MoMA's Le Corbusier

All artwork and architecture by Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret) (French, born Switzerland 1887-1965). Blue Mountains, 1910, pencil, watercolor, ink on paper. Fondation Le Corbusier (FLC), Paris. Copyright 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/FLC.

Modern architect Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, 1887-1965) still influences architecture and town planning. MoMA's comprehensive retrospective, "Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes," examines interactions in his oeuvre between architecture, painting, design, photography, film, urbanism, and other disciplines, spanning the range of his creative practice over six decades, across five continents. The Jura landscape, above, from Le Corbusier's early life in his hometown of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. 

Le Corbusier at the Acropolis, September 1911. Copyright FLC-ADAGP.

In 1911, Le Corbusier took his "Journey to the East" through the Balkans and Istanbul to Greece. He filled his notebooks with descriptive passages and sketches, recording his impressions--in Athens of the Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike and the Acropolis. 

The Parthenon, Athens, 1911. Pencil, gouache and watercolor on paper. FLC, Paris. Copyright 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/FLC. 

Visiting sites of sculptural and architectural antiquity was central to his development. He evaluated the contour, composition and proportions of the Parthenon in detail; it remained for him a measure of all architecture. From the Acropolis, he derived his interest in the architectural promenade, which became a key component of his design. Architectural spaces should flow together visually as they are experienced while walking through and around them.

The architectural spectacle offers itself consecutively to the view; one follows an itinerary and the views develop with great variety. 

Painter Amédée Ozenfant, Albert Jeanneret and Le Corbusier in the workshop at 29 rue d'Astorg, Paris, 1922. Copyright FLC-ADAGP. 

He established an architecture studio in Paris in 1922, collaborating with painter Amédée Ozenfant on the journal L'Esprit nouveau, a publication of modernism in painting and architecture.With the first issue, he adopted his pseudonym--Charles-Édouard Jeanneret became Le Corbusier, a derivation from his grandfather's name, Lecorbesier. 

Villa Le Lac, Corseaux 1924-25. Perspective of living room with view toward Lake Geneva. Ink and colored pencil on paper. FLC, Paris. Copyright 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/FLC. 

Interweaving interior and exterior rooms with a horizontal window along the length, the building transforms into a viewing device for the landscape. Villa Le Lac in Corseaux, a small house Le Corbusier designed for his parents on the shore of Lake Geneva, illustrates his creation of the ribbon window, which reoccurs in his later work, introducing "...the immensity of the outdoors, the unity of a lakeside landscape with its storms and radiant calms." He used drawings extensively in his projects, from first observation of a site until completion, a link between his painting and architecture.

Villa Le Lac, Corseaux 1924-25. Chromogenic color print, 2012, photograph by Richard Pare. 

The villa's courtyard and garden patio are contained by a lakefront wall raised on the eastern side to form a screen with an opening, its proportions similar to a landscape painting. While the house's ribbon window suggests a panorama, the courtyard view selects and frames a fragment of the lake and Alps. 

Villa Le Lac, Corseaux 1924-25. Copyright FLC-ADAGP. 

Nature morte, 1920, oil on canvas. The Museum of Modern Art. Copyright 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/FLC. 

Throughout his career, Le Corbusier divided the day between his painting studio and the architecture office. His paintings and architecture correlate, the spatial compositions in his paintings reflecting in his buildings with multiple viewpoints and readings. 

Co-workers at the atelier at the Rue de Sèvres, Paris, 1926. Copyright FLC-ADAGP. 

Model of the Villa Savoye, Poissy 1928-31. Wood, aluminum and plastic. The Museum of Modern Art. Copyright 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/FLC. 

Le Corbusier originally exhibited at MoMA in the 1932 "International Exhibition of Modern Architecture" with three projects, one of which was his commissioned country weekend house outside Paris, Villa Savoye, a realization of his "Five Points of a New Architecture." Buildings have five essentials: Pilotis (first floor columns that elevate the building off the ground), roof gardens, the free plan, the free façade (no longer structural and no defined front, side or back of the building), and the ribbon, or horizontal window. Le Corbusier's Five Points were intended to open new perspectives to architecture, extending to town planning. 

