Public programs for Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect. Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France and Alfred Jarry: The Carnival of Being are presented in cooperation with La Maison Française of New York University.
Basile C. Baudez
If it were not for his drawings at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Jean-Jacques Lequeu would be a simple footnote in the history of late eighteenth-century French architecture. Lequeu’s drawings reflect the way architects of his generation tended to rely more heavily on graphic communication than on textual or theoretical means of expressing their ideas. Lequeu established a specific and original dialogue between text and image that allowed him to question and distort the graphic language set by his colleagues. Join Basile C. Baudez, Assistant Professor at Princeton University, for a presentation contextualizing Lequeu’s production in the history of architectural draftsmanship and to uncover the reasons why he remains one of the most fascinating artists of his time.
The exhibition Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect. Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France will be open at 5:30 PM for program attendees.
Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757–1826) Draftsman’s Tools, from Civil Architecture,1782
Pen and black ink, brown and gray wash, watercolor. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Departement des Estampes et de la photographie.