ABSTRACT
Italian-born architect, artist, teacher, and theorist Lauretta Vinciarelli (1943–2011) occupies a historic place in architectural history. She was the first woman to have drawings acquired by the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (1974), she was among the first women to teach architecture studio courses at Columbia University (starting in 1978), and she was the first and only woman granted a solo exhibition at Peter Eisenman’s Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York (1978). She also collaborated on architectural projects with minimalist artist Donald Judd from the late 1970s to the late 1980s and influenced his furniture design and printmaking as well. This chapter presents some key examples of Vinciarelli’s architectural and artistic output, including her work with Judd in Marfa, Texas; competitions for San Leucio and Palmanova in Italy; and her later watercolor paintings, disparate works that are united by an emphasis on history and memory. Vinciarelli’s work illuminates a plethora of issues that are central today, from the ideological and social dimensions of architecture to transatlantic connections, feminism, artistic collaboration, pedagogy, and practice.