Villa Savoye, Poissy 1928-31. Chromogenic color print, 2012. Photograph by Richard Pare. 

The house must not have a front. Positioned on top of the dome, it must open out to the four horizons. The living floor, with its hanging garden, will be suspended above piloti so as to afford distant views over the horizon. 

Lego's model of the Villa Savoye. Copyright 2012, the LEGO Group. 

The villa was added to Lego's Architecture series last year, created by German architect Michael Hepp and Lego's model builder Steen Sig Anderson. Intended for ages 12 and up. According to Lego, nearly 95% of architects spent time building with construction toys as children, learning principles of architecture (Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Lego sets). 

Urban plan for Rio de Janeiro. Aerial perspective with Guanabara Bay, the center and the beaches, 1929. Charcoal, pencil and pastel on paper. Copyright FLC, Paris. 

Le Corbusier extended his architectural practice with a series of lecture tours starting in 1929. A tour of South America led him to develop plans for Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. His conception of regional planning emerged from "the view of the airplane," observing continents, islands and mountains. 

Le Corbusier and engineer-architect Alberto Monteiro de Carvalho in Rio, 1929. Copyright FLC-ADAGP. 

Plan for Buenos Aires. Profile view from the Rio de la Plata, 1929, pastel on paper. Copyright FLC, Paris. 

For Buenos Aires, Le Corbusier suggests buildings on pilotis above the water on an island in the Rio de la Plata that would serve as a presence for travelers arriving by boat. Modernism began to be explored locally in part due to his travels to South America. 

Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut, Ronchamp 1950-55. Chromogenic color print, 2012, Museum of Modern Art. Photograph by Richard Pare.

Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light...it is appreciated on the move, on foot; by walking and moving around, one can see how the architecture's ordering devices unfurl. 

MoMA, 11 West 53 Street. On view through September 23. 

Hopper Drawing

All artwork by Edward Hopper (1882-1967). Study for Route 6, Eastham, 1941, fabricated chalk, charcoal and graphite pencil on paper, digital image copyright Whitney Museum of American Art. 

Often described as a realist painter, Edward Hopper was a traditional draftsman who formulated concepts into detailed preparatory sketches, making a series of drawings in the development of a painting. The sketch for Route 6, Eastham balances architectural detail with Hopper's written notes, aiding him in remembering colors and light qualities back in the studio. His drawings present everyday aspects of the contemporary United States, many of New York City, and contain the themes and essential elements that were later developed in his paintings--the city at night, railroads, highways, suburban mansions, lobbies, apartment houses, offices, and movie theaters. 

The picture is planned very carefully in my mind before starting it, but except for a few small black and white sketches made from the fact, I have no other concrete data, but rely on refreshing my memory by looking often at the subject. 

An exhibition surveying Hopper's achievements as a draftsman shows at the Whitney Museum. "Hopper Drawing" is the first major museum exhibition to focus on the drawings and creative process of the artist, tracing interconnections between observation and invention in sketches and paintings, most from 1925 to 1950. "By comparing related studies to paintings, we can see the evolution of specific ideas as the artist combined, through drawing, his observations of the world with his imagination," says curator Carter Foster. "He got to his great oil paintings through drawing." 

 Study for New York Movie, 1938 or 1939, fabricated chalk on paper, Whitney Museum of American Art. 

Conventional and cinematic theater scenes are present throughout Hopper's work. During the 1920s and 1930s he was an avid theatergoer, admired film noir and was familiar with New York's movie houses. For New York Movie, he created 52 preparatory sketches in black chalk, the most comprehensive series of drawings for any of his paintings. Hopper recorded the interiors from different movie palaces, combining and transforming lobby and auditorium details from the Palace, Sheridan, Republic, Strand, and Globe theaters into the finished oil. He often created sparsely populated, moody environs of solitary figures and small gatherings, depicted in an ambiguous narrative. 

