EQUUS

Braque Gris Beckmann’s reclusive nature sees him trying to shield himself from the outside world. To achieve this feeling I created a building that feels as though it is wrapping around its occupant; as if to contain and protect.

The disjointed style employed in the wrapping takes influence from Beckmann’s love of creating Cubism art work. Featuring a lower and upper level, there many different rooms, each providing its individual experience. The mirror located high above can be viewed from unit 7 located on the upper level of which the ramp leads into from below.

Continuing with the Cubism theme, but leaving the curved nature of the first building, this structure takes seven different forms from within Cubist and Expressionist paintings. Those paintings were created by the three artists from which Braque Gris Beckmann’s name may have been contrived.

These seven shapes form the basic floor plan of the building. Walls have been simply extruded vertically to create an intriguing structure. Initially this structure took on a wrapping formation, each room linked in a kind of spiralling effect. Although there is an essence of this still present in the design, the building took on a different form through the design process. The step formation of the building leads up to the tower at the back allowing for the inhabitant to utilise both inside and outside areas of the house.

This first card model is essentially a more developed form of the previous sketchup model; it has become more refined through the shaping and proportioning of the various units both internally and externally. Sharp edges and Cubist forms are utilised to create an angular inhabitable space. It creates an image of heavy concrete intersecting planes rising out of the ground and morphing into this structural form.

This final model displays an intricate reflection of Beckmann’s mind. The use of the pristine structure derived from the Cubist type shapes is now torn apart much like Beckmann’s mind. Just as the memories of war have destroyed part of Beckmann’s mind, part of the building looks as if it has been ripped apart by war.

Once again the element of Cubism has been used in the construction of the war torn area of the building, stylising and augmenting the way in which it is viewed. This is truly an attempt to unravel and display the intricacies of one man’s mind through architectural form.

BRAQUE GRIS BECKMANN

This is the story of one man consumed by the terrors of war. Despite only spending one year fighting in the north at the age of 27, he never recovered, always trying to deal with the tortuous memories. He was severely wounded by shrapnel on the left side of his body during the cold winter of the war. But it is not these injuries that he struggles with; it is the damage that was caused to his mind.

He channels his love through the sole love in his life: his painting. Once a prominent figure within the Cubism movement, his artwork has now become darker, recalling the painful memories of war. As a result people have now turned away from his work. People that had once loved his work now wanted very little to do with it. For no one wants to be reminded of the terror and bloodshed that is war. Maybe when the wounds of the war were not so fresh Beckmann’s work would once again be admired. Many of his peers turned towards other, more joyous, subject matter. But Beckmann was unable, the memories that haunted him he had to release onto the canvas. It was the only way he could seek some relief, if only for a short moment of time, from the haunting memories that followed him.

He has few friends due to his now reclusive nature, only venturing out onto the streets to acquire the bare necessities. People stare, remembering the man that Beckmann was before the war; a popular young artist breaking new ground in his area. There are few events in one’s life that could do this to someone. None of these on lookers even getting close to imagining what this man had been through; the events that had sculpted this reclusive, clearly troubled man.

BRAQUE GRIS BECKMANN

I believe that John Hejduk drew his inspiration for this character’s name from 3 prominent artists from within the Cubism and Expressionist movements. These artists were:

Georges Braque

Juan Gris

Max Beckmann

All of these artists were called up for war and were challenged to deal with this within their art; this giving me the inspiration to create the character that is Braque Gris Beckmann. A man that is consumed with the terrifying memories of war that now control his life.