​Exhibition on Le Corbusier’s new direction as an artist and architect

Villa Stenersen, which is one of the National Museum’s exhibition venues, will show the exhibition “Le Corbusier by the Sea” from 5 May. The exhibition will explore Le Corbusier’s work as an artist in the period 1926–36 by presenting reproductions of fifteen of his most important paintings as well as a number of sketches and drawings (also reproductions). During these years, Le Corbusier travelled every summer to Le Piquey on the coast of southwest France – a place that would influence his work as both a painter and an architect.

Le Corbusier is often associated with the idea of the house as a machine for living in and with his five points of a new architecture, many of which Korsmo himself employed in his work on Villa Stenersen. Less well known is Le Corbusier’s work as a fine artist or how his fascination with nature influenced him as an architect and painter, as detailed in this exhibition.

Non-stop drawing far from the hustle and bustle of ParisIn Le Piqueyhe drew incessantly, whether boats, shells, cones, driftwood, or rocks he found on the beach. Back in his Parisian studio he reworked these motifs in his paintings. In addition to presenting his sketches and paintings, the exhibition will screen two films based on Le Corbusier’s own footage from Le Piquey. Along with excerpts from personal letters, the films show less well-known sides to Le Corbusier, such as his dreamy and humorous nature.

Le Corbusier wrote enthusiastically about how fishermen built their shacks as a natural response to their way of living. “These houses are palaces!” he declared. The exhibition will show visitors how Le Corbusier’s architecture changed around 1930, when he started designing houses with stone walls and wooden constructions, in stark contrast to the modernist idiom that characterized his previous villas of polished concrete.

“Le Corbusier by the Sea” is a collaboration with Professor Emeritus Tim Benton and the artist Bruno Hubert. Benton is an internationally renowned art historian who has written several books on Le Corbusier. The exhibition can be seen until 16.12.2018.

The exhibition curators are Bruno Hubert, Tim Benton, and Talette Simonsen. For more information, please contact Talette Rørvik Simonsen at talette.rorvik.simonsen@nasjonalmuseet.no.