DP_Corbusier_Jeanneret_EN.pdf

7/27/2019 DP_Corbusier_Jeanneret_EN.pdf

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LE CORBUSIER &PIERRE JEANNERET:THE CHANDIGARH

PROJECTLOWCOST FURNITURE

AND OTHER WORKS

EXHIBITION FROMSEPTEMBER 20 TO DECEMBER 17, 2011

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INFORMATION TO THE MEDIANext September, Galerie Anton Meier will inaugurate the first exhibition inSwitzerland ever devoted to the work of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, entitledThe Chandigarh-Project. The exhibition will be open to the public, from September20 to December 17 2011 at the Palais de lAthne in Geneva. There will be a privateviewing on Tuesday September 20, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Galerie Anton Meier had already proposed in 2007, the first exhibition in Switzerland devoted to thework of the Geneva-born architect, Pierre Jeanneret. Today, a few months to the 125th anniversary ofthe birth of Le Corbusier, Anton Meier returns to the revolutionary design of the two architects andallows the public a clearer insight into the humanistic work of Pierre Jeanneret, often overshadowedby that of his illustrious cousin.

The exhibition showcases a unique adventure: the construction in India from 1950 onwards of Chandigarh- and the furniture created for the new city by Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier. A selection of piecesfrom that period, handcrafted on site for the official buildings of Punjabs new capital, is presented withrare street furniture units as well as Le Corbusiers symbols and prints.

Exceptional furnishings and street furniture

Solid teak tables, cane chairs, armchairs in wood, leather and Indian cotton displayed alongside othermore amazing items such an item recovered from the street: a circular cast iron manhole cover, witha recessed reproduction of the Chandigarh master plan drawn by Le Corbusier in 1951. These itemsillustrate the modern spirit that drove the design of the new city, entirely drawn by Le Corbusier,Pierre Jeanneret and their teams. They are like pieces of a total work of art on an urban scale.

The furniture pieces also show exceptional workmanship. In the aftermath of independence, India wasbereft of industrial infrastructure, everything used to be imported from Great Britain. Pierre Jeanneret instigator of a kind of sustainable development before the concept even existed decided to tacklethe problem from a different angle. He decided to use local materials and expertise to develop, basedon his drawings, furniture manufactured by local craftsmen - by Indians, thereby liberating them fromtheir dependence on the West.

The underrated cousin, artisan of Chandigarh

From 1923 onwards, the Geneva-based architect Pierre Jeanneret (1896 1967) became the partnerof his cousin Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, alias Le Corbusier (1887 1965). In Paris, they created the

Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret practice. Together, they designed some of the most remarkableworks of the 20th century: Villa Savoye, the Clart building in Geneva and with Charlotte Perriand in1927, iconic furniture such as the LC2 armchair and the B306 chaise longue.

Although the two cousins shared a similar architectural vision, they disagreed on their commitmentsduring the war. Le Corbusier is highly criticised today for choosing to open a practice in Vichy duringthe occupation, while Pierre Jeanneret left to join the French Resistance. After the war, they reunitedto work on the monumental construction project of the new capital for the Punjab State, brainchild ofPrime Minister Nehru. While Le Corbusier saw Chandigarh as the opportunity to finally implement hisrevolutionary theories, Pierre Jeanneret would be the lynchpin for the projects practical implementa-tion. While Le Corbusier pursued other large-scale projects at the same time, Pierre Jeanneret movedto India, where he lived for 15 years while helping to draw the colossal plans of the parliament, theuniversity and the Chandigarh court in particular. He only returned to Geneva a couple of years beforehis death, after completing drawings for most of the city, training local architects and helping to de-

velop expertise.

As the first exhibition in Switzerland devoted to the works of Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier, and afollow up to Pierre Jeanneret: Chandigarh Project. Low Cost Furniture in 2007, this show is a uniqueopportunity to revisit what the two cousins embodied from 1950 onwards.


