Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There, now on at Yale Architecture Gallery
View(s):
A window into Bawa’s work: A display at the Colombo exhibition in 2023
Geoffrey Bawa (1919–2003) once described his modus operandi as follows: “The site gives the most powerful push to a design along with the brief. Without seeing the site I cannot work. It is essential to be there.” That same quote acted as the guiding principle for the Geoffrey Bawa Trust’s major exhibition – Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There which opened at Yale Architecture Gallery in the United States on August 29.
The exhibition serves as a formal introduction to the celebrated architect whose life and work are far less familiar to those outside the architectural community in the Western Hemisphere. As part of the exhibition’s East Coast opening, the Bawa Trust’s Chief Curator Shayari de Silva will deliver a lecture, “It is Essential to be There: Drawing from the Geoffrey Bawa Archives” at the Hastings Hall at Yale on Thursday, September 5 at 6.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, where she will review Bawa’s prolific career spanning over five decades through the perspective of the archives, and question what constitutes archives in the context of Bawa’s work.
First held at the Park Street Mews in Colombo from February to April 2022, the exhibition drew over 7,600 visitors during its two-month run. Over 120 original documents were displayed across four thematic sections: “Situating a Practice,” “Searching for a Way of Building,” “Defining New Directions,” and “Places Unbuilt.” Each section featured a curated selection of his projects alongside drawings, photographs, and documents from Bawa’s personal collection that painted a fuller picture of the architect who was widely known yet notoriously private.
One year later, the exhibition travelled to the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, India between March and May, 2023. Bawa’s work had a significant influence on architectural practices in India, and he had designed several buildings in the country.
The Yale Architecture Gallery is open Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., except for major holidays. Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There will be on view at Yale Architecture Gallery until November, 2024. More information on bawaexhibition.com.
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