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L.A MoCA argues for architect R.M. Schindler's place in the modernist pantheon, but Joseph Giovannini thinks the curators missed the point.
Review
The promise of The Architecture of R.M. Schindler is redemptive: that a big, monographic exhibition will introduce the designer and his ideas to a wide public and finally redress the infamous omission of Schindler from the Museum of Modern Art's benchmark 1932 show Modern Architecture, curated by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, and catalogued in their seminal book The International Style: Architecture Since 1922. This new exhibition holds out the hope of elevating an underappreciated master and even placing him in the pantheon of first generation modernists alongside Mies, Le Corbusier, and Gropius.
The show comprises 100 gorgeous original renderings and drawings, 90 photographs, 15 scale models, 12 pieces of furniture, and even a full-size re-creation of a beach bungalow. A lavish, beautifully designed Abrams catalogue accompanies the show, which is currently on view at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and will travel to the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna.
Given the effort and resources, this show should be a cause for jubilation. MoCA has devoted the premier galleries in its Arata Isozaki-- designed building to the cause. The chronologically organized show starts with Schindler's early work in Vienna, where he studied with Wagner and Loos, segues to his Chicago and Los Angeles periods with Frank Lloyd Wright, and then to his own independent career. Exhibition designers Chu + Gooding Architects boldly and successfully abstract Schindler's principles of interlocking space and form to break up and scale down Isozaki's monumental chambers.
Twirling his engineer's drafting machine, Schindler was a Mozart on the boards-a highly inventive master of composition and improvisation. From his first solo buildings, his genius has been incontestable. His own house on Kings Road (1921-22),the Pueblo Ribera Courts in La Jolla (1923-25), and the Lovell Beach House (1925-26) have...