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In 1956, with Grand Central Terminal slated for demolition, I.M. Pei unveiled his Hyperboloid in New York. Ambitious is an understatement. The 80-story glass and criss-crossing steel tower was designed to withstand nuclear bombs and was originally the tallest tower in the world. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints and bureaucracy, this Beaux-Arts masterpiece remains untouched.
I.M. Pei’s hyperboloids are a reminder that the unrealized dreams of history’s great architects are often as inspiring as the realized ones. This is emphasized by the first international retrospective exhibition of I.M. Pei, Life is Architecture, organized by M+ in Hong Kong. In addition to photographs and original drawings documenting Pei’s extraordinary six-year career, there is a collection of models, including those that were never built.
These models run through the six thematic areas that M+ has chosen to explore Pei’s practice. It begins with “Cross-Cultural Basics,” showing how Pei’s early exposure to multiple cultures helped him develop his unique perspective. I.M. Pei was born into a wealthy family in Guangzhou, China, in 1917, and as his father rose through the ranks at the Bank of China, he moved to Hong Kong and later to Shanghai.
As was customary for wealthy Chinese families in the 1930s, Pei was sent to study abroad. In 1940, when he received an architecture degree from MIT, M+ presented his final undergraduate project, a bankers’ club in Hong Kong, a sleek white building rising from Victoria Peak with underground Squash courts and bowling lanes.
This is a student project with future clients in mind. However, political instability in East Asia frustrated these plans. With the rise of the Chinese Communist Party and war looming, Pei stayed in the United States at his father’s request to study under Walter Gropius, founder of Harvard’s Bauhaus School. In retrospect, it’s easy to see the influence this had on Pei’s sense of line and use of concrete, but first he had to make a living.
As Zeckendorf’s in-house chief architect, Pei brought rare aesthetic attention to large-scale public projects. Highlights include New York’s Kips Bay Plaza and Silver Towers and Philadelphia’s Society Hill Towers. It is an education in the substance of citizen awareness building and how government programs are implemented. Not everything worked out. His redevelopment plan for Oklahoma City was too harsh and failed to revitalize downtown.
In the 1960s, he gained a major breakthrough when he expanded his practice through IM Pei & Associates, winning a commission from the John F. Kennedy Library. Although it has been mired in political and planning troubles for 15 years, at the same time, commissions have continued to emerge, especially for museums, see M+’s “Art and Civic Form” for details. Everson Museum of Art in 1968, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art in 1973, and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1978.
One success leads to the next. I.M. Pei is known for his majestic, clean-lined buildings centered on simple geometric shapes. His work in Washington, D.C., impressed French President François Mitterrand, who invited Pei to redesign the entrance to the Louvre. I.M. Pei’s 70-foot glass pyramid sparked controversy after it was unveiled. Today it has become a symbol of Paris.
As an architect, Pei is also good at client relations. This is the focus of Power, Politics and Patronage, and it proved particularly useful in the 1980s when China was calling for its prodigal son. Uninspired by forty years of Soviet architecture and unwilling to build skyscrapers in the country’s booming metropolises, Pei basically waited (except for the Fragrant Hills Hotel, which proved a disappointment).
In 2002, he began to create works for Suzhou Museum, his hometown with a history of more than 500 years. The museum is a masterpiece, a fusion of Chinese and modernist traditions, geometry and calligraphy, light and dark.
As we all know, I.M. Pei once said that lasting architecture must have its roots─and in Suzhou, Pei finally returned to his roots.
“I.M. Pei: Life is Architecture” will be on display at the M+ Museum, 38 Museum Road, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong from June 29.
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