MUNICH.- In the course of seven years, from 1947 to 1953, Le Corbusier produced a succession of lithographs that can be regarded as an artistic realization of his conception of the world and at the same time as a kind of self portrait. Although the work is thus given utmost importance, it received relatively little attention for a long time, as the artist Corbusier was not met with as much interest as the famous architect. Only recent research has decoded and interpreted the cosmos of imagery and thoughts, stipulated in the architectural poem.

›Le poème de l’angle droit‹ (The poem of the right angle) consists of a long hand-written text and drawings, which are linked in a way that they explain each other and merge into a complex statement. The text is divided into seven stanzas which correspond with 19 coloured lithographs. According to Le Corbusier these lithographs should be arranged axisymmetrically in seven rows in the form of a multi-chain cross above each other, so that they result in a projection wall, which – in the style of orthodox sacred spaces – he referred to as ›iconostasis‹. Thus the profane poem is elevated to a virtually religious expression of the artist’s pantheistic world view. Each row is dedicated to a topic: from the environment via the mental and physical elements to the right angle, with which the human being establishes his own order.

In the exhibition the complete circle is shown with all its accompanying preliminary studies, paintings and documents in Germany for the first time, thus making Le Corbusier’s work and design process comprehensible. The central point is the presentation of the ›iconostasis‹ in the form as it was predetermined by him. As Le Corbusier claimed, his buildings were based on ›poetry‹ and were only achieved due to is free artistic works, the cycle also provides an access to the architectural works of the greatest architect of the 20th century.

The architectural poem was published in a limited edition of 250 copies by the Paris publisher Editions Verve in 1955. For the exhibition a facsimile edition will be issued with a new translation of the poem as well as an accompanying volume with descriptive essays.