le corbusier & pierre jeanneret: the chandigarh project · le corbusier & pierre jeanneret...

LE CORBUSIER & PIERRE JEANNERET

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LE CORBUSIER & PIERRE JEANNERET:THE CHANDIGARH PROJECT

LOW–COST FURNITURE AND OTHER WORKS

EXHIBITION FROM SEPTEMBER 20 TO DECEMBER 17, 2011

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INFORMATION TO THE MEDIANext September, Galerie Anton Meier will inaugurate the first exhibition in Switzerland ever devoted to the work of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, entitled «The Chandigarh-Project». The exhibition will be open to the public, from September 20 to December 17 2011 at the Palais de l’Athénée in Geneva. There will be a private viewing 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 the work of the Geneva-born architect, Pierre Jeanneret. Today, a few months to the 125th anniversary of the birth of Le Corbusier, Anton Meier returns to the revolutionary design of the two architects and allows the public a clearer insight into the humanistic work of Pierre Jeanneret, often overshadowed by 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 pieces from that period, handcrafted on site for the official buildings of Punjab’s new capital, is presented with rare street furniture units as well as Le Corbusier’s symbols and prints.

Exceptional furnishings and street furniture

Solid teak tables, cane chairs, armchairs in wood, leather and Indian cotton displayed alongside other more amazing items such an item recovered from the street: a circular cast iron manhole cover, with a recessed reproduction of the Chandigarh master plan drawn by Le Corbusier in 1951. These items illustrate 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 was bereft 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 tackle the problem from a different angle. He decided to use local materials and expertise to develop, based on his drawings, furniture manufactured by local craftsmen - by Indians, thereby liberating them from their dependence on the West.

The underrated cousin, artisan of Chandigarh

From 1923 onwards, the Geneva-based architect Pierre Jeanneret (1896 – 1967) became the partner of 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 remarkable works of the 20th century: Villa Savoye, the «Clarté» building in Geneva and with Charlotte Perriand in 1927, 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 commitments during the war. Le Corbusier is highly criticised today for choosing to open a practice in Vichy during the occupation, while Pierre Jeanneret left to join the French Resistance. After the war, they reunited to work on the monumental construction project of the new capital for the Punjab State, brainchild of Prime Minister Nehru. While Le Corbusier saw Chandigarh as the opportunity to finally implement his revolutionary theories, Pierre Jeanneret would be the lynchpin for the project’s practical implementa-tion. While Le Corbusier pursued other large-scale projects at the same time, Pierre Jeanneret moved to India, where he lived for 15 years while helping to draw the colossal plans of the parliament, the university and the Chandigarh court in particular. He only returned to Geneva a couple of years before his 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 a follow up to «Pierre Jeanneret: Chandigarh Project. Low Cost Furniture» in 2007, this show is a unique opportunity 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 gained independence from Britain. The predominantly Sikh and Hindu Punjabi Indians lost their capital, the prestigious 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 for the Indian Punjab. Nehru wanted a modern city, unfettered by the traditions of the past and which would become the symbol of Modern India. He chose Chandigarh, a small farming village in the middle 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 continue the project.

Le Corbusier, Manhole cover, c. 1951-54, cast iron. Ø 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 already been tried and tested in the Marseille Unité d’Habitation (housing block unit), after the war. He then conceived, together with Pierre Jeanneret, his partner during the major Paris years - 1920 to 1940 -, a very bold plan for the Indian city.

Le Corbusier applied the symbolism of the human body 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 houses and public areas, was placed in the middle. The city was divided into rectangular grids connec-ted by a network of roads and vegetations, ana-logous to the human veins and lungs. Inside the grids, the houses were laid out along the organic streets with flexible shapes. An artificial lake at the «head» of the city supplied water to a river flowing through a series of parks.


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Le Corbusier drew some of his greatest masterpieces in Chandigarh. The High Court of Justice, the General Secretariat, the 250m-long building for Ministers, and the Parliament with its hyperboloid tower 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 monumental door for the Parliament house. The open hand giant sculpture has become the symbol of the city and of 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 brilliant architect, 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 organic architecture

The city’s construction spanned the 1950s and 1960s. Right from the beginning, Le Corbusier assigned the responsibility of implementing his drawings to Pierre Jeanneret. A couple of British architects, Edwin Maxwell Frey and Jane Beverly Drew, recognized for their work on tropical architecture, joined the team and were in charge of the housing units. The four then worked with local Indian architects.

Jeanneret moved to India, created the city’s scho-ol of architecture and became an advisor to the government. He designed a large number of buil-dings for the city, such as the villas, the university and the Gandhi Bhavan monument, considered as his masterpiece.

The edifices are in brick or concrete. Inge-nious sun-breaking devices are used to create shade inside the buildings and allow interplay of shapes on the façades of buildings.