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THE CHANDIGARH PROJECT

Historical background

In 1948, the region of Punjab was torn apart by the partition of India and Pakistan when India gainedindependence from Britain. The predominantly Sikh and Hindu Punjabi Indians lost their capital, theprestigious Mogul city of Lahore, to the Moslem Punjabis incorporated into Pakistan.

In 1948, the Indian Prime Minister, Nehru, began contemplating the idea of building a new capital forthe Indian Punjab. Nehru wanted a modern city, unfettered by the traditions of the past and whichwould become the symbol of Modern India. He chose Chandigarh, a small farming village in themiddle of the State. First, two American architects, proponents of the theories of Garden Cities, were

mandated to draw the master plan of the city. The accidental death of one of them, Matthew Nowicki,in a plane crash, put a halt to the project. Le Corbusier was then selected by the Indians, to continuethe project.

Le Corbusier,Manhole cover,c. 1951-54,cast iron. 66,5 cm.

Chandigarh: birth of a new city

The Swiss-born architect, native of La Chaux-de-Fonds, could at last realize his dream of a mo-dern city, already theorized in 1922. His revolutio-nary concept of collective housing had alreadybeen tried and tested in the Marseille UnitdHabitation (housing block unit), afterthe war. He then conceived, together withPierre Jeanneret, his partner during the majorParis years - 1920 to 1940 -, a very bold plan forthe Indian city.

Le Corbusier applied the symbolism of the humanbody to the city plan. The head of the city, the

seat of executive, legislative and judiciary power,was placed in the north. The heart of the city,a commercial area with markets, theatre housesand public areas, was placed in the middle. Thecity was divided into rectangular grids connec-ted by a network of roads and vegetations, ana-logous to the human veins and lungs. Inside thegrids, the houses were laid out along the organicstreets with flexible shapes. An artificial lake atthe head of the city supplied water to a riverflowing through a series of parks.


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Le Corbusier drew some of his greatest masterpieces in Chandigarh. The High Court of Justice, theGeneral Secretariat, the 250m-long building for Ministers, and the Parliament with its hyperboloidtower modelled on the cooling towers of electrical power plants. In addition to these buildings,

Le Corbusier designed tapestries for interior furnishing and a painted enamel coated monumentaldoor for the Parliament house. The open hand giant sculpture has become the symbol of the city andof Le Corbusier.

Although it may seem austere at first sight, the wealth of details has created in Chandigarh a humane,organic and playful architecture that has gained worldwide recognition. In the entire history of huma-nity, Chandigarh is only rivalled by Brasilia - the new capital of Brazil in 1956, conceived by the brilliantarchitect, Oscar Niemeyer. In fact, Niemeyer recounts how his meeting with Le Corbusier in the 1930s

influenced his architectural vision.

Le Corbusier / Pierre Jeanneret,Model of the State Central Library,c. 1960.

Jeanneret: prime contractor of this organicarchitecture

The citys construction spanned the 1950s and1960s. Right from the beginning, Le Corbusierassigned the responsibility of implementing hisdrawings to Pierre Jeanneret. A couple of Britisharchitects, Edwin Maxwell Frey and Jane BeverlyDrew, recognized for their work on tropicalarchitecture, joined the team and were in chargeof the housing units. The four then worked with

local Indian architects.

Jeanneret moved to India, created the citys scho-ol of architecture and became an advisor to thegovernment. He designed a large number of buil-dings for the city, such as the villas, the universityand the Gandhi Bhavan monument, considered ashis masterpiece.

The edifices are in brick or concrete. Inge-nious sun-breaking devices are used to createshade inside the buildings and allow interplay ofshapes on the faades of buildings.


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The Chandigarh furniture, pieces of a complete workof art

Everything in Chandigarh is modern. From bus stops to go-vernment buildings, road signs to the sailing club, manholecovers to hospitals, stadiums to nursery schools, everythingwas designed by the architects. The same goes for the fur-niture, mostly designed by Pierre Jeanneret for the publicbuildings. In 1927, he met Charlotte Perriand, and designedwith her the furniture for the Le Corbusier-Pierre Jeanneretpractice, including the famous LC2 chair and the B306 chaiselongue.

