#Constant Nieuwenhuys

[psikonauti]

Constant Nieuwenhuys (Dutch,1920-2005)

Dieren

lithograph

[thunderstruck9]

Constant (Dutch, 1920-2005), Kat met bloem en vogel [Cat with flower and bird], 1949. Gouache and pencil on paper, sheet size: 35 x 24.5 cm.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Constant (Constant A. Nieuwenhuys)

Untitled

1975-6

[anticbrvtalist]

Constant. Architectural design.

[alicerabbitpotkettle]

Aart Klein - Constant playing guitar in his studio, c. 1962

[philoursmars]

Nouveau retour à mon projet de présenter la plupart de mes 55500 photos (et des brouettes).  Plus trop loin du présent….  

2016. Marseille en octobre, Au Musée Cantini, une expo : “Le Rêve”:

- Jacques Hérold : “La Femmoiselle”

- Victor Brauner : “Conciliation Extrême”

- Constant Nieuwenhuys : “Le Cauchemar”

- Germaine Richier : “'L'Araignée I”

- André Masson : “Antille”

- Cf 1

[aioleis]

New Babylon, Constant Nieuwenhuys

New Babylon is an anti-capitalist city perceved and designed in 1959-74 as a future potentiality by visual artist Constant Nieuwenhuys.

Origin of the name

Initially known as Dériville (from "ville dérivée", literally, "drift city"), it was later renamed New Babylon.

Henri Lefebvre explained: "a New Babylon -- a provocative name, since in the Christian tradition Babylon is a figure of evil. New Babylon was to be the figure of good that took the name of the cursed city and transformed itself into the city of the future."

A utopian blueprint

In 1956, Western countries were at the dawn of a magmatic period that would reach its peak in the socio-political turmoil of 1968. During that year, the avant-garde Dutch artist Constant Nieuwenhuys started to work on an utopical project named New Babylon: a radical attempt to re-imagine the urban landscape and to question fundamental principles of architecture. New Babylon was a speculative city envisaged through media like collages, litographs and maps. This imaginary city was designed as:

“A decentered, multi-layered space for living, with underground and ground levels, as well as numerous layers above ground and terraces as the final icing. Configured as a rhizomatic network of huge links, it was made of a series of interlocking platforms raised above the Earth’s surface upon pilotis. These were built into various autonomous yet connected units—called sectors.” (Source)

This vision was born from a milieu of different perspectives, such as early cybernetics, 60’s urban subcultures, and artistic avant-garde movements, such as the Situationist group, to which Constant belonged to. New Babylon was planned for a ‘ludic’ society, where humanity is free from waged work and free to engage in all kinds of creative activities.

Read:

[noxaeternaetc]

Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920-2005) Orpheus with animals, 1981. Etching, 41,5 x 39,5 cm.

[h1br1s]

El despertar venidero está, como el caballo de madera de los griegos, en la Troya de lo onírico.

Walter Benjamin, Libro de los Pasajes (K2,4: 397)

[theaskew]

Constant (Dutch 1920-2005), Vogel, 1949. Oil on canvas. 49.5 x 59.5 cm.

[psikonauti]

Constant Nieuwenhuys (Dutch,1920-2005)

Mother and Child, 1995

oil on canvas

[shaddad]

do projeto revolucionário new babylon do arquiteto holandês constant nieuwenhuys (1920-2005)

[beingjackmalkovich]

Constant Nieuwenhuys, New Babylon

[curatingyoutube]

[wysiwyggins]

Constant Nieuwenhuys