Arthur Erickson & Japan – Journeys to the East

If you’re in Vancouver and are interested in Arthur Erickson’s ties with Japan (and by extension Japan’s influence on west coast modernism), it’s worth ordering tickets for this event now. It will sell out. It’s not cheap, but there’s a good deal for students. The event is co-presented by Coast Modern, the upcoming film about modern architecture on the west coast from Vancouver to LA, by filmmakers Gavin Froome and Michael Bernard. The event is November 25, 7 pm at The Vancouver International Film Centre. For tickets and more information contact Cheryl Cooper at the Arthur Erickson Conservancy and see the writeup on the Coast Modern blog. For full information on the talk and Professor Sabatino, click below for more.

The AEC Presents: Illustrated Lecture + Discussion + Reception
November 25, 2009 Vancity Theatre 7 PM
Journeys to the East: Arthur Erickson and Japan Michelangelo Sabatino

The discovery of the architectural and cultural traditions of ancient and modern Japan helped transform Arthur Erickson’s worldview and professional practice. Not only did Erickson travel extensively to Japan (and other sites of Asia and the Middle East), he also designed (with Geoffrey Massey) a pavilion for the Tokyo International Trade Fair in 1965 and the award-winning Canadian Pavilion for Osaka 1970. Michelangelo Sabatino’s lecture will present recent research stemming from his own journey to Japan, itself part of a multi-faceted work in progress on Erickson (and Massey’s) oeuvre spanning the 1960s and 1970s. The lecture will trace Erickson’s journeys and writings on Japan, identifying specific buildings and gardens that Erickson actually visited and studied, particularly in his first visit to Japan in 1961 and as recorded in his critical essays for Canadian Architect in the ‘60s. The lecture will also situate Erickson’s “Journey to the East” as part of a longstanding tradition of modern Western architects who appropriated cues from Japanese art, architecture and landscape ranging from Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruno Taut in the first half of the century, to events such as the display of a Japanese house at MoMA in New York (1953) and the publication in English of Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Walter Gropius, and Kenzo
Tange’s study of Katsura in 1960.

Michelangelo Sabatino

Michelangelo Sabatino is Assistant Professor at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston. He was trained as an architect and historian in Venice, Italy and received his PhD in art and architecture history from the University of Toronto, Department of Fine Art. He has contributed widely to journals and co-authored publications in the field (Casabella, Cite, Harvard Design Magazine, Journal of Architecture, Journal of Architectural Education, Journal of Design History, Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, Places); his forthcoming books include Pride in Modesty: Modernist Architecture and the Vernacular Tradition in Italy (University of Toronto Press), and a co-edited volume of essays entitled (with Jean-François Lejeune) Modern Architecture and the Mediterranean: Vernacular Exchanges and Contested Identities (Routledge). He is currently writing a book for Princeton Architectural Press (+ McGill-Queens University Press) on Arthur Erickson’s contribution to Canadian and international architectural debates.