Thomas Demand. Model Studies

Thomas Demand

In this small book, Thomas Demand presents a series of 12 pictures of some of American architect John Lautner’s physical models. These architectural models, actually preserved at the Los Angeles Getty Research Institute, have been used since 1960 by Lautner and partners to develop his audacious projects.

Thomas Demand’s photographic practice--the depiction of meticulously recreated life-size interiors and environments--takes on a new twist with this beautifully produced volume. The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles is home to the architectural maquettes of architect John Lautner, whose extraordinary buildings are major highlights of Californian architecture. Lautner’s space-age structures--such as the legendary “Chemosphere,” a four-bedroom house resembling a flying saucer, mounted atop a 20-foot concrete pillar--are particularly beautiful and toy-like in their maquette versions, and for this project, Demand photographed 12 of these models in loving, close-up detail. Model Studies includes more than 130 color images of Lautner’s models. With this volume, Demand, who has always been concerned with the intersections of art and architecture, now looks at the architect as sculptor, paying tribute to Lautner on the centenary of the architect’s birth.