Best known as a critic of modern buildings devoid of ornament and elegance, Robert Venturi is the rebellious architect who promoted what became known as the Post Modern movement of the twentieth century. According to Venturi, "Less is boring." ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 25, 1925, Robert Charles Venturi, Jr. has been recognized as one of the most successful American architectural figures of the twentieth century. Venturi was born to Robert Venturi Sr. and Vanna Venturi and was raised as a Quaker. As a young man he attended the Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pennsylvania. Venturi graduated summa cum laude from Princeton in 1947. He was also an elected member of Phi Beta Kappa and while there won the D'Amato Prize in Architecture (The Nassau Herald). Venturi also received his MFA from Princeton in 1950. After graduation he worked briefly alongside Eero Saarinen in Michigan and then with Louis Kahn in Philadelphia. Venturi won the Rome Prize Fellowship for the American Academy in Rome in 1954. While in Europe Robert visited other countries and studied various periods of architecture for two years. Once he returned to the United States, Venturi taught at Pennesylvania University from 1954 to 1965. He began as Kahn's teaching assistant and eventually became an associate professor. It was here that Venturi met fellow professor and architect Denise Scott Brown, who would later become his wife on July 23, 1967. Venturi initially created the Venturi and Short Firm, while working with William Short in 1960. But over time, the firm became Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, or VSBA. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based company has completed more than 400 projects, each uniquely suited to special needs...paper center...and terra cotta around the outside. Venturi's idea, he said in an interview, was to design a museum that would not seem overly imposing, either to adults or to children (Egan). CONCLUSION-Robert Venturi is a man I can respect without even knowing him personally. He challenged the belief system of his time and opposed traditional design to pursue his own interpretation of art and architecture. I admire his desire to have his wife as an equal partner in all his endeavors. Venturi was more than just an artist; he was an important figure in the postmodernism movement. His work is a reflection of his divergence. Venturi was able to capture historical elements such as the arch and transform them into a modernist design that captivated, if not outright deceived, the viewer. Venturi was a thinker, a rebel and, above all, an individual, who was not afraid to speak out against banality.