May 5–Oct 28, 2018

Le Corbusier by the Sea

Address
Tuengen allé 10, Oslo Map
Hours
Sun 12 am–4 pm pm

“I am attracted to every kind of natural organisation”
Le Corbusier, 1935

Many associate the architect Le Corbusier with the idea of the house as a machine for living – or with radical urban plans involving high-rise housing blocks and efficient traffic systems. He was obsessed with the machine. And yet his fascination with nature had a significant impact on his work, as both an architect and a painter.

This exhibition focuses on the years 1926–36, when Le Corbusier visited the Bassin d’Arcachon, a bay on the southwest coast of France, each summer. It was a place for recreation, far from the urban distractions of Paris. The architect tirelessly sketched whatever he found on the beach: boats, shells, cones, driftwood and stones. Later, back home, he abstracted this subject matter in his paintings. He wrote with fascination about how the fishermen built their cabins as a natural response to their daily routines and the climate: “These houses are palaces!”

With reproductions of sketches, written notes, photographs and paintings, the exhibition presents a less well-known aspect of Le Corbusier, as a dreamy and humorous person.

The exhibition is a collaboration with Professor Emeritus Tim Benton and the artist Bruno Hubert.