It is no exact transcription of a place, but pieced together from sketches and mental impressions of things in the vicinity. Any psychological ideas will have to be supplied by the viewer...You know, there are many thoughts, many impulses that go into a picture. 

Study for New York Movie, 1938 or 1939, fabricated chalk on paper, Whitney Museum of American Art. 

For the usherette, Jo Hopper posed in their apartment hallway. She modeled for almost all of the women in his paintings. 

New York Movie, 1939, oil on canvas, the Museum of Modern Art. Copyright Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by Whitney Museum of American Art. Digital image copyright the Museum of Modern Art/licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY. 

In an interview from 1961 with Hopper scholar Brian O'Doherty:

O'Doherty: Are your paintings reflective of the isolation of modern life?

Hopper: It may be true. It may not be true.

O'Doherty: What draws you to the dark landscapes you paint?

Hopper: I suppose it's just me. 

Edward Hopper sketching in Paris, 1907, gelatin silver print. 

Between 1906 and 1910, Hopper went on three trips abroad to England, Holland, Germany, Spain, Belgium, and Paris, the latter which he called, "A most paintable city...The light was different from anything I had ever known. The shadows were luminous, more reflected light." He sketched outdoors and studied European artists in museums--the Impressionists, Degas, Manet, and Goya. 

Josephine and Edward Hopper, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, 1927, gelatin silver print. 

They spent summers and early autumns in South Truro on Cape Cod, where they went on sketching excursions and painted watercolors of nearby locations and vernacular architecture. During the remainder of the year, residing in a Greenwich Village studio. New England's coastal communities and New York City were the two main sources for Hopper's subject matter. 

Study for Office at Night, 1940, fabricated chalk and charcoal on paper, Whitney Museum of American Art. 

Hopper recorded everyday scenes, imbuing them with mystery through strongly defined lighting, a sense of stillness and silence, cropped compositions, and unusual viewpoint angles. The drawings for Office at Night are highly finished compared to his sketches for other paintings. Typically, he preferred to develop the composition on the canvas. 

Study for Office at Night, 1940, fabricated chalk and graphite pencil on paper, Whitney Museum of American Art. 

The viewpoint, lighting and figures were continually refined--differences within a series of drawings similar to a progression of cinematic stills. Hopper influenced filmmakers, artists, writers, photographers, and musicians: Alfred Hitchcock, Ridley Scott, Wim Wenders, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Ernest Hemingway, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, and Tom Waits. 

Office at Night, 1940, oil on canvas, Walker Art Center. 

The picture was probably first suggested by many rides on the "L" train in New York City after dark and glimpses of office interiors that were so fleeting as to leave fresh and vivid impressions on my mind. Any more than this, the picture will have to tell, but I hope it will not tell any obvious anecdote, for none is intended. 

Study for Morning Sun, 1952, fabricated chalk and graphite pencil on paper. Copyright Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by and digital image copyright Whitney Museum of American Art. 

On view through October 6 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, New York, NY. 

The Berkeley Years

All artwork by Richard Diebenkorn (American, 1922-1993). Berkeley #22, 1954, oil on canvas. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution. All artwork images copyright 2013 The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation. All rights reserved. 

Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966, on view at San Francisco's de Young Museum through September 29, presents Diebenkorn's drawings and paintings produced when he lived in Berkeley. Featuring varied works that are both abstract and representational, the Berkeley period yielded a visual autobiography of Northern California. 

Early abstractions were named for places Diebenkorn lived (Albuquerque, Sausalito and Berkeley, above image) and evoke their specific environments, although he often stated that the paintings did not have landscape associations. "It's really the name of the place rather than the place itself. What I paint often seems to pertain to landscape but I try to avoid any rationalization of this either in my painting, or in later thinking about it. I'm not a  landscape painter (at this time, at any rate) or I would paint landscape directly."

