Painted murals are not suitable decoration for buildings. Anyone who
has seen Hunderwasser's contemporary buildings in Vienna, knows what
I mean. In his buildings, art out of storybooks yet to be written,
is integrated into the design of the building itself. It occurs in a
variety of forms; mosaics, ceramic columns and posts, magical
brickwork, colourful wooden door frames and window ledges, curving
stone walkways. Everafter, one is dissatisfied with the unsuccessful
tacking on of a painting to the side of the building, as an
afterthought to hide bad design.
Certain materials are compatible with architecture because they are
long-lasting and as durable as the structure itself should be. They
are: stone, wood, brick, ceramics, glass, and metal. Painting is a
cheap replacement for these, in the short term. Painted murals,
especially on exteriors, soon peel and fade, needing to be
frequently repainted, thereby losing even the original brushwork of
the original artist.
Decoration, or the lack of it, should be a fundamental part of the
design of any building.
"You know I have always talked to you about the importance to me
of contact with people. That mosaic is on the exterior of one of the
university buildings. And every day, thousands of students go by
that way. So evidemment, it will have an effect on those boys, who
are the men of tomorrow." (153)
Miro
"Instead of camouflaging a building by a shell of sculpture, the
endeavor of an architect and his clients must indeed start with a
commitment to the purpose of the building - but not just as a useful
object, nor just as an object whose usefulness deserves to be shown,
but as an object whose function translated into a corresponding
pattern of visible behaviour will enhance the spirit of our
existence and conduct as human beings." (154)
Rudolf Arnheim
153. Rosamond Bernier, Matisse, Picasso, Miro, As I Knew Them, (New
York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1991)p.p. 273, 274
154. Rudolf Arnheim, Toward a Psychology of Art, (Berkeley and L.A.,
Cal., University of California Press, 1966), p.211
