Le Corbusier painting in the nude at Eileen Gray’s Villa E-1027
“I looked down: a big area of blood-red water, and half my thigh floating like a ray (the fish!), attached by a narrow strip of flesh.” Continue reading
Search Results for: Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier’s “The Atmosphere of Moscow,” along with His Letter to Ginzburg on Deurbanization
From Le Corbusier’s Precisions on the Present State of Architecture and City Planning (1930) ***** I am not trying to learn Russian, that would be a wager. But I hear people saying krasni and krassivo. I question. Krasni means red, … Continue reading
Ivan Leonidov: Artist, dreamer, poet
Since he first emerged on the architectural scene in the twenties, the name of Ivan Leonidov has acquired legendary status. Continue reading
LEF — the Soviet “left front” of art (1923-1930)
The LEF is more than a symptom, more than an expression of a fresh culture or of post-revolutionary man. It is a courageous attempt to give art an important social function in a world where it’s been prostituted for five centuries. Continue reading
Suprematism in architecture: Kazimir Malevich and the arkhitektons
Contemporary architecture gives the impression of being two-dimensional. Continue reading
Panteleimon Golosov, Leningradskaia Pravda building in Moscow (1930-1935)
This prodigious building, of colossal dimension, spoke to a new model of society forged upon the ideals of Revolution, advancing toward the “glorious edification” of socialism. Continue reading
Book review: Architecture between spectacle and use (2011)
The essays in Architecture between Spectacle and Use, ed. Anthony Vidler (2008), examine contemporary architecture in terms of factors like “usage” and “display.” Continue reading
On Anatole Kopp
What was the catalyst for such frenzied and unprecedented formal and technical innovation amongst Soviet architects during the 1920s? What could have so blurred the line between reality and unreality that later historians would look back at their projects as mere outlandish curiosities, with no hope of ever being realized? Continue reading
Anatole Kopp (1915-1990): the Engaged Architect and the Concept of Modern Architecture
“This study seeks to understand Kopp’s historical work based on his career as an architect and his role as an engaged intellectual.” Continue reading
Oskar Schlemmer’s Bauhaus costume parties (1924-1926)
“The greatest expenditures of energy, however, go into the costume parties. Inhuman, or humanoid, but always new. You may see monstrously tall shapes stumbling about, colorful mechanical figures that yield not the slightest clue as to where the head is. Sweet girls inside a red cube.” Farkas Molnár, “Life at the Bauhaus” (1925) Continue reading