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Migrating Modernism: The Architecture of Harry Seidler
Traces architect Harry Seidler's path from Nazi-occupied Vienna and studies with Gropius and Breuer to a major Australian career, with drawings, models and photographs.
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A Sol LeWitt wall drawing of irregular coloured bands packed into a triangle was made in 1998 for the lobby of the Horizon tower. Here it hangs in a museum, which is the idea behind the show: Harry and Penelope Seidler commissioned art for his buildings and collected Calder, Albers, Frankenthaler and Stella for themselves.
The show follows Seidler from Vienna, which he fled at 15, through internment in England, deportation to Canada and study under Gropius and Albers, to Sydney in 1948. Then come the buildings in photographs, models and original drawings: Rose Seidler House, Australia Square, the MLC Centre, the embassy in Paris. You get the Hong Kong Club three ways, as plans, John Gollings' photographs and Helmut Jacoby's 1981 rendering. If you've ever queued for lunch under Australia Square, you've done the site visit.
It's free with no booking, in the Ian Potter Gallery on Level 4, and it's an expanded version of the 2025 Venice show. The museum closes 21 December to 3 January.
Editor's pick
Drawings, models and photographs follow Harry Seidler from Nazi-occupied Vienna and study with Gropius and Breuer to a major Australian architecture career. Free.
Look for
Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawing #898
Look for irregular horizontal bands of colour inside a triangle, drawn in 1998 for the Horizon tower lobby and shown here with LeWitt's Nine Linocuts from 2006.
The Hong Kong Club, three ways
Seidler's office plans, John Gollings' 1985 photographs and Helmut Jacoby's 1981 perspective rendering of the 1980-84 club hang together, next to Helen Frankenthaler's Hillside from 1971.
Stella beside Van Doesburg
Frank Stella's York Factory from the 1970 Protractor series and two 1977 Sinjerli variations share a wall with Theo van Doesburg's Space-Time construction #3, made in 1923.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Nerding Out
- Rainy Days
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Image credits
7
- Migrating Modernism: The Architecture of Harry SeidlerPhoto: David James
- David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)Photo by Justin Sutcliffe © David Hockney
- Andy Ewing: Ancestor Spirits / Kirthana Selvaraj: In the Half Light© The Estate of Andrew Ewing
- Chau Chak Wing MuseumNick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0
- White Rabbit GallerySmart Design Studio / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- CarriageworksNick-D, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian ArtChris Olszewski (Kgbo), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0