Luma Arles: Frank Gehry inspired by Van Gogh

By Sybaris

It is hard to imagine how a modern painting could inspired a contemporary bulding from the 21st Century. However, painting and architecture have had a long relationship in which one and the other have been inspired in ther forms, compositions, texture and colors. The latest example is a building located in Arles, designed by Frank Gehry and inspired by one of the most enigmatic avant-garde artist of the late 19th Century.

On Saturday June 26, the new cultural centre in France opened as a new venue focused on the visual arts, culture, environment, education and investigation. The building is an oustanding—both visually and conceptually— work designed by the internationally renowned starchitect Frank Gehry inspired in one of the greatest works of arts of all time: the Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.

The 15,000-square-metre tower will house seminar rooms, exhibition spaces, research facilities, an auditorium and a cafe for the arts centre. The facade is clad in 11,000 irregularly arranged stainless steel planes, broken by numerous protruding glass window boxes.

The project is an initiative of the LUMA Foundation directed by philantrophist and art collector Maja Hoffmann. From 2010 to 2018, she reunited a group of experst to create de artistic program, including Tom Eccles, Liam Gillick, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno and Beatrix Ruf. Now that is oppening, the centre will be directed by Tom Eccles and Hans Ulrich Obrist, with the advisory of Sophia Al Maria, Ian Cheng and Paul B. Preciado.