He continually reworked a painting to discover an image, retaining traces of alterations, subtractions and superimpositions. Canvases are treated as fields extending to the edges, not organized in terms of figure-ground relationships. 

Berkeley #44, 1955, oil on canvas, private collection. 

An aerial perspective appears in Diebenkorn's paintings, influenced by airplane flights. Views from the airplane window offered a variety of ways to compress three-dimensional objects within the two-dimensional  picture plane. Forms suggesting vegetation, hilltops, valleys, water reservoirs, and horizontal strata are reconfigured in shallow depth. Berkeley was an indirect influence in many of the works. "I don't know of any artist who was more responsive to his physical environment than Richard," says artist William Brice. "If he moves down the block, it changes everything. He absorbed the aura of a place." 

Rose Mandel, Richard Diebenkorn, 1956. Digital scan from original negative. Copyright Rose Mandel Archive, all rights reserved. 

Seawall, 1957, oil on canvas. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 

Around 1955 his artistic style began to shift toward figuration. "I was never throwing things away when I switched from one way of painting to another," says Diebenkorn. "You can see a continuum from abstraction to representation, although, I  must say, it never felt like a smooth transition while I was in the middle of it." What followed was the second phase of his Berkeley period, in which he developed a unique realism which incorporated figure studies, still lifes and interiors. Landscapes served as nature studies. 

Cityscape 1 (Landscape 1), 1963, oil on canvas. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 

Diebenkorn composed geometrically sectioned cityscapes that required him to reevaluate his gestural painting. A complex range of shapes and textures take into account qualities of light and shadow observed in nature. His outdoor scenes have a sense of atmospheric openness. 

Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad, 1965, oil on canvas, private collection. 

Matisse, Cézanne and Mondrian are referenced in the paintings of the early 1960s, especially Matisse's use of pattern, flat shapes and lush color--Diebenkorn was an inventive colorist. These paintings define the final chapter of the figurative work of his Berkeley period, while continuing to include the responses to light, color and atmosphere found in his earlier canvases. His evolving stylistic language and remarkably diverse oeuvre during this brief 13-year time span reveal abstraction and representation as coequal artistic options rather than either/or choices.

On view at the de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco. 

Impressionists on the Water

Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926). Boats Moored at Le Petit-Gennevilliers (Barques au Repos, au Petit-Gennevilliers), traditionally Sailboats on the Seine, 1874, oil on canvas, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Photograph copyright FAMSF. 

Coinciding with the America's Cup races this summer on San Francisco Bay, Impressionists on the Water at the Legion of Honor offers another perspective on sailing and boating. This survey of marine motifs in late 19th century French art explores the Impressionists' plein-air painting, which allowed artists to capture the immediacy of a variety of nautical subjects. The exhibit includes paintings complemented by works on paper by Monet, Renoir, Manet, Pissarro, and Sisley, among others--many of whom were sailors and yachtsmen.

Monet (above image) consistently depicted the leisure activities and landscape of Paris and its environs, the banks of the Seine and the Normandy coast. His subjects were often secondary to effects of light, weather and color patterns. Generalizing and simplifying forms resulted in a transient glimpse of a particular place or season, here, sailing boats moored on the island of Petit-Gennevilliers, a riverside village northwest of Paris that provided Monet with ample subjects for his studies of  natural light and atmospheric effects. He often brought his canvases outdoors and then completed them in his studio. 

Édouard Manet (French, 1832-1883). The Sea (La Mer) from the book Le Fleuve by Charles Cros (Paris: Librairie del'Eau-Forte), 1874, etching. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 

While 19th century artists tended to concentrate on their specific art form, there were increasing instances of collaboration between writers and painters during the third quarter of the century. Charles Cros's poem Le Fleuve with etchings by Manet is regarded as one of the first modern illustrated books. Although painting-directed, Manet frequently executed sketches and drawings for poetry. As an illustrator, his graphic works are spontaneous and abbreviated; he often improvised on literary themes without being governed by specific passages. This graphic style is seen in his series of etchings for Le Fleuve depicting river and sea. Manet created little landscape vignettes that evoke the terrain described in the text. 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919). Oarsmen at Chatou (Les Canotier à Chatou), 1879, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. 

