Le Corbusier at the Pompidou Center, April 29-August 3, 2015

Le Centre Pompidou dedicated a retrospective to the work of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as “Le Corbusier.” Le Corbusier was a visionary architect and  designer, as well as a painter and sculptor who left his mark on 20th century modern architecture.

The Pompidou Center Boutique featured Le Corbusier in the gift shop.

A photograph of Le Corbusier with his classic design, the sling chair

Le Corbusier created a sleek, functional chair, whose backrest tilts as the user shifts from one sitting position to the next. (1928)   Each piece is signed, numbered and licensed by the Le Corbusier Foundation. The cost of a certified sling chair, made in Italy, is $2,280. If you would like an unauthorized sling chair, you can buy one on Amazon.com for $430.

Furniture designed by Le Corbusier with drawings of the Modulor man in the background  

   

Le Modulor   

As a basis for his architectural creation, Le Corbusier designed the Modulor (1944), the silhouette of a human body 1.83 m (6 feet) tall whose proportions were used to build well-suited and harmonious environments. 

The Corbusier chaise lounge

Designed in 1928, the Chaise Lounge has a moveable frame that adjusts along the base, from upright to full recline, so many sitting angles are possible. The Chaise Lounge is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. AND you can buy one for $4,335, signed and numbered under license from the Le Corbusier Foundation. You can also get an unlicensed Corbusier-style chaise lounge on Amazon.com for $889.

The Corbusier armchair

This chair was designed (1928) as a modernist response to the traditional club chair. This chair’s  frame is on the outside, and its thick pillows are within the steel frame. The chair is comfortable and yet minimalist. Each piece is signed and numbered and under exclusive worldwide license from the Le Corbusier Foundation. An authorized Le Corbusier armchair, made in Italy, costs $4,380. The Corbusier-style armchair on Amazon.com costs $477.

The name of the exhibit was “Mesures de l’homme,” and the Modulor is prominently featured at the entrance to the exhibit.  Le Corbusier developed the Modulor in order to discover mathematical proportions in the human body and then use that knowledge to improve both the appearance and function of architecture. The title of the exhibit may be a play on words-- “The Measures of  Man” may refer to the worth of Le Corbusier because of his achievements and also to the measurements of the Modulor, which influenced many aspects of modern architecture.

 Charles-Édouard Jeanneret at the Acropolis in Athens, September, 1911

When he was 24 years old, Jeanneret took a journey through the Balkans to the Bosporus and the ancient Mediterranean world in search of the fundamentals of architecture. The Voyage d’Orient lasted 5 months, during which time Jeanneret filled 80 sketchbooks with renderings of the architecture that he saw. It is said that he returned to these sketches as a source of inspiration throughout his lifetime, taking things he had seen on his travels  and transforming them into innovative new forms by virtue of his own creativity. 

The Purist Movement defined, as only an art critic can define it. 

(Click on the pic to enlarge)

Le Port de La Rochelle, Le Corbusier, 1919

Nature morte avec papier enroulé, pipe, verre et boîte
 (Still life with rolled paper, pipe, glass and box), Le Corbusier, 1918

Still Lifes in the purist style

Guitar verticale (Vertical Guitar), Le Corbusier, 1920

La bouteille du vin orange (The Bottle of Orange Wine), Le Corbusier, 1922

Nature morte aux nombreux objects
(Still life with numerous objects), Le Corbusier, 1923

One of Le Corbusier’s most famous paintings from his Purist period, it is complex rather than minimalist, with objects fusing together and with forms and colors overlapping. 

Vue intérieure du Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau, Paris, 1925  

The Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau was a temporary building constructed in 1925 within the framework of the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. It was a chance for Le Corbusier to show his ideas on architecture and urbanism. 

Maison Citrohan,  Le Corbusier et Pierre Jeanneret (cousin of Charles-Édouard), 1920-1922

Le Corbusier conceived the “Domino” house to be a prototype for the mass production of housing. It was named after the game of dominoes because the  units could be aligned in a series like dominoes, to make row houses of different patterns. The use of concrete in the Citrohan house allows for an open floor plan because the interior space is uninterrupted.  In relation to this building, Le Corbusier published his Five points for a New Architecture.

Sketch of Villa Savoye

Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier et Pierre Jeannerette, 1928-1931

The Villa Savoye is an “internationally-recognized emblem of architectural modernism.” It has all the features listed by Le Corbusier in his Five Points of Modern Architecture: pilotis, (concrete columns to bear the structural load); free design of the floor plan, (no supporting walls); free design of the façade (no structural constraints); horizontal ribbon windows to light rooms equally; and a roof garden, to compensate for the ground lost to the house. The Villa is located in Poissy, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Paris.

Femme, Le Corbusier et Joseph Savina, 1953

During the thirties, Le Corbusier carried out research on bodies: women’s bodies distorted and recomposed as new figures. The evolution of bodies in a series of paintings and sketches culminated in the mural in Badovici’s house in Vézelay (1936). They were on display for the first time in this exhibition. 

Peinture murale pour la maison de Jean Badovici a Vézelay, Le Corbusier, 1935-1936

Architect Jean Badovici, editor of L’Architecture Vivante, prevailed on his friends to paint frescoes in the house he was remodeling. Fernand Leger painted one mural, and Le Corbusier painted this one. Female figures were featured in his paintings at this time. 

La Joueuse d’accordéon et le Coureur, 

(The Accordion Player and the Runner), Le Corbusier, 1932 

(You have to look very closely in the upper right corner to spot the runner.)

