The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced the launch of the Leonard A. Lauder Lecture Series on Modern Art, the first of which will be given by Jean-Louis Cohen, Sheldon H. Solow Professor in the History of Architecture at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. The new program is named for Leonard A. Lauder, who promised his renowned collection of Cubist artworks to The Met in 2013. The Lecture Series, organized by the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art, invites distinguished scholars to present original research in the field of modern art.
"We are thrilled to present this lecture series—one of the earliest ambitions of the Research Center—which fulfills our mission to support and share new research in the field of modern art," said Stephanie D'Alessandro, Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art and Curator in Charge of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art, "and it is a privilege to do so with Jean-Louis Cohen, a preeminent historian noted for his sharp and expansive thinking about modern art and architecture."
Architect, historian, and curator Jean-Louis Cohen will present
Art x Architecture: Russian Intersections 1917–37, as three lectures on February 26, March 5, and March 12 at 6 pm. The program will be held in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at The Met Fifth Avenue. The Leonard A. Lauder Lecture Series on Modern Art is a free program; advance registration is recommended (details and registration
here).
In the three-part lecture series, Jean-Louis Cohen will chronicle the radical changes that affected Russian art and architecture during the twenty years following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Practice in both fields went through rapid and contradictory phases in the affirmation, critique, and rejection of innovative paradigms. The lectures will map the experiences of artists and architects, and document the alliances, dialogues, and conflicts that led to memorable works as well as to unrealized ambitions.
About Jean-Louis Cohen
Trained as an architect and historian, Jean-Louis Cohen is the Sheldon H. Solow Professor in the History of Architecture at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. In 2014, he was named the first chair for architecture at the Collège de France.
Cohen's research has focused on the French, German, and Soviet architectural avant-gardes, colonialism, and the history of the planning of Paris. He has published more than thirty books, including France: Modern Architectures in History (2015); Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes (2013); The Future of Architecture, Since 1889 (2012); Architecture in Uniform: Designing and Building for the Second World War (2011); Mies van der Rohe (2007); Casablanca(2002); and Le Corbusier and the Mystique of the USSR (1992).
He has also curated numerous international exhibitions, including L'aventure Le Corbusier (Centre Georges Pompidou, 1987); Scenes of the World to Come (Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1995); Interférences/Interferenzen-Architecture, Allemagne, France 1800–2000 (Musées de Strasbourg, 2013); and Le Corbusier (The Museum of Modern Art, 2013). In 2014, Cohen received special mention for his French pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Most recently, he curated, with Pippo Ciorra, Zevi's Architects (2018) at MAXXI, Rome.
About The Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art
Founded in April 2013, The Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art is a leading center for scholarship on modern art. The first such institution dedicated exclusively to the study of modernism within an encyclopedic museum, the Research Center makes critical contributions to scholarship through its fellowships for emerging as well as senior scholars and its robust program of exhibitions, lectures, publications, research projects, and workshops. Established at the time of the promised gift of the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection to The Met, the Research Center maintains a special focus on the study of Cubism and its enduring impact, while concurrently encouraging new directions of inquiry in the broader field of modern art.