
Do Economists Do,
Again?

ying, with Thomas Carlyle, that economics is "the
much that economists say, this statement is half

on of economics was offered by American econo­
Economics is what economists do."
, is the fact that economics concerns itself with the
hanges in production and distribution over time. It
systems that control production and distribution.
This alone should be enough to engage our atten­

des, economics has experienced a substantial surge
denly economists have found themselves not only
ying it. This is largely a result of their relationship
rulers relied on oracles to predict the future, today
every elected official, every political candidate, has
st economic benefits pinned to that official's or can­

a position to feel on top of current events doesn't
eople still want to be able to understand why their
t to buy mutual funds. Not that, as contributor
how, the economists are necessarily ready to tell

EcoSpeak

so hard to get a grip on is that economists speak
ossible. They are, after all, being paid to come up
rk, and they know how important it is to keep
t what they're guessing about since, in the end,
. Anyway, here's what a few of their favorite terms

CETERIS PARIBUS: One of the things economists lik
cated situation involving a huge number of variable
ing the rest steady. This allows them to do two
significance of that one particular element, and seco
correct. "Ceteris paribus" is the magic phrase they
means, literally, "Other things being equal."

COMMODITIES: Commodities generally fall into two
tangible, and services, which are not. An easy way t
These days, goods are Chinese and services are Ame
make lawyers.

CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION: Consumption is
tually use commodities; production is what happens

EXTERNALITIES: Effects or consequences felt outs
duction and consumption—in other words, things
keep their own world tidy by labeling these messes
ing them.

FACTORS OF PRODUCTION: Ordinary people talk a
like land, labor, or capital—used to make or provi
talk about factors of production.

FREE-MARKET ECONOMY vs. PLANNED ECONOMY: I
by households and businesses, rather than by the
resources are used. Vice versa and you've got the lat
in the United States, it's probably a good idea to a
omy with the good guys, a planned economy wit
yourself in Cuba or parts of Cambridge, Massachu
inition to get with the prevailing theology.

GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT (GNP) vs. GROSS DOMEST
a dollar amount (in the United States, an enormous
value of everything produced in a national economy
up from year to year, the economy is growing; divide
of people living in the country and you get per ca
measure, GDP, leaves out foreign investment and
measure of production to the flow of goods and serv
As a result, some economists believe it affords a mo

ECONOMICS 127

ke to do is analyze a compli­
es by changing one and hold­
o things: first, focus on the
ond, prove that a pet theory is
y mutter while doing this. It

o categories: goods, which are
to remember this distinction:
erican; they make textiles, we

s what happens when you ac­
s when you make them.

ide the closed world of pro­
s like pollution. Economists
s "externalities," then banish­

bout resources, the things—
ide other things. Economists

n the former, decisions made
government, determine how
tter. A s long as you are living
associate a free-market econ­
th the bad guys. If you find
usetts, simply reverse the def­

TIC PRODUCT (GDP): G N P is
one) that represents the total
y in a year. If the number goes
e that number by the number
apita income. An alternative
foreign trade and limits the
vices within the country itself.
ore accurate basis for nation-

128 AN I N C O M P L E T E

to-nation comparisons. Either
better.

HUMAN CAPITAL: At first blus
bedfellows. But in the land of
ments that businesses make in
more broadly, to the assets of th

INDIFFERENCE CURVE: This sh
commodities that a household
you're used to having ten units
wich, and you lose five units o
and the new sandwich tastes ju
one point on an indifference c

INFLATION: One of the traditi
simply understood as a rise in
tion down is one thing; getting
levitate is another.

LAISSEZ-FAIRE: It seems that w
nary world, they turn to a forei
read the Annual Report of the
Literally translated "let do," thi
free of government intervention
allowed to operate freely and
consumption and production a
nomic fantasyland.

