Jean Badovici (6 January 1893 – 17 August 1956) was a French architect and architecture critic of Romanian origin, active in Paris.

Biography

Born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, Romania, Jean Badovici studied architecture in Paris after World War I. Since 1923 he edited the important French

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

for

avantgarde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

architecture '' L'Architecture Vivante''. Furthermore, he designed two buildings (residential houses for himself) in

Vézelay Vézelay () is a commune in the department of Yonne in the north-central French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is a defensible hill town famous for Vézelay Abbey. The town and its 11th-century Romanesque Basilica of St Magdalene are de ...

(1924) and in Paris near

Pont de Sèvres The pont de Sèvres is a bridge above the Seine that links the cities of Boulogne-Billancourt and Sèvres, in France. The current bridge was put in service in 1963. The bridge is also above the RD 1 and RD 7 roads, and the Île-de-France tramway ...

(1934). In

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (; oc, Ròcabruna Caup Martin or ; it, Roccabruna-Capo Martino, ; Mentonasc: ''Rocabrüna''; Roquebrune until 1921) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Southeastern Fr ...

he assisted

Eileen Gray Eileen Gray (born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith; 9 August 187831 October 1976) was an Irish architect and furniture designer who became a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Over her career, she was associated with many notable Euro ...

- they were lovers until 1932 - in designing and constructing a home for them, one of the important buildings of the International style,

E-1027 E-1027 is a modernist villa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, in the Alpes-Maritimes department of France. It was designed and built from 1926-29 by the Irish architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray. L-shaped and flat-roofed with floor-to-ceiling wi ...

. After World War II Badovici was involved in reconstructing and saving the architectural heritage of France in a board called ''Bâtiments civils et palais nationaux et des monuments historiques''. There he served as assistant to the chief architect Robert Édouard Camelot (1903–1992).

''L’Architecture Vivante''

Jean Badovici gained reputation not for constructing buildings but for analyzing and supporting avantgarde architecture. He was an influential critic and mentor of international modern architecture in France since he began editing the magazine '' L'architecture Vivante'' in 1923. He convinced the publisher Albert Morancé of the importance for such an avantgarde magazine which ran from 1923 till 1933. ''L’Architecture Vivante'' became immediately an influential mouthpiece of the International style (

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...

De Stijl ''De Stijl'' (; ), Dutch for "The Style", also known as Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a more narrow sense, the term ''De Stijl'' is used to refer to a body o ...

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

- a friend of Badovici - for instance became one of the architects whose ideals were frequently discussed in this magazine. Badovici cultivated relations to European avantgarde magazines like ''

Wendingen ''Wendingen'' (Dutch: ''Inversion'' or ''Upheaval'', literally ''turns'') was an architecture and art magazine that appeared from 1918 to 1932. It was a monthly publication aimed at architects and interior designers. The booklet was publis ...

'' (Netherlands) and ''Cahiers d’Art'' (France, founded in 1926) of his friend

Christian Zervos Christian Zervos ( el, Χρήστος Ζερβός; Argostoli, Cefalonia, Greece, January 1, 1889 – September 12, 1970, Paris) was a Greek-French art historian, critic, collector, writer and publisher. Better known as an art critic in his own ri ...

. Regularly each issue of ''L’Architecture Vivante'' presented a number of architects and their works but there were also some very few dealing with just one artist (Le Corbusier,

Pierre Jeanneret Pierre Jeanneret (22 March 1896 – 4 December 1967) was a Swiss architect who collaborated with his cousin, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (who assumed the pseudonym Le Corbusier), for about twenty years. Early life Arnold-André-Pierre Jea ...

and in 1929

and her home E-1027).Ireland.Archiseek.com: Architects of Ireland – Eileen Gray (1879–1976)

Personal life

He lived with his lover Eileen Gray, who was openly bisexual, in E 1027. Le Corbusier vandalized the wall by his drawing ''Three Women'' depicting Eileen and Jean together, even though he was not "granted full authorization". He didn't think of it as "an invasion, but as a gift." (From "Battle Lines"- Beatriz Colomina)

''L’Architecture Vivante'' in libraries

In the United States (excerpts):
New York Public Library (each of the issues from 1923 - 1933 seems to be available)

Library of Congress (some issues available and complete reprint edition (New York, 1975) available)

Chicago Public Library (complete reprint edition (New York, 1975) available)

San Francisco Public Library (complete reprint edition (New York, 1975) available)
In Europe (excerpts):
Courtauld Institute, London (complete reprint edition (New York, 1975) available)

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München (roundabout 9 issues)

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (some issues)

Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München (complete edition available)

Reeditions ''L’Architecture Vivante''

The issue concerning Eileen Gray / E.1027: * Eileen Gray, Jean Badovici: ''E. 1027: Maison en bord de mer.'' In ''L’Architecture Vivante''. Reedition Éd. Imbernon, Marseille 2006, . The complete edition: * L'Architecture vivante, Da Capo Press, New York, c 1975

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Badovici Architects from Bucharest Romanian expatriates in France 1893 births 1956 deaths