Le Corbusier: Tapestries

In addition to paintings, sculptures, drawings, and enamel work, famed architect Le Corbusier also created tapestries. ''The destiny of the tapestry of today emerges: it becomes the mural of the modern age,'' Le Corbusier wrote.

From 1936 to 1965, he made at least 27 tapestry drawings. His collaboration with Pierre Baudouin to turn his drawings into tapestries began in 1949. The work was done at the Pinton workshops in Felletin, France. In 1961 he worked with the weavers of Firminy to create 765 square yards of tapestry for the Palace of Justice in Chandigarh, India.

From fondationlecorbusier.fr and nytimes.com
All images from fondationlecorbusier.fr

Trois femmes sur fond blanc, 1950

Deux bouteilles et compagnie, 1951

Les mains, 1951

Nature morte, 1954

Bonjour Calder, 1958

Les dés sont jetés, 1960

Nature morte, 1965

Le Corbusier: Enamel work

This is the fourth in a series about the art of Le Corbusier,  which has so far featured his paintings, his sculpture, and his drawings.  His work with enamel took place in the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, shortly before his death in 1965.

Characterized by bright primary colors, these works explore the human form, as well as his recurring motif of The Open Hand (La Main Ouverte).

From fondationlecorbusier.fr
All images from fondationlecorbusier.fr

Trois femmes debout, 1956

Taureau à la main, 1963

Main ouverte, 1963

Icône, 1964

Femme en blanc, barque et coquillage, 1965

Le Corbusier: Drawing and collage

In the first post about Le Corbusier as an artist, his paintings were examined. In the second post, we looked at his sculptures. This post will look at some of his pencil drawings and one of his collages.

From fondationlecorbusier.fr

Pompéi, 1911

Portrait de M. Jeanneret-père sur lit de mort, 1926

Portrait de femme au fichu, 1931

Deux femmes en buste enlacées, 1932

Portrait de Charlotte-Amélie Jeanneret-Perret, 1951

Composition avec photo de la bombe "H" , 1952

Le Corbusier: Sculpture

In the first post of this series, we looked at examples of Le Corbusier's paintings. This post is dedicated to his sculpture, which he produced from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. These were all done in wood. Most were natural wood, though a few were painted in primary colors.

All images from fondationlecorbusier.fr

Mobile, 1947

Ubu, 1947

Icône, 1953

Femme dansant, 1954

Nature morte, 1957

Petite confidence, 1963

Panurge, 1964

Le Corbusier: Paintings

Most people think of Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris) as one of the most influential architects of the 20th century and are familiar with his furniture designs, but he was also a prolific painter.

In 1918 he met several artists--Amédée Ozenfant, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso and others--and developed Purism, a new concept of painting. He painted under his real name at first, but in later years signed his works under the well known pseudonym, which was first originally created for his architectural work.

He had his first exhibition in 1918 and continued to show his work and support the visual arts throughout his lifetime. Over the next few weeks, I will continue this series with posts about his sculpture, drawings and collage, enamel work, tapestry and engraving.

From fondationlecorbusier.fr
All images from fondationlecorbusier.fr

La cheminée, 1918

Deux bouteilles, 1926

Deux femmes fantasques, 1937

Femme et mains, 1948

Adieu Von, 1957

Taureau, 1963

Gallery poster

Amédée Ozenfant, Albert Jeanneret and Charles-Édouard Jeanneret

New view of Corbu

All of us who appreciate the genius and eccentricity of  Le Corbusier have seen photographs and caricatures of him...the tiny round glasses, the bow tie and suit, chatting with Einstein, even painting in the nude. And all in black and white.

nybooks.com

At the end of 1953, photographer Willy Rizzo took a series of color portraits of Le Corbusier at the architect's apartment in Boulogne, his workshop at 35 rue de Sèvres in Paris, the National Museum of Modern Art and the studio which makes tapestries designed by Le Corbusier. At the time, three were published in Paris Match, but they have not been exhibited since. Through December 15, Rizzo and Fondation Le Corbusier are hosting a joint exhibit of the photos, which give us a completely new look at the man.

To enjoy more of these images, as well as an insightful post, visit Architizer.

From corbusier.fr, willyrizzo.com and architizer.com

architizer.com

architizer.com

architizer.com

Le Corbusier's strange obsession with E.1027

Eileen Gray designed and built the villa known as E.1027 as a vacation home on an isolated stretch of the French Riviera on the western side of Cap Martin overlooking the Bay of Monaco for her lover, architect and critic Jean Badovici. The home was completed in 1929. The name of the house sounds very impersonal, but it is actually a code for their intertwined names. The E is for Eileen, and the 10 is for J, the tenth letter in the alphabet. The 2 is for B, and the 7 is for G.

