Professor Patricio del Real: "Object Lessons: Synchronizing Modernity at MoMA"

Date: 

Tuesday, November 14, 2017, 6:00pm

Location: 

Location: 725 Commonwealth Ave., Room 200, Boston University

delreal_architectureroom-1933.pngIn February 1933, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opened the Architecture Room, a dedicated exhibition space for its newly formed Department of Architecture headed by Philip Johnson. Its inaugural exhibition showcased furniture by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand in a series of scenes of “modern interior architecture.” These pieces, soon to become iconic of functionalist design, were however shown alongside the work of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. This encounter prompted the synchronization of the dynamic tempo of 1930s modernism in New York to the beat of artistic developments in Mexico City. I explore how the Architecture Room negotiated the tempos of modernity unleashed by the mechanization of muralism. The intersection of Rivera’s work and European functionalism brings forth both synchronic and syncretic approximations to technology that cast new light on the bare walls of architectural modernism as defined by Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock just a year earlier in their seminal 1932 exhibition and book surveys, and it helps to critically reframe Johnson's desire for stylistic unity in the world of domestic interiors. In February 1933, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opened the Architecture Room, a dedicated exhibition space for its newly formed Department of Architecture headed by Philip Johnson. Its inaugural exhibition showcased furniture by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand in a series of scenes of “modern interior architecture.” These pieces, soon to become iconic of functionalist design, were however shown alongside the work of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. This encounter prompted the synchronization of the dynamic tempo of 1930s modernism in New York to the beat of artistic developments in Mexico City. I explore how the Architecture Room negotiated the tempos of modernity unleashed by the mechanization of muralism. The intersection of Rivera’s work and European functionalism brings forth both synchronic and syncretic approximations to technology that cast new light on the bare walls of architectural modernism as defined by Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock just a year earlier in their seminal 1932 exhibition and book surveys, and it helps to critically reframe Johnson's desire for stylistic unity in the world of domestic interiors. 

http://www.bu.edu/ah/graduate-program/graduate-student-history-of-art-architecture-association/guest-lecture-series/ 

 

See also: Talks