Exhibition Fact Sheet from the National Building Museum

Marcel Breuer: Fact Sheet

Design and Architecture Exhibition Fact Sheet

Exhibition

Marcel Breuer: Design and Architecture

When

November 3, 2007 through February 17, 2008

Where

National Building Museum, first-floor galleries

Overview

Marcel Breuer: Design and Architecture is the first exhibition to treat all facets of Breuer's work with equal weight, from the highly innovative furniture he produced as both a student and teacher at the famed Bauhaus, to the elegant but modestly scaled houses he created after moving to the United States, to the large-scale governmental and institutional buildings he eventually designed for major cities around the world. Developed by the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, the exhibition traces several themes that connect the apparently diverse elements of this prolific and influential designer's portfolio. The National Building Museum will be the exhibition's exclusive North American venue.

Twelve models—produced exclusively for this exhibition—will highlight Breuer's extensive architectural work from single-family houses to major religious, cultural, and civic institutions. In addition, drawings, floor plans, photographs, video projections, and interactive computer terminals will shed light on Breuer's long and varied architectural career.

Exhibition Layout

The exhibition is divided into three sections exploring Breuer's furniture design, architectural design, and central elements and themes in his work.

The first section, Materials, documents Breuer's interior and furniture design work chronologically, using furniture samples, drawings, catalogs, and contemporary photographs.

The second section focuses on Breuer's architectural oeuvre. The models and photographs on display are ordered by theme: Houses, Spaces, and Volumes. Each model not only documents a major work, such as the Breuer I and II Houses, the Whitney Museum, and his spectacular church buildings, but also illustrates a particular solution—be it a specific layout or a structural/formal strategy—that Breuer replicated in other buildings.

The exhibition closes with a section entitled Motifs, which presents central elements and themes in Breuer's designs. Throughout his career, Breuer experimented with and reinterpreted motifs such as protruding volumes, horizontal bands, and "reclining rectangles" in his furniture and architectural designs.

Artifacts

Marcel Breuer: Design and Architecture features 12 models produced exclusively for the exhibition, which highlight Breuer's extensive architectural work from single-family houses to religious, cultural, and civic institutions. The exhibition also features 50 original pieces of furniture, as well as drawings, floor plans, photographs, video projections, and interactive computer terminals. A detailed listing of the models and original pieces of furniture accompanies this fact sheet TK from Collections. A catalogue with more than 450 illustrations will accompany the exhibition.

Curators

The exhibition was developed by the Vitra Design Museum in Germany. Susan Piedmont-Palladino is the coordinating curator at the National Building Museum.

Sponsors

The presentation of Marcel Breuer: Design and Architecture at the National Building Museum is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts; Vitra USA; Deborah Berke & Partners Architects LLP; Perkins + Will; and other generous contributors.  

The National Building Museum is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to exploring and celebrating architecture, design, engineering, construction, and planning. Chartered by Congress in 1980 and open to the public since 1985, the Museum has become a vital forum for exchanging ideas and information about the built environment through its exhibitions, education programs, and publications. The Museum is located at 401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Admission is free. Museum Shop. Café. Public inquiries: 202.272.2448 or visit www.nbm.org.