BELLEVUE, WA.- Bellevue Arts Museum is the first US venue to host the prestigious exhibition, Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture. The exhibition is organized by the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, and opened in Bellevue on January 29, 2016. It is the first major retrospective of the famous American architect in twenty years.
Louis Kahn is regarded as one of the great master builders of the twentieth century. With complex spatial compositions and a choreographic mastery of light, Kahn created buildings of archaic beauty and powerful universal symbolism. Highly esteemed by his fellow architects, Kahn ranks among seminal figures such as Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright and has exerted an enduring influence on the work of significant contemporary architects like Renzo Piano and Frank Gehry.
Some of Kahn’s most important designs include the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas, the Salk Institute in California, and the National Assembly Building in Bangladesh. The exhibition examines Kahn through six broad themes: City looks at his relationship with his adopted home of Philadelphia, Science demonstrates his use of engineering and geometric structures, Landscape shows the importance of nature within his work, House takes in Kahn’s residential commissions, Eternal Present places him in the context of architectural history, and Community examines his devotion to public buildings. His buildings, private homes, museums, places of worship, and university and government structures are simple, monumental, timeless, and uplifting.
“Kahn distinguished himself by demonstrating the role of architecture in transforming community into an experience.” Said Stefano Catalani, BAM Director of Art, Craft, & Design, “This is an incredibly relevant concept for our region during this time of growth and expansion.”
Original drawings and sketches, historic and newly constructed models, photographs, and films in which contemporary architects shed light on Kahn’s pivotal role in the discipline of architecture are being presented in BAM’s main gallery. The exhibition also includes a series of extraordinary watercolors recording Kahn’s travels through North America, Europe, and Egypt.
The exhibition is organized by the Vitra Design Museum in collaboration with the Netherlands Architecture Institute and the Architectural Archive of the University of Pennsylvania. It is an incredible opportunity for those in the profession to see a remarkable range of Kahn’s original work gathered together—and for the public to become acquainted with the work of this influential architect.
