Atlantis – Drawing of Imre Makovecz

Angels at the exhibition of Makovecz in Berlin

An exhibition of fifty freehand drawings by Hungarian architect and Kossuth State Award winner Imre Makovecz entitled "Drawings" opened on 20 November, the birthday of the world-renowned master at the Museum of Architecture of the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin). The display, which was organized by Collegium Hungaricum cultural institute and MMA, was opened by architect and curator Lőrinc Csernyus Lőrinc, who is a student of Imre Makovecz.
The drawings displayed were made until 2003, including plans for buildings, churches and landscapes. These works were originally made for one folder and are special, because all of them has been autographed by the master, as Lőrinc Csernyus explained.
Part of the drawings on display belong to the "Could Have Been" series, which have been inspired by the pictures of German photographer Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932) showing various parts of plants. Imre Makovecz developed these pictures and forms further in his churches and landscapes. Makovecz studied folk architecture in the 1970s and 1980s and drawed from the rich form world of plants as well, while designing his buildings.
Photographies of Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932)
The other part of the drawings depict angels and one of the ispirations for these works was the world-famous film by Wim Wenders entitled Wings of Desire (original German title: Der Himmel über Berlin).
Imre Makovecz and Wim Wenders made contact, corresponded about the angels and Imre
Csernyus found and showed to the audience a drawing made by Wenders as a child which he has sent to Makovecz.

Imre Makovecz (20 November 1935 – 27 September 2011) was an outstanding Hungarian architect active in Europe from the late 1950s onwards. He was born and died in Budapest. As he was one of the most prominent exponents of organic architecture, his buildings harmonize with the natural surroundings rather than triumph over them. He said: "I always pay attention to the structure of the face, that's way my buildings resemble the faces, heads and sculls of humans. I have named my buildings seeing houses probably after a painting by Chagall." The buildings of Makovecz have eyes, eyebrows, noses, because for him a house was a being. He graduated at the Budapest University of Technology and later in Switzerland he got acquainted with the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolf Steiner were strong influences on him, as was traditional Hungarian art. In 1970 he visited the legendary architect Károly Kós in Transylvania. His first exhibition abroad was in Finland and later he received several international awards. He was elected as honorary member by the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects, and he received the Grand Medal of the French Academy of Architecture. With twenty-two other artists he established the Hungarian Academy of Arts as an association in 1992, and later MMA became a public body by law in 2011.
The first English language monograph on his work entitled Imre Makovecz: The Wings of the Soul by Edwin Heathcote was published in 1997.
His key works are the following: Cultural Center, Sárospatak (completed in 1982), Sports Hall, Visegrád (1985), Town Hall and Commercial Center of Dunajská Streda (Dunaszerdahely), Community Center, Kakasd (1996), the buildings of the Piliscsaba campus of Pázmány Péter Catholic University designed by his team, Hungarian pavilion at the Seville Expo '92 in Seville, Spain, Cultural Centre, Szigetvár (1985), Swimming Pool, Eger (1993), Onion House Theatre, Makó (1995), Stephaneum, Piliscsaba (1995), Bus terminal, Makó (2010).
November 20, 2014