Barry Bergdoll, Professor of 19th- and 20th-century Architectural History at Columbia University and curator of architecture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, will in his lecture accompanying the exhibition 19th-century Architecture juxtapose three greats of European architecture of the period: German architects Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Heinrich Hübsch, and the French Henri Labrouste.

The rich theoretical and practical work of these architects reveals key questions raised by architecture in the 19th century. Romanticism, which in art represents an escape from the modern reality of the 19th century, the industrial revolution, population growth and urbanization, emerges in architecture as the revival of Gothic architecture and brings appreciation for the picturesque beauty of Medieval ruins. The subject notably led to debate between proponents of classicist and historicist architectures. Though Hübsch, in his book “In welchem Style sollen wir bauen?” primarily wished to critique classicist architecture, the work is remembered for introducing the issue of style as an architectural problem of the 19th century. In Schinkel, style issues reflect already in his opus, as he traversed from his early classicist style across a Neo-Gothic one, ultimately transcending them both by embracing the clean strokes of modernism developing in the 20th century. Here, Labrouste went even further, as he is counted among the rare architects of the 19th century whose “heroic” stature persisted throughout the periods, which can largely be attributed to the fact he shed light on the still-relevant exploration of new relationships between architectural form and technology.

Barry Bergdoll is a Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and the curator of architecture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. His broad interests center on modern architectural history with an emphasis on the development of architecture in France and Germany between 1750 and 1900. Mr. Bergdoll’s research is closely intertwined with cultural history and the history and sociology of professions, in particular the role of knowledge in the development of professionalism. He has studied questions of the politics of cultural representation in architecture, the broader ideological aspects of 19th- century architectural theory, and the changing role of architecture both as a profession as well as a cultural product of 19th-century European society. His interests also include the relationship between architecture and new technologies (and eventually cultures) of representation in the modern period, especially photography and film.

Professor Bergdoll has worked on several film productions about architecture, in addition to curating a number of exhibitions concerned with the history and problematics of exhibiting architecture, and the history of museological practices in relation to architecture. He is the author of numerous books, catalogues and other publications, most notably Karl Friedrich Schinkel: An Architecture for Prussia (1994), Léon Vaudoyer: Historicism in the Age of Industry (1994), European Architecture 1750–1890 (2000), Mies in Berlin (2001), Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity (2009-2010) and his newest work, Henri Labrouste: Structure brought to Light (2013). In 2012, he played an important role in transposing of the legacy of architect Frank Lloyd Wright under the auspices of the MOMA and the University of Colombia. This year, he is preparing the first exhibition of the exceptional archive, which carries great relevance for the history of global architecture.

The lecture is part of the accompanying programme of the 19th Century Architecture in Slovenia.

Opening

Start: 7 pm

Admission

Free.

Info

19th Century Architecture in Slovenia
00386 (0)1 5484 280/270
izobrazevanje@mao.si