The world of the architect is a fascinating one to inhabit, especially when they treat you to a sneak peak into their imaginations, letting loose with conceptual drawings in which practicality, or at least what is possible at the time, goes out of the window to be replaced with the buildings of their dreams.
Lebbeus Woods, Architect, is a retrospective of just such lights of fancy, and how they soar from the page. Covering 175 works from the past 35 years, the exhibition is currently on show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (known as SFMOMA, although that acronym needs work, sounds like we’ve got a mouth full of marshmallows) until 2nd June. The institution has been a keen collector of the work of Woods, who passed away in 2012, for over 15 years; and it has also borrowed examples of his models and sketches from other key collections in America and beyond.
“Perhaps unparalleled in his influence within the architecture discourse, the work of Lebbeus Woods holds a timeless significance that transcends the physical and verges on an architecture of intellect”, says SFMOMA Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design Joseph Becker. It’s true, this is really architecture of the mind – and an expansive one at that.
Lebbeus Woods, San Francisco Project: Inhabiting the Quake, Quake City, 1995;
graphite and pastel on paper;
14 1/2 in. x 23 in. x 3/4 in. (36.83 cm x 58.42 cm x 1.91 cm);
Collection SFMOMA
© Estate of Lebbeus Woods
Lebbeus Woods, Conflict Space 4, 2006;
crayon and acrylic on linen; 74 x 120 in. (187.96 x 304.8 cm);
Collection SFMOMA
© Estate of Lebbeus Woods
Lebbeus Woods, Unified Urban Field,
from the series Centricity [no. 37], 1987;
graphite on paper; 24 in. x 23 in. (60.96 cm x 58.42 cm);
Collection SFMOMA
© Estate of Lebbeus Woods
Lebbeus Woods, Untitled,
sketch for the series Nine Reconstructed Boxes, 1999;
ink on paper; 8 1/2 in. x 11 in. (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm);
Collection SFMOMA
© Estate of Lebbeus Woods
Lebbeus Woods, Concentric Field,
from the series Centricity, 1987;
graphite on paper; 23 in. x 24 in. (58.42 cm x 60.96 cm);
Collection SFMOMA
© Estate of Lebbeus Woods
