Tim Benton, Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Open University, will give the 2023 SAHGB Annual Lecture. This will be an in-person event with a link to view for remote attendees, at the University of Cambridge.
If you are interested in the SAHGB’s 20024 Annual Lecture, please see the What’s On page for our Spring Programme.
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In the year 1927, Jean Badovici was invited to the ancient Burgundy town of Vézelay by his friend and neighbour Georges Renaudin, who had bought, with the help of his partner Olga Battanchon, two small stone houses on the Western ramparts of the town. This first glimpse of Vézelay would lead to an extraordinary flourishing of Badovici’s work through the years 1927 to 1930; alongside his editorship of the biannual review L'Architecture Vivante and work in progress with Eileen Gray on E-1027, the maison en bord de mer, he swiftly purchased properties all over Vézelay, restoring two of them for himself.
Unlike the radical modernism of E-1027 or the canon of modernist buildings that Badovici was assembling in the editions of L'Architecture Vivante, Badovici’s approach was one that respected local materials and genus loci, while achieving the creation of modern spaces within cramped constraints. Le Corbusier praised Badovici's house in the pages of La Ville Radieuse in terms never offered to another architect,
Professor Tim Benton, a widely-cited expert on the work of Le Corbusier and Eileen Gray, will present a fascinating exploration of Badovici's approach to his work on the modest Vézelay buildings - his modus operandi, and what he achieved, for which there is no precedent at that date. Professor Benton’s research draws on the correspondence between Badovici and Renaudin, which included detailed sketches, but, just as importantly, brings in the consideration of further texts from the Badovici archive at the Getty Research Institute.
BIOGRAPHY
Tim Benton is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Open University. His work on Le Corbusier is very widely cited; his book on the Villas of Le Corbusier (first edition in French, 1984) has gone through several editions and now exists in French, English and Italian editions. In a series of important articles Benton extended the research of this classic text.
His book The Rhetoric of Modernism. Le Corbusier as lecturer (2007) was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix du Livre sur l’Architecture by the Academie de l’Architecture, Paris and is currently available in French and English editions. The book Lc Foto: Le Corbusier: Secret Photographer was published by Lars Mueller Publications in July 2013. He has further introduced a new edition of the English language publication of Le Corbusier’s Precisions (1930), Schediegger and Spiess, 2015.
More recently, Tim Benton has been working with the Association Cap Moderne on the restoration of the villa E-1027, Le Corbusier's cabanon and the Étoile de mer and Unités de camping at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, publishing a book Le Corbusier, peintre à Cap Martin (Paris 2015), which was awarded the Prix du Livre de la Méditérrannée. He also wrote the official guide to the Cap Moderne site, published by the Éditions du Patrimoine and contributed a chapter to Cohen, J.-L., et al. (2021) E1027: Renaissance d'une maison en bord de mer (Paris, Éditions du Patrimoine).
Other recent publications include:"Description of E-1027." (2021) West 86th 28(1): 96-131,"Eileen Gray’s Jean Désert showroom 217 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris ; marketing design in the 1920s." (2021) Cahiers de la Recherche Architecturale Urbaine et Paysagere (online journal),"Penetrating the interior: Instinct, fear and pleasure" in Book for Mary; Sixty on Seventy (2020), I. Lehkozioiva and J. Ockman. Brno, Quatro Print: 28-35 and "Milieu, spirit, flesh and fusion in Le Corbusier's life and work." ZARCH 17:12-40.
An article on an aspect of the Vézelay work is going to press with the Journal of Design History.
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