Gabriel Guevrekian
Gabriel Guevrekian (or Guévrékian) (November 21, 1892 (?) Istanbul - October 29, 1970 Antibes) was an Armenian architect, who designed buildings, interiors and gardens, and taught architecture. He worked in Europe, Iran and the USA.
Biography
Guevrekian was born by some accounts in 1900[1] (Imbert 1993, Turner 1996 ), by others in 1892 to Armenian parents.[2] He was born in Constantinople, present day Istanbul, and then moved with his family to Tehran where he grew up. In 1910 he moved to Vienna where he lived with his uncle, architect Alex Galoustian. He studied architecture at the Kunstgewerbeschule with Oskar Strnad and Josef Hoffmann from 1915, and received his diploma in 1919. He then worked with Strnad and Hoffmann until he moved to Paris in 1922.[2] In Paris he worked with le Corbusier, André Lurçat, Sigfried Giedion and Henri Sauvage. He worked with Robert Mallet-Stevens from 1922 until 1926, where he worked on the designs for Rue Mallet-Stevens while also pursuing his own projects. Guevrekian worked as an independent architect in Paris from 1926.[2]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Compounds_of_the_Foreign_Ministry_of_Iran_in_Tehran.jpg/220px-Compounds_of_the_Foreign_Ministry_of_Iran_in_Tehran.jpg)
He was actively involved in the early stages of the
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Iranian_Foreign_Affaire_Ministry.jpg/220px-Iranian_Foreign_Affaire_Ministry.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Tehran_Officers_Club.jpg/220px-Tehran_Officers_Club.jpg)
In 1933 he returned to Iran on invitation of the government. He designed governmental and public buildings, including
After the war he worked with
After his retirement Gabriel Guevrekian returned to France with his wife. He died 29 October 1970 in Antibes.[2]
Designs
Robert Mallet-Stevens had produced earlier works like
Garden of Water and Light
The Jardin d'Eau et de Lumiere for the 1925
Initially labelled in the press as a Persian garden, it eventually became referred to as the Cubist garden (Adams 1993 p. 30). For the same exposition, Guevrekian designed a pavilion for Sonia Delaunay and Jacques Heim.[4]
Cubist garden at Villa Noailles
His subsequent garden for
The disregard for the needs of the plants in the Noailles garden and the differing growth rates soon disrupted the balance of the design and prompted Charles de Noailles, himself a famous amateur gardener, to replant the design entirely, not long after its instigation. It was, however, a progression on the Paris garden by its regard for physical occupation.[citation needed]
Villa Heim
For Jacques Heim Guevrekian designed Villa Heim, built 1927-1930. He also designed the interior and furniture, and a garden consisting of a series of rectangular terraces. Villa Heim featured in L'Illustration and L'Architecte.[5] Guevrekian was well involved with the CIAM by this time and had shifted to a more functional style.[6] The house has since been modified extensively and has been split into two apartments.[5]
Readings of his work
Whether that was the artist's intention, as for subsequent gardens, is hard to determine. As Imbert points out "due to the paucity of written evidence, the garden designers’ intentions remain largely undocumented; that they appreciated the implications of the cubist movement for their field, however, is most certain. (Imbert 1997 p. 169) Criticisms of the work as being too literal a translation of, or direct reference to, cubist painting is both unfair and imperceptive (and usually based on Wesley's critique or similar ideas). Although his primary artistic medium was painting, Guevrekian designed with more influences than cubist painting and a greater understanding of modern media and techniques than he is often given credit for.[citation needed]
Dodds also reads the form as being a "straight-up" axonometric rather than the "shallow and compressed" perspective that Wesley draws directly from Picasso. (Dodds 2002 p. 191) Guevrekian uses the axonometric, a popular architectural type where all measurements remain true in an idealised form. He develops this idea further with Robert and Sonia Delaunay, whose simultaneist art he draws upon and whom he later works with to form the purist movement.[citation needed]
Works
- 1923: Galerie Au Sacre du Printemps, Paris[2]
- 1925: two works at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes:
- Boutique Simultané for Sonia Delaunay[2][4]
- Jardin d'eau et de lumière, temporary garden, Esplanades des Invalides, Paris. Robert Delaunay contributed.[3]
- 1926: Cubist garden for Villa Noailles in Hyères[7]
- 1927: Villa Heim, avenue de Madrid 17, Paris[5][8]
- 1930-1932: Two houses at Werkbundsiedlung, Woinovichgasse 10-12, Vienna[2]
- 1933-1937: public and private buildings in Tehran, some built after Guevrekian left Iran:
Bibliography
Adams, W.H. 1993 Grounds For Change, Bullfinch Press, Boston
Blau, E, Troy, N & Cottington, D, 1997 Architecture and Cubism, MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts pp. 8–15
Imbert, D 1993, The Modernist Garden in France, Yale University Press, London
Imbert, D 1997 ‘Unnatural Acts: Propositions for a New French Architecture’, in Architecture and Cubism, Blau, E, Troy, N & Cottington, D, MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts pp. 167–182
Turner, J 1996, Grove Dictionary of Art, Grove, Oxford U.K. https://web.archive.org/web/20110606151630/http://www.groveart.com/shared/views/article.html?section=art.062609
Wesley, R 1981 ‘Gabriel Guevrekian and the Cubist Garden’ Rassegna, Volume 8, October 1981, pages 17–24
Notes and references
- ^ Encyclopaedia Iranica
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Monika Tscholakov (2007). "Gabriel Guevrekian". article at Architekturzentrum Wien
- ^ ISBN 978-0-262-70051-1.
- ^ ISBN 3-7701-5216-6.
- ^ a b c "Official report of 1992 assessment of Villa Heim".
- ^ Dodds, p. 198, quotes Guevrekian as saying: "Decoration that concerns the embellishment of objects of utility is anti-ethical to the work of art. In my judgment, wanting to decorate all manners of utilitarian objects is an inferior idea...Modern architecture is marked by a new organization of plan that is logical and necessary in response to the differing conditions of life"
- ^ "Villa Noailles". Archived from the original on 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2011-06-15.
- ISBN 978-2-86227-120-0. Archived from the originalon 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
Sources
- Dodds, George (2002). "10. Freedom from the Garden". Tradition and innovation in French garden art. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 184–202. ISBN 0-8122-3634-3.