Le Corbusier in the Antipodes

Art, Architecture and Urbanism

Antony Moulis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781317107163
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

This book considers the architect Le Corbusier's encounters with Australia and New Zealand as a two-way exchange, showing the impact of his ideas and projects on architects of the region whilst also revealing counterinfluences on Le Corbusier in his post-war career that were activated by his contacts.

Compiled from detailed archival research undertaken at the Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris, and nationally based archives, Le Corbusier in the Antipodes brings together a set of episodes placing them in context with the history of modern art, architecture and urbanism in 20th century Australia and New Zealand. Key exchanges between Le Corbusier and others never before described are presented and analyzed, including Le Corbusier's contact with Australian architect Harry Seidler at Chandigarh, Le Corbusier's drawing of the plan of Adelaide in 1950 and his creative collaboration with Jorn Utzon on art for the Sydney Opera House. This book also includes analysis of previously unseen Le Corbusier artworks, which formed part of the Utzon family collection. In reading these personal and contingent moments of encounter, the book puts forward new ways of understanding the dissemination and mediation of Le Corbusier's ideas and their effects in post-war Australia and New Zealand.

These antipodean contacts are set against the broader story of Le Corbusier's career, questioning received interpretations of his design methods and current assumptions about the influence of his work in national contexts beyond Europe.

Part I

Art

1 At world’s end

An architect’s art in Australia

In the early hours of Christmas morning 1952, the freighter Merino runs aground in thick fog on a reef at Wineglass Bay, off the east coast of Tasmania. The ship contains a significant cargo: a selection of premier French art is stored in the hull including works by Picasso, Matisse and Braque, now stranded over 17,000 kilometres from home in the remote Tasman Sea. Within this selection are three original paintings by Le Corbusier, the internationally renowned Swiss-French Modern architect. Destined for an exhibition in Hobart, there are fears that none of the works will be salvageable. Eight days later, the ship is refloated and the art is saved. It continues on its journey and safely reaches Hobart – an arrival that quietly marks the first landfall of Le Corbusier in the Antipodes.¹

A distant reception

Le Corbusier, the architect, was also a devoted artist. In his youth, from 1902 to 1907, he studied at the Ecole d’art, La Chaux-de-Fonds, learning drawing, painting and artisanal craft.² After his arrival in Paris, art became part of his daily creative working routine, spending mornings in his apartment atelier on Rue Nungesser et Coli, before departing to his architectural atelier on Rue de Sèvres in the afternoons.³ He made art for private use, specifically as a means to explore and test forms and theories for his architecture, and also for broader public consumption, to be exhibited and sold. While Le Corbusier’s standing as an artist would never eclipse his reputation as an architect, his art is an important part of his oeuvre. He spoke in the 1930s of the concept of the ‘synthesis of the arts,’ conjuring up the special relationship he envisaged between architectural space and specifically placed works of art. Understanding connections between Le Corbusier’s art and his architecture has generated much discussion and interpretation, not only during his career but also after his death.⁴ Scholarly attention has chiefly focused on the interplay between Le Corbusier’s work across a range of media from painting, through architecture, to urban planning. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the reception of Le Corbusier’s art.

In 1952, several of his artworks travelled to Australia in an exhibition of modern European art that toured every state capital. This was the first time direct works of the architect, other than his architectural publications, would reach the Antipodes. The appearance of three paintings by Le Corbusier in Australia might hardly seem noteworthy. But set in context, there is something significant about their arrival.

These works tell particular stories about the architect, read through encounters in a ‘foreign’ context. Far from their European home and seen through reactions to them from art institutions, the profession, the Australian media and the Australian public, Le Corbusier’s art found an uneasy place. The reception of the artworks not only reflects specific appreciation of them but highlights local tendencies about art and aesthetics and reactions to modernity at the far end of the world.

‘French Painting Today’

The three paintings by Le Corbusier aboard the Merino were part of the travelling show ‘French Painting Today: Contemporary painters of the School of Paris,’ which toured Australia between January and September 1953. The exhibition travelled extensively and was seen in all the state capitals: Hobart (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, January–February 1953); Sydney (National Art Gallery of New South Wales, March–April); Brisbane (Queensland National Art Gallery, April–May); Melbourne (National Gallery of Victoria, June–July); Adelaide (National Gallery of South Australia, August) and Perth (Public Library Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia, September).

