Vanderwarker’s Pantheon: Minds and Matter in Boston February 10, 2009

Through decades of intense analysis of buildings and cityscapes, the noted architectural photographer Peter Vanderwarker has refined his view of what constitutes good civic architecture and has concluded that “good architecture, like good citizens, provokes us, improves us, and makes us look past our own noses.” Vanderwarker’s Pantheon pays tribute to some of the people who currently shape Boston’s intellectual and built environment. For this exhibition, Vanderwarker has created a series of portraits of people he admires for having contributed to the world in creative and productive ways. His personal list of heroes includes architects, writers, scientists, doctors, advocates, and teachers. The portraits will be juxtaposed with images of iconic Boston buildings because, in the photographer’s words, “smart buildings have much in common with smart people: a spirit of innovation, respect for the past, economy, and a sense of the common good.”

Photographs by Peter Vanderwarker appear regularly in Architectural Record, Architecture Boston, and other magazines. His approach is formed by thorough grounding in both photography, which he studied at Phillips Academy, Andover, and in architecture; Vanderwarker earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971, and was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1996 and 1997. He received an Honors Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1992 and the Commonwealth Award from the Boston Society of Architects in 1999. Although Vanderwarker’s assignments and teaching take him around the world, the center of his activity and interest has always been Boston. Readers of the Boston Globe know Vanderwarker’s work through the Cityscapes series co-authored with Robert Campbell, the architecture critic. His interest in the evolution of the city led to several books: Boston, Then and Now (Dover, 1982), and Cityscapes of Boston, with Robert Campbell (Houghton Mifflin, 1992). In 1989 Vanderwarker was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant to make a photographic document of Boston’s Central Artery Project. This ongoing study resulted in The Big Dig: Reshaping an American City, written and photographed by Peter Vanderwarker (Little, Brown, 2001). An award from the Graham Foundation in 1995 supported Vanderwarker’s one-person exhibition The Image of Boston, Perception and Change in the Modern City, 1955-1995, at the MIT Museum.

Like his portrait subjects, Peter Vanderwarker is actively engaged with the ongoing life of the city. In addition to pursuing his professional career, he teaches visual arts at the Codman Academy Charter School and serves on the boards of the Bostonian Society, the Cambridge Revels, and the Boston Natural Areas Network.

The Vanderwarker’s Pantheon: Minds and Matter in Boston exhibition is free and open to the public.
The exhibition is supported in part through the generosity of Broadway Partners and members of the Boston Athenæum.

Official Website: http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/finearts.html