Mitchell Algus Gallery (Exhibitions & Information)
email: office@mitchellalgusgallery.com
tel: 516-639-4918

Circle, Square, Triangle: The Architecture of Myron Goldfinger

Two Concurrent exhibitions:

1. At the Mitchell Algus Gallery – A world I wanted to live in: The unbuilt work of Myron Goldfinger

2. At the Paul Rudolph Institute – Houses I never lived in: The residential work of Myron Goldfinger

Myron Goldfinger, Boxes in the Sky, 1971, unbuilt

Myron Goldfinger, Jaroslow House, 1981, Kings Point, NY

Myron Goldfinger, Roosevelt Island Housing Proposal, 1975, Unbuilt

Two concurrent exhibitions celebrating the work of the late architect Myron Goldfinger will open on September 19 and 20, 2024. Circle, Square, Triangle: Houses I Never Lived In. The Residential Work of Myron Goldfinger 1963-2008 at The Paul Rudolph Institute For Modern Architecture (PRIMA) will be on view and Circle, Square, Triangle: A World I wanted to Live In. The Public and Unbuilt Work of Myron Goldfinger 1963-2008 will be shown at the Mitchell Algus Gallery.

The two interconnected exhibitions offer complementary studies of Goldfinger’s work, exploring his built residential projects and his unbuilt and community architecture. Both exhibitions consist of original material uncovered during the Paul Rudolph Institute’s process of archiving and indexing Goldfinger’s estate, much of which has never been seen.

The Mitchell Algus Gallery will explore unbuilt projects that Goldfinger designed including several for New York City, providing a local context for the exhibition. This includes a housing proposal for Roosevelt Island designed in 1975 and a proposal for the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza from 1970. A collection of renderings and models outline the design process.

The curation of Circle, Square, Triangle sets out to demonstrate Goldfinger’s characteristic and distinctive approach to architecture, which is embedded in the title itself. The phrase “Circle, Square, Triangle” originates from Goldfinger’s own words—he considered these three basic shapes to be the heart of his design, shapes he would transform and assemble into dramatic volumes. His playfulness with geometry led to spectacular interior and exterior architectural features in his work, such as soaring ceilings and gravity-defying cantilevers. Goldfinger insisted that “the fashion of the moment is so temporary. Only the timeless basic geometry repeats in time”. His work was both deeply intuitive while also conveying a clarity of vision. With its clean lines and careful volumetric assemblage, it was honest and direct, described best by Goldfinger himself as ‘ordered simplicity’.

Born in 1933, Goldfinger grew up in Atlantic City. He studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, under Louis Kahn and Paul Rudolph, who informed his approach to geometry, spatial hierarchy and material expression. Goldfinger worked for Karl Linn, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Philip Johnson before establishing his own practice in 1966. That same year, he married interior designer June Matkovic, who designed the interiors for his buildings. Goldfinger also began teaching at the Pratt Institute from 1966 to 1976. He designed residences around the world, focusing particularly on the North-East, including Connecticut, Long Island, and New Jersey. These buildings reflect Goldfinger’s sustained interest in stark geometric forms juxtaposed with the exuberance of 1970s and 1980s interiors with oversized plants, expansive mirrored walls, textured carpeting and abstract art. In his monograph, Myron Goldfinger: Architect (1992), he wrote “I am always building the houses I never lived in as a boy.” Goldfinger was also interested in community architecture, as demonstrated in his first book, Villages in the Sun: Mediterranean Community Architecture (1969, reprinted 1993). Here, he voiced his belief that community architecture “is a place for human experience, a rich variety of forms and spaces in which to live, a structural framework which permits the expression of the individual, and the participation of all.”