A new show of Jean Prouvé's work has opened as of September 12th, 2003. Information about this show, entitled "Three Nomadic Structures" is available in the 03.03 issue of Newsline, or at http://www.arch.columbia.edu/exhbitions/prouve/
Jean Prouvé and the MaxéVille Years
The impact of Jean Prouvé cuts across architecture, engineering, and design. From cafeteria chairs to public buildings, Prouvé, like Charles and Ray Eames, sought to create furniture and simple lightweight metal building systems whose elegant constructive logic permitted easy fabrication and use. While Prouvé furniture has long been sought after by collectors, his modular structures have recently become the focus of preservation efforts.
“Three Nomadic Structures”, on display from April 12th to May 10th, 2002 in the Arthur Ross Gallery, Buell Hall, Columbia University, is the first museum show in America devoted entirely to Jean Prouvé. It focuses on three modular buildings that have recently migrated in some way. The show uses this “archaeology” of Prouvé to present an array of furniture, architectural elements, and photographs – in particular, a selection of vintage photographic prints by Lucien Herve—from American and French private collections. A wide range of Prouvé’s school furniture, a staple of his Maxéville workshops during their heyday of 1947-53, is also featured.
Curated by Evan Douglis, Director of Columbia Architecture Galleries, and Robert Rubin, the exhibition centers on the glass manufacturing school at Croismare (1948), the tropical house from Niamey (1949), and the Aluminum Centenary Pavilion at Villepinte (1954). Each evokes an important aspect of Prouvé’s career: education, the tropics, and the use of aluminum.
The Croismare school, vacant since the early nineteen fifties but essentially intact, has been purchased and will be relocated within the year. The tropical house from Niamey, built in France in 1949 and sent in cargo planes to Africa, has recently been taken down and shipped to Paris, where it awaits restoration, exhibition, and, perhaps eventually, reoccupation. The show includes a pair of façade elements from the Niamey structure, dismountable lightweight furniture for tropical export, and sun breakers from the Air France building at Brazzaville.
The Aluminum Centenary Pavilion, originally erected on the banks of the Seine as a marketing paean to the modernity of aluminum, was barged to Lille, where it languished, bolted on to a regional exposition hall. Classified in 1992, it was moved to Villepinte, and carefully restored. An easy cab ride from Charles de Gaulle airport, it is still used for expositions. Its complicated odyssey is documented in both period Herve photographs and contemporary images in situ at Villepinte.
“Three Nomadic Structures” raises the question one deals with in the preservation of buildings, or parts of buildings, which were designed collaboratively, or by other architects, using Prouvé’s vocabulary of non site-specific, modular elements. Moreover, since their assembly is integral to their design, the act of re-assembly is equally integral to their presentation today. The field of architectural presentation has not previously been faced with these kinds of questions in the process of saving buildings. Preserving Prouvé’s work charts a path for both architects and architectural historians in finding answers to these critical issues.
A symposium on the life and work of Jean Prouvé will be held on April 12th from 4:00pm to 6:30pm in the Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall. Confirmed panelists to date include: Bernard Vaudeville, director of RFR, Paris, and president of the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction at France's Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and Kenneth Frampton, Ware Professor of Architecture, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University. The symposium will be followed by a reception from 6:30pm to 8:30pm in the Arthur Ross Gallery, Buell Hall.
