18 febbraio - 24 maggio 2009, London
A RIBA Trust/Barbican presentation of an exhibition of the Vitra Design Museum in collaboration with the RIBA Trust and the Netherlands Architecture Institute. Le Corbusier (1887-1965), widely acclaimed as the most influential architect of the 20th century, was also a celebrated thinker, writer and artist - a multi-faceted -renaissance man’. His architecture and radical ideas for reinventing modern living, from interiors and private villas to large scale social housing and utopian urban visions, still resonate today. Le Corbusier - The Art of Architecture at Barbican Art Gallery is the first major survey in London of the internationally renowned architect in more than 20 years. This timely reassessment charts how the work of Le Corbusier - a pseudonym of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris - changed dramatically throughout his career. Spanning a period of 60 years the exhibition includes early works inspired by his native Switzerland, the iconic white cubic buildings of the 1920s such as the famous Villa Savoye (1928-31) and culminating in the late works of the 1950s and 60s of which the Chapel of Ronchamp (1950-55) and the buildings for the Indian city of Chandigarh (1952-64) are key examples. The exhibition focuses on Le Corbusier’s unique multi-disciplinary approach, and brings together a wealth of his paintings, films, sculpture and books alongside vintage photographs, original architectural models and interior settings. It also features important works by his collaborators and artistic contemporaries such as furniture designers Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouve’, and artists Fernand Le’ger and Ame’de’e Ozenfant. Highlights include a monumental mural painting by Le Corbusier from his office in Paris Femme et coquillage IV (1948); a complete original kitchen by Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand from his famous Unite’ d’habitation, Marseille (1947-50); and a reconstruction of his utopian masterplan for Paris (1925). Presented in collaboration with the RIBA Trust, the exhibition includes key sources of inspiration for Le Corbusier, among them Fernand Le’ger’s The Baluster (1925), on loan from The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Originally exhibited in the Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau, which Le Corbusier designed for the 1925 International Exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris, this is a very rare opportunity for this important work to be seen in London. The exhibition also includes paintings and drawings by Juan Gris, Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso among others. […] Info: tel +44 (0)20 76384141 e-mail: info@barbican.org.uk - www.barbican.org.uk