‘Art’rageous: Where are Le Corbusier’s memorabilia?

In a communique to the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru dated June 25,1954,Le Corbusier,referring to the designs of the tapestries,had written: “I have complete documentation prepared for you,Your Excellency. It comprises 53 original drawings in colour. The same documentation will be sent to P N Thapar of the Five Year Plan. Finally,a third documentation will be sent to M Pierre Jeanneret and Mrs Chowdry in Chandigarh so they should appreciate the indisputable advantage of realising the tapestries for the High Court in Chandigarh.”

The Chandigarh Architecture Museum in Sector 10 has on display three of these sketches of tapestries. No one is sure about the remaining sketches. The first Indian Chief Architect of the city,M N Sharma,said: “There are no drawings of the furniture and sketches of tapestries available here. We used to give drawings made on the basis of sketches to the weavers. Nothing is available in the city now. The Administration should preserve whatever that is left here.” Prof Kiran Joshi,former faculty member of Chandigarh College of Architecture and Dean Chitkara School of Planning and Architecture,said: “The tapestries made by Corbusier for the city are unique as there was just one of each kind while there are replicas of those made in Europe. For getting these tapestries manufactured,some drawings would have been shown to the manufacturer at that time. While researching for my book,I did not see these sketches in the city.”

The auction of heritage items over the last few years has fetched millions in foreign countries. After the auction of heritage items by Paris-based auction house Artcurial in February this year,the UT Administration had set up a committee to probe how the items went missing. As part of the probe,a communication was sent last month to former Chief Architect of Punjab Jeet Malhotra,who was part of Corbusier’s team. The communication stated: “During the course of inquiry,it was revealed that you had donated some of the negatives of your work to the Chandigarh Administration/ Chandigarh College of Architecture. However,the same negatives,which may have a lot of heritage value,are said to be missing.” Malhotra was asked to give details about the number of negatives donated,to whom and whether any written records were available. In his reply,he said he had given 63 negatives to the then Chief Commissioner of UT Administration and 335 were taken by the then chief architect.

The Ministers’ Tables in the Secretariat,Sector 1 is one of the few pieces of furniture designed by Le Corbusier. The details of these are also missing. City-based architect Surinder Bahga said that while the Administration wakes up every time there is an auction of heritage items,there are no details available of what is available in the city. “A number of heritage items were either destroyed or were sold off. The Administration itself had auctioned a lot of items that were considered junk. This is now fetching millions in auctions at various auction houses,” he said.

UT Chief Architect Sumit Kaur said,“I am not aware of the status of these items. We would get it checked.”

The Le Corbusier Centre in Sector 19 has procured some sketches made by the city’s creator. These have been sourced from the Foundation. Some of these date back to 1910. These would soon be put up for display at the Centre. Nodal officer of the centre V N Singh said the sketches showcase another aspect of Corbusier.

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