Rare Photos of Maison de Verre — “The Best House in Paris” — on Show in Los Angeles

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<!-- missing image http://newmedia.kcrw.com/dna/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Maison-de-Verre-by-Pierre-Chareau-Bernard-Bijvoet-and-Louis-Dalbet-Paris-1932-photo-by-Michael-Carapetian2-300x198.jpg -->Lovers of Modernism have long been fascinated by the Maison de Verre (House of Glass), the highly innovative house of steel, glass and glass block built in 1932 in Paris for a progressive couple, Dr and Mme. Dalsace, by Pierre Chareau (a furniture and interiors designer), Bernard Bijvoet (a Dutch architect) and Louis Dalbet (craftsman metalworker). Touted recently by New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff as The Best House in Paris, the building’s allure has been intensified by its inaccessibility, having been occupied by the Dalsace family until 2006 when it was bought by American collector Robert Rubin, also for private use.

But the Venice (Italy)-based photographer, Michael Carapetian, got access to the house in the mid-sixties, when the Dalsace family was still living there. He took photographs for a document of the house co-created with Kenneth Frampton, about which Frampton has written: “Carapetian’s photos sensitively register the multiple spaces of the house and the ways these reacted under changing light levels. From close-ups of the construction details, to part shots of the different rooms with their particular furnishings, to the changing Gestalt of the house according to different times of the day and night. . . what these images reveal is not only how the house once was in those redemptive years after the end of WWII, but also a sense of the original clients who once lived in it.”

This week Michael Carapetian is in Venice (Los Angeles), where he will exhibit, and sell, his photos. The exhibition will be open for Viewings by Invitation:

Thursday 24 – Saturday 26 March from 6 pm to  9 pm and Monday 28 March  from 6pm to 9pm

At: Tripod Studios

608 Main Street Venice, CA 90291

Tel. 310-452-4300

For invitations and enquiries:

billy@tripodstudios.com

cell: 310 920 4612