Russian
museum presents the exhibition of Richard Meier's collages. Richard Meier is one of the most famous and
successful contemporary architects, and one the most consistent American
modernists in his attachment to pure forms. As one of the most brilliant
representatives of ‘romantic modernism' and purism in architecture, Meier
professes in his architectural work a philosophy of purity, restraint and
clarity as an antithesis to the aggressive chaos of the surrounding world.
Strict functionality of form, constructional laconicism and the rejection of
decoration and colour apart from white, are essential features of the master's
architectural style. As an artist Meier reveals a different side of his
artistic oeuvre. When working in the collage genre Meier continues his
architectural experiments, contrasting and juxtaposing textures, materials and
colours, but now not in a three-dimensional space, but on a flat surface.
Richard Meier has created collages for almost
fifty-five years. But for all the intimate nature of these works, they are
effectively an impression, a copy, of the epoch. The polyphony of Meier's
collages is woven from the numerous motifs of the information flow that
accompanies the life of everyone who is alive today. The combination of
differing materials (in content, form and period of origin) creates an infinite
multiplicity of layers, a play of associations and allusions. Meier's collages
are imbued with a postmodernist philosophy that acknowledges
de-aestheticisation, the dethroning of the icons of art, the loss of
continuity and the devaluation of traditions, but it is this global destruction
that asks the difficult question about the essential problems of morality, and
provides an impulse for rebirth. And this coincides in full with the primordial
mission of art as such.
The exhibition shows 38 Richard Meier's collages
from the collection of the Gmurzynska gallery.
Video of the exhibition opening
