Pablo Bronstein

Large Column, 2008. Resin column, paint and drawing in artists's frame
Column: 350 x 30 x 30 cm Drawing: 38 x 26.5 cm
'Pablo Bronstein uses architecture as a means to engage with power: of history, monuments, and the built environment. Using pen and ink on paper, his acutely drafted drawings capture an archival romance of a grand age, a nostalgic longing for the imposing and imperial. Adopting the styles of various architects and movements, his elaborate designs become plausible inventions, both paying homage to and critiquing the emblems of civil engineering.

His [Pablo Bronstein] works primarily with 1980s postmodernist and 18th century post-revolutionary French architecture. Finding parallels between their decadent pretensions and their demonstration of precise moments in history via formalist structure, these periods, for Bronstein, define what it is to be a citizen, embracing the heroic as a uniting social value.

Bronstein’s architectural drawings explore both the functionality of civic space, as well as the inherent values associated with the styles of different times. His work often combines reference to a multiplicity of design aesthetics, ranging from the imposing authority of neo-classicism, the ornate dynamism of baroque, and the decadent pastiche of postmodernism. Through these ‘moshed up’ embellishments, Bronstein highlights the way building facades convey ideas of wealth, power, or grandeur. Though architectural fashion mirrors social values, it also represents the will or vision of the architects and commissioners who impose their ideas on the public – with the intent that their work will last for generations.'


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