Série Panurge, 1961

Le Corbusier   Master Artists

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, aka Corbusier, an illustrious artist of the 20th century is considered to be the founder of modern architecture. An artisan and industrial background. Corbusier initially did his training in engraving and chiseling, in 1990 at the Art School in Jura. Self-taught, the artist has a protean way of working: architect, town planner, furniture and tapestry (designer) manufacturer, painter, sculptor, poet...He was born in 1887 in Switzerland and passed away in 1965 in the French Riviera. Of Swiss nationality, he obtained the French citizenship in 1930.

In 1926, he stated the theory of modern architecture through five pillars: stilts, roof deck, open plan layout, original facade, window sills. In 1928, he founded CIAM (International Congress of Modern Architecture) uniting key architects and town planners of the modernist current. In 1945, he created « l’unité de l’habitation de grandeur conforme ». His invention allowed him to combine all key equipment under the same building: nursery, laundromat, swimming pool, school and library. Accompanied by the painter, Ozenfant, Corbusier leads the puristic magazine « L’Esprit Nouveau ». He gives great detail to this post-cubist artistic current, which extols coming back to order, rational art where exuberance and decor deteriorate the form and not their places.

An eternal wanderer, he has worked in 12 countries, and contributed to the creation of 78 buildings and more than 400 projects, these include villas, workshops and habitations...He signed manifesto constructions: creation of detached house, during the International exhibition of decorative arts, the project of the contemporary city of 3 million inhabitants, presented at the Salon Automne in Paris 1922, 54 houses in the modern quarter of Pessac, ordered in 1924...