Modern Forms, aka A Subjective Atlas of 20th century Architecture, explores my particular interest in modern architecture around the world, from former Soviet bloc housing to American roadside buildings.
At once a reference work and a personal exploration of modernist architecture, this collection of photographs covers structures built between 1920 and 1989 in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Australia. These images range from iconic buildings, such as the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis and the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific Research and Development in Kiev, to little known structures such as the Balneological Hospital in Druskininkai, Lithuania or Oscar Niemeyer’s unfinished International Fair Grounds in Tripoli.
This body of work, counting several hundred photographs reveals how modernist architecture is the embodiment of political and social ideologies, especially in public institutions such as banks, churches, libraries and government buildings. While many of the buildings in this archive often go unrecognized, their forms are prominent in the landscape of modern civilization.
Modern Forms is conceived as a free journey into architecture, whose criterion of classification is neither the style, function or architect of the buildings presented, but their design. The photographs are presented as a continuous flow of shapes, each structure leading smoothly to the next.
Modern Forms. A Subjective Atlas of 20th century Architecture was published as a book in 2016 by Prestel Publishing, London. It was edited by Elias Redstone and Alona Pardo, with a text by Adam Mazur, and was designed by Magdalena Ponagajbo.
Modern Forms was published anew in 2021, with additional photographs and a critical essay by Martino Stierli, chief architecture curator at MoMA, as Modern Forms. An Expanded Subjective Atlas of 20th century Architecture
Any questions? Please reach me on info@nicolasgrospierre.com
