Edmund de Waal to stage architectural intervention in LA modernist masterpiece
![Edmund de Waal masterpiece house](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YpbjZu93xTzpqYfBFGnAB6-415-80.jpg)
When West Hollywood’s Schindler House was conceived in 1922, it proposed a radical, Bauhausian mode of dwelling for Los Angeles – remarkable not for what it had, but for what it didn’t. It cracked convention by doing away with defined living spaces, favouring a modular format, ultimately a prototype designed for two young families to coexist seamlessly.
From 15 September, the residence – now home to the MAK Center for Art and Architecture – will once again become a new form of dwelling, this time for the work of Edmund de Waal as he stages his first architectural intervention in the US. But the British artist is no stranger to the allure of the so-called Kings Road House.
‘I’ve had a photograph of the Schindler on my wall for about 20 years,’ he told Wallpaper* in 2016 in the run up to ‘ten thousand things’, an exhibition featuring hundreds of black-glazed vessels married with lumps of raw material housed nine miles down the road in Gagosian’s Beverly Hills gallery. The show paid homage to American composer and music theorist John Cage, and a six-month residency he undertook at Schindler House in the early 1930s. (At the time, the home was ‘the focus of constant social gatherings’ in LA’s creative community, with the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Edward Weston drifting through.)
Schindler, 2018, by Edmund de Waal, porcelain vessel and alabaster block in a gilded aluminium vitrine
Renowned for his large-scale porcelain ‘pot’ installations arranged in clusters with a signature celadon glaze, de Waal has become a key interlocutor between Japanese and Western aesthetic traditions. The forthcoming exhibition, ‘one way or other’, will be a sensorium directly reflecting the Schindler’s integrated environment, materiality and spirit. A soundscape conceived in collaboration with composer Simon Fisher Turner will accompany an array of the artist’s most recent creations.
For the architect Rudolph Schindler, the most important question was ‘whether a house is really a house’; this meant countering ostentatious décor and soulless mass-manufacturing methods. To wit, the house was conceived in a shared vision with his then-wife, Pauline, as a striking commentary on the art of living through the use of few materials. Underappreciated in his time, the pioneer of 20th-century modernist architecture created experiential spaces that exceeded the sum of their minimal parts.
The purpose of Schindler’s space, says de Waal, was ‘to reset the conditions in which a modern family could live and experiment’. The exhibition will see de Waal tap further into the architect’s ethos, exploring the boundaries of revisionist domesticity almost a century after the pioneering house was realised.
INFORMATION
‘one way or other’ is on view at the Schindler House from 15 September – 6 January. An exhibition of works by Edmund de Waal, ‘the poems of our climate’, is on view at Gagosian San Francisco from 20 September – 3 November. For more information, visit the MAK Center for Art & Architecture website and the Gagosian website
ADDRESS
Schindler House
835 North Kings Road
West Hollywood
Los Angeles CA 90069
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Harriet Lloyd-Smith was the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Alexander May, founder of LA studio Sized, on the joys of creative polymathy
Creative director Alexander May tells us of the multidisciplinary approach that drives his LA studio Sized and its offspring, a 5,000 sq ft event space and an exhibition series
By Hannah Silver Published
-
50 of America’s top creatives, photographed by Inez & Vinoodh
Photographed exclusively for Wallpaper* by Inez & Vinoodh, we present a portfolio of 50 creatives driving the current discourse on American culture and its dynamic evolution
By Dan Howarth Published
-
Los Angeles art exhibitions: the best shows to see in July
Read our pick of the best Los Angeles art exhibitions to see this month, from Mickalene Thomas at The Broad to Ed Ruscha at LACMA
By Carole Dixon Published
-
Nona Faustine confronts the past in New York
Artist Nona Faustine reframes New York's colonial past in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum
By Hannah Silver Published
-
How the west won: Ivan McClellan is amplifying the intrepid beauty of Black cowboy culture
In his new book, 'Eight Seconds: Black Cowboy Culture', Ivan McClellan draws us into the world of Black rodeo. Wallpaper* meets the photographer ahead of his Juneteenth Rodeo
By Tracy Kawalik Published
-
Zanele Muholi celebrates South Africa’s Black LGBTI communities in LA and London
Zanele Muholi's portraits and sculptures are currently on show at Southern Guild Los Angeles and the Tate Modern, London
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Casa Bosques’ queer-themed book curation comes to New York’s East Village
In Pride Month 2024, Casa Bosques’ pop-up bookstore in The Standard hotel, East Village, offers a stylish haven for literary mavens
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Alicja Kwade and Agnes Martin in Los Angeles: time, temporality and perception
Artists Alicja Kwade and Agnes Martin are in dialogue at Pace Gallery, Los Angeles
By Emily McDermott Published