SOURCE: Fusco, Coco. “Requiem for an Architect.” Art in America 76, no. 2 (February 1988): 31–35.

In the following positive review, Fusco argues that The Belly of an Architect can be seen as an allegory about the inner workings of the art world, particularly how art “products” are packaged for public consumption.

Since the Neo-Classical revival of the 18th century, English artists and intellectuals have escaped to Italy seeking sun, sensuality and the sources of Western art. As a young painter in the 1960s, Peter Greenaway also made the obligatory pilgrimage to Rome and found inspiration there in the architecture. But when the painter-turned-filmmaker returned to Rome in the early 1980s—or so the publicist's story goes—he was struck by stomach cramps so severe that they persisted until the day he departed. Few would care to revive the memory of such an unpleasant holiday, but Greenaway, thanks to a particularly perverse...