Aldo Rossi (1931-1997), the architect of the Bonnefantenmuseum, was a versatile man: a writer, artist and architect. His buildings gave him the reputation of being a strict architect of elementary forms, but that is only one side of the matter. In his drawings, paintings and writings, Rossi is fervently in search of an essential personal answer to the problems of the modern, disintegrated world. As an alternative to simple functionalism, Rossi relied, also in his design process, on a play on associations, repetitions and analogies, for restricting disorder. It concerned ‘references for life’. “I have tried to give structure to the opposition between the weak and the strong” he says in A Scientific Autobiography, from 1981.
In order to try to do justice to Rossi’s strict, yet lively way of working, this Studiolo exhibition has grouped a number of models, paintings, prints, drawings and objects, from a thirty year period, according to themes such as ‘the life of forms’ and ‘forms of life’.

Biography

1931 born in Milan on 3 May. Lives near the Como Lake during the war years.
1949 enrolment in the Architecture faculty of the Polytechnic in Milan.
1955-1964 contributes to the magazine Casabella Continuità.
1965 teacher at Polytechnic in Milan
realisation of the Partisan monument in Segrate
1966 publication of L’architettura della città
1969-1970 realisation of the apartment block Gallatarese in Milan
1971 wins the competition, with Gianni Braghieri, for the cemetery San Cataldo, near Modena.
1972-1974 guest professorship Eidgenössische Hochschule Zürich
1975 becomes professor at the Architecture Institute of the University of Venice.
1979 Teatro del Mondo in Venice
1981 publication of A Scientific Autobiography
1983 director of the Venice Architecture Biennial
1987 sets up an agency in The Hague, with Umberto S. Barbieri.
1988 honorary member of the American Institute of Architects
1990 Winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize
1991-1993 large Rossi exhibition in Paris, Berlin, Ghent and Amsterdam
1992 starts new building for the Bonnefantenmuseum
1997 dies on 4 September, in Milan, as the result of a car accident.

Studiolo exhibition
third floor
from 16 November 2003

Bonnefantenmuseum
Avenue Céramique 250
NL-6201 BS Maastricht
Tel +31 (0)43 3290190
Fax +31 (0)43 3290199

tuesday to sunday 11 - 17 hrs

www.bonnefanten.nl