Editors Picks: The 5 Best Showings at the 59th Venice Biennale
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The 59th Venice Biennale Review: National Pavilions Part 1
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May 26, 2021
There’s often a gulf between the way we imagine ourselves and the truth about who we are. This year’s American showcase at the Venice architecture biennial offers a reality check to United States’ bombastic self-image.
Ninety-one years ago, architects William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich designed an American pavilion in Venice, a Palladian-style structure built with Istrian marble and pink brick. It has served as the permanent venue for US art and architecture exhibitions at the Venice biennial ever since. Delano’s and Aldrich’s notions of architectural beauty would be passed on for decades, down to former president Donald Trump’s ill-fated attempt to mandate that all new government buildings be designed in the classical style.