Le Corbusier, Cubism and Social Connections to Picasso and Gertrude Stein - Research Paper Example

?Le Corbusier, Cubism and social connections to Picasso and Gertrude Stein Much has been written about the eccentric, extremist and the contradictingnature of Le Corbusier, as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret is popularly known. However, unlike other eccentric revolutionary minds of the previous century, Le Corbusier has only managed to draw scorn from his critics with not many supporting his ideas of Purism. Like all complex works of art, his life too is seemingly contradicting and open to multiple interpretations. If Picasso shocked the world of painting by departing from the practice of imitating nature, Le Corbusier took the revolution a step ahead with his ideal notions about the advent of machine age and his stark depiction of the precision and sharpness which the machine age represented. It comes as no surprise that these two icons of the artistic world met and were influenced by each other’s ideas. On the contrary, the interactions between Le Corbusier and the American writer, Gertrude Stein were not all too pleasant thanks to their differences of opinion. However, despite their personal differences, it remains undisputable that these interactions influenced Le Corbusier in more ways than one. The first encounter of Corbusier with Picasso probably happened in the early 1920s before he bought Picasso’s The Bottle of Rum in a sale held in Paris. His view of this work as an arrangement of planes supported by verticals was probably the first architectural interpretation of the work. During later phases of his life as an architect, Corbusier also translated and extended the depiction of volumes in Picasso’s cubist works into buildings displaying his respect for Picasso. However, much before Corbusier bought The Bottle of Rum, he had written to Picasso on numerous occasions. Apparently, Picasso too had shown some interest towards the maverick architect thanks to his occasional ventures into the architectural domain. Following Picasso’s success in using the void to represent a solid, Corbusier added the spatial element to modern architecture using elements such as a half-transparent, curved wall. This was the time when the cultural preferences of artists underwent a drastic change thanks to the widespread impact of the First World War. Picasso, along with his fellow supporters of Cubism like Braque, abandoned the art form to return to the more traditional practices of neoclassicism. Futurism, which was used as a medium to adulate the machinery, violence and the war, was rejected by the strongest of its supporters. Corbusier, on the other hand was spending the wartime away from Paris in the seclusion of the La-Chaux-de-Fonds Art school. While teaching in this school, he also worked on employing the modernist techniques in architecture. During this period, he also completed designing the ‘Domino’ House project. The open floor plan comprising of slender, reinforced concrete columns and the interconnecting stairways would be a permanent feature of all his future works (Moos 2009). Having considered himself as primarily being a painter before being an architect, Le Corbusier understood the relationship between architecture, painting and sculpture. Since he believed that architecture should be used to signify the increasing industrialization and resolve social problems, he experimented on new ways of unifying painting and sculpture with architecture. However, in doing so, he did not compromise on the autonomous statuses of each of these forms (Cohen 2005). Now, being a painter himself, he was heavily influenced by Cubism which rejected the age old practices of imitating nature and was being used by painters such as Picasso and Braque for portraying multiple perspectives in their paintings and adding a realistic spirit to the paintings. Having begun among a group of painters, Cubism had also spread to different mediums such as literature and sculpture. Gertrude Stein, the celebrated American author had incorporated Cubist techniques in several of her works such as ‘The Making of Americans’ further fueled the growth of Cubism among artists. Le Corbusier’s interactions with Picasso were guided by their mutual love for simplicity (Moos, 2009). There is not much information on their interactions until their meeting after the Second World War. However, by the time Corbusier and Picasso met in 1949, a lot of water had flowed under the bridge. After the experiencing the horrors of the First World War, Picasso had abandoned Cubism to return to older schools of painting such as neoclassicism along with other artists such as Gino Severini and Giorgio de Chirico. Analytic Cubism, as this was known, had given way to the new wave of Synthetic Cubism. While being identical at the core, Synthetic cubism allowed using collage and papier colle in order to represent subject matter. This caused disillusionment in several proponents of Cubism such as Le Corbusier. The simplistic, realist portrayal of Analytic Cubism had been replaced with the decorative and loud Synthetic Cubism. Thus disillusioned, Corbusier invented a new school of thought known as Purism along with Amedee Ozenfant which was based on the ideas of Analytic Cubism. Corbusier, in particular, argued that Purism can improve the failing health of art all over the world by excluding emotions and expressions from the arts and replacing them with the mathematical lyricism and the machine-like precision. The iconic photograph taken in the late 1940s, which shows Picasso accompanied by Corbusier visiting the construction site of the Unite d’habitation in Marseilles, symbolizes the respect that Corbusier had for Picasso to some extent. While Picasso occupies the center of the photograph, Corbusier can be seen at a corner observing Picasso from behind his characteristic hard-rimmed glasses. This encounter became one of the defining moments of Corbusier’s life. This photograph held so much significance to him that he used it on the title page of the fifth volume of his book, Oeuvre complete (Green and Picasso 2006). In fact, even