ZURICH.- Galerie Gmurzynska presents a show of collages by renowned artist and architect Richard Meier. The exhibition focuses on eighty collages produced from the mid 1980s to now. In 2012 a selection of the collages was exhibited in a show of Richard Meier’s work at Cornell University.

Richard Meier is one of the most influential architects in the world, as well as the youngest-ever recipient of the Pritzker Prize. Among his many projects known world-wide are the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, the Getty Center, Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, the Jubilee Church, Rome and the Arp Museum in Remagen-Rolandseck, Germany.

Like his architecture his collages are very clean and methodical on the surface, the images constrained by constant grit that is not changing. Within the grit however the images range from the erotic to painterly illustration. Painters such as Picasso, Cezanne and Rodchenko make their way into the collages, as do other influences such as film and opera. The works also offer deep insights into Meier’s private life. Often the collages are deeply personal and autobiographical, using everyday collected objects such as theatre and travel tickets to intimate photographs.

“I have been producing collages for nearly fifty five years, many of the early ones were done during long flights or in the waiting areas at airports. Despite their inherent uniqueness layered compositions of 'found' papers, shapes and colors – these collages are very much of a piece with my architecture. As a presentation drawing is no substitute for the physical experience of architecture, visual power of the collages derives from ‘the suggestion of “space” that we do not see: small fragments of letters and pictures with their own histories, former uses and meanings.” –Richard Meier