Radical exhibition designs by Lina Bo Bardi and Aldo van Eyck recreated at Gulbenkian Museum

Lina Bo Bardi’s well-known glass easels and a 1960s expo pavilion by Aldo van Eyck have each been reconstructed in Lisbon, for the exhibition Artwork on Show on the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum.

The landmark present, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese artwork museum, recreates a number of the most groundbreaking exhibition shows created by architects within the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.

In addition to Bo Bardi and Van Eyck, it additionally options designs by Alison and Peter Smithson, Carlo Scarpa, Franco Albini and Franca Helg.

Artwork on Show options exhibition designs from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s

Curators Penelope Curtis and Dirk van den Heuvel need to present that exhibition design, notably by architects, was extra radical within the midcentury than it’s as we speak.

By inserting artworks in non-traditional contexts – examples embrace work with out frames and sculptures on the ground – these architects had been attempting to democratise artwork for a postwar viewers.

“The nexus of artwork and structure was crucial across the second world struggle and within the postwar a long time, when it comes to rethinking how artwork might assist develop a extra egalitarian society,” defined Van den Heuvel throughout a tour of the exhibition.

A pavilion by Aldo van Eyck has been partly reconstructed on the museum entrance

The curators labored with architect Rita Albergaria to reconstruct fragments of the unique exhibition shows. In lots of circumstances they solely had pictures to work from, so needed to decide lots of the size by eye.

“The entire exhibition was, you would possibly say, a calculated danger to see how nicely we might reconstruct with out pretending it was utterly devoted,” added Curtis. “We discovered ourselves obsessively poring over these pictures to attempt to get it proper.”

The design includes a sequence of parallel partitions with curved niches

The artworks used for the shows are all from the Gulbenkian’s assortment, however had been chosen to reference the unique items.

“In nearly each case we had one thing that was actually fairly acceptable,” Curtis mentioned. “So we really feel that we did an excellent job of representing the artwork with out attempting to utterly duplicate the unique.”

Guests are to really feel like they’re having likelihood encounters with sculptures

The most important reconstruction within the exhibition is of the pavilion that Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck created for the Sonsbeek exhibition in Arnhem in 1966.

A big part of the pavilion stands on the Gulbenkian Museum entrance, whereas a smaller piece will be discovered within the gallery.

A smaller fragment of the pavilion options within the gallery

Constructed from tough concrete blocks, the pavilion comprised a sequence of parallel partitions with curved niches. The thought was that guests would really feel like they had been having likelihood encounters with the sculptures displayed inside.

“Van Eyck considered the pavilion as being inhabited by these sculptures,” mentioned Van den Heuvel. “You’d go inside, grow to be a bodily inhabitant your self and stumble upon these different inhabitants.”

Van Eyck additionally designed beds of coal for displaying sculptures

There are additionally shows that Van Eyck created for experimental collective Cobra, which noticed artworks proven beneath eye-level.

Small work had been positioned on low-level plinths on the Stedelijk Museum, whereas sculptures had been organized in beds of coal on the Palais des Beaux-Arts.

Small work had been positioned on low-level plinths

Van den Heuvel notes that these shows had been much more provocative than those that Rem Koolhaas not too long ago created on the Stedelijk, which have proved extremely controversial.

“These artists did not need to return to the prewar state of affairs the place artwork was a sanctified house for sure bourgeois elites,” he mentioned. “They needed to convey out irrationalities and feelings.”

Stands by Franco Albini and Franca Helg embrace slender poles and lever arms

A group of designs on the present’s entrance connects the exhibition with the historical past of the museum itself.

Franco Albini, believed to have been pivotal within the design of the Gulbenkian’s exhibition areas, and his companion Franca Helg, created a number of modern stands for work on the Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Rosso in Genoa, together with slender poles and lever arms.

The present contains recreations of Lina Bo Bardi’s glass easels from 1968

On the different finish of the gallery, the exhibition accommodates 20 recreations of the glass easels that Italian-born, Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi first introduced on the Museum de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) in 1968.

Lina Bo Bardi’s “radical” glass easels revived for exhibition of Brazilian artwork

The work are held on clear glass screens, supported by concrete cubes on the base. Like with the designs of Albini and Helg, who Bo Bardi knew, artwork occupies the center of a room, fairly than being restricted it to the partitions. “Bo Bardi discovered quite a bit from Albini,” famous Curtis.

Alison and Peter Smithson created this zigzagging show for the Tate Gallery in London

The curators selected a lesser identified exhibition design by the Smithsons – a zigzagging stand created for the Tate Gallery in London. It featured an industrial-style lighting system, with lights so vibrant that it was unimaginable to see anything however the artwork.

“The Smithsons informed the director and all of the employees that nobody was allowed to herald guests with the lights off, not even exterior closing hours,” revealed Van den Heuvel.

Easels by Carlo Scarpa are introduced in opposition to a backdrop of framed screens

There’s additionally one authentic show piece within the present. Easels created by Italian architect Carlo Scarpa are introduced in opposition to a backdrop of framed screens.

Artwork on Show is on present on the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum till 2 March 2020. After that it’s going to transfer to the Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam.