The Perspectivists
Published on 4. July 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
70 pages
978-1-7394927-8-6 (ISBN)
Description
The Perspectivists - catalogue.
Curated by Richard Brook and Martin Dodge
A compact exhibition of perspective paintings made up of lost and forgotten artefacts uncovered by the curators in the process of their research.
Martin Dodge has spent the last few years compiling the built history of the University of Manchester and Richard Brook has been in and out of mid-century Mancunian estates for as long as he has been in the city.
On their travels they have encountered paintings in cupboards, in dreary meeting rooms and filed amongst architectural drawings in plan chests, which they have assembled for this show.
All of these paintings are being shown in public for the first time. It is not just the objects that are forgotten, the lives of the artists are also massively under celebrated. In their day, they were seen as providing a service. Perspective paintings had a job to do - to sell the idea of a building to a client, to the public or to an investor.
The artists often went uncredited and were frequently disregarded as commercial artists, not fine artists. Here, with some historical distance, we want the viewer to join us in celebrating these works that are fine in their own right and present a skill that waned in the face of computer generated imagery.
Curated by Richard Brook and Martin Dodge
A compact exhibition of perspective paintings made up of lost and forgotten artefacts uncovered by the curators in the process of their research.
Martin Dodge has spent the last few years compiling the built history of the University of Manchester and Richard Brook has been in and out of mid-century Mancunian estates for as long as he has been in the city.
On their travels they have encountered paintings in cupboards, in dreary meeting rooms and filed amongst architectural drawings in plan chests, which they have assembled for this show.
All of these paintings are being shown in public for the first time. It is not just the objects that are forgotten, the lives of the artists are also massively under celebrated. In their day, they were seen as providing a service. Perspective paintings had a job to do - to sell the idea of a building to a client, to the public or to an investor.
The artists often went uncredited and were frequently disregarded as commercial artists, not fine artists. Here, with some historical distance, we want the viewer to join us in celebrating these works that are fine in their own right and present a skill that waned in the face of computer generated imagery.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Manchester
United Kingdom
Illustrations
42 colour and black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 148 mm
Thickness: 6 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-7394927-8-6 (9781739492786)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Richard Brook is a registered Architect and an architectural historian. He is especially interested in the ways in which policy and legislation govern space and affect design. This approach characterises his research that is primarily focussed on post-war history and the relationships of the built environment with the structures of the state. Richard has studied official architecture, infrastructure, landscape and mainstream modernism, all with a focus on how these can narrate wider social, cultural, economic and political histories
Martin Dodge is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Manchester. he completed his PhD at University College London and has previously worked at Cardiff University and the University of Nottingham as a researcher. Martin's intellectual interests focus on the social and spatial enrolment of digital technologies as well as research on urban historical geography, the politics of maps and visualisation, and developing a cultural understanding of infrastructures.
Martin Dodge is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Manchester. he completed his PhD at University College London and has previously worked at Cardiff University and the University of Nottingham as a researcher. Martin's intellectual interests focus on the social and spatial enrolment of digital technologies as well as research on urban historical geography, the politics of maps and visualisation, and developing a cultural understanding of infrastructures.