Aldo Rossi

This volume provides the definitive survey of the graphic work of Aldo Rossi (1931-97), reproducing 300 prints. In the 1970s and 80s, Rossi attained equal preeminence as an architect, theorist and artist, and it was in the latter capacity that his imagination took full flight. Colorful and humorous, and utilizing simple forms such as cones, cylinders and cubes, Rossi's graphic output extends his vision of the city as a unified entity composed of consistent rather than unconnected structures. Rossi's architectural vocabulary synthesized medieval and Renaissance precedents (most famously in his floating theatre created for the 1979 Venice Biennale) in a manner that led him to be tagged a postmodernist in the 80s, especially in the US where he taught for many years at Yale and Cornell, and erected buildings in Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas. As the work of Rossi and his generation receives renewed critical attention, this volume celebrates one of the postwar era's leading architectural imaginations.