On Corbusier’s 135th birth anniversary this month, the 1960-dated console desk in teak wood, designed by him and B.
On Corbusier’s 135th birth anniversary this month, the 1960-dated console desk in teak wood, designed by him and B.
The year was 1955. The Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, who had set out to design Chandigarh, India’s first planned city, was expecting architect Balkrishna V Doshi to meet him. “I was assisting Corbusier with some drawings. Newly married, I reached the capital of undivided Punjab with my wife. When Corbusier saw us, he spontaneously drew a sketch and gave me five ₹100 as wedding gifts. Presented with notes,” recalls the 2018 Pritzker Prize-winning architect over a phone call from Ahmedabad.
LC. one of the artifacts gifted to
The sketch occupies a special place in Doshi’s collection of mementos—which includes artifacts, hand-written letters, and a small sample of a plaster cast of the open hand—which bears a mirror to his camaraderie with Corbusier. Now in his 90s, the architect has handed down this memorabilia to his children and grandchildren, who consider it a “priceless legacy of family history.”
LC. one of the artifacts gifted to
To Doshi and his family, Corbusier’s memories and gifts may be priceless, but to the art world, his creations are priceless. On 6 October this year, Corbusier’s 135th birth anniversary, a 1960-dated console desk in teak wood, which listed the administrative buildings of Chandigarh as its origin, was auctioned off in France. With French auction house Piassa’s website attributed to Corbusier & Doshi for its design, the desk almost went under the hammer. €1,25,672 (approx ₹1 crore).
Auctions of 1960-dated console desk in teak wood Piasa. made by
Le Corbusier with Doshi | photo credit: GRJGM
Doshi, who worked with Corbusier on several projects in Ahmedabad – Villa Sarabhai, Villa Shodhan, Mill Owners Association Building and Sanskar Kendra to name a few, says, “Having heard about the furniture pieces that I had the opportunity to design with myself. I feel that Guru Le Corbusier is just a deep reverence. So for me they are nothing but priceless memories and I am filled with gratitude to my mentor – Le Corbusier.”
tracking legacy
Manhole cover auction at Sotheby’s | photo credit: special arrangement
Christie’s, one of the oldest auction houses, auctioned 25 of Corbusier’s works, including paintings, manhole covers, models, sculptures, tapestries and furniture in London and in New York between January 26, 2012 and October 18, 2022. The most expensive of these was his oil. Picture nature morte at figure Dated between 1927 and 1944, sold for £3,301,000.
Even Corbusier’s Chandigarh manhole cover, which had the city map embossed on it, was cast in cast iron, which was auctioned by Sotheby’s in the UK last year for around ₹10.15 lakh? There are about 2,000 such manhole covers on city roads, footpaths, parking lots and even residential areas which the municipal corporation is now planning to replace with concrete.
Advocate Ajay Jagga, a member of the Heritage Items Protection Cell of the Chandigarh Administration, is overseeing the auction of items created and designed by Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, with whom the architect collaborated on the Chandigarh project. “I have been recording the city’s heritage auctions since 2006,” says Ajay.
He sees Corbusier’s works as the modern heritage of the city and cites the Indian Easement Act, 1882, for the need to preserve it. “Heritage includes monuments, i.e. architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science. He says. The Capitol Complex, designed by Corbusier, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This year, out of around 10 items designed by Corbusier that have auctioned homes across the world, five were sold for ₹1.5 crore (approximately), data provided by Ajay shows. Items include mundane items from furniture and lamps to light fixtures. What makes them special? Ajay says Chandigarh, a project first nurtured by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was of outstanding universal value. “In my mind, there is none. That’s why their work here is so valuable,” he says.
sell inheritance
Indian city heritage items have found their way into the homes of the rich and famous. A concrete lamp fixture designed by Corbusier for Sukhna, Chandigarh’s man-made lake, inspired Kanye West’s 2013 album Yeezus, “When I look at that Corbusier lamp and think, ‘He made this and he put this lamp in zoos so everyone could have it.’ In a talk at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on May 10, 2015, Kanye said that it was an opportunity for everyone to find beauty, to be inspired. , were free when first built, but now cost much more as they were a statement of class for French galleries.
To protect the modern heritage of Chandigarh, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order in 2011 banning the sale, disposal, removal and export of heritage items of the Union Territory.
lithographs and letters
Yojna Rawat posing next to Corbusier’s artwork
Chandigarh’s first chief architect MN Sharma, who worked with Corbusier in designing the city, was the owner of 11 lithographs and a wool-and-plaster sculpture designed by the Swiss-French architect. While some were gifted to him by Corbusier, he acquired others from Heidi Weber, who owns The Pavillon Le Corbusier, a museum in Zurich.
Yojna Rawat, general secretary of the MN Sharma Architectural Society, inherited a lithograph owned by Sharma. “When Sharma was alive, six lithographs were donated to the Chandigarh Museum. He wanted Corbusier’s works to be displayed in the museum he designed for the city. Four are with the society and one lithograph was given to me by Sharma,” she says.
The plan also has a handwritten letter from Corbusier addressed to MN Sharma, in which he shares with him the news of his wife’s death. It has a sketch of two hands holding each other. “This lithograph came to me unexpectedly. Sharma stated in writing that he was presenting his works to the society. It was only after his death, when his will was read, that I learned that he had left a lithograph for me. “
If the previous auctions are taken into account, the assets of the scheme and its society are in crores. But, the plan will donate them: “In future, I would like to donate my artwork to the Chandigarh Administration, so that it remains open to the public, I want a safe place where these heritage objects are valued.”