Mark Cousins

The Ugly is the first posthumous book by Mark Cousins (1947 2020), the renowned British cultural critic and architectural theorist who sadly passed away a few months ago. Divided in three parts -- originally published in AA Files between 1994 and 1995 -- Cousins delves into the realm of the ugly as something wider and deeper than just the negative of beauty. For the author, "the ugly is", which means it is much more than just a counterpart -- it troubles beauty so much that it has to be encapsulated as its negative. Yet, in so doing, the potential value of the ugly is dismissed. Cousins studied Art History at Merton College, Oxford, and was a research student at the Warburg Institute. From 1993 he was the Director of General Studies and Head of the Graduate Program in Histories and Theories at the Architectural Association, where he was widely renowned for the Friday Lectures he delivered for over thirty years.