Cast-in-Place: The Reactivation of Nineteenth-Century Plaster Casts in Brutalist Architecture
Echoes, Ripples, Wake: Casting Art and Flesh is an edited volume that offers a critical reappraisal of plaster casts and their afterlives. My chapter traces the changing meanings and values of nineteenth-century plaster casts in the United States through the case of Yale University’s historic cast collection. Focusing on their incorporation into Paul Rudolph's Brutalist architecture, I show how casts long removed from public view were reactivated and revalued, creating new relationships between artistic traditions and modern architecture while mutually reinforcing the significance of casts and building.
