Las Vegas in the Rearview Mirror

The City in Thepru, Photography and Film

Stierli Martino

This is an intelligent and superbly illustrated reevaluation of the seminal architectural manifesto Learning from Las Vegas. Learning from Las Vegas – published in 1972 by the American architects Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour – marks the turn in architectural theory from modern to postmodern. "Las Vegas in the Rearview Mirror" explores the significance of this controversial publication by situating it in the artistic, architectural, and urbanist discourse of the 1960s and '70s, and by evaluating the book's enduring influence of visual studies and architectural research. Referencing cinematic visuals, Learning from Las Vegas documented a sprawling postwar city from a moving car. Stierli examines this methodology against a background of contemporary pop and conceptual art, allowing him to assess the impact of this architectural manifesto and why it remains relevant today.

About the Author

Martino Stierli holds a Swiss National Science Foundation Professorship at the Institute of Art History at the University of Zurich. He is a freelance curator and a widely published author.

Reviews

"Martino Stierli examines 'Learning from Las Vegas' as an urbanist analysis, within the artistic and architectural context of 1960s-70s pop culture, high and low art, and urban forms" – Book News

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