The Mannerist Mind

Join us for the book launch of The Mannerist Mind

Art critics between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries imprinted a long-standing derogatory meaning to the word “mannerism”. Even though scholars such as John Shearman or Wolfgang Lotz rehabilitated the term to a certain degree during the twentieth century, it is still uncommon nowadays to find the expression “mannerist” used without certain pejorative connotations—connected to everything which is affected and contrived, or characterised by unnecessary gestures and excessive self-references.

While the term has barely been revised within the shared vocabulary of architects, the presence of an attitude that may be identified as mannerist is more evident than ever within a significant range of design decisions of the architecture that is produced in Europe today, including practices such as Lutjens Padmanabhan, architekten de vylder vinck taillieu, Ted’A, 6a architects and Office KGDVS, among others. This book provides a contemporary revision of the mannerist attitude for the present, creating a framework to analyse and shed light not only on the work that these practices are carrying out, but also on the less evident filiations and affinities, as well as on their deeper implications”

Francisco Gonzalez de Canales is Professor of Architectural Composition at the University of Seville and regularly invited to the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London since 2008. He studied architecture in Seville, Barcelona and Harvard and worked for Foster+Partners and Rafael Moneo. In 2003 he founded Canales Lombardero with Nuria Álvarez Lombardero, an office with which he has received various distinctions and published his work in international magazines.

We are delighted to welcome Francisco to the AA Bookshop to celebrate the launch of his new publications over refreshments.

The book will sold at a special price of £20 (RRP £22)