SUTTON, Ian 1929-

PERSONAL: Born February 6, 1929, in Bromley, England; son of F. (a civil servant) and Phyllis (Pinches) Sutton. Education: King's College, London, B.A. (Hons).

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Thames and Hudson, Inc., 500 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10110.

CAREER: Writer and scholar of architecture.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Peter Howell) The Faber Guide toVictorian Churches, Faber and Faber (London, England), 1989.

Western Architecture: From Ancient Greece to thePresent ("World of Art" series), Thames and Hudson (New York, NY), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS: Ian Sutton is a British author and editor who has focused his writing career on the study of architecture and its history. His second book, Western Architecture: From Ancient Greece to the Present, is a survey of more than 2,000 years of Western architectural history. Previously, Sutton edited another architecture book, The Faber Guide to Victorian Churches, an illustrated guide that examines more than 600 nineteenth-century British churches.

In Western Architecture Sutton explains how different architectural styles, from ancient Greece and Rome through modern deconstruction styles, grew out of their respective cultures. He discusses Romanesque, Norman, Gothic, Renaissance, and Postmodernist styles, and features American architects H. H. Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, and Richard Meier. Western Architecture includes more than 450 illustrations and a glossary of important definitions. As an introductory text, Sutton's work was recommended for students and general readers by several reviewers.

Western Architecture is part of publisher Thames and Hudson's "World of Art" series, which Kent Anderson in School Arts called a "long-running and always worthwhile" series of art history publications. "Beyond the aesthetic form and practical function of architecture," noted Anderson, "the book also provides information and insight about related social and political events." Jay Schafer in Library Journal noted that the book's illustrations, glossary, bibliography, and index "make it quite a useful reference."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Contemporary Review, October 2000, review of Western Architecture: From Ancient Greece to the Present, p. 252.

Library Journal, June 15, 1999, Jay Schafer, review of Western Architecture, p. 76.

Reference Reviews, 2000, Douglas Brown, review of Western Architecture, p. 34.

School Arts, December, 1999, Kent Anderson, review of Western Architecture, p. 52.