New York, NY -- Drawings from the 1970s and 1980s by some of the great architectural thinkers of our time will be presented in Perfect Acts of Architecture, on exhibition at the AXA Gallery, in association with The Museum of Modern Art, from August 15 – October 19, 2002.

The exhibition comprises 140 drawings by internationally renowned architects Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, Thom Mayne, and Bernard Tschumi—works created between 1972-87. During this sluggish economic period when new building was curtailed, these architects fueled a vital intellectual and experimental scene filled with passionate debate emerging from philosophy, film theory, linguistics, literary criticism, and social thought. Thus the stage was set for an eruption of “paper architecture” of incomparable beauty, range, brilliance, and depth.

Rem Koolhaas The Strip, 1972 Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture cut and pasted paper and painted paper with ink, pen, and graphite on photolithograph 19 3/4 x 25 7/8" The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Purchase Fund, Takeo Obayashi Purchase Fund. and Susan de Menil Purchase Fund

According to exhibition curator Jeffrey Kipnis, the works in the exhibition are unified by more than the period during which they were executed. “…the architectural drawing as [an end in itself] can function in any of three ways: as an innovative design tool, as the articulation of a new direction, or as a creation of consummate artistic merit. Put simply, a perfect act of architecture achieves all three at once.”

Perfect Acts of Architecture is organized by Jeffrey Kipnis, Curator of Architecture and Design, Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University and presented by The AXA Gallery in association with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, with support of the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the Wexner Center Foundation.

The AXA Gallery is sponsored by AXA Financial and its subsidiary The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Additional assistance has been provided by AXA Art Insurance Corporation.

Terence Riley, Chief Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, writes in the preface of the exhibition catalogue (published by MoMA, New York and Wexner Center for the Arts and distributed by D.A.P., Distributed Art Publishers) that the six series of drawings in Perfect Acts of Architecture – are responses to perspective as the dominant mode of architectural representation employing collage, axonometry, superimposition, juxtaposition and diagrams in various combinations. “Each series aspires to do more than depict various views of a building by constructing a narrative of some type that, in its sequence, tells us as much about the meaning of the architecture as its appearance.”

Each set of drawings in the show explores, architecturally, the key debates of the time, from the loss of meaning to the radical reorganization of social life. The five architects represented in this exhibition have since all earned major international recognition for their built works, and each stands at the pinnacle of contemporary architecture. This exhibition contains the foundation for their future endeavors.

Peter Eisenman House VI Transformation Series #108, c. 1976 Ink and collage on paper 24x20" The Museum of Modern Art, New York, David Childs, Tracy Gardner, Barbara Jakobson, and Bertha and Isaac Liberman Foundation Purchase Funds.

Peter Eisenman, in developing a type of architecture not based solely on function, created a series of 11 houses, the most famous of which is House VI. Eisenman generated hundreds of drawings for House VI, which was built in Connecticut, then prepared for publication and exhibition the set seen in Perfect Acts.

Rem Koolhaas The Park of Agression, 1972 Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture Pencil, watercolor on paper 11 1/8 x 16 1/2" The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Patricia de Cisneros Purchase Fund, Takeo Obayashi Purchase Fund, and Susan de Menil Purchase Fund

In Exodus or The Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture, Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis (with Madelon Vriesendorp and Zoe Zenghelis) reanimate architecture as an instrument of social and political change by exploring its subversive role in the city. Using collages and storyboards, Exodus is based on a new “city within a new city” in London, Koolhaas injects freedom and irony into architecture with his groundbreaking, irreverent use of collage and ideas from film.

Daniel Libeskind Micromegas 4, 1978 Graphite on paper 26 x 36 1/4" San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Accessories Committee Fund: Gift of Pam and Dick Dramlich, Byron R. Meyer, Nancy and Steve Oliver, Leanne B. Roberts, and Collectors Forum

Daniel Libeskind brings a lifelong obsession with philosophy and history to bear on every work he produces. The virtuoso Micromegas inhale the history of modern drawing and exhale a typhoon of originality wrought from the interplay of line and sign. Chamber Works grapples with the question of how ideas become universals, timeless and placeless. These drawings are a mixture of signs, symbols and gestures from the artist’s life, aspects of which can be seen in many of his later buildings such as the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

While designing a house for himself in 1986-87, Thom Mayne imagined scattering object mechanisms throughout the house as interest attractors. In his drawing pairs for Sixth Street House (with Andrew Zago), the relationship of each object to the house unfolds in a techno-spiderweb of layers, evincing Mayne’s fascination of the part over the whole. In his Mantilini Drodel, Mayne drew sections of a restaurant interior on glass and stacked them to create a virtual model of the design in space.

In The Manhattan Transcripts – The Park, The Street, The Tower, and The Block, executed between 1976-81, Bernard Tschumi allows mysteries to unfold, and other stories using the traditional techniques of architectural drawing, enriched with collage, storyboards, diagrams and film strips. “Perhaps all architecture, rather than being about functional standards, is about love and death,” Tschumi wrote. Exploiting architectural drawing techniques to transform his illustrated narratives into buildings has served the artist well, providing the foundation for such projects as the Parc de la Villette in Paris.

A book accompanies the exhibition. Perfect Acts of Architecture by Jeffrey Kipnis, Curator of Architecture and Design, Wexner Center for the Arts, with a preface by Terence Riley, Chief Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Each suite of drawings, fully illustrated with superb reproductions, offers great insight into the creative processes of the young designers, who went on to establish major international reputations. To put this “paper architecture” into a broader historical context, Kipnis and Riley provide introductory texts as well as concise commentaries on each of the projects. (180 pages, 8x10” with 173 illustrations, 58 in color, 86 in duotone, and 29 in black and white. ISBN 0-87070-039-1. Distributed by D.A.P., Distributed Art Publishers) The book retails for $45 and is available at Gateway Newstand in the Equitable Atrium, 787 Seventh Avenue and at the MoMA Design Store, Soho, 81 Spring Street in Manhattan.

The Wexner Center for the Arts is The Ohio State University’s multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art. Through exhibitions, screenings, performances, artist residencies, and educational programs, the Wexner Center acts as a forum where established and emerging artists can test ideas and where diverse audiences can participate in cultural experiences that enhance understanding of the art of our time.

In its programs, the Wexner Center balances a commitment to experimentation with a commiment to traditions of innovation and affirms the university’s mission of education, research, and community service.

The Museum of Modern Art is currently undergoing the most extensive building project in its 72-year history. MoMA QNS, the Museum’s new home in Long Island City, Queens, will present a full schedule of exhibitions while construction is under way at MoMA’s midtown location. Housed in a former Swingline staple factory, MoMA QNS is located at 33rd Street and Queens Boulevard, and designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture and Scott Newman of Cooper, Robertson & Partners. The space encompasses 160,000 square feet, with 25,000 square feet of exhibition space, as well as a café and store; conservation laboratory; library; collections, imaging, and framing facilities; offices; and storage space. MoMA QNS will serve as a permanent home for storage of MoMA’s collection, as well as a facility for conservation, study, and research. The new Museum of Modern Art, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, is scheduled to open in early 2005 in midtown Manhattan.

AXA Gallery presents works from all fields of the visual arts, with a special emphasis placed on exhibitions that would not otherwise have a presence in the city. The AXA Gallery is located in the atrium lobby of Equitable Tower, 787 Seventh Avenue at 51st Street, in New York City. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 11am - 6pm, and Saturday, noon to 5pm. The Gallery is closed on Sundays. Admission is free.