Amongst the modern and contemporary masterpieces from Yves Klein and Pablo Picasso on view at Swiss Galerie Gmurzynska, the “Richard Meier: 50 Years of Collage” exhibit opened December 4th for a four-day run in Miami.
In addition to presenting selected collages and sculpture, the gallery commissioned Meier to design its booth at the prestigious art fair. DuJour spoke with the architect, now 80, on this occasion about the collages (of which he’s created 4,000 in the last five decades) and more. Often the collages are deeply personal and autobiographical, using everyday collected objects such as theater, tickets, magazine ads and coat checks to intimate photographs taken at his home in East Hampton.
“I had a show at the gallery in Zurich in October and they asked me to take part in this Art Basel project,” Meier says. “They sent me a plan of the space and I suggested a little rearranging.”
About the collages, he explains: “I was painting at the time in the 1960s and it took up a lot of space. This way I could work at a table and it took up less room.” And he never stopped.
“When I was traveling to Los Angeles back and forth 12 twelve years [for the Getty Museum project], I did collages to pass the time on the plane. I brought a box [of clippings] with me.”
“Detachment,” January 14, 2013
The architect also has a new project in the works: the renovation of the Surf Club in Miami’s Surfside, his first in the area. “It’s a residential and a hotel project with a thousand feet of beachfront property,” he says. “It’s a 14-story building and each unit has ocean views. It’s an old building, which was the original Surf Club, which we’re preserving and then building around.”
Something else to look forward to!
MORE:
The 2013 Art Basel Checklist
Inside Richard Meier’s Office
Most Creative Workspaces
