Insley builds a world where architecture becomes a total conceptual system, unfolding through drawings, models, and texts as a single speculative structure.
Insley builds a world where architecture becomes a total conceptual system, unfolding through drawings, models, and texts as a single speculative structure.
Conceptual architecture is traditionally regarded as abstract planning; in Will Insley’s work, it functions structurally to organize speculative systems through drawings, models, and diagrams. Geometric operations and proportional sequences maintain internal consistency, allowing conceptual relations to define the unfolding structure. Components interlock according to systemic logic rather than visual impression, producing a continuous speculative order.
1. Will Insley: The Opaque Civilization, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; photo by George McCausland.
2–3. Will Insley, Ceremonial Space, 1971; photos: courtesy The Museum of Modern Art.
4. Will Insley, /Building/ No. 17, Passage Space Spiral – Model, 1970 (photomontage illustrated); acrylic and pencil on Masonite and wood, 96½ × 96½ × 4"; collection of the artist; courtesy Max Protetch Gallery, New York.
5. Will Insley, Ceremonial Space, 1971; book reproduction; courtesy The Museum of Modern Art.
6–7. Will Insley, Ceremonial Space, 1971; photos: courtesy The Museum of Modern Art.
8. /Building/ No. 6, Channel Space Spiral – View, 1968/73; photomontage, 48 × 48"; lent by the artist; courtesy Max Protetch Gallery, New York. /Building/ No. 33, Passage Space Mountain, Plan Oblique, 1972–83/83; ink on ragboard, 40 × 40"; lent by the artist; courtesy Max Protetch Gallery, New York.
9. /Building/ No. 33, Passage Space Mountain, Plan Oblique, 1972–83/83; ink on ragboard, 40 × 40"; lent by the artist; courtesy Max Protetch Gallery, New York.
10. Will Insley, foreground Large Grey Floor Drawing No. HD 69.5, 1969; background Wall Fragment Nos. 75.56, 75.57, 75.58, 1975; installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1976.
11. Wall Fragment No. 75.57, 1975; latex enamel on Masonite and wood, 80 × 80 × 2"; private collection; Collection of Svetlana Zueva.
12. Will Insley, foreground Wall Fragment No. 66.2, 1966; middleground Large Grey Floor Drawing No. HD 69.5, 1966; background Wall Fragment No. 75.60, 1975; installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1976.
13. Will Insley, Wall Fragment 66.4, 1966–1967; Paula Cooper Gallery.
14–15. Will Insley, Ceremonial Space, 1971; photos: courtesy The Museum of Modern Art.
16. Will Insley: Visions of a Future Civilization, installation view; Westwood Gallery NYC, New York, 2023; photo: Westwood Gallery NYC.
17. Will Insley, Floor Structure No. 1, 1966; installation view, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio, 1967.
All images © their respective rights holders.
