Az W in MONTREAL: Lessons from Bernard Rudofsky

Bernard Rudofsky was neither an architect nor a theorist in the usual sense. At the start of his career he completed a number of houses in Italy and Brazil, where he employed the formal language of the Modernists even though his writings appear to indicate he rejected their teachings.

From the 1940s onwards, Rudofsky was primarily engaged as a critic and culture theorist who did not just write about architecture and design, but also on topics such as clothing, shoes, eating and bathing. The common element behind all of these activities, though, was the human body, and his lamentation of the loss of sensual awareness.

This comprehensive show on Bernard Rudofsky provides detailed information on his life, his travels, his various activities as an architect, designer, exhibition-maker, author and theorist, as well as about the life he shared with his wife, Berta Rudofsky.

Bernard Rudofsky made a large number of exhibitions during his widely travelled and cosmopolitan life, however there has never been an exhibition about him and his work. This exhibition, the first on Bernard Rudofsky in the world, has not been conceived as a classical retrospective. The aim is to make the cosmopolitan Rudofsky’s complex architectural concept and concept of how to live accessible to a broad public, and to address his relevance for today.

The catalogue accompanying the exhibition ‘Lessons from Bernard Rudofsky’, has contributions by Andrea Bocco-Guarneri, Monika Platzer, Felicity Scott, Wim de Wit and Maria Welzig. Published by the Architekturzentrum Wien and The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. 296 pages, approx. 216 illustrations, available in German and English.

Curators:
Monika Platzer, Architekturzentrum Wien
Wim de Wit, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

Exhibition Architecture: polar÷. Margot Fürtsch, Siegfried Loos
Graphic Design: Gabriele Lenz