Charles
Jencks – cultural theorist, landscape architect
Born
June 21st, 1939; died October 13th 2019
Charles
Jencks, who has died aged 80, was a cosmic architectural visionary, who changed
the cultural landscape both physically and intellectually in daring and unique
ways. This was as much the case for his futuristic-looking landform sculptures
as it was for the network of Maggie’s centres for cancer caring, named in
honour of his late second wife, Maggie Keswick.
Charles
Alexander Jencks was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of composer Gardner
Platt Jencks and Ruth DeWitt Pearl. He attended Brooks School in North Andover,
Massachusetts before going to Harvard University, where he received BA in
English Literature in 1961 and an MA in architecture from the Harvard Graduate
School of Design in 1965.
Jencks
moved to the UK the same year, and in 1970 received his PhD in architectural
history from University College, London, where he studied under radical
modernist Reyner Banham. His thesis was the basis for his 1973 book, Modern
Movements in Architecture, which suggested with what would become trademark
stylistic panache that modernism was a much more expansive and diverse affair
than those who attempted to junk it into the dustbin of history would have it.
It
was with post-modernism, however, that Jencks’ sense of playful provocation
came into its own. His 1977 best-seller, The Language of Post-Modern
Architecture, widened its palette and cast list with each of its eleven
editions. Jencks went on to publish more than thirty books.
As a
designer, his most famed creation was his house in Holland Park, transformed
with help from the likes of architects Terry Farrell and Michael Graves and
sculptors Eduardo Paolozzi and Celia Scott into an elaborate embodiment of his theories.
In landscape, the grounds of Jencks’ Dumfriesshire house were transformed with
Keswick into the Garden of Cosmic Speculation.
Other
major outdoor works in Scotland include Landform, created with Terry Farrell
and Duncan Whatmore, and which reimagined the grounds of what is now Modern One
at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. Cells of Life did
something similar at Jupiter Artland, the sculpture park surrounding Bonnington
House on the outskirts of the city.
After
Keswick was diagnosed with cancer in 1993, it became apparent to Jencks that
there was little that existed in the way of humane environments to support
those in need of care, and the pair set up the Maggie’s centres. The first,
designed by Richard Murphy, opened at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh
in 1996. These holistic environments are perhaps the most life-affirming aspect
of the rich legacy Jencks brought into being.
Jencks
is survived by his third wife, Louisa Lane Fox, and his four children, two from
his first marriage to Pamela Balding, and two from his second marriage to
Maggie Keswick.
Scottish Art News - November / Autumn 2019
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