For Chandigarh, Pierre Jeanneret drew a very extensive se-ries of furniture using local expertise and materials. Derivedfrom Indian craftsmanship and a revolutionary design, thepieces of Chandigarh furniture were custom made for each

function. The Government buildings were furnished with solidteak or Indian rosewood furniture upholstered with leatherfrom already dead cows, as required by Sikh and Hindu tra-ditions. Each piece of furniture was designed to be totallyfunctional. The desks had storage holes, the armchairs hadwell-padded, comfortable seats, and the caned seats ofchairs were comfortable even during the very hot seasons.Other pieces were made with less luxurious materials such asbamboo, iron rods, cotton. The ingenious shapes allowed allsorts of combination. Some desks were designed as cornerpieces to offer more working space. V-shaped legs, reminis-cent of the wooden trestle tables of architects, were oftenused. Geometrical lines combined with the organic aspect

of shapes and materials directly echoed the shapes of thecity. In fact, the citys master plan, which was hand drawn byLe Corbusier, was reproduced on a circular cast iron manholecover. In Chandigarh, every object is a piece that fits into thetapestry of the total artwork represented by the city.

From Chandigarh to Paris

In the 1990s, the inhabitants of Chandigarh sought to renew their furniture for more contemporary

pieces. The pieces were therefore auctioned off in lots often comprising technical pieces and scrap.A few specialists, such as Paris-based Eric Touchaleaume, bought the lots, sorted through the piecesand had them carefully restored in France. Author of a seminal book on Chandigarh published in 2010,Eric Touchaleaume was already at the source of the Anton Meier exhibition devoted to the Chandigarhfurniture in 2007. At last, the efforts of these enthusiasts to gain recognition for the importance of thesepieces are finally paying off.

Over the past years, pieces of Chandigarh furniture signed by Pierre Jeanneret have been regularlyexhibited in Europe and in the United States, and at major trade shows worldwide. The passion of inter-national collectors for the Geneva-born architect has been increasing as the public becomes increasin-gly aware of the important role he played alongside Le Corbusier. The low-cost furniture designedby Pierre Jeanneret for Chandigarh has for example, kindled a great deal of interest among collec-tors worldwide, selling at record prices in auctions by famous houses such as Christies, Sothebys,Artcurial in Paris or again Wright in Chicago. However, apart from Anton Meiers 2007 exhibition,Jeanneret is still rare in his native country. The wealth of todays exhibition Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret:The Chandigarh Project Low Cost Furniture and other works is precisely to allow the public to disco-

ver the full importance of the work of these pioneers.

Pierre Jeanneret,Judge Chair ,c. 1960.Solid Teak, leather.H. 121 x 57,5 x 77 cm.


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Le Corbusier / Pierre Jeanneret,Armchairs, c. 1955/56.

Le Corbusier,Ministers Table/desk,c. 1958/59.Solid wood and

(Indian rosewood) veneer.Height 76 x 347 x 138 cm.Collapsible.


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Pierre Jeanneret,Office Table and Armchair,1950s.

Pierre Jeanneret,Office Table, 1950s. Pigeonholedesk. Solid Indian rosewoodupholstered in antique red leather.H. 71 cm x 122 cm x 82,5 cm.


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Pierre Jeanneret,Standard lamp ,c. 1955/56.

Height. 169 cm.

Pierre Jeanneret,Caned fireside chair,

c. 1960.Solid Teak, canning.H. 70 x 53,5 x 78 cm.


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Charles-Edouard Jeanneret alias Le CorbusierBorn in 1887 at La Chaux-de-Fonds. Died in 1965 at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (France).