LONG RUN vs. SHORT RUN: It's
vious terms like "long run" and
meaning. T h e short run refers
to change, and the long run ref
long enough for all of the econ
when you get to thinking about
cumstances—and whether or n
run, in particular, comes in ha
during times of economic down
argue against any form of gove
the marketplace will adjust to
that most people live in the s
Keynes once cautioned, "In the

EDUCATION

way, G N P or G D P , the basic idea is that more is

sh, "human" and "capital" may seem like strange
f economics, human capital refers to the invest­
their workers, such as training and education, or,
he firm represented by the workers and their skills.

hows all the varying combined amounts of two
d would find equally satisfactory. For example, if

of peanut butter and fifteen of jelly on your sand­
f the peanut butter while gaining five of the jelly,
ust as good to you as the old one, you've located
urve.

ional villains of current events, inflation is most
the average level of all prices. Getting the defini­
g the rate of inflation down once it has started to

whenever economists want to describe an imagi­
ign language (see "ceteris paribus," above, or try to

Council of Economic Advisors to the President).
is phrase invokes the notion of an economy totally
n, one in which the forces of the marketplace are

where the choices driving supply and demand,
are arrived at naturally, or "purely." A kind of eco­

appalling, but economists take even perfectly ob­
d "short run" and try to invest them with scientific

to a period of time too short for economic inputs
fers to a period of time, as you may have guessed,
nomic inputs to change. The terms are important
t how individuals or companies try to adapt to cir­
not they can do it. For some economists, the long
andy when defending a pet theory. For example,
nturn and high unemployment, economists might
ernment intervention, saying that in the long run
correct the situation. T h e problem, of course, is
short run, and that, as economist John Maynard
e long run, we're all dead."

MACROECONOMICS vs. MICROECONOMICS: Further
economists to see things in pairs. Here, "macro"
looks at the big picture, at such things as total outp
on. "Micro" looks at the small picture, the way s
firms or households or the way income is distribu
price changes or government policies. One problem
about is the difficulty they have in getting the tw
enough to have any practical application.

MARKET FAILURE: This is one of a number of term
down the real world. Here's the way it works: W
economists want them to, based on the laissez-fair
come is explained as the result of a "market failure
omists' fault—they had it right, it's the market tha

MIXED ECONOMY: Another term for economic realit
middle ground between the free market (the good
omy (the bad guys). When you look around a coun
see the government manipulating the price and ava
legislating a minimum wage, and so on, you have t
ally a free market. But neither is it a centrally pl
economists have decided that what it is is a mixed
purgatory they will have to endure while they p
market.

OPPORTUNITY COSTS: The idea behind the old li
economics, there is a cost to using your resource
rather than another (which represented another o
way: There is an opportunity cost associated with
stead of a really useful subject like podiatry.

PRODUCTIVITY: Another of the big words in the f
fined, is a measure of the relationship between the a
of the input. For example, when you were in col
(input) to write your term paper (output) and it to
hire someone to write his term paper, your roo
yours—and he probably got a better grade.

PROFIT: TO get a firm grasp of profit and its coun
sider the biblical quotation, "What does it profit a
lose his soul?" For an economist, the correct way t
be to calculate the revenues received from gainin

ECONOMICS IZQ

r evidence of the tendency of
is the side of economics that
put, total employment, and so
specific resources are used by
uted in response to particular
m economists don't like to talk
wo views to fit together well

ms that economists use to put
When things don't go the way

re system (see above), the out­
e." That way, it's not the econ­
at got it wrong.

ty, the "mixed economy" is the
d guys) and the planned econ­
ntry like the United States and
ailability of money and energy,
o conclude that ours is not re­
lanned economy. Grudgingly,

economy, a kind of economic
pray for ascension to the free

ine "I could've had a V8." In
es (time, money) in one way
opportunity). Think of it this

your studying economics in­

field, productivity, simply de­
amount of the output and that
llege, if it took you two days
ook your roommate one day to
omie's productivity was twice

nterpart, loss, you might con­
a man if he gain the world but
to answer this question would
ng the world and subtract the

AN I N C O M P L E T E

costs incurred by losing one's
line") is a positive number, you

SUPPLY AND DEMAND: Supply
sell at any particular price; dem
any particular price. Economis
pens to the relationship betwe
prices change. More on this ga

VALUE ADDED: A real comer in
sure of the difference of the val
the product the operation yiel
coal and compresses it in his ha
fect diamond, the value added,
nificant. The term explains how
all those hours they put in on th

VALUE-ADDED TAX: Like the n
of the value-added chain, the
the value of the services added
paid on imports. The VAT is
tion (as opposed to income) an
All Western European countri
tion of a possible VAT, which
considered grounds for lynchin

E

ow that you can talk like
J . ^1 like one. T h e good news
is perfectly logical, operating a
tunately, the same could be sai
the closed system of the econ
time getting out.

