Despite its consistent presence in architectural practice throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, collage has never been considered a standard form of architectural representation like drafting, model making, or sketching. The work of Marshall Brown, an architect and artist, demonstrates the power of collage as an architectural medium. In Brown’s view, collage changes the terms of architectural authorship and challenges outdated definitions of originality. Published in conjunction with the exhibition The Architecture of Collage: Marshall Brown at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the book features some forty collages by Marshall Brown. The full-color plates are supplemented with essays by critic and curator Aaron Betsky, scholar of art history and archaeology Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s curator James Glisson, and Marshall Brown, that outline the conceptual foundations of Brown’s intriguing exploration of an intersection of architecture and art.

Marshall Brown is an architect, artist, and scholar. Among other accomplishments, he has represented the United States at the Venice Architecture Biennale. His work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Photography, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Brown is also an associate professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture where he directs the Princeton Urban Imagination Center. His first book, Recurrent Visions: The Architecture of Marshall Brown Projects was published by Princeton Architectural Press.