After the sell-out Chandigarh Project I auction in 2006, Artcurial | Briest - Poulain - F. Tajan are delighted to announce that a follow-up Chandigarh Project II sale will take place on Tuesday 16 February 2010. This second auction will chart a different aspect of the work of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in Chandigarh, evoking primarily the project’s origins through archive material that eloquently reflects Le Corbusier’s masterwork.

As Punjab’s new capital, Chandigarh was – to Jawaharlal Nehru – a “symbol of Indian liberation and faith in the future.” It was in this “new” India that Le Corbusier, assisted by Pierre Jeanneret, would design the modern town of his dreams.

With its precious array of sketches, drafts, drawings, plans, blueprints and models, Chandigarh Project II offers the chance to acquire a unique element from what amounts to the birth of a veritable manifesto for modern architecture.

Chandigarh gave Le Corbusier the first opportunity to give concrete, all-embracing expression to his visionary ideas – blending architecture, town-planning, the environment and interior decoration.

The rare archive material and models on offer provide strikingly illustrate Le Corbusier ’ and Pierre Jeanneret’s approach to architecture and urban planning, while the furniture again shows Jeanneret’s talent and ability to adapt his designs to local use and materials.

Indeed, true to the notion of a “synthesis of the arts” dear to Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, the catalogue for Chandigarh Project II reveals this achievement in its totality – and to what extent the two men were on the same artistic wavelength.
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Sale highlights include carved moulds – the matrixes for the impressions on rough concrete that were so important to the plastic expression Le Corbusier looked to give his buildings. Hollowed out or worked in relief by the Indian craftsman Giani Rattan Singh after Le Corbusier’s designs, these are beautiful objects in their own right, reflecting the project’s ability to adapt to local cultural tradition. Chandigarh Project II also offers the chance to acquire other treasures evoking Le Corbusier’s and Pierre Jeanneret’s quest for harmony for the Beautiful City of Chandigarh: rare concrete lighting bollards; original symbolic moulds; and Le Corbusier’s vividly colourful tapestry designs.

With the auction Chandigarh Project II, Artcurial | Briest - Poulain - F. Tajan offer for sale a rich and moving testimony to one of the 20th century’s most daring architectural projects. The quality and originality of this extraordinary themed sale is sure to satisfy the desires, and the curiosity, of collectors, architects, town-planners and art-lovers!