The exhibition was assembled by the Association Française d’Action Artistique (AFAA), an art society first founded in 1923 under the auspices of the French Ministère des Affaires étrangères (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and the Ministère de l’Education (Ministry of Education). As an example of a government-initiated, trans-national exchange in the early postwar period, ‘French Painting Today’ was about the French Government establishing cultural recognition and influence. An impressive list of French artists was represented: Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Raoul Dufy, Ferdinand Léger, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso and Maurice de Vlaminck, all presenting works seen in Australia for the first time. Reports suggested that ‘French Painting Today’ was a show of equivalent quality to the famous 1939 ‘Herald & Weekly Times Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art,’ which had also been seen extensively, touring Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart and Launceston.^{5 , 6}

Securing works by Le Corbusier for ‘French Painting Today’ was formalised in a letter from the AFAA to the architect in June 1952.⁷ The letter thanked Le Corbusier for his contribution to ‘the renown of our [French] painting on the Australian continent.’⁸ Le Corbusier selected three paintings from his private collection for the exhibition: Le Femme au livre (Woman with a Book, 1935); Les deux sœurs (The Two Sisters, 1933–47) and Deux mains et pomme d’or (Two Hands and a Golden Apple, 1948).⁹ Because they were from his private collection, Le Corbusier only offered the paintings on loan, not for sale, unlike other works included in the exhibition.¹⁰

Alongside his career as an architect, Le Corbusier set out to be taken seriously as an avant-garde artist. In 1918, with his artist colleague Amédée Ozenfant, he had announced Purism as a new art movement and successor to Cubism and published an accompanying manifesto. This move was a direct attempt to achieve rank with the great French artists of the time by seeking to surpass them. Whether this was the case or not, the fact that Le Corbusier’s paintings were stranded in the company of works by Picasso, Matisse and Braque off the coast of Tasmania in 1952 is some indication of his success in gaining cultural regard for his work as an artist.

Le Corbusier’s global exhibitions

As Le Corbusier’s reputation escalated in the postwar period, he found increasing opportunities to exhibit his work around the world. The architect well understood the value of exhibitions, more than just buildings, as a means to promote his ideas and seek influence. For example, the Pavilion des Temps Nouveau, a lightweight canvas structure erected for the 1937 Paris Exhibition, was merely a shell for Le Corbusier to house the physical representation of his urban manifesto. The architect’s ‘Plan for Paris’ was created within the temporary building and presented, through a carefully composed array of descriptive panels, large-scale montages and models. Panel surfaces were treated like billboards, both free-standing and as walls situated along ramping routes within the Pavilion.

In the postwar period, Le Corbusier curated a set of large shows in Boston (1948), London (1953), Paris (1953) and Lyon (1956), exhibiting a broader range of his work – photographs, drawings and models of his buildings, as well as artworks such as paintings, sculptures and tapestries.¹¹ The deliberate placement of art alongside architecture reflected the post-war idea of a ‘synthesis of the arts,’ whereby painting, sculpture and architecture could be integrated as major arts. This presentation of the arts as ‘related’ was different to the functionalist tendency of inter-war modernism, which was to treat art as something subsumed into a total architecture that directly addressed life.¹²

The exhibition of Le Corbusier’s art in Australia in 1953 occurred in parallel with the exhibitions mounted in Europe and North America, yet the context was fundamentally different. First, no architectural materials accompanied Le Corbusier’s art in Australia – it simply sat alongside the work of fellow artists in an institutional setting. Secondly, Le Corbusier had no control over the presentation of his paintings in the Australian exhibition, only their selection. Finally, the exhibition’s interaction with both the Australian public and its media provided a colourful backdrop to the reception of the art; however, Le Corbusier was not in a position to speak about the works himself, remaining 17,000 kilometres away in Europe.

Reactions of media and public

‘French Painting Today’ was a significant cultural and social event in each of the six cities it toured, important for introducing Australians of the postwar period to modernist art on a grand scale. Yet for a nation more accustomed to looking at figurative art, the extent of abstract work on show proved a considerable challenge. Media representations o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Uncharted territory
• PART I Art
• PART II Architecture
• PART III Urbanism
• Bibliography
• Index