Bernard Lassus - Introduction

After gaining early recognition as one of the first Kinetist artists in France (1957–1967), Bernard Lassus turned his back to the institutional world of art and started exploring possibilities of developing new social uses for painting and sculpture in various industrial environments. Meanwhile, he pursued a career as a professor of drawing at the School of Architecture at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, initiated the Department of Plastic Arts at the Université of Paris 1 at the Sorbonne, and took part in the creation of the Landscape School at Versailles. After his award-winning but unbuilt proposal for the Parc de La Villette (1981) drew worldwide attention, he started to specialize in landscape architecture. In 1982, he won the commission for the Gardens of Return in Rochefort, a significant public project continued well into the year 2000. Relationships between motorways and cultural landscape were under the fire of criticism in France in the 1980s when he demonstrated a new approach for the highway landscape and helped to develop a National Landscape Policy for Motorways. Since then his approach to landscape design has grown influential, both through his own works and through his teaching in various universities in Europe and the US.

Materials featured in the collection

Materials are in French and English. Entries to the collection include studies, lectures, writings, proposals, sketches, and detailed design documents of the following projects:

• Colas Gardens: Le Jardin du Jeu des Saisons / Le Jardin de Pins / Le Jardin de l'Attente / Le Théâtre de Verdure, Paris, France, 2000–07
• Landscape of Rocks: Motorway 837, Crazannes, France, 1993–99
• Other Highway Landscapes: Angers-Tours motorway A85, 1996–99 / Alençon-Le Mans-Tours motorway A28, 1998–2000
• Le Jardin des Retours: Rochefort-sur-Mer, France, 1982–2006
• Design Competitions and Proposals: Jardin de la Anterior, 1975 / Jardin de la Planets, 1980 / Le Jardin des Tuileries, 1990 / Parc Duisburg-Nord, 1991
• Earlier Experiments and Studies: Pointes Rouges, 1967 / Les Ambiances, 1970s / Les Habitants-paysagistes, 1980s / Buissons Optiques, 1993