Showrooms

Artist Toby Paterson (Glasgow, Scotland, born 1974)

Date2000

Mediumacrylic and perspex

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

Dimensions42 x 59.4cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 2001 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions and with income from the Macdonald Bequest.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG013984

Keywords

Plastic

About MeIn his work Toby Paterson addresses the subject of modern architecture and the Purist aesthetic of the famous modernist architect Le Corbusier. Ironically Paterson's interest in such architecture originally came from his sense of horror at the misapplication of Modernist principles: he was fascinated by the terrible results of Le Corbusier-influenced 60s and 70s architecture in Scotland. This initial horror turned to curiosity, which sent him back to look at the origins of this style.

What he has come to present in his work is an idealised image of a Le Corbusier building, pared to essentials and precisely rendered. Painting on to perspex, effacing brush-strokes, he represents an uncluttered view of the subject. Held between perspex sheets, the image seems to float in space. It has an exaggerated three-dimensional quality.

The Showrooms building is based on Le Corbusier's plan for Dom-ino, (1914), a revolutionary design for modular housing. The artist states, "The image is of an original and benevolent (if ultimately flawed) utopian idea co-opted by business as a cheap building solution. Whilst this building is fictitious, it bears witness to the use of Modernist forms to achieve economical and vacantly stylish results with little regard for the ideas behind them."