GENEVA.- The Musée Rath in Geneva presents one of the most important retrospective exhibitions ever held dedicated to the complete works of Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, 1887-1965). This event takes place through 6 August 2006. Its purpose is to present a multidisciplinary artist to the public eye : the world-renowned architect was also a superb painter and sculptor, as well as designer, engineer, writer and poet.

No less than one hundred and thirty-four paintings, twenty sculptures, and a large number of drawings, collages, enamels, tapestries, urban design plans, architectural blueprints, scale models, books and personal objects will chronologically illustrate and reveal an exceptional human being.

Le Corbusier became aware of the special links which connect the ineffable essence of an idea to the structure of an object, and of how any discipline will be intimately related to other fields. He determined that the different art forms should not be separated, as sight ought not to be dissociated from hearing or the sense of smell from that of touch. Spurred by vivid curiosity, Le Corbusier observed and deciphered reality ; in his quest for understanding, he brought to his work an intimate portion of his sensitivity, of his poetry.

Animated by an insatiable inquisitiveness of both a visual and intellectual nature, Le Corbusier brought the élan of an esprit nouveau or new spirit to his creations. He devoted his entire life to grasping the congruence among the various forms of expression, sensing that to achieve synthesis it is necessary to observe, to plan and to create. Through the search for a synthesis of the arts, he aimed for the harmonisation of man and his living space, of humanity and the cosmos.

Although criticised for many years, Le Corbusier is now considered a leading figure of modern architecture and a major player in the elaboration of 20th century architectural concepts. His work as painter, draftsman and sculptor remains less well-known to the general public in spite of world-wide recognition by art critics, collectors and artists, Picasso and Léger in particular among the latter. His accomplishments as philosopher, theoretician and poet still remain to be discovered.

Le Corbusier asserted that his architectural development evolved through his painting, the source of his creative inspiration in other fields as well. Since early childhood, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, who would become the future Le Corbusier, scrutinized and depicted the world that surrounded him, tirelessly sketching flowers and leaves, trees and roots, rocks and shells. His drawings became the bases of pictures, the pretexts for sculptures. A tree blends into a woman’s body or takes the shape of a horse, to emerge in the end as a concrete monument or an obelisk in the Chandigarh Capitole. The veins of a leaf suggest the framework of a building : load-bearing walls on the inside, façades open and full of light. A sawed-off bone becomes an object lesson for Le Corbusier, the architect with a predilection for reinforced concrete. The meanders of a landscape observed from the air metamorphose into a woman’s bust. A crab shell inspires the roof of the Notre-Dame-du-Haut chapel in Ronchamp ; from the « Saint-Sulpice » painting is born the Algiers skyscraper project. A stripped-away matchbox engenders the bell tower at the convent of La Tourette before giving rise to a picture and a sculpture. For Le Corbusier, painting was a vital necessity, an essential foundation for his creative activity.

Chronologically displayed over a surface of one thousand square metres, the exhibit will present major and previously unseen works with a special emphasis on paintings, while sustaining and underlining the principle of a synthesis of the arts. It will bear witness to the intensity of a mind open to all the disciplines of Art, propelling the audience into a unique and perpetually evolving universe.