Margret Hoppe: The Promise of Modernism

Leipzig-born photographer Margret Hoppe is a promising new voice in European photographic art. This new book features her series Apres une Architecture, a photographic perspective of Le Corbusier’s architecture that refers to his concept of a modern architecture laid-out in the book Vers une architecture (Toward an Architecture) of 1923. Hoppe’s images show Le Corbusier’s use of exposed concrete, the clarity of his geometric shapes and the emblematic polychrome surfaces as symbols of his buildings. She investigates what remains today of these visions of architectural modernism, now that its legacy in many cases is adored as a monument rather than actually used and appreciated as a functional piece of architecture. The photographic image transforms the buildings into signs of a highly pictorial and sculptural aesthetic, enabling manifold views at Le Corbusier’s work in the present day. The book also presents a selection of Hoppe’s photographs of international modernist buildings, alongside two essays and a conversation with the artist. It is published to coincide with a solo exhibition at the Museum der bildenden Kunste in Leipzig.
Text in English and German.
AUTHOR: Hans-Werner Schmidt is director of Museum der bildenden Kunste in Leipzig.
51 colour, 34 b/w illustrations