Gottfried Böhm

nuns walking across courtyard of church

Remembering Gottfried Böhm whose 100th birthday was celebrated in 2020 with the exhibition: The Concrete Cathedral of Neviges.

29th September 2020

By greyscape

@Barbican_City_of_London

The back yard, Villa Empain, Brussels. Image Lizuk

The back yard, Villa Empain, Brussels. Image Lizuka • CC BY-SA 4.0

Art deco detail: this is the front door of Villa E

Art deco detail: this is the front door of Villa Empain a glorious Art Deco mansion in Brussels. Built between 1930 and 1934 for Baron Louis Empain, a wealthy Belgian industrialist. The architect was Michel Polak who was said in the execution of the design to ‘combine Bauhaus and Art Deco influences.

Originally a private family home. After a yachting accident in July 1936 Empain vowed to change his life, sold his two castles, renounced his title and focused his endeavours on improving the lot of others, particularly young people through the medium of sport and outdoor activities, ‘without regard to any distinctions of class, race or religion’. In 1937 the villa was gifted to the Belgian government. After the war the government having used the villa in a variety of ways with some success. Inexplicably it was allowed to fall into disrepair. In 2000, the Boghossian Foundation acquired and restored the villa, today a cultural and art centre. Image Sally CC BY-SA 4.0

Care to name this? We’ll start with, ‘Trapped

Care to name this? We’ll start with, ‘Trapped in a Concrete Politics Box’.

Its real name is La Tête Carée, the ‘Square Head’ on Place Yves Klein, Nice. Whilst it might look like concrete, ins actually aluminium. The centrepiece by Sasha Sosno sits on top of and adjacent to the Bibliothèque Louis Nucéra in Nice- below is the vast library. According to the website, Alexandre Sosnowsky was born in Marseilles in 1937 and grew up between Riga and Nice. He discovered by chance in 1948 that he lived in a flat next to Matisse! ‘In 1956, he bumped into Arman and Yves Klein. As a result of seeing Klein’s monochromes, he burned all the paintings he had made. ‘The concept of obliteration - to hide in order to see better – was later developed in the field of sculpture and architecture’. Image Howard Morris ©️

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