THE FOUR LAWS OF SUPPLY A
like the laws of thermodynami
cally, these four laws say that
down, or also goes up, or vic

EDUCATION

s soul. If the difference (known as "the bottom
u have a profit.

is the amount of anything that someone wants to
mand is the amount that someone wants to buy at
sts have a lot of fun making you guess what hap­
een supply and demand when the amounts or the
ame later.

the world of economics, the value added is a mea­
lue of the inputs into an operation and the value of
lds. For example, when Superman takes a lump of
ands, applying superforce to turn the coal into a per­
represented by Superman's applied strength, is sig­
w wealth is created; it's also what people use to justify
he super pullover machine.

name says, a tax on the value added. At each stage
buyer pays, and the seller collects, a tax based on
d at that stage. T h e tax is rebated on exports and
a lot like a sales tax in that it's a tax on consump­

nd the consumer pays in the end, but it's less direct.
es have it, but in the United States the mere men­
does tend to hit the poor harder than the rich, is
ng the nearest politician.

EcoThink

e an economist, the next step is to learn to think
s here: Economics is a closed system; internally it
according to a consistent set of principles. Unfor­
id of psychosis. What's more, once having entered
nomist, you, like the psychotic, may have a hard

AND DEMAND: Economics as physics—something
ics brought to bear on the study of wealth. Basi­
t when one thing goes up, the other thing goes
ce versa, depending. When demand goes up, the

price goes up; when demand goes down, the price
up, the price goes down; when supply goes down, t

THE THEORY OF PERFECT COMPETITION: If the fou
are economics as physics, this is economics as the
firms always seek the maximum profit; that there i
to enter into and to leave competition; that there is
no business is so large as to influence its competito
economic dogma, a situation in which neither fir
mine how resources are allocated. Rather, the mar
visible hand" (see "Adam Smith," on the next pag
there's this bridge we'd like to talk to you about.

THE PRINCIPLE OF VOLUNTARY EXCHANGE: C o m e
make-even-the-simplest-idea-sound-important; a
and selling to get what they want.

THE THEORY OF COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE: T h e b
about international trade. Most simply, it says tha
ests are served if each country specializes in tho
dowments (natural resources, skilled labor, techno
produce most efficiently, then trades with other co
The classic example: Both England and Portugal
woolens and Portugal produces port and the two
ucts—rather than both countries trying to produc
arrived at an understanding of the theory of com
thing to think about is how it is that Japan—with
technology, or capital—ever became dominant in
and Nintendo. The answer may tell us more abo
advantage than it does about the Japanese.

THE THEORY OF RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS: Main
their mistakes. It is illustrated by the story of the
walking across the campus with a first-year econom
student, pointing at the ground, "a five-dollar bil
professor. "If it were, somebody would have picked

THE THEORY OF REVEALED PREFERENCE: Another
how people are supposed to behave. According to th
ways consistent. In other words, once you have r
pepperoni pizza over a Big Mac, you'll always ch
available. Reduce it to this level, and it's easy to see

ECONOMICS

goes down; when supply goes
the price goes up.

ur laws of supply and demand
eology. The theory holds that
is total freedom for them both
s perfect information; and that
ors unduly. It is, according to
rms nor public officiais deter­
ket itself operates like an "in­
ge). And if you buy that one,

es under the heading how-to-
also known as people buying

basis for much of our thinking
at everyone's economic inter­
ose commodities that its en­
ology, and so on) allow it to
untries for their commodities.
l benefit if England produces
o countries trade their prod­
e both products. Once you've
mparative advantage, the next
hout natural resources, native
steel, cars, motorcycles, T V s ,
out the theory of comparative

ntains that people learn from
economics professor who was
mics student. "Look," said the
ll." "It can't be," responds the
d it up by now."

r of those laws that stipulate
his one, people's choices are al­
revealed your preference for a
hoose the pizza, provided it's
e the limits of the theory.