After studying engraving, carving and decorative arts under Charles LEplattenier at theLa Chaux-de-Fonds Art School, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret travelled extensively and met a largenumber of modern architects. He worked with Auguste and Gustave Perret in Paris, then withPeter Behrens in Berlin. From 1909 onwards, he built houses at La Chaux-de-Fonds and taught at theArt School. In 1917, he moved to Paris and founded the LEsprit Nouveau magazine in 1919 with the

painter Amde Ozenfant. He adopted the name Le Corbusier in 1920. His cousin Pierre Jeanneretjoined him in Paris in 1922. Le Corbusier painted, published books and completed a large numberof architectural projects in Europe. These included the Soyouz Centre in Moscow in 1928 and theVilla Savoye in Poissy in 1929. He founded the Congrs Internationaux dArchitecture Moderne(CIAM) in 1928 in La Sarraz. In the 1930s, he travelled extensively, completed many publicationsand constructions and partnered with other architects such as Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costafor the Ministry of National Education and Health at Rio. He adopted French citizenship in 1930.In 1940 he closed his Paris practice and went to live in Vichy. In 1944, he started research on theUnits dHabitation, the first of which was built in 1947 and 1952 in Marseille. In 1951, he began theconstruction of Chandigarh, a new city in India. The High Court of Justice designed by Le Corbusierwas inaugurated by Prime Minister Nehru in 1955. In the 1950s, he tackled other projects in Japan,in the United States and In Europe, such as the Notre-Dame du Haut church in Ronchamp. In 1961he began working on a series of drawings for the city of Friminy in France for a large number ofbuildings including a Unit dhabitation, a stadium and a church which were completed in 2006.He drowned in the Mediterranean in 1965 at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, near Menton where he had asummer home. Throughout his career, Le Corbusier produced furniture (with Charlotte Perriand andPierre Jeanneret), sculptures, wall paintings and tapestries. He regularly displayed his paintings, forexample in 1938 at the Kunsthaus Zurich. In 1962, the Paris Museum of Modern Art held a retrospectiveof his work.Note that 2012 will mark the 125th anniversary of his birth and will be widely celebrated in Switzerlandand in many other countries. Although rejected in 2011, we hope that in 2012, UNESCO will accept theregistration of Le Corbusiers entire work on its world heritage list.

Pierre Jeanneret

Born in 1896 in Geneva. Died in 1967 in Geneva.

Pierre Jeanneret graduated from the Geneva Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He worked with Auguste andGustave Perret in Paris in 1921, before he began his 20-year partnership with Le Corbusier in 1922.From 1927 onwards, he drew furniture pieces with Charlotte Perriand who became his compa-nion. The Le CorbusierPierre Jeanneret practice closed in 1940 and the partnership ended whenPierre Jeanneret joined the French Resistance and Le Corbusier did not. After the war, they resumedtheir collaboration with the Chandigarh construction project. Pierre Jeanneret, with Edwin MaxwellFry and his wife Jane Beverly Drew, was responsible for a large part of the architectural creationsof the new city. He mostly designed and built the University, the Ghandi Bhawan Memorial and theUniversity library. After the construction of Chandigarh, Jeanneret stayed on in the city as chief archi-tect and adviser to the Punjab Government. He headed architectural and town planning projects forIndian cities such as Ahmedabad and Pandoh. He returned to Switzerland for health reasons and in

1965 and died in Geneva in 1967.

BIOGRAPHIES


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EXHIBITION FROM

SEPTEMBER 20 TO DECEMBER 17, 2011

PRIVATE VIEWINGTUESDAY SEPTEMBER 20FROM 6:00 PM TO 8:00 PM

PRESS RELATIONS

Chlo BittonTrivial Mass Production

T +41 21 323 04 10M +41 78 734 68 79

[email protected]

HD photos, press visits of the exhibition and requests forinterviews with the collector Eric Touchaleaume Tuesday

September 20, 2011.

Open Tuesday - Friday: 2pm-6.30pm

Saturday: 10 am-1pm or by appointmentClosed: Sunday and Monday

Nearest parking lot,Saint-AntoineBus lines 3, 5 and 7,stop Athne

GALERIE ANTON MEIER

Palais de lAthne

2, rue de lAthneCH 1205 Genve

T +41 22 311 14 50

[email protected]

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DP_Corbusier_Jeanneret_EN.pdf