All the prototypes of Le Corbusier’s  furniture series

Études ergonomiques du mobilier par rapport aux positions du corp, 

(Ergonomic studies of furniture in relation to positions of the body), Charlotte Perriand, 1928

Le Modulor

The Modulor – governing the form of interiors and the proportion of buildings alike – seems to have been interpreted as a measurement for organizing architecture according to a geometric rationale. Le Corbusier’s concepts are expressed through the idea of human proportions, the human body being essential as a universal principle defining all aspects of architecture and spatial composition.

Models of Le Corbusier’s buildings

Maquette Gratte-ciel Cartésien, (Model of  Cartesian skyscraper), 1937 

Maquette Unité d’habitation de Berlin,
(Model of a residential building in Berlin, Germany), 1957-1958  “Unité d’habitation” is the name of the modernist residential housing design principle developed by Le Corbusier.

Etude pour un terrace sur le toit Unite d’habitation de Berlin

 (Study for a roof terrace for the Berlin apartment building)

Maquette Unité d’habitation de  Marseille
 (Model of a residential building in Marseille, France), 1945-1952  

This model looks like a wine rack and illustrates the plug-in concept of housing. In theory, complete apartments could be hoisted directly into position as prefabricated units and be inserted into the frame, like stacking bottles in a wine rack.  It allows for modular plug-in units of different types. There are 23 different apartment types in the Unité d’habitation in Marseille ranging from flats for single persons to flats for families with children. 

The Unité, Le Corbusier’s most famous housing development, has 337 apartments and 12 stories, suspended on huge pilotis--ground-level supporting columns. The building also incorporates shops, sporting, medical and educational facilities, a hotel which is open to the public, and a gourmet restaurant.  The flat roof is a communal terrace with a running track and a shallow  pool for children. The roof has unobstructed views of the Mediterranean and Marseille. The Unité is popular with its residents and is now mainly occupied by upper middle-class professionals.

Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut in Ronchamp, France
 (Chapel of Our Lady of the hilltop), Le Corbusier, 1954

The chapel, perched high on a hill, probably receives more architectural pilgrims than religious pilgrims. The chapel is a working religious building and attracts 80,000 visitors each year. The nature of the site has similarities to the Acropolis in Athens, starting from the ascent at the bottom of the hill and ending at the chapel itself atop the hill.

Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut

The thick, curved walls and the vast upturned roof give the building a massive, sculptural form. Small, irregular windows in the thick walls give a dim light within the  building, along with further indirect light coming down the three light towers.

 Le Corbusier’s acoustic period began in 1943 and features an ear, found in numerous drawings and paintings. “Acoustic” refers to the science of sound, including its production, transmission and effects, including biological and psychological effects.

Peinture Murale de l’atelier rue de Sèvres, 1948 

Le Corbusier produced this mural in his studio on the rue de Sevres at the request of his staff
"to brighten up the office."

Totem, Le Corbusier et Joseph Savina, 1950

The collaboration between Le Corbusier and Joseph Savina, originally trained as a cabinetmaker,  began in 1946. Savina executed carvings from Le Corbusier's drawings. The partnership resulted in 44, three-dimensional wood structures.  

Les Mains,  Le Corbusier, 1956

Chandigarh, the New Capitol of Punjab
The Taj Mahal was made by foreign craftsmen and admired by foreigners before Indians saw it as a major attraction. Today the Taj is a symbol of India. Tomorrow it will be Le Corbusier's work in Chandigarh.

In the early 50s, Le Corbusier was commissioned by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, to build a city that would replace Lahore, the capital of the Punjab lost to newly created Pakistan after partition in 1947. Nehru said the new metropolis was to be of a design "unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation's faith in the future." Le Corbusier assigned the residential areas to his associates, and he focused on the Capitol, the site of power: the National Assembly building, the High Court of Justice and the Secretariat Building.

I’m pretty sure this is a relief map of the Capitol area of Chandighar, rendered in wood, and displayed as a mural. (I couldn’t find any identification for it.) 

Grande Salle du Palais de l’Assemblée 

A model of the huge, column-free, circular “smokestack” structure as seen on the rooftop of the Assembly Hall

Palais de l’Assemblée (National Assembly Building)

FYI: Today many of the buildings are recognized as modernist masterpieces, but most are in a state of neglect. Recently, international art dealers have made substantial sums selling on auction hundreds of chairs, tables, carvings and prints designed by Le Corbusier and his assistants but obtained at rock bottom prices from officials often unaware of their value. Now a group of local architects, art historians and officials are hoping to mobilize international help to prevent further damage to Le Corbusier's unique Indian legacy. Campaigners hope that with international support, the auctions can be halted until new laws are passed.

Le Corbusier

The last part of the exhibition focuses on Le Corbusier’s “housing unit,” Le Cabanon, or little cabin. It was built on a rock next to the sea at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in the South of France  Le Corbusier designed a minimalist living space, fulfilling only the needs of the body, where he actually lived the rest of his life, almost naked. (The “Tiny House” craze nowadays is really nothing new.) 

Against his doctor's orders, on August 27, 1965, Le Corbusier went for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea.  His body was found by bathers, and it was assumed that he may have suffered a heart attack. His funeral took place in the courtyard of the Louvre Palace on September 1, 1965, under the direction of writer and thinker André Malraux, who was at the time France's Minister of Culture. Tributes to Le Corbusier poured in from all around the world, lauding him as the “greatest master of Modern Architecture.” He was buried alongside his wife in the grave he had designated at Roquebrune.