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The
Art of Architecture
Architect
Richard Gluckman credits much of his professional success
to the practical experience he gained as an SU student. By
the time he graduated in 1971, he’d designed and built two
houses and helped construct another. “The hands-on experience
gave me the confidence and insight I needed to get an early
start on my career,” says Gluckman, principal at Gluckman
Mayner Architects in New York City. “My architecture career
truly began when I was a student.”
Gluckman, renowned for his expertise in museum
and renovation architecture, collaborates with artists, builders,
curators, and clients from around the world who understand
the close relationship between art and architecture. “My museum
designs celebrate the aesthetic and functional features of
older structures and minimize intrusion on the art housed
in new structures,” he says.
Gluckman says he was fortunate to study with
SU professors who were “second-generation modernists.” His
early exposure to the giants of modernism—Gropius, Le Corbusier,
and Wright—guided his career toward working with contemporary
artists. “My work supports the artist,” he says. “We can create
or renovate buildings in such a way as to avoid the intrusion
of architectural detail on viewer sensibilities.”
Gluckman usually works with large, open grids
of space, which easily shelter the size and scale of modern
art. He enjoys the challenge of new construction, public space
commissions, and furnishing concepts, but also embraces “a
modernist perspective to bring old buildings to new life.”
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Courtesy
of Richard Gluckman
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For the recent renovation of Marcel Breuer’s
1966 Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, Gluckman
and partner David Mayner preserved the architect’s original
intent, which had anticipated the large scale of modern
art. Working within the building’s existing frame, they
accessed space that became “complete and unified by the
art,” and is now the foundation of the museum’s collection.
“I have a lot of respect for artists, and I think they know
it,” Gluckman says. “I make the relationship between the
viewer and the artist paramount.”
—Joanne Arany
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June Gaddy’s art is a walking history lesson. During a stint as
a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, she became fascinated with the
idea of fabric and clothing as a means of cultural documentation.
While teaching art at the Museum for African Art in SoHo back home
in New York City, she began working with textiles as a medium for
storytelling. “One particular exhibition showed ways in which Africans
used their clothing to pass on their life stories,” Gaddy says.
“It started me thinking about how in America we have a lot of important
stories to tell. That’s when I opened the box of fabric I’d brought
back from Africa.”
Gaddy, who has an undergraduate degree in fashion illustration from the
College of Visual and Performing Arts and a graduate degree in art
education from Brooklyn College, uses her art to incorporate her
love of photography with her interest in personal history. Over
the past several years, she’s completed nearly 20 pieces of unique
clothing, using photography, shells, and anything else that helps
convey a story. A dress she created to honor Harriet Tubman has
more than 300 ornamental cowrie shells sewn into it, one for each
of the slaves Tubman is credited with leading to freedom along the
Underground Railroad. Some of the stories Gaddy tells are complex
and personal. For example, she designed a black dress with a photograph
of her mother’s 18th birthday celebration in Harlem silkscreened
across the bodice. “I wanted to document my family’s evolution from
Southern sharecroppers to East Coast city dwellers,” Gaddy says,
“to show where they came from and how far they have come.”
While pursuing her art,
Gaddy also juggles work as a teacher and guide at the International
Center for Photography in Manhattan with further graduate study.
This year, she will complete a master’s degree in library science
from the Pratt Institute to become an art librarian. “I’ve always
liked libraries and my artwork requires a lot of research,” she
says. “At some point, I may want to spend more time just focusing
on my art, but for now, being an art librarian is a good match.”
—Tammy
DiDomenico
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