Masterworks Stamps

The Masterworks of Modern American Architecture stamp series, which I posted about on Unbeige a while back, is here! I am in the midst of mailing hell at the gallery, so when Emily the intern went to the PO I asked her to pick up a few sheets of the new stamps. The images of the buildings themselves are nice - nothing straight on, just b+w detail shots taken from MTV angles. It’s all so very outre. I’m not sure which font they’re using for the names of the buildings, but it’s too chunky and colorful for my tastes.* (The Noguchi stamps are much more elegantly designed.) Also the sheet has the horrible blue-ish purple background. Horrid.

It reminds me of my utter disappointment I felt when I saw the new Friedlander book at my friend (and jen bekman associate) Tim’s office. It so… undignified! Yellow + Purple are just wrong wrong wrong in this context. Maybe Friedlander is a Lakers fan and thus insisted on this combination? I know not. Regardless: I say tsk tsk.

There are twelve stamps in the series, following is a list of the buildings along with informative linkage. You’ll be the toast of modernist preservation cocktail chatter once you read up on these beauties!

· Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright
· Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry
· Yale Art and Architecture Building by Paul Rudolph
· Chrysler Building by William Van Alen
· 860/880 Lake Shore Drive by Mies van der Rohe
· High Museum of Art by Richard Meier
· Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi
· East Building of the National Gallery of Art by I.M. Pei
· Phillips Exeter Academy Library by Louis I. Kahn
· TWA Terminal by Eero Saarinen
· Glass House by Philip Johnson
· Hancock Center by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

* Font freaks: please to be advising me on which font they used for the Masterworks stamps, and the Friedlander book too, while you’re at it. My font ID skills: subpar. drop me a note at person AT personism DOT com.