library.
Central Library’s Getty Gallery:
“Richard Neutra, Architect: Sketches and Drawings”
though Dec 31, 2009
Richard Neutra
downtown Los Angeles Public Library
The exhibition, Richard Neutra, Architect: Sketches and Drawings, featuring travel sketches, figure drawings and building renderings by one of modernism’s most important architects, Richard Neutra (1892-1970), has been extended at Central Library’s Getty Gallery, 630 W. Fifth St., downtown Los Angeles. The exhibit is free and open to the public during regular library hours. The exhibition features choice selections at the Charles E. Young Research Library’s Department of Special Collections, UCLA. The pieces range from early pencil sketches from Neutra’s student wanderings in 1913 to later pastel renderings of his Los Angeles houses from the 1950s. Selected for their artistic quality, the works illustrate Neutra’s skill in traditional notions of composition combined with his innovative techniques of architectural representation. “Not only was Richard Neutra an imaginative and innovative architect, he was also a remarkable draughtsman, and the Department of Special Collections is pleased to have the chance to share its collection of his sketches with visitors to this exhibition,” says Department Director Victoria Steele. Neutra’s work in Southern California – characterized by the post and beam structure, cantilevered roof slabs extending into space and an emphasis on the interpenetration of inner and outer space – developed a regional architecture that gained international prominence.