Digital Guide

A 5     Beyond Order

The Late Work

Le Corbusier was at the height of his public recognition in the 1950s. With commissions such as the design of the city of Chandigarh, he had never before come so close to reaching his goals. He insisted that art, architecture, and design should not be seen in isolation. Instead, they should be brought into a harmonious interplay to create an integrated experience.

In works such as Poème de l’angle droit, he looks back on his oeuvre, taking up themes that have preoccupied him for decades: from the relationship between nature and culture to the organization of cities. In the process, he also reinforces the myth surrounding his person, which he carefully cultivated.

Early in his career, rationalism and the philosophy of order served as the cornerstones of his art and architecture. By contrast, in his final decades, Le Corbusier embraced the organic, the irrational, and the elementary. In doing so, he also responded to the art of his time, which emphasized spontaneous, gestural expression.

This new direction is evident, for example, in the expressive collages of the 1960s, in which he used materials such as newspaper clippings or cigarette packages to design paintings and tapestries.

1 Poème de l’angle droit

These prints are from the series The Poem of the Right Angle. It is a collection of 19 prints and accompanying poems, created between 1947 and 1953. Le Corbusier describes his worldview and reflects on the relationship between humans, nature, and the cosmos. Only the illustrations are shown here.

The main theme of the series is the right angle. Le Corbusier refers to it as the foundation of human civilisation and as a ‘pact’ between humans and nature. He illustrates this pact by depicting an upright human in a hilly landscape. The hand drawing a right angle points to the moment of realisation: order gives humans the ability to understand and to compose.

Other important motifs in this series are the path of the sun, the Modulor as the embodiment of human scale, and the symbol of the open hand. Le Corbusier’s role as an architect is also highlighted by a depiction of a Unité d’habitation.

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