Fifty Paintings: Anthony Ames Architect

This book illustrates fifty paintings (1986-2018) with a brief reference on each. The paintings inform or are informed by architectural works by the architect and others. There is an introduction by Andrea Simitch. The paintings depict “object-types” – general yet specific, generic yet designed, familiar yet estranged. They are “Purist” forms depicted in a still life landscape. The compositions employ overlap, convergence and diminution to imply depth resulting in the creation of the illusion of perspectival space. However, through the use of juxtaposition, superimposition and ambiguity of scale the perspectival effect is impaired. The result is a blurring of distinction between foreground and background that encourages a reading of pattern that reinforces the presence of the surface plane. A conflict is encouraged between the deep space and the shallow space – between the creation of implied space through perspective and the reinforcement of the surface plane through pattern. A multiple reading is fostered that rewards the careful observer.