Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, has been one of the most controversial figures of the last century. His main contributions to the world of architecture and to the way of living are already well known, but in this case the Centre Pompidou, on the 50th anniversary of his death, dedicates him an exhibition focused on the human body as main point of his work as architect and theorist.
The Parthenon, the temples of India and the cathedrals were built according to precise measures constituting a code, a coherent system that asserted an essential unity. […] The Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Greeks and so forth built, and consequently measured. What tools did they use? Everlasting, enduring tools; tools that were precious because they were connected with the human figure […]: cubit (elbow), digit (finger), inch (thumb), foot, span, pace, etc. […]. They were an integral part of the human body, and thus fit to serve as measures for the huts, houses and temples that had to be built. But more than that, they were infinitely rich and subtle because they were part of the mathematics of the human body - graceful, elegant, firm mathematics: the source of the harmony that moves us: beauty.
Le Corbusier. Le Modulor
Description of the ehibition by Centre Georges Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou is devoting a completely new retrospective, featuring some three hundred works, to the output of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, aka Le Corbusier.
Not only a visionary architect, urban planner and theorist of modernity, but also a painter and sculptor, Le Corbusier made a profound impression on the 20th century in dramatically changing architecture and the way it is «inhabited». His international career flourished long before globalisation made its appearance.
Adopting a decidedly innovative approach, the Centre Pompidou takes a fresh look at the output of this major figure in modernity through the proportions of the human body, which Le Corbusier considered essential as a universal principle. For the architect, this «measurement of man» defined all aspects of architecture and spatial composition.
Central to a colossal and multi-faceted body of work was Le Corbusier’s conception of an essential, universal measurement: the thinking, seeing «mass production man». After his studies, notably in Germany, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (the future Le Corbusier) was influenced by the psychophysicists and by theories on scientific aesthetics, which held that everything was measurable, including sensations, cognitive reactions and human psychology. This concept of measurement lay behind the work of the urban planner, architect and furniture designer, and imbued the work of the painter.
Mathematical it might be, but this line of research never strayed from the human being, and adapted itself to human gestures, viewpoints and thought. The «housing unit» invented by Le Corbusier was small but practical, because on a human scale, while furniture became flexible, to accommodate the movements of the body. The eye and mind of the «perceptive» viewer created a Purist picture whose interpretation was intended to be subjective. The human body, or some of its sensitive components, were subjects for painting: often women’s bodies, but also hands, feet and ears.
In 1943, Le Corbusier created the «Modulor», a system of measurement based on the height of the average man: 183 cm, or 226 cm with the arm raised. Promoted through a book entitled The Modulor: A Harmonious Measure to the Human Scale, Universally Applicable to Architecture and Mechanics, published in 1950, the «Modulor» was presented as a philosophical, mathematical and historical truth, as Le Corbusier’s invention echoed traditional systems.
The new approach taken by this exhibition presents every facet of the artist’s work through some 300 paintings, sculptures, drawings, architectural drawings, models, objects, films, photographs and documents – all illustrating the prolific output of this native of the Swiss Jura, who took French citizenship in 1930, and made Paris his home.
Commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of his death, this key exhibition aims to enlighten audiences on the breadth and complexity of Le Corbusier’s work, thinking and humanism.
Text.- Centre Georges Pompidou
CREDITS.-
Le Corbusier: Mesures de L’Homme.
Curators.- Frédéric Migayrou, Olivier Cinqualbre.
Deputy curator.- Mailis Favre.
Where.- Galerie 2, Centre Pompidou, Paris. France.
When.- From 29. April until 3. August, 2015.
The euphemism of the "soft fascism".
The second debate, refers to the controversial ideological past of Le Corbusier, unearthed once again on the occasion of the major retrospective of his work in which the Centre Pompidou celebrates the 50th anniversary of his death (until August 8th).
Taking advantage of this anniversary, a couple of new French publications have emerged to influence his known links with fascism. The works, "Un Corbusier" (ed. Seuil), by the architect and critic François Chaslin and "Le Corbusier, un fascism français" (ed. Albin Michel), by the journalist Xavier de Jarcy, expose the fascist tendency of the architect and his association with the Vichy regime. Both publications, accuse the architect of professing a latent anti-Semitism and fascism and supporting the Vichy regime, for which he actually worked. But it must be said that although he moved to Vichy, where he spent a year and a half and became member of a commission for construction and urban planning, his Bolshevik reputation legacy for designing a building in Moscow a decade ago, chased him until he left.
The controversy is clear, any link with totalitarian ideologies obviously darkens the image of any character, no matter how charismatic he might be. So is quite demagogic to call these actions with the already boring term "soft fascism". Because, can anyone be 'half' fascist? Just because the Franco-Swiss did not take part in the actions of the regimes of that time, does not excuse him from being related or even be favored by the French fascism. Talking in those terms is an understatement too demagogic, not to face reality.
Le Corbusier would be a fascist or would not. Everything indicates that he was, at least during the time of accession of these ideologies, and perhaps, for this reason we have to send him to the purgatory, denounce him, mourn for a while so we can overcome the idea that Le Corbusier had a dark past, so we can continue to see his work without veils, just as an architect.
