DARE TO BE WILD! / Issue #2
RHYTHM --- HOW IT MOVES YOU (IN YOUR ART AND LIFE)

FEATURED ARTIST

Zaha hadid

a tribute to the architect, designer, artist . . .
 

Our featured artist this month is the infamous Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, Zaha Hadid, who unfortunately passed suddenly in March, 2016, at the age of 66. Her architectural creations are distinctively neofuturistic, characterized by the powerful, curving forms of her elongated structures with multiple perspective points and fragmented geometry. The appeal in her work lies in the sense that they embody a unique female personality; her work will always be seen as voluptuously feminine. 

In describing herself, she has remarked that she has always felt "powerful," even as a child. During her early artistic development, she deeply admired the Russian Supremist paintings, especially those produced by Kasimir Malevich.

A gifted mathematician, Zaha was attracted to the geometrical compositions and saw them as floating in an abstract space; even referring to them as "galaxies" suspended in space. She began exploring her own ideas through the medium of painting, making preparatory sketches and studies elaborating her own ideas of forms in space in her architectural designs

In later years, she relied more and more on the computing capabilities of the computer to create her complex and fluid compositions – originating the new idea of "parametricism;" the designing of spaces to geometrics, using a self-referential system, in which all the elements are interrelated, and if any changes occur from the outside, that alters all the other parts. One can actually say that this parallels Wassily Kandinsky's idea of "inner necessity," where there is an inherent wholeness that relies on all of its parts . . . the parts "call" to the necessity of the part next to it.

Even though she was not the first to explore the floating curve in the language of architecture (see the work of Eero Saarinen and Oscar Niemeyer), Zaha Hadid continued her explorations and can now be said to be identified by her uncompromising, demanding vision and has shaped the way we see them: seductive, voluptuous and speaking of an incomparable ease.

REFERENCES: 

The Guardian view on Zaha Hadid: reluctant queen of the 3D curve  
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/01/the-guardian-view-on-zaha-hadid-reluctant-queen-of-the-3d-curve  

Rarely seen Dame Zaha Hadid artworks to go on display at Serpentine  
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/28/rarely-seen-dame-zaha-hadid-artworks-architecture-exhibition-serpentine-gallery  

Zaha Hadid Show in Venice Will Celebrate Architect’s Career  
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/arts/design/zaha-hadid-venice-architecture-biennale.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FHadid%2C%20Zaha&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=collection 

Zaha Hadid: A visionary whose ideas don’t always make sense
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/27/zaha-hadid-profile- 
 

VIDEOS:

Dame Zaha Hadid | Full Q&A | Oxford Union  
https://youtu.be/k0gLhcPOtdM  

Zaha Hadid Architects  
https://youtu.be/kp_ZTnanbZ8  

Zaha Hadid: A look back at her work – BBC News
https://youtu.be/b3Bhv2T8Naw   

Zaha Hadid and Suprematism | Tate Talks
https://youtu.be/GF_qPKnrrHo    

Zaha Hadid on Kazimir Malevich - Secret Knowledge
("fascinated by abstraction . . liberated me from all of these rules."
https://youtu.be/yye33DucQvw    

In Honor of Zaha Hadid: A Conversation with Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman and Deborah Berke 
https://youtu.be/x0itDZeBaUU