1:30 pm via Zoom

Le Corbusier and the New Spirit of Art and Architecture, 1920-1940

Chris Boicos, professor of art history for the University of Southern California Paris program and founder (2007) and main lecturer for Paris Art Studies

Le Corbusier came to be seen as the most important modern architect and urbanist to emerge in France after the trauma of the First World War. In opposition to the pessimism of his colleagues in the art world of the 1920s, the Dadaists & Surrealists and the conservatism of the French academies, he offered a vision of a bright new future for European civilization.  The cultural and artistic conventions of the society that produced the war were to be swept away. The architecture and design of the new world were to be based on functionality, industrial materials, hygiene and ideal proportions – a universal style to replace classicism, that came to be called the “International Modern Style”. In our lecture we will follow Le Corbusier’s early career as an artist, theoretician and architect in France, his collaboration with artists and designers and examine the key buildings that best exemplify his ideals. 

$15 fee for guests and subscribers