{{Short description|British architectural historian (1941–2023)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}} {{infobox historian |name = Anthony Vidler |birth_date = {{birth date|1941|7|4|df=yes}} |birth_place = Mere, Wiltshire, England |death_date = {{Death date and age|2023|10|19|1941|7|4|df=yes}} |death_place = New York City, U.S. |occupation = Architectural historian |workplaces = {{ubl|Princeton University|University of California, Los Angeles|Cornell University|The Cooper Union|Brown University|Yale University}} |spouse = {{marriage|Emily Apter|1984}} |children = 3 |alma_mater = {{ubl|Emmanuel College, Cambridge (BA, Dipl.Arch)|Technical University Delft (PhD)}} }} '''Anthony Vidler''' (4 July 1941 – 19 October 2023) was an English architectural historian and critic. He was Professor at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union.
== Life and career == Vidler was born in Mere, Wiltshire, in 1941, and grew up in Shenfield, Essex.<ref name = Risen>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/29/arts/anthony-vidler-dead.html|title = Anthony Vidler, Architectural Historian Who Reshaped His Field, Dies at 82|last = Risen|first = Clay|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited|date = 29 October 2023|accessdate = 29 October 2023}}</ref> His interest in architecture and its sociopolitical relevance began when he saw an air raid on a neighbouring town during World War II.<ref name = Risen/> He received a B.A. and Dipl.Arch. from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and a Ph.D. from Technical University Delft.<ref name = Risen/><ref name="cooper.edu">{{cite web|url=http://cooper.edu/architecture/people/anthony-vidler|title=Anthony Vidler - The Cooper Union|website=cooper.edu|access-date=6 October 2017|archive-date=2 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170902052812/http://cooper.edu/architecture/people/anthony-vidler|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Vidler began his career at Princeton University in 1965, before moving to the University of California, Los Angeles in 1993.<ref name = Risen/><ref name="ethz.ch">{{Cite web |url=https://admin.arch.ethz.ch/vortragsreihe/pdf/CV_AnthonyVidler_2014.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=6 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329052855/https://admin.arch.ethz.ch/vortragsreihe/pdf/CV_AnthonyVidler_2014.pdf |archive-date=29 March 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was the dean of Cornell University's architecture school from 1997 to 1998, and of The Cooper Union's architecture school from 2001 to 2013.<ref name = Risen/> Afterward, he taught at Princeton, Brown University and Yale University.<ref name = Risen/> He was a noted expert on the life and work of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, about whom he wrote several books.<ref name = Risen/><ref name = Stephens>{{cite news|url = https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/16549-tribute-anthony-vidler-19412023|title = Tribute: Anthony Vidler (1941–2023)|last = Stephens|first = Suzanne|date = 23 October 2023|accessdate = 29 October 2023|magazine = Architectural Record|url-access = limited}}</ref>
After a previous marriage ended in divorce, Vidler married fellow historian Emily Apter in 1984.<ref name = Risen/> He had two children from his first marriage and one from his second.<ref name = Stephens/>
Vidler died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma at his home in Manhattan on 19 October 2023, at the age of 82.<ref name = Risen/><ref>{{cite news|url = https://archinect.com/news/article/150387425/beloved-architectural-historian-scholar-and-academic-anthony-vidler-passes-away-at-82|title = Beloved architectural historian, scholar, and academic Anthony Vidler passes away at 82|last = Niland|first = Josh|date = 20 October 2023|accessdate = 20 October 2023|work = Archinect News}}</ref>
== Curatorial work == Vidler curated several exhibitions, including the part of the exhibition [https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/events/2715/out-of-the-box-price-rossi-stirling-matta-clark ''out of the box: price rossi stirling + matta-clark''] dedicated to James Stirling at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (2003-2004) and the exhibition [https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/events/3237/notes-from-the-archive-james-frazer-stirling ''Notes from the Archive: James Frazer Stirling''] which travelled to the Yale Center for British Art, the Tate, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (2010-2012).<ref name = Stephens/>
== Publications == *''The Writing of the Walls. Architectural Theory in the Late Enlightenment'' (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1987). Paperback, 1990.<ref name = Stephens/> *''Ledoux'' (Paris: Editions Hazan, 1987). Foreign editions: Berlin, 1989, Tokyo, 1989, Madrid, 1994.<ref name = Stephens/> *''Claude-Nicolas Ledoux: Architecture and Social Reform at the End of the Ancien Régime'' (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990). *''The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely'' (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1992).<ref name = Stephens/> *''L'Espace des Lumières: Architecture et philosophie de Ledoux à Fourier'' (Paris: Editions Picard, 1992). Translation and revised edition of ''The Writing of the Walls'' with new introduction and concluding chapter, 1992. Spanish edition: ''El espacio de la Ilustración. La teoria arquitectónica en Francia a finales del siglo XVIII'', trans. Jorge Sainz (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1997). *''Antoine Grumbach'' (Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1996). *''Warped Space: Art, Architecture, and Anxiety in Modern Culture'' (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000). *''Claude-Nicolas Ledoux'' (Paris: Hazan, 2005).<ref name = Stephens/> *''Claude-Nicolas Ledoux: Architecture and Utopia in the Age of the French Revolution'' (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2006).<ref name = Stephens/> *''Histories of the Immediate Present. Inventing Architectural Modernism'' (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2008).<ref name = Stephens/> *''Architecture Between Spectacle and Use'', ed. Anthony Vidler, Clark Studies in the Visual Arts (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008), “Introduction,” pp.vii-xiii; “Architecture's Expanded Field,” pp. 143–154. *''[https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/events/37501/james-frazer-stirling-notes-from-the-archive James Frazer Stirling: Notes from the Archive]'' (New Haven and London: The Yale Center for British Art and Yale University Press; Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2010).<ref name = Stephens/> *''The Scenes of the Street and Other Essays'' (New York: The Monacelli Press, 2011).<ref name = Stephens/>
== Awards == Vidler was awarded fellowships with the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (1971–84), the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University (1980–82), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1985-86), the National Endowment for the Humanities (1989–90), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995-20??), and the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal (2005).<ref name="ethz.ch"/>
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/events/2836/anthony-vidler-how-to-invent-utopia-the-fortunes-and-misfortunes-of-platos-polis Anthony Vidler: How to Invent Utopia: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Plato's Polis], Canadian Centre for Architecture, 17 May 2005
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vidler, Anthony}} Category:1941 births Category:2023 deaths Category:20th-century English historians Category:21st-century English historians Category:Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Category:Brown University faculty Category:Cooper Union faculty Category:Cornell University faculty Category:Deaths from lymphoma in New York (state) Category:Deaths from non-Hodgkin lymphoma Category:Delft University of Technology alumni Category:English architectural historians Category:English emigrants to the United States Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:People from Shenfield Category:Princeton University faculty Category:UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture faculty