In art and architecture, the myth becomes an antidote to oblivion, giving misplaced importance to private creation where – besides the building or the canvas – the artist or architect too becomes a figure worthy of worship
The most celebrated building of the 20th century, Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye stands remote and isolated in the French countryside at Poissy outside Paris. Its detachment rang especially true at the crucial moment in the early phase of Modernism when it was built. The building’s legendary status grew more so in later years, when in fact it came to define the age itself. Corbusier’s own statement that ‘the house is a machine for living’ suggestive of the assembly line, industry and efficiency only cemented its place in the movement. Its philosophical radicalism aside, the house displayed new components for the future of domestic construction – pilotis, a free facade, open plan, a ramp and ribbon windows. The simplistic collective of spare parts was used in such personal artistic combinations, that it told you absolutely nothing of the secret life of the house, nothing of its internal organisation, the variety and sizes of rooms, their source of light. The plan, in fact, broke away from Classical symmetry, away from the surrounding peasant huts and farming countryside of sloped thatched houses, into a precise square concrete box – a brilliant white in the green vale that surrounded it. All that it revealed was a thin strip of window that ran the entire perimeter of the wall, regardless of whether there was a room behind or a terrace garden – the entire assembly raised on a sparse set of thin pillars. At the upper level, an internal courtyard opened up through full-height floor-to-ceiling windows, which were then enclosed by the surrounding wall. The building’s contradictions were clothed in such prosaic simplicity that it left the resident confronted with constant redefinitions of privacy, solitude, openness, intimacy and exhilaration.
この記事は Arts Illustrated の Aprill - May 2018 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Arts Illustrated の Aprill - May 2018 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
A Sky Full Of Thoughts
Artist James Turrell’s ‘Twilight Epiphany Skyspace’ brings together the many nuances of architecture, time, space, light and music in a profound experience that blurs boundaries and lets one roam free within their own minds
We Are Looking into It
Swiss-based artists Jojakim Cortis and Adrian Sonderegger talk to us about the evolving meaning and purpose of photography and the many perspectives it lends to history
Cracked Wide Open
Building one of the world’s largest domes was no mean task for anyone, let alone an amateur goldsmith, so how did Filippo Brunelleschi accomplish building not one, but two of them?
In Search of a Witness
In conversation with legendary artist Arpana Caur on all things epiphanic, on all things pandemic, and on all things artistic
Where the Shadows Speak
The founder of Sarmaya Arts Foundation takes us through the bylanes of his journey with Sindhe Chidambara Rao, the custodian of the ancient art form of shadow puppetry – Tholu Bommalata
Bodies in Motion
What happens to the memory of a revelatory experience when it is re-watched through the frames of a screen? It somehow makes the edges sharper and the focal point clearer, as we discover through Chandralekha’s iconic Sharira
Faces in the Water
As physical ‘masks’ become part of our life, we take a look at artists working with different aspects of ‘faces’ and the things that lurk beneath the surface.
A Meeting at the Threshold
The immortal actor exemplified all that is admirable about his profession, from his creative choices to his work philosophy, and his passing was a low blow. This is our tribute to the prince among stars – Irrfan
The Imperfect Layout To The Imperfect Mystery
Jane De Suza’s ‘The Spy Who Lost Her Head’ doesn’t feature a protagonist with superhuman skills of deduction, nor a plot that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. Here, quirks and imperfections are pushed into the spotlight
Free and Flawed
Greta Gerwig revitalises the literary classic, Little Women, highlighting the literary journey of its temperamental and wonderfully flawed female protagonist, Jo March