Content area
Full text
Two years after its extraordinary retrospective "At the End of the Century: One Hundred Years of Architecture," Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art continues its examination of architecture with "Mies in America," an exhibition highlighting Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's contribution to America's urban landscape.
Considering his impact on Chicago architecture, the MCA couldn't have picked a better subject than the man whose bold, dramatic yet straightforward glass and steel structures helped define an era and set the standard for tall buildings.
Exhibition curator Phyllis Lambert, whose association with Mies began when she commissioned him to design New York City's famed Seagram Building, maintains that while some people believe that Mies had realized his genius by the time he immigrated to the United States in 1938, the exhibition reveals an architect who remained as inquisitive and inventive as ever.
"The myth of Mies is that he sprang fully formed into the American environment," says MCA associate curator Staci Boris, echoing Lambert's comments.
"Mies in America" counters that point to an extent, revealing a man "still learning, designing and researching new ways of doing things," Boris says. It also underlines his involvement in every aspect of his projects, from...