Reflections on art and architecture by TIME critic Richard Lacayo.

Gehry Keeps Going

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Serpentine Pavilion, Frank Gehry, 2008 /Photo: GEHRY PARTNERS LLP

Every year London's Serpentine Gallery sponsors a temporary summer pavilion designed by a major artist or architect. It frequently turns out to be an experimental space that gives clues as to where that designer is really going. When Toyo Ito, the Japanese architect I just posted about yesterday, did the pavilion in 2002, it aired ideas you would find in his Tod store in Tokyo two years later.

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Serpentine Pavilion, Toyo Ito, 2002 / Photo: DEBORAH BULLEN

And Daniel Libeskind's pavilion in 2001 was an exercise in fractal geometry that found its way into a private home he did later. (We're talking brave client here.)

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Serpentine Pavilion, Daniel Libeskind, 2001 /Photo: HELENE BINET

This year the pavilion will be Frank Gehry's. The design was unveiled this week.

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Serpentine Pavilion, Frank Gehry, 2008 / Photo: GEHRY PARTNERS LLP

Where's he going now?

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    My architect son is an admirer of Frank Gehry, the famous curvaceous designer whose myriad contributions often defy gravity and the laws of physics. His warped form of structures had made him one of the most popular postmodern architects.
    However, the stunning Bilbao Museum creator is not without critic. He is said to be strong in aesthetic value but weak in functionality. Nonetheless, given the chance, I would still want to see his Serpentine Pavilion in the London Gallery this year. Boontee

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