Le Corbusier's achievements were celebrated in 2009 through a season of events across the United Kingdom. As part of the celebrations the RIBA lent material related to Tate Liverpool and the Architectural Association. Other items from the collections were on loan to museums in Germany, France and the United States.
Mind into Matter: Eight Exemplary Buildings 1834 - 2009
De La Warr Pavilion|, Bexhill
17 October 2009 – 3 January 2010
Selected by the architectural historian Alan Powers at 25 year intervals since the foundation of the RIBA in 1834, the eight buildings included in 'Mind into Matter' illuminate architectural practice throughout this 175 year period. The RIBA lent a total of 20 drawings, and a model of the Economist Building, London.
| Details of the lanterns, Clouds House, Wiltshire
Artist: Philip Speakman Webb
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections
Compass and Rule: Architecture as Mathematical Practice in England
Museum of the History of Science|, Oxford
12 June - 6 September 2009
Yale Center for British Art|, New Haven
18 February - 30 May 2010
This travelling exhibition looked at drawing instruments and practice in England in the early modern period. The RIBA lent four drawings from the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as George Adams's architectural sector and the Library's annotated copy of Sir Christopher Wren's Parentalia.
| Architectonic sector of silver
Designer: George Adams
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections
Frederick, Lord Leighton (1830 - 1896): Painter and sculptor of the Victorian
Age Museum
Villa Stuck|, Munich
29 May - 13 September 2009
The RIBA lent four drawings by George Atchison to this exhibition co-organised by Leighton House at the Museum Villa Stuck, the house of the artist prince Franz von Stuck in Munich.
| Design for stained glass, Leighton House
Designer: George Atchison
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections
Le Corbusier at the AA
The Architectural Association|, London
26 November – 13 December 2009
This exhibition celebrated the famous Le Corbusier lectures at the Architectural Association and was held in conjunction with a joint AA/RIBA symposium on the subject of the lectures. The RIBA lent three Le Corbusier books to this exhibition.
|Architectural Association, London
Photographer: H. de Burgh Galwey
Copyright: Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Library Photographs Collection
Colour Chart: Re-inventing colour, 1950 to today
Tate Liverpool|
29 May – 13 September 2009
The Tate took the commercial colour chart as its point of departure for this display, addressing the impact of mass produced colour on the art of the past 60 years. The RIBA lent two books by Le Corbusier.
Baroque 1620 - 1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence
Victoria and Albert Museum|, London
4 April – 19 July 2009
The exhibition reflected the complexity and grandeur of the Baroque style, from the Rome of Borromini and Bernini to the magnificence of Louis XIV's Versailles and the lavishness of Baroque theatre and performance.
| Model of St Mary-le-Strand, London
Artist: James Gibbs
Copyright: RIBA Library Photographs Collection
A Higher Ambition: Owen Jones (1809 - 1874)
Victoria and Albert Museum|, London
28 March - 22 November 2009
This exhibition traced Owen Jones's unique contributions to Victorian design reform. The RIBA contributed the imposing portrait of Owen Jones by Henry Wyndham Philips.
| Portrait of Owen Jones
Artist: Henry Wyndham Philips
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections
Juliette Recamier and the Arts
Musee des Beaux Arts|, Lyon
25 March – 29 June 2009
The RIBA lent a pair of drawings by Robert Smirke of Mrs Recamier's bedroom and bathroom to this exhibition centred on her life and work.
|Madame Recamier's Bedroom
Artist: Sir Robert Smirke
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections