Le Corbusier's hands / André Wogenscky ; translated by Martina Millà Bernad.

By:

Wogenscky, André, 1916-2004 [author.]

Material type: Text

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

0262232448
9780262232449

Uniform titles:

Mains de Le Corbusier. English

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

720.92 22

LOC classification:

NA1053.J4 W6413 2006

Available additional physical forms:

Also issued online.

Review: "Le Corbusier's Hands offers a poetic and personal portrait of Le Corbusier - a nuanced portrayal in contrast to the popular image of Le Corbusier the aloof modernist. The author knew Le Corbusier intimately for thirty years, first as his draftsman and main assistant, later as his colleague and personal friend. In this book, written in the mid-1980s, Andre Wogenscky remembers his mentor in a series of revealing personal statements and evocative reflections unlike anything that exists in the vast literature on Le Corbusier." "Wogenscky draws a portrait in swift, deft strokes - 50 short chapters, one leading to the next, one memory of Le Corbusier opening into another. Appearing and reappearing like a leitmotif are Le Corbusier's hands - touching, taking, drawing, offering, closing, opening, grasping, releasing: "It was his hands that revealed him. . . . They spoke all his feelings, all the vibrations of his inner life that his face tried to conceal." Wogenscky writes about Le Corbusier's work, including the famous design of the chapel at Ronchamp, his ideas for high-density Unites d'Habitation linked to the center of a "Radiant City," and his "Modulor" system for defining proportions - which Wogenscky compares to a piano tuner's finding the exact relation between sounds. He remembers the day Picasso spent with Le Corbusier at the Marseilles building site - "All day long they outdid one another in a show of modesty," he observes in amazement. He adds, speaking for himself and the others present, "We were inside a double energy field." And Wogenscky writes about Le Corbusier more personally. "I have spent years trying to understand what went on in his mind and in his hand," he tells us. With Le Corbusier's Hands, Wogenscky gives us a unique record of an enigmatic genius."--BOOK JACKET.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	City Campus City Campus Main Collection	720.92 WOG (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		A403286B

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Previous	720.92 WER Covering + exposing : the architecture of Coop Himmelb(l)au /	720.92 WHI Reyner Banham : historian of the immediate future /	720.92 WHI Reyner Banham : historian of the immediate future /	720.92 WOG Le Corbusier's hands /	720.92 WOR World architecture review : a special issue devoted to the work of Athfield Architects New Zealand and Aasen-Athfield + Co International.	720.92 WRE The architectural drawings of Sir Christopher Wren : at All Souls College, Oxford : a complete catalogue /	720.92 WRI Frank Lloyd Wright /	Next

Includes bibliographical references (pages 89-91).

"Le Corbusier's Hands offers a poetic and personal portrait of Le Corbusier - a nuanced portrayal in contrast to the popular image of Le Corbusier the aloof modernist. The author knew Le Corbusier intimately for thirty years, first as his draftsman and main assistant, later as his colleague and personal friend. In this book, written in the mid-1980s, Andre Wogenscky remembers his mentor in a series of revealing personal statements and evocative reflections unlike anything that exists in the vast literature on Le Corbusier." "Wogenscky draws a portrait in swift, deft strokes - 50 short chapters, one leading to the next, one memory of Le Corbusier opening into another. Appearing and reappearing like a leitmotif are Le Corbusier's hands - touching, taking, drawing, offering, closing, opening, grasping, releasing: "It was his hands that revealed him. . . . They spoke all his feelings, all the vibrations of his inner life that his face tried to conceal." Wogenscky writes about Le Corbusier's work, including the famous design of the chapel at Ronchamp, his ideas for high-density Unites d'Habitation linked to the center of a "Radiant City," and his "Modulor" system for defining proportions - which Wogenscky compares to a piano tuner's finding the exact relation between sounds. He remembers the day Picasso spent with Le Corbusier at the Marseilles building site - "All day long they outdid one another in a show of modesty," he observes in amazement. He adds, speaking for himself and the others present, "We were inside a double energy field." And Wogenscky writes about Le Corbusier more personally. "I have spent years trying to understand what went on in his mind and in his hand," he tells us. With Le Corbusier's Hands, Wogenscky gives us a unique record of an enigmatic genius."--BOOK JACKET.