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Swiss Museum Juxtaposes Architecture and Sculpture

Eiffel, Arp and Herzon & de Meuron are among the observed.

Marc Spiegler -- Interior Design, 10/4/2004 12:00:00 AM

One of the more distinctively designed private museums in Europe, Renzo Piano Building Workshop's Fondation Beyeler, near Basel, Switzerland, is an eminently appropriate venue for "ArchiSculpture: Dialogues Between Architecture and Sculpture From the 18th Century to the Present." Explaining the show's concept, curator Markus Brüderlin points out, for instance, that New York skyscrapers always remind him of constructivist Kazimir Malevich: "There has forever been a strong interaction between the disciplines, but—starting with modernism—architecture has become intensely sculptural. Architects view themselves more and more as artists, and contemporary architecture extends the history of sculpture."

Featured artists include Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, Eduardo Chillida, Jeff Wall, and Thomas Schütte. Architecture will be represented by Gustave Eiffel, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Louis Kahn maquettes and drawings as well as full-on installation pieces from Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Greg Lynn Form, and hometown heroes Herzog & de Meuron. October 3–January 30; 41-61-645-97-00; beyeler.com .

"ArchiSculpture" at the Fondation Beyeler juxtaposes examples from the two mediums, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum and Jean Arp's "Tree of Bowls" and Norman Foster's Swiss Re Tower.