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 ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

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

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

for

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

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

Vézelay Vézelay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, 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 Ro ...

(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 t ...

(1934). In

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (; or ; ; ), simply Roquebrune until 1921, is a Communes of France, commune in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region, Southeastern France, betw ...

he assisted

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

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

International style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

E-1027 E-1027 is a Modern architecture, modernist villa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of France. It was designed and built from 1926–1929 by the Irish architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray an ...

. 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 , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

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 the Soviet Union in t ...

De Stijl De Stijl (, ; 'The Style') was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 by a group of artists and architects based in Leiden (Theo van Doesburg, Jacobus Oud, J.J.P. Oud), Voorburg (Vilmos Huszár, Jan Wils) and Laren, North Holland, Laren (Piet Mo ...

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

- 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 language, 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 bo ...

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

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