“Never Say the Eye Is Rigid” offers rare glimpse into renowned architect’s creative process

NEW YORK, NY: October 23, 2013 –  From intimate sketches of the Jewish Museum Berlin to a large-scale scroll drawing depicting the 2013 master plan for Ground Zero in New York, drawings by architect Daniel Libeskind are the focus of “Never Say the Eye Is Rigid: Architectural Drawings of Daniel Libeskind,” an exhibition opening on December 23, 2013 at Tel Aviv’s Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery (3 Lilienblum Street, Neve Tzedek, + 011 972 3 5170344) .

The works on view reflect a wide range of styles and techniques and range from almost-classical line drawings to highly expressive watercolors and free-flowing ink sketches. All reflect a connection between the philosophical ideas underlying the project depicted and that project’s unique aesthetics – its particular color, mood, posture and tension.  Together, they offer a rare and intriguing glimpse into Mr. Libeskind’s approach to some of his most famous projects in five countries, will include depictions of the architect’s signature work, the Jewish Museum Berlin (2001), and his 2003 master plan for Ground Zero in New York City.

The exhibition arrives in Tel Aviv after opening at the Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery in Rome and in Turin. From Tel Aviv the show will travel to the Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery in Milan then travel to London and to New York City (location and dates to be announced).

Those projects are:
18.36.54 House (Private house - Connecticut, USA; 2009-2010)
Fiera Milano (Residential complex, office tower, museum – Milan, Italy; 2004-2015)
Memory Foundations, Ground Zero (Master Plan - New York City, USA; 2003)
Jewish Museum Berlin (Museum – Berlin, Germany; 1989 - 2001)
Military History Museum (Extension – Dresden, Germany; 2001 - 2011)
ictoria and Albert Museum (Proposed extension – London, UK; 1996)|
Zlota 44 (Residential tower – Warsaw, Poland; 2005 - 2013)

 New Projects
Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, 2005 Contemporary Jewish Museum  San Francisco, CA 1998-2008
Crystals at CityCenter Las Vegas , NV 2005-2009
Extension to the Denver Art Museum, Frederic C. Hamilton Building Denver, CO 2001-2006
Imperial War Museum North Manchester, United Kingdom 1997-2001
Royal Ontario Museum Toronto, Canada 2002-2007
ZHANG ZHIDONG AND MODERN INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM  -Wuhan, China 2014

In his 2004 memoir, Breaking Ground: Adventures in Life and Architecture, Mr. Libeskind described the importance of drawing to his creative process:

[T]he physical act of drawing with one’s hand is an important part of the architectural process. An architect needs to know how to draw; unless there is a connection of eye, hand, and mind, the drawing of the building will lose the human soul altogether and become an abstract exercise. I also believe that it’s only when they are drawing that architects have those Proustian moments—those instants in which they accidentally trip against the uneven stones of mind, triggering memories that magically unlock sorts of visions that underlie all great art.

Well before starting work on his first building, the Jewish Museum Berlin, in 1989, Mr. Libeskind pushed the boundaries of what an architectural drawing could be. Micromegasand Chamberworks, an early series, from the 1970s and ‘80s, challenges the meaning of contemporary architecture and harkens back to the Renaissance idea of drawing as an end in itself – as the very heart, the lifeblood, of architecture rather than simply a means to an end.

Mr. Libeskind’s passion for the drawn form began in his childhood when his “obsessive drawing” worried his “brilliant and fearless” mother, Dora, who, he writes in Breaking Ground, profoundly influenced him:

One late night she poured us each a glass of tea and sat down across from me at the kitchen table, where I was compulsively drawing. ‘So you want to be an artist?’ she asked, as if about to make a joke – but she was serious this time. ‘You want to end up hungry in a garret somewhere, not even enough money to buy a pencil? This is the life you want for yourself? Be an architect. Architecture is a trade, and an art form.’ And then she said something that should gladden the heart of every architect: ‘You can always do art in architecture, but you can’t do architecture in art. You get two fish with the same hook.’

“[I]t’s only when they are drawing that architects have those Proustian moments – those instants in which they accidentally trip against the uneven stones of mind, triggering memories that magically unlock sorts of visions that underlie all great art.” - Daniel Libeskind, Breaking Ground: Adventures in Life and Architecture

As the drawings in this illuminating exhibition reveal, he took her advice to heart.

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