Impressionist painters sought out scenes that captured sun and water; they found such places along the Seine. Renoir chose Chatou, a northwestern suburb of Paris. In a group of paintings depicting rowing at Chatou, his palette shifts toward brightened, airy colors that embrace outdoor relaxation and suit the light conditions--saturated oranges and orange-reds contrasting and placed against feathery blues and greens. Boating is portrayed as an ideal expression of modern life. 

"The idea behind Impressionists on the Water really arose out of our recognition that there would be thousands of visitors in San Francisco during the summer of 2013 here to watch the America's Cup's sailing races," says curator Melissa Buron. "We wanted to provide an exhibition that would not only appeal to art enthusiasts but also to boat lovers and people who were sailors themselves." On view through October 13 at the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, 34th Avenue and Clement Street. 

The America's Cup races:

The first race day of the Louis Vuitton Cup, America's Cup Challenger Series is July 7 on the Bay; three challengers compete for the opportunity to race the defender, Oracle Team USA, in the subsequent America's Cup Finals. The challenger must win the Louis Vuitton Cup to race the defender. 

A new yacht design has been created for the 34th America's Cup, the AC72. The catamaran is 72 feet in length, powered by a 131-foot wing sail and has hydrofoils that lift the hulls clear of the water. The combination of aero and hydro efficiency could see the AC72 near 50 knots (57 mph) boat speed on the racecourse. Each team designs and builds its own yacht according to the "box rule" that places restrictions on key design parameters, such as length, beam and sail area. The limits are an attempt to make the boats as similar as possible to place emphasis on sailing ability over design ingenuity. 

Luna Rossa AC72, San Francisco. Copyright LUNA ROSSA/Carlo Borlenghi. 

Four of the best race crews in the world are competing in the 2013 America's Cup, with crew rosters including previous Cup winners, Olympic medalists and around the world record holders. Luna Rossa Challenge (Palermo, Italy) is a veteran of the America's Cup with three campaigns behind them. 

Luna Rossa AC72, first sailing day in the Hauraki Gulf, Auckland. Copyright LUNA ROSSA/Carlo Borlenghi. 

Emirates Team New Zealand testing the AC72 in the Hauraki Gulf, Auckland. Photograph by Chris Cameron.

Emirates Team New Zealand (Auckland, New Zealand) has been a dominant force in the America's Cup for the past 20 years. Winning in 1995 and defending successfully in 2000, the team will be a strong contender this summer. 

Emirates Team New Zealand, AC72 testing in the Hauraki Gulf, Auckland. Photograph by Chris Cameron.

Onboard the AC72, Artemis Racing, San Francisco, copyright Sander van der Borch. 

Artemis Racing (Stockholm, Sweden) is an experienced international crew led by British Olympic champion Iain Percy. 

ORACLE TEAM USA AC72, San Francisco. All rights reserved. Copyright ACEA/Photo GILLES MARTIN-RAGET. 

In 2010, Oracle Team USA (San Francisco) won the 33rd America's Cup and is the present defender. 

AC72 Sail 4, foiling, ORACLE TEAM USA, San Francisco. Photograph by Guilain Grenier. 

More information and schedules. 

Modern Architecture in L.A.

Wayne Williams and Whitney Smith, Smith and Williams. Community Facilities Planners office (South Pasadena, Calif.), 1958. Photograph by Jocelyn Gibbs, 2012. 

The Getty's Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. initiative focuses on Southern California's built landscape through a series of 11 linked exhibitions running through July. Exhibitions appear at Los Angeles area museums and explore a range of modern and postmodern building types--a regionwide overview of architecture, practitioners and design culture from 1940 to 1990. 

A few of the exhibitions:

The Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UCSB looks at the Pasadena-based team Whitney Smith and Wayne Williams, a firm that developed a modernism that integrated indoors and outdoors. Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams (through June 16) examines the associations between buildings, environment and building to site. Their Community Facilities Planners office (above image) built for their own collaborative of five small firms was designed as four interlocking one- and two-story buildings woven into landscaped outdoor rooms. Smith often designed residential and commercial entrances through greenhouses, visible from areas of the living/working space. 

Booth house by Smith and Williams, 1956. Gelatin silver print by Julius Shulman. Copyright J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute (2004.R.10). 

The partnership commissioned the Los Angeles architectural photographer Julius Shulman for several assignments in Pasadena and Los Angeles County between 1947 and 1964. Shulman photographed certain architects and firms, documenting the modern movement over several decades.

Shoreline house by Smith and Williams, 1958. Photo: Julius Shulman. Copyright J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute (2004.R.10).

Modernist interiors introduced a spatial reconception, more flexible with sliding and moveable parts that allowed for flowing space and shifting axes. This expansiveness was influenced by Japanese vernacular architecture, opposite to compartmentalized rooms. 

Wayne Williams and Whitney Smith, Smith and Williams. Shoreline house for Orange County Home Show, Costa Mesa, CA, 1957. Photograph of a drawing by Al Spencer mounted on board. Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara. Copyright Regents of the University of California. 

The right-angled architectural box was dissembled into staggered volumes of differing sizes and shapes. Structures were intended to extend out from their actual footprint with an elastic consideration of space surrounding a building, maximizing air and sunlight. 

L.A. School: Seven of the architects who participated in the initial Architectural Gallery, from left to right--Frederick Fisher, Robert Mangurian, Eric Owen Moss, Coy Howard, Craig Hodgetts, Thom Mayne, Frank Gehry at Venice Beach, 1980. Photograph copyright 1980 Ave Pildas. 

A Confederacy of Heretics: The Architecture Gallery, Venice, 1979 exhibition at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (through July 7) examines the  role of the temporary gallery held in the home of architect Thom Mayne for several months in 1979. Mayne staged weekly exhibitions on emerging and established Los Angeles practitioners. 

"The show documents a crucial turning point in Los Angeles architecture, a time when Angeleno architecture culture shifted from working local variations on imported themes, to exporting highly original disciplinary innovations with global reach," says curator Todd Gannon. The exhibition highlights architects of the L.A. School, as they were occasionally described. Many ran alternative design offices in Venice Beach, noted for its experimental architecture culture that thrived in the 1970s and '80s. Displays include models, drawings, video recordings, and other materials shown during the original 1979 exhibitions. 

Ray and Shelly Kappe house, living room, by Ray Kappe, 1966-68. Photography by Timothy Sakamoto, copyright 2013 Timothy Sakamoto. 

The Southern California climate and varied natural terrain provided architects with opportunities to rethink the configuration of the conventional residence. Unique domestic forms emerged through the implementation of new fabrication techniques and materials, which had been tested by industrial labs during World War II. Technology and Environment: The Postwar House in Southern California exhibition at the Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design (through July 12, Kellogg University Art Gallery) examines new design forms made possible by innovations in lightweight materials and construction technology. "We're looking at how architects used a variety of materials and methods and an interest in new technology and the environment to develop a wide range of approaches to form and site," says curator Judith Sheine. 

Located in a canyon in Pacific Palisades, the Ray and Shelly Kappe house by Los Angeles architect Ray Kappe (above image) was designed to accommodate the site's running stream and steeply sloped hillside. Kappe created an experimental tower system that extended down to the bedrock, leaving the creek, trees and topography undisturbed. The house is distributed across seven levels with a bridgework of beams attached to the towers. A 50-50 glass/wood proportion and integration with its site create a treehouse effect. 

David and Riva Schrage house, dining and living room, by Raphael Soriano, 1952. Photography by Timothy Sakamoto, copyright 2013 Timothy Sakamoto. 

