Celebrating notable achievements
Concrete, geometry and nature come together in a Paris retrospective of the work of Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
JAPANESE architect Tadao Ando is the subject of a major retrospective that opened last week week at Paris’s Centre Pompidou. The exhibition focuses on his key creative principles, including his use of smooth concrete, geometric volumes and natural components seen throughout his striking oeuvre.
Born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan, Ando abandoned professional boxing to embark on a career in architecture, creating a studio in 1969 that showcased his clean-lined designs.
In his more than 50-year career, the architect has had more than 300 projects listed around the world and in 1995, won the prestigious Pritzker Prize (the Oscars of the architecture world).
With a staging designed by Ando himself, the Pompidou retrospective will present 50 major projects via 180 drawings, 70 original models and several slide shows, all divided into four main themes: the basic form of space, the urban challenge, the origins of landscape, and the dialogue with history.
Several different periods in Ando’s architectural career will be highlighted at the show, which will shed light on notable achievements such as the Azuma House in Sumiyoshi (1976), the Church of Light (1989) and La Bourse de Commerce in Paris (autumn 2019).
Forming a central part of the exhibition will be a focus on the architect’s work on Naoshima, where since 1988 he has been slowly working with the island’s natural landscapes to create a destination for lovers of contemporary art and design.
Also on display will be graphite drawings, travel notebooks and photographs taken by Ando that have never been shown to a European public. – AFP Relaxnews
Tadao Ando: The Challenge runs from Oct 10 to Dec 31 at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.