Both Badovici and Gray knew Le Corbusier, who was considered the most prominent modernist architect of the time. In fact, Le Corbusier had encouraged her work early in her career and had become fascinated with her as a person and an artist. He developed an obsessive interest in E.1027, and in 1938 he entered the house and painted a series of eight sexual murals on the walls. Some say Badovici invited him, while others say he was uninvited.

Whether invited or not, he himself called it vandalism. Gray was livid when she discovered what had happened. She insisted that Badovici write a letter to Le Corbusier, demanding that he pay to have the murals removed and return the house to its original condition. Le Corbusier reacted by publishing photographs, saying his murals "burst out from dull, sad walls where nothing is happening…an immense transformation, a spiritual value introduced throughout."

In the 1952 Le Corbusier built a wooden structure knows as the Cabanon near E.1027, so he could look at the house constantly. When Badovici died in 1956, he built a two-storey hostel overlooking the house. In 1965 Le Corbusier had a heart attack and died while swimming in the waters outside E.1027.

Gray died in 1976 at almost 100 years of age, and it is said that she never got over her resentment about the murals.

From kaufmann-mercantile.com, ounodesign.com, patriciaoreilly.com and shedworking.co.uk

E.1027
ounodesign.com

E.1027
ounodesign.com

Le Corbusier, his wife and Jean Badovici
ounodesign.com

Le Corbusier painting one of the murals at E.1027
kaufmann-mercantile.com

Le Corbusier and one of the murals
fondationlecorbusier.fr

Cabanon
shedworking.co.uk

For those of you curious about the scar on Le Corbusier's leg, he was injured in 1938 while swimming in Saint-Tropez Bay. He was trapped under a yacht as it passed over him, and the propeller blades cut him badly. You can read his account of the incident here.

Charlotte Perriand

When 24-year-old Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) went to Le Corbusier's studio in 1927 and asked for a job, he reportedly showed her the door and said, "We don't embroider cushions here." According to the story, he was forced to eat his words and ask her to come to work for him when he saw the rooftop bar Perriand had created in glass, steel and aluminum.

Perriand was born in Paris, the daughter of a tailor and a haute couture seamstress, and trained at l'École de l'Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs. She married a year after graduation and moved with her husband to a small rented apartment, which she gutted and turned into a Machine Age marvel. That marriage ended in 1930.

With Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret in 1928, she designed three chairs: the LC-2 Grand Confort armchair, the B301 reclining chair and the B306 chaise longue.

Publicity shots of the chaise featured Perriand with crossed legs wearing a shockingly short skirt for the day and a necklace of industrial ball bearings.

designmuseum.org

An even more provocative shot showed her on the chaise with the necklace lying broken on the floor.

henry-moore.com

A liberated Perriand
amsterdammodernblog.blogspot.com

Before hiring Perriand, Le Corbusier had furnished his exhibitions and buildings with ready-made furniture, such as that manufactured by Thonet or Maples. While working for Le Corbusier, Perriand was responsible for overseeing production of prototypes, organizing exhibitions and supervising the installation of interior furnishings for Le Corbusier's buildings.

In 1929 she was one of the founding members of the Union des artistes modernes and organized their first exhibition in 1930. By 1935 she was exploring her own ideas in interior design, and her association with Le Corbusier ended in 1937, although she continued to collaborate with Jeanneret. Her preference in materials, by this time, had turned from metal and glass to wood. She later collaborated with Jean Prouvé, Georges Blanchon and Fernand Léger.

In 1940 Perriand was invited to Japan to act as an advisor on industrial art. Because of World War II, she was asked to leave in 1942, but the naval blockade forced her to remain in Viet Nam for the duration of the war, where she married her second husband and gave birth to their daughter Pernette.

When she returned to France in 1946, she revived her solo career, but she was persuaded to collaborate with Le Corbusier on his Unité d’Habitation apartment building in Marseilles. One of her most important non-collaborative commissions were the conference rooms for the United Nations office in Geneva.

Perriand described her working life as "a sincere and constant search for a modern living art."

From moma.org, r20thcentury.com and designmuseum.org

Ventaglio table
edition20.com

Freeform table
businessweek.com

Bench with storage
artfinding.com

Petalo tables
edition20.com

Armchair
 mashpedia.com

Nuage Bahut cabinet
knibbdesign.com

Daybed
artnet.com

Leather stack chairs
coolhouse.1stdibs.com

Wall mount desk
1stdibs.com

Bar stools
amsterdammodern.com