Architect Raphael Soriano, based in Marin County, constructed the Schrage house in Los Angeles in his trademark one-story pavilion form. One of the first architects to utilize prefabricated modular steel and aluminum frames, his work expresses a highly-machined aesthetic. Lightweight materials allowed architects to eliminate interior walls, create open floor plans and substitute sliding doors for exterior walls. 

 Apartment house for Lucille Colby by Raphael Soriano, 1949. Raphael Soriano Collection, ENV Archives-Special Collections, Cal Poly Pomona.

Case Study House No. 22 by Pierre Koenig. Photo by Julius Shulman, 1960, gelatin silver print. Copyright J. Paul Getty Trust.  Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. An image from the PSTP anchor exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum--Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940-1990 (through July 21). 

The Stahl house, also known as Case Study House No. 22, was designed by Los Angeles architect Pierre Koenig for the Case Study House Program initiated in 1945. The program, sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine, sought to offer the public building industry models for affordable housing in the modern idiom during the immediate postwar years. By 1966, the 25 experimental modern prototypes built resulted in the most significant works of residential architecture of the time. Koenig's house was built on a cliffside with a cantilevered frame. Photographer Shulman's image reveals the balance and elegance of the mid-century modern home. 

A full list of PSTP exhibitions and programs. 

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards

Gallery One, Collection Wall, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. Media design and concept: Local Projects. Exhibit design: Gallagher and Associates. Photo/copyright: 99films. 

The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum celebrates achievement in design with its 14th annual National Design Awards program. The awards recognize excellence and innovation across a range of disciplines. A selection of 2013 National Design Award recipients:

Interaction Design: Local Projects

Founded by Jake Barton, Local Projects is a media design firm that specializes in work for museums and public spaces (above image). The firm is recognized as a leader in the field of interaction design for physical spaces and in the creation of collaborative storytelling projects where participants generate content. 

All Over the Map: Writings on Buildings and Cities, 2011. Published by Verso. Photo/copyright: Michael Sorkin Studio. 

Design Mind: Michael Sorkin

Michael Sorkin is an architect and urbanist whose practice spans design, criticism and teaching. He is the principal of Michael Sorkin Studio in New York, a global design practice focused on urbanism and green architecture. 

Chris Anderson opens TED2012: Full Spectrum, Long Beach, CA. Photo/copyright: James Duncan Davidson. 

Corporate & Institutional Achievement: TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading." It began in 1984 as a conference that bridged three worlds--technology, entertainment, design--and has since grown tremendously in scope and reach. In 2006, TED first released six free talks online. Now, with more than 1,400 published talks, TED marked a major milestone in 2012--surpassing 1 billion views of its TED Talks. They have been translated into more than 95 languages and cover a range of disciplines, from architecture to astrophysics. 

View to scullery at main house, Sonoma Vineyard Estate, Sonoma, 2005. Photo/copyright: John Sutton. 

Interior Design: Aidlin Darling Design

Exploring  design across a wide range of scales and programs, partners Joshua Aidlin and David Darling started Aidlin Darling Design around a woodshop in 1998. With an emphasis on designing for all the senses, they have cultivated a diverse and collaborative studio that acts as the creative hub for an extended network of builders, fabricators, artists, engineers, chefs, and other collaborators. 

National Fitness Campaign's Fitness Court, San Francisco, 2012. Photo/copyright: Mark Serr. 

Product Design: NewDealDesign

Led by Gadi Amit, NewDealDesign is a San Francisco-based multidisciplinary design firm that teams industrial, graphic and interaction designers with strategists and engineers to create objects dedicated to improving everyday life and experiences. 

Shake Shack, Madison Square Park, New York, 2004. Architecture: SITE (Denise MC Lee, Sara Stracey, James Wines). Photo/copyright: Peter Mauss/Esto. 

Lifetime Achievement: James Wines

James Wines is founder and president of SITE, a New York-based architectural studio chartered in 1970. Wines develops site-specific structures with an emphasis on context, integrating information about the environment including buildings, public spaces, environmental art, landscapes, interiors, and graphics. 

