Marking the 50th anniversary of Le Corbusier’s death, Phaidon recently released a second edition of William J R Curtis’ seminal book, “Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms.” Following in the footsteps of the first edition published in 1986, the book reveals Le Corbusier’s works through over 500 images and incisive analysis. The context within which the book will be received is of course very different compared to that of 1986; in the following text, the author explains how Le Corbusier’s legacy has changed in the intervening years, but also why the book is needed just as much now as it was back then.
From the Preface to the Second Edition of Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms:
When the first edition of this book was written Le Corbusier had been dead only twenty years. His reputation was in temporary eclipse. Demonized by post-modernist foes and over-simplified by neo-modernist friends, he risked becoming a caricature. At the time it was necessary to rescue him from transient perceptions and to place him in a longer and broader historical perspective. While focusing upon individual works I attempted to reveal Le Corbusier’s recurrent themes, basic types and guiding principles. His architecture was placed in the context of his larger social and cultural projects and related to his general conceptions of society, history and nature. The first edition closed with the declaration: ‘Le Corbusier is himself part of tradition and has even altered the perspective on the distant past. As he slips further into history, his modernity matters less and less: it is the timeless levels in his art which have most to give to the future.’
Today, over a quarter of a century later, the long-term relevance of Le Corbusier is no longer in doubt, although there are clearly many ways of ‘re-reading’ and transforming his example. If anything the problems now stem from uncritical acceptance. Le Corbusier has been canonized as an unquestioned saint by the modern cultural establishments in academia and the museum worlds. Like Picasso, he has even been popularized by curators as a form of entertainment. Guided tours of his buildings are accompanied by set-piece legends while attributes such as the Modulor, the Cabanon and the horn-rimmed glasses have become props in a modernist theme park. The brand ‘Le Corbusier’ has proved profitable for the furniture and design industries. The mediocrity of some of his paintings has been overlooked to sate an appetite for easy narratives and even to suit an art market that exploits a lack of critical discrimination.
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