Le Corbusier and the golden ratio

Villa Savoye

I first stumbled across Le Corbusier whilst reading about one of my obsessions - the golden ratio. Le Corbusier was a Swiss-French architect who influenced modern architecture, and incorporated the golden ratio into his "Modular" design concept. And many of his buildings can be found in and around Paris.

But firstly, a few words on the golden ratio. I won't go into all the detail because you can find plenty on the net, but in short it is a mathematical ratio related to the Fibonacci sequence. It pops up in nature, and it is linked to what humans perceive as aesthetically beautiful.

But it doesn't stop there. Put on your physicist hat, and you'll discover the ratio also results from objects repelling each other. Switch to your biologist hat, and you'll discover that the growing points of living creatures are driven by dividing cells moving away from each other in the most efficient way (explaining why the ratio can be seen in nature).

Guide to Frank Gehry buildings in Paris

Fondation Louis Vuitton

With the upcoming opening of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, it seems opportune to do a roundup of Frank Gehry's buildings in France. There are three in France, all of which can be found in or near Paris.

Fondation Louis Vuitton: 

The newest creation, based on the concept of sails rising above the trees of Bois de Boulogne. Once finished it will be devoted to contemporary art.

The building also scores some green points, as it has been used as the pilot project to develop a new HQE standard for cultural buildings. HQE = High Quality Environmental standard, a standard for green building in France.

Lucio Fontana - Retrospective

Lucio Fontana is an Italian artist, best known for founding the art movement of spatialism...or spazialismo as the Italians would say, at the top of their voice, and with their arms waving around excessively.

The best description is always the art itself, but if I was to put it into words, Fontana's approach was an attempt to break away from traditional art forms, and to create art that projected into the space beyond the artwork itself, and to explore the use of space itself in his artworks.

Fontana explored spatialism in several ways, all of which are on display at the exposition:

••  Early sculptures and ceramics - Fontana's early sculptures were abstract and figurative but you can see a uniqueness in his works which was evidently the beginnings of his spatialist concepts.

Exhibitions for your inner geek - DC, Marvel & Star Wars!

Crisis on Infinite Earths - A storyline from 1985, allowing writers to
reboot the DC universe, which over 50 years had become a mess of
continuity errors 

Paris has three offerings at the moment for the nerd inside all of us (you know you have one).

1.  Super-Héros: l’Art d’Alex Ross - This is the smallest of the exhibits on my list but well worth the visit. It follows the works of Alex Ross, who (for the nerds that are not yet nerdy enough) is one of the most recognised comic book artists of recent times. The exhibition spans from his scribbly childhood drawings through to his works for both DC Comics and Marvel. The overall focus is on the DC Comics universe; think Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash and all other things Justice League. 

••  Runs 5 Mar - 15 Jun at the Mona Bismarck American Center for art & culture (16e).