Английская Википедия:Didi Contractor

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Delia Narayan "Didi" Contractor (née Kinzinger; 1929 – July 5, 2021) was an American artist and builder. Self-taught architect, she is known for her work on the vernacular traditions in India,Шаблон:R using adobe, bamboo and stone for materials. She was a recipient of the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's highest civilian award for recognising the achievements and contributions of women.Шаблон:R

Life

Born Delia KinzingerШаблон:R in Minneapolis,Шаблон:R she was the daughter of expressionist painters Edmund Kinzinger and Alice Fish Kinzinger, both associated with the Bauhaus movement.Шаблон:R Her father was German, from Pforzheim, Grand Duchy of Baden. Her mother was American. Her parents married in Germany in 1927, and moved to Minneapolis where her father worked as an exchange teacher. They returned to Germany, but left it for Paris in 1933. They moved to Waco, Texas in 1935, where her father was first assistant professor, later professor and finally head of the Art Department of Baylor University.Шаблон:R

She grew up in New Mexico and Texas, and took a year off from school to work in theatre,Шаблон:R She was first trained in art by her father and Hans Hofmann in New York,Шаблон:R and then studied art at the University of Colorado Boulder,Шаблон:R where she met her husband, Narayan Contractor. They moved to Nashik in the 1950s, and to Mumbai in the 1960s, raising four children.Шаблон:R After separating from her husband she moved to Andretta, an artists’ village established by Norah Richards in the Kangra Valley of Himachal Pradesh in the 1970s.Шаблон:R

Contractor's daughter is author and academic Kirin Narayan. Narayan has written about the Contractor household in Mumbai, in a beachside compound in Juhu which Contractor ran as a combination youth hostel and literary salon, in her memoir My Family and Other Saints.Шаблон:R Her son Devendra Contractor trained as an architect and practices in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The children studied in the U.S.Шаблон:R

Contractor died at home in Sidhbari on July 5, 2021, at age 91.Шаблон:R

Buildings

Файл:Ram Nath Kovind presenting the Nari Shakti Puruskar for the year 2018 to Ms. Delia Narayan Contractor, H2019030865834.jpg

President Ram Nath Kovind presenting the Nari Shakti Puruskar to Didi Contractor in 2019

Contractor was self-taught in architecture and was inspired as a child by a talk by Frank Lloyd Wright. She specialised in buildings that fit into, rather than contrast with, the landscape, and are made of natural local materials: mainly mud, bamboo, and stone, with small amounts of deodar wood. They also include frequent use of staircases as a design element. They can be found in the area around Dharamsala, and include over 15 homes and three institutions, including the Nishtha Rural Health, Education and Environment Center in Sidhbari, the Sambhaavnaa Institute of Public Policy and Politics in Palampur, and the Dharmalaya Institute in Bir.Шаблон:R

Recognition

Contractor was the subject of two feature films, Earth Crusader (2016),Шаблон:R and Didi Contractor: Marrying the Earth to the Building (2017).Шаблон:R She was the 2017 winner of the Women Artists, Architects and Designers (WADe) Asia Life Time Achievement Award.Шаблон:R

In 2019 the president of India gave her the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's highest civilian award for recognising the achievements and contributions of women.Шаблон:R

External links

• Шаблон:IMDb name
• Шаблон:Citation. Silverstone's photo-essay on Didi Contractor, "East-West wife", was published in Coronet magazine, November 1960.
• Narayan, Kirin: My Family & Other Saints (excerpts) press.uchicago.edu
• Singh, Joginder: Didi Contractor / Ideas and Concerns (interview) immaterialonline.com