1995-1996 season poster for the Public Theater, New York. Photo/copyright: Paula Scher/Pentagram. 

Communication Design: Paula Scher

For four decades, Paula Scher has been at the forefront of graphic design. Known for her reimagining of typography as a communicative medium, Scher has been a principal in the New York office of the international design consultancy Pentagram since 1991. She has developed identity and branding systems, environmental graphics, packaging, and publication designs for a broad range of clients. 

Casa Cabo, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, 2002. Landscape design: Margie Ruddick. Architecture: Steven Harris Architects. Interior design: Lucien Rees Roberts. Photo/copyright: Scott Frances. 

Landscape Architecture: Margie Ruddick

Margie Ruddick is recognized for her environmental approach to urban landscape design, forging a design language that integrates ecology, urban planning and culture. Ruddick fosters the idea of nature in the city through various projects. 

Congratulations to all of the award winners. 

New Harmony

László Moholy-Nagy (American, born Hungary 1895-1946). A II, 1924, oil on canvas, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, copyright 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. 

This summer the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum shows New Harmony: Abstraction between the Wars, 1919-1939, an exhibition that highlights international abstract artists from the permanent collection. After World War I, many artists increasingly preferred abstraction rather than figuration and pictorial order. 

Centers of creative exchange emerged in European cities during the 1920s and '30s as borders were reopened or redrawn. In response to political and social change, artists sought an aesthetic language that would foster harmony and equilibrium in art and society. Often, this language was formed from principles of geometry--geometric abstraction. It was also expressed through the Bauhaus modern design vocabulary and the abstract forms of Surrealism. Associated developments of abstraction occurred in painting, sculpture, photography, theater, film, literature, design, and architecture. 

Affiliated with the German Bauhaus design school, László Moholy-Nagy (above image) believed art had transformative abilities that could be utilized for collective social reform. His abstract paintings of the 1920s concern pure color--parallelograms and circles describe how hues shift in overlapping planes within a layered space. Through shadow and illumination on the canvas, he viewed light as an essential plastic medium "...just as color in painting and tone in music," says Moholy-Nagy. "This kind of picture is most probably the passage between easel painting and light display." 

Man Ray (American 1890-1976).  Four or Five Times (Quatre ou cinq fois), 1929, oil on canvas, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, copyright Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. 

Man Ray was one of the visual artists aligned with Surrealism, an international movement originating in Parisian literary circles in the late 1910s and early '20s. Surrealists were influenced by Freudian dream studies and methods of free association to access the unconscious and produce unexpected imagery. 

Fernand Léger (French 1881-1955). Composition with Aloes, No. 4 (Composition à l'aloës, no.4), 1934-5, oil on canvas, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, copyright 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. 

Tubular and machinelike figures and objects characterize Fernand Léger's work, along with organic and irregular forms. Léger acknowledged the accelerated pace of contemporary life and sought to create dynamic abstract paintings which paralleled the social environment. Several of his paintings were produced in collaborative projects for residential interiors, intended to animate spaces--he asserted painting and sculpture as key architectural components. He was informally associated with Surrealism during the early 1930s, producing paintings with flat planes, angled shapes and objects rendered with bold contours. 

Joan Miró (Spanish 1893-1983). Personage (Personnage), 1925, oil and egg tempera on canvas, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, copyright Successió Miró/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris.  

During the 1920s, Joan Miró explored the Surrealist technique of automatism (spontaneous writing and drawing) in his "dream paintings" to tap the unconscious as a creative force in his art and to minimize deliberation. His calligraphic drawing style resulted in schematic images and a unique language of signs symbolizing people, nature and landscapes. 

Interwar abstract artists in Europe proved a significant influence in the later development of abstract art, particularly in the United States where it contributed to and shaped the direction of the New York group of Abstract Expressionists which emerged in the early 1940s.

On view through September 8 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York.