Everyone knows what the distinctive curves and lines of Frank Gehry's buildings look like. But where do they come from? Gehry has described drawing as his way of thinking aloud; Gehry Draws traces that thinking through 29 major projects, providing a privileged view of the creative practice of a master architect. More than 360 drawings (most of which are previously unpublished) and more than 400 additional illustrations chart the evolution of Gehry's images from marks on the page to three-dimensional models to completed buildings. Horst Bredekamp's introduction relates Gehry's drawing methods to the concept of disegno, as practised by Leonardo and Durer - not only the act of drawing and modelling, but also the dynamics of creative thinking. Gehry himself describes his method for Bredekamp in several explanatory sketches, and Bredekamp applies this to a study of drawings made for specific Gehry commissions. Virtual-reality filmmaker Rene Daadler and writer Mark Rappolt return this discussion to the twenty-first century, looking at, among other things, analog methods in the digital world of contemporary architecture.
Gehry Draws is produced in collaboration with Frank Gehry and his team at Gehry Partners. Project synopses and commentary by Gehry and two of his Partners and Project Designers, Edwin Chan and Craig Webb, guide us through the full range of Gehry production, from the small details of window design to such large-scale undertakings as the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. The drawings, illustrations and text in Gehry Draws definitively place drawing at the heart of Frank Gehry's creative processes.