DeSigned by Ando

Image source: miragestudio7

Designmuseum Danmark presents a small exhibition of books about Tadao Ando with 40 small original drawings and signatures

Exhibition period 25 November 2011 – 19 February 2012

Over the years, many books have been published about Ando’s work, both in Japan and in many other countries. With the exhibition DeSigned by Ando, Designmuseum Danmark wishes to celebrate this renowned architect who recently turned 70, by highlighting a less known side of Ando and presenting some of these books. What is unique about the books is that in some cases the architect has made of habit of not only signing the books with his name but also adding original drawings of buildings that he has designed, including some that are still in the planning stage. In other words, the signed books make up a small part of the total print run. The drawings are all quite different. Some are sketches drawn quickly and succinctly with a felt-tip pen, others are more detailed images made with charcoal and crayons. The exhibition includes some forty examples of these unique dedications.

Picture signature
The drawings offer unique insight into Ando’s architectural thinking and creative character, a look into his workshop. The stylisation and simplification that the small, quick drawings require reveal the architect’s perception of form and structure, texture and mass. That Ando can also be a joker and with humour and self-irony dedicate his works will also be reflected in the exhibition.
A few of the books have covers designed by Ando. The cover designs reveal a tight and stylish expression and a keen sense of materials that is in line with the aesthetic expression of much Japanese design. This connection is present as an added perspective in the exhibition with the juxtaposition of objects from the museum’s rich Japanese collection.

An example of one of Ando’s drawings here of the Komyo-ji Temple from 2000 on Shikoku. Photo: Pernille Klemp

About Tadao Ando
The Japanese architect Tadao Ando (b. 1941 in Osaka) is world-famous. His approach to architecture is unusual, as he is entirely self-taught. After study tours to the United States and Europe in 1960s, where he studied works by architects that he admired, including Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe, he established his own architectural firm in 1968 in Osaka. Since then he has designed striking architecture, and not only on locations in Japan; there are buildings by Ando all over the world. Some of the best known are the Church of Light in Ibaraki, Osaka from 1989, the Water Temple on the island of Awaji in Hyogo from 1991, the Japanese pavilion for EXPO in Seville from 1992 and, as one of the most recent additions, museum for Lee Ufan on Naoshima, completed i 2010 and the Kaminoge Station in Tokyo from 2011.

Rare collection
The collection of the rare Ando books was kindly lent to the museum by architect Svend M. Hvass, who has had an ardent interest in Japanese culture and architecture for most of his life. Svend M. Hvass first visited Japan in 1970, and since then he has continued his studies of the unique Japanese expression in countless later visits. He is the author of the book Ise – Japan’s Ise Shrines – Ancient yet New (1999), about the architecture of Japan’s most important religious shrines in Ise; in the book he documents how features from the ancient temple architecture have influenced modern Japanese architecture, a topic that he continues to study.

Press contact:
Nikolina Olsen-Rule, nor@designmuseum.dk

Last updated 11.05.2012