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The Chandigarh furniture, pieces of a complete work of art

Everything in Chandigarh is modern. From bus stops to go-vernment buildings, road signs to the sailing club, manhole covers to hospitals, stadiums to nursery schools, everything was designed by the architects. The same goes for the fur-niture, mostly designed by Pierre Jeanneret for the public buildings. In 1927, he met Charlotte Perriand, and designed with her the furniture for the Le Corbusier-Pierre Jeanneret practice, including the famous LC2 chair and the B306 chaise longue.

For Chandigarh, Pierre Jeanneret drew a very extensive se-ries of furniture using local expertise and materials. Derived from Indian craftsmanship and a revolutionary design, the pieces of Chandigarh furniture were custom made for each function. The Government buildings were furnished with solid teak or Indian rosewood furniture upholstered with leather from already dead cows, as required by Sikh and Hindu tra-ditions. Each piece of furniture was designed to be totally functional. The desks had storage holes, the armchairs had well-padded, comfortable seats, and the caned seats of chairs were comfortable even during the very hot seasons. Other pieces were made with less luxurious materials such as bamboo, iron rods, cotton. The ingenious shapes allowed all sorts of combination. Some desks were designed as corner pieces to offer more working space. V-shaped legs, reminis-cent of the wooden trestle tables of architects, were often used. Geometrical lines combined with the organic aspect of shapes and materials directly echoed the shapes of the city. In fact, the city’s master plan, which was hand drawn by Le Corbusier, was reproduced on a circular cast iron manhole cover. In Chandigarh, every object is a piece that fits into the tapestry 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 pieces and 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 Chandigarh furniture in 2007. At last, the efforts of these enthusiasts to gain recognition for the importance of these pieces are finally paying off.

Over the past years, pieces of Chandigarh furniture signed by Pierre Jeanneret have been regularly exhibited 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 designed by 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 Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Artcurial in Paris or again Wright in Chicago. However, apart from Anton Meier’s 2007 exhibition, Jeanneret is still rare in his native country. The wealth of today’s 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. Pigeonhole desk. Solid Indian rosewood upholstered 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 L’Eplattenier at the La Chaux-de-Fonds Art School, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret travelled extensively and met a large number of modern architects. He worked with Auguste and Gustave Perret in Paris, then with Peter Behrens in Berlin. From 1909 onwards, he built houses at La Chaux-de-Fonds and taught at the Art School. In 1917, he moved to Paris and founded the «L’Esprit Nouveau» magazine in 1919 with the painter Amédée Ozenfant. He adopted the name Le Corbusier in 1920. His cousin Pierre Jeanneret joined him in Paris in 1922. Le Corbusier painted, published books and completed a large number of architectural projects in Europe. These included the Soyouz Centre in Moscow in 1928 and the Villa Savoye in Poissy in 1929. He founded the Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) in 1928 in La Sarraz. In the 1930s, he travelled extensively, completed many publications and constructions and partnered with other architects such as Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa for 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 the Unités d’Habitation, the first of which was built in 1947 and 1952 in Marseille. In 1951, he began the construction of Chandigarh, a new city in India. The High Court of Justice designed by Le Corbusier was 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 1961 he began working on a series of drawings for the city of Friminy in France for a large number of buildings including a Unité d’habitation, 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 a summer home. Throughout his career, Le Corbusier produced furniture (with Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret), sculptures, wall paintings and tapestries. He regularly displayed his paintings, for example in 1938 at the Kunsthaus Zurich. In 1962, the Paris Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective of his work.Note that 2012 will mark the 125th anniversary of his birth and will be widely celebrated in Switzerland and in many other countries. Although rejected in 2011, we hope that in 2012, UNESCO will accept the registration of Le Corbusier’s entire work on its world heritage list.

Pierre JeanneretBorn in 1896 in Geneva. Died in 1967 in Geneva.

Pierre Jeanneret graduated from the Geneva Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He worked with Auguste and Gustave 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 Corbusier–Pierre Jeanneret practice closed in 1940 and the partnership ended when Pierre Jeanneret joined the French Resistance and Le Corbusier did not. After the war, they resumed their collaboration with the Chandigarh construction project. Pierre Jeanneret, with Edwin Maxwell Fry and his wife Jane Beverly Drew, was responsible for a large part of the architectural creations of the new city. He mostly designed and built the University, the Ghandi Bhawan Memorial and the University 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 for Indian 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 VIEWING TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 20 FROM 6:00 PM TO 8:00 PM

PRESS RELATIONS

Chloé BittonTrivial Mass Production

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

[email protected]

HD photos, press visits of the exhibition and requests for interviews with the collector Eric Touchaleaume Tuesday September 20, 2011.

Open Tuesday - Friday: 2pm-6.30pm Saturday: 10 am-1pm or by appointment Closed: Sunday and Monday

Nearest parking lot, Saint-AntoineBus lines 3, 5 and 7, stop « Athénée »

GALERIE ANTON MEIER

Palais de l’Athénée2, rue de l’AthénéeCH — 1205 Genève

T +41 22 311 14 50

[email protected]

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