Drawing a New Architecture: Libeskind at the Soane

Description

Drawing a New Architecture, Libeskind at the Soane, Sir John Soan’s Museum, London, England, 2001

The exhibition provides an opportunity to see drawings and models of nine Libeskind projects, from six different countries, together with a stunning series of rarely glimpsed conceptual drawings, the ‘Micromegas’.

Libeskind viewed the opportunity to exhibit his work at the Soane, the house of one of his great heroes, as both a gift and a challenge. The resulting installation is unique: nine exquisite, specially commissioned ‘ miniature’ models of Libeskind projects scattered like architectural fragments from a future age beneath the canopy dome of Soane’s Breakfast Parlour. These tiny models, never before exhibited, represent the ultimate in architectural reduction, a response to Soane’s own collection.

The models mark the beginning of a journey into the mind of Daniel Libeskind. The visitor can then pass into the Gallery where the exhibition turns full circle with a spectacular explosion of geometrical forms in his ten beautiful ‘Micromega’ drawings, a rarely seen series of complex and meticulously constructed abstract compositions. Made in the late 1970s before he became a practitioner, they reveal many of the blueprints for his architecture.

The link is completed by a selection of drawings showing current Libeskind projects including the Jewish Museum in Berlin; Studio Weil in Spain; The V&A Spiral; and his latest scheme, the Denver Art Museum.

This exhibition attempts to reveal the essence of what makes Libeskind’s work so extraordinary – his eagerness to explore a number of disciplines to find expression for his architecture, and the depth of critical discourse he is prepared to enter in order to create something unquestionably and ecstatically new.