in the post-purist period, Picasso continued to influence Corbusier’s work in several ways. The Purist principles, which were strongly guided by the architectural instincts of Corbusier, underwent significant changes during the post-purist phase. Drawing influences from Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Leger and Surrealism, his post-purist paintings had a sensualistic, animalistic feeling accentuated with the help of unrestrained gestures. Corbusier himself observed that these qualities were completely absent in his previous, architectural works. Eventually, these concepts did manage to find a place in his architectural works such as the bone-shaped, bulky piers of the Pavillon Suisse and his attempts to ‘displace concepts’ by adopting the proportional lines of one of his paintings for designing the facade for the skyscraper of Algiers (Green and Picasso 2006). The interaction of Corbusier with Gertrude Stein was brief yet eventful. The construction of the villa Les Terrasses for the latter’s brother, Michael Stein. In the mid 1920s, after Corbusier had introduced the Purism theory and he had begun to achieve considerable success and eminence, he was commissioned for the construction of large villas and houses by the upper echelons of Paris. Gertrude Stein, who was a well known supporter of Cubism commissioned Corbusier for the construction of the construction of the largest and the costliest villa in Garches, or present day Vaucresson for her brother. This decision might have been influenced by the common cubist roots of Gertrude Stein and Corbusier. Moreover, it was also the year when The Making of Americans, one of her prominent works in the Cubist format, was published. Additionally, Gabrielle de Monzie, the divorced wife of Minister Anatole de Monzie who now lived with the Stein family, seems to have influenced the decision of commissioning the construction to Corbusier. She had been a long time supporter of Le Corbusier and had been influential in the construction of the L’Espirit nouveau pavilion in 1925 (Wagner-Martin 1997). Corbusier started working on the design for the villa along with his cousin and long time partner Pierre Jeanneret. However, disagreements stepped in from the very beginning of the design process. The original location chosen by the Stein/ De Monzie family was declared unfit by Corbusier for the une maison un palais (a house, a palace) he had in mind and was changed to the outskirts of Garches (Wagner-Martin 1997). The design of the house was altered numerous times. Initially intended to be a cubed structure with a flat roof along with a terrace, it was gradually changed to include symmetrical wings, an asymmetrical series of open-air rooms and terraces with a facade of beamed terraces facing south. This caused great disappointment to Corbusier who had wanted to create a solution which attains classical character through industrial ways thereby filling the symbolic gap between the consumers and the producers of the world. However, when the design was finalized in early 1927, the original modernist outlook had been successfully retained. The characteristic open floor plan, floors beaming out of internally exposed posts, ribbon windows and the numerous windows in the original windows were now back in place (Wagner-Martin 1997). On its completion in 1928, the Stein/ De Monzie villa was a showcase of modernist architecture and was hailed as a perfect example of International style of architecture. Built at a staggering cost of about a million francs, it received widespread publicity from the press and received positive and negative reviews in equal proportions. Corbusier achieved immediate worldwide recognition as modern architect with the photographs of the villa being exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art. The curved partitions and the cylindrical staircases, labeled as compressed organs by Le Corbusier, represented objets-types based on the Purist concepts of Corbusier. Overall, Corbusier’s innovation allowed the house to be perceived as a three dimensional projection of an image or rather, a painting (Wagner-Martin 1997). However, disagreements between the architect and the Stein/ De Monzie family soon cropped up while deciding the furnishing for the new house. While Corbusier insisted on adding his invention, the ‘machines for sitting in’ in order to maintain the consistency of the modernist theme of the monumental house, the Stein/ De Monzie family decided to retain the classic Italian Renaissance furniture (Pile 2000). In spite of the disagreements with Corbusier, Gertrude Stein had great respect towards him and the villa. On several occasions, she reportedly claimed that to appreciate the villa requires a refined taste. Corbusier, on the other hand, received immense recognition in the world of modern architecture through this work (Wagner-Martin 1997). Like all great artists, Corbusier understood that in order to remain relevant in changing times, it was important to continuously renew himself. He achieved this with by frequently experimenting with different formats of architecture. Several people such as his cousin Pierre Jeanneret influenced his life in many ways. Though he had deep respect for these people, it was Picasso who he had the utmost respect for. An example to this undying devotion can be found in his frequent allusion to Picasso in his books and the underlying artistic principles of his work. His works encompassing the principles of cubism and purism all over the world speak volumes about his dedication towards solving societal problems and his consistent look out for better solutions. References Cohen, Jean-Louis. Le Corbusier, 1887-1965: the lyricism of architecture in the machine age. Tachen. 2005. Web Green, Christopher and Picasso, Pablo. Picasso: architecture and vertigo. Yale University Press. 2006. Web Moos, Stanislaus von. Le Corbusier: elements of a synthesis. MIT Press. 2009. Web. Pile, John. F. A History of Interior Design. Laurence King Publishing. 2000. Web. Wagner-Martin, Linda. Favored Strangers: Gertrude Stein and Her Family. Rutgers University Press. 1997. Web Read More