Muschamp, Critic's Critic, Dies at 59

Wrote during 'surge of exuberance' in architecture
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 3, 2007 6:24 PM CDT
Muschamp, Critic's Critic, Dies at 59
SPAIN. BILBAO. The Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry. The Museum seen as being one of the finest buildings of our time has promoted a completely new rejuvenation of the Basque City. (LON66593)   (Magnum Photos)

Architecture critic Herbert Muschamp died of lung cancer last night at age 59, the New York Times reports. Muschamp wrote for the Times during a “surge of exuberance” in architecture, and his personal style grabbed readers for more than a decade. Said the Times editor who hired him, “Herbert’s criticism was full of passion—too much for some readers.”

Muschamp's “arch, self-deprecating” style marked Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao as “the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe” and Daniel Libeskind’s World Trade Center plan as “a manipulative exercise in visual codes.” He was a critic’s critic, “as interested in the ideas” behind architecture as the buildings themselves. Muschamp, who was gay, also made the scene at Andy Warhol's Factory in the 1960s. (More Herbert Muschamp stories.)

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