MUSEUM OF MODERN ART GIFTED WORKS BY SWISS ARCHITECTURAL FIRM HERZOG & DE MEURON
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has received a major donation of materials from nine projects by the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron. The works, which date from 1994 to 2018, include sketches, models, architectural fragments, drawings, photographs, and videos related to completed and unrealized projects. They have been given to the museum by the Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel, a charitable foundation established by the architects in 2015.
Comprising twenty-three objects, the collection was selected by the museum in close collaboration with the architects. It includes materials that demonstrate the creative process as well as the final design output for each project. The works join four Herzog & de Meuron architectural projects from 1988 to 1997 and one design object from 2002 already in the museum’s collection.
“For more than three decades, Herzog & de Meuron’s practice has been a singular and defining voice in the discourse of contemporary architecture,” said Martino Stierli, chief curator of architecture and design at MoMA. “Thanks to the generosity of the office and the Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, we will be able to include these key works of contemporary architectural production in our changing collection displays when the museum opens its newly expanded galleries in 2019.”
Herzog and de Meuron were both born in 1950 and established their architectural office in 1978 in Basel. In 2001, they were awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize for their complete works. Their overall contribution to architecture has also been recognized with their receipt of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal and the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale, both in 2007. Today, the office’s partnership is led by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron with senior partners Christine Binswanger, Ascan Mergenthaler, Stefan Marbach, and Esther Zumsteg.
