Thursday, 10 December 2009

My father's friend, Charles Janks wrote an important book about Corbusier called LE CORBUSIER AND THE TRAGIC...from an interview w/D.L. Van Vactor

First of all, Le Courbusier was one of the great non-objective printmakers in the period between 1920 and 1960 when he built the Corbusier Visual Arts Center at Harvard in 1961, my father's senior year. So my father saw that building go up. My father thought it was the first building at Harvard that was one of the great examples of modern architecture. My father's friend John Douglas attended classes there with a teacher from Paris, Zerko (not sure about the spelling), from Romania(?). Having that building there was a tremendous inspiration to my father.

Later, when my father was teaching at Harvard, he used to go to showings at the Harvard film archive, which were held inside that building.

Corbusier was a hero to my father.

My father's friend, Charles Janks wrote an important book about him called LE CORBUSIER AND THE TRAGIC VIEW OF ARCHITECTURE.

Le Corbusier was first cousin to one of my father's favorite Swiss artists, Louis Soutaire whose drawings are some of the most extraordinary in 20th century art. Soutaire was put in an asylem by his family because he was going out on these manic spending sprees, and being Swiss, his family was very conservative. Corbusier got Soutaire shows in Germany and one in New York. And one in Chicago in the Artist Club. Mainly le Corbusier supplied Soutaire with art supplies. Soutaire remained at the asylem but had plenty of time to paint and draw. For a while, when he was first locked up, he didn't have any materials, any colors or canvas. There was another artist who helped Soutaire. These shows were a success.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I bought a Le Corbusier print in Paris for my parents - it's signed by him and dedicated to his accountant (my Dad is a CPA)and depicts Don Quioxite and the windmill. (A favorite image of my Dad's). Showed them the Carpenter Center when they were in town.