Le Corbusier - The Art of Architecture, Barbican Art Gallery, London, until 24 May 2009.
One of the most influential architects of the 20th century, a media savvy self-promoter and a celebrated thinker, writer and artist, Le Corbusier transformed the way in which buildings were designed and viewed.
His ideas of utopian urban living had a huge impact on the design of the Barbican centre, the fitting backdrop for this retrospective that examines Le Corbusier’s 60 year career filled with examples of his original architectural models, paintings, sculptures and interior designs.
The exhibition appears daunting at first and the structure of three themes suggests that some prior knowledge is required, however the exhibition is enormously engaging and the variety of work on display provides a multitude of hooks to draw in the audience, whatever their interest.
There is still a chronological element to how the work has been laid out starting with the first section, Context. Born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris in Switzerland in 1887, he took on the pseudonym of Le Corbusier after using it in the magazine l’Espirit Nouveau in which he wrote much of content.
Context shows how his early expectations of following his father into the watch making trade changed when the school he was training at transformed into an art school.
Trained as an artist, Le Corbusier designed a number of private properties in the early 1920s before moving on to making plans to completely redesign two city centres, which helped create his reputation as an architectural force to be reckoned with.
His ambitious proposals for the redevelopment of Paris and Algiers were hugely controversial and suggested raising the historic centres of both cities and replacing them with his revolutionary new designs.
The outlandish Paris proposal would have seen a series of 20 huge skyscrapers covering the centre of Paris, and in Algiers he suggested an enormous curved apartment block that stretched 15 km around the bay of Algiers with a road on top of it.
Although never built, the controversy created by these early plans, combined with the self-started media interest, meant that Le Corbusier quickly established a name for himself in Paris.
The next section, Privacy and Publicity, is where you will encounter his iconic purist villas, designed in the 1920’s for wealthy private clients. These designs were characterised by his five points of architecture: the use of piloti (supports lifting a building off the ground), the roof terrace, the free plan, horizontal ribbon windows and the free non-structural façade.
Artworks from some of his contemporaries are on display surrounding architectural models of his villa designs, conveying Le Corbusier’s use of architecture as a form of art.
In particular, the painting by Mondrian bears a striking resemblance to his purist designs of the 1920s, where Mondrian’s compositions contain bright blocks of colour. Le Corbusier’s purist square buildings echo these, intersected with windows that let in bursts of light.
This section of the exhibition also shows some of his well-known furniture and interior design pieces. He had an enthusiasm for standardised pieces of furniture, observing constant improvement with developments in the production and design process to improve their quality.
His designs for the Pavilion D’Espirit Nouveau for the Exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris, 1925, showcased his vision for the model home, decorated with pieces including The Baluster by Fernand Leger and Thonet bentwood chairs
Further examples of Le Corbusier’s interior design can be seen in the final section, Built Art, where a complete kitchen from the Unite d’Habitation in Marseilles can be seen. The kitchen still appears modern by today’s standard,s with white units and doors painted in cubist colours and a minimal-yet-functional metal sink area.
The designer looked at every last detail - there are sliding doors to save space and a little yellow hatch where your bread and milk would be delivered direct to the kitchen. The emphasis on the importance of function creates the sense that the home really was "a machine for living".
Le Corbusier designed a number of significant civic and public buildings, including developing in the Indian city of Chandigarh. A 1965 film by Alain Tanner shows the construction of the buildings against the backdrop of traditional India.
The stark modern designs are juxtaposed with chains of Indian workers toiling on the site, using rudimentary tools to prepare concrete and carrying it in bowls on their heads.
Alongside Chandigarh are the designs for his most recognisable building, the Chapel at Ronchamp. Its flowing lines and organic shapes are a clear move away from his earlier work and show how he embraced a more fluid style of design – a trend apparent in his artworks on display.
His paintings are characterised by his enthusiasm for organic forms and for structural composition, and the influences of Leger and Picasso are clear. The blank canvas of the Barbican gallery allows the audience to truly appreciate the vivid colours and organic forms of the enormous constructions that may have overwhelmed a smaller space.
Tickets £8/£6. Visit www.barbican.org.uk for details of a full programme of events to accompany the exhibition.
