Phyllis Lambert?s self-portrait in oil on canvas from 1947. Photo: Phyllis Lambert Fond, CCA © Phyllis Lambert.
Architecture frames our daily lives; it creates the medium in which we grow, learn and live. Yet as an art form and social structure, its language is mostly unknown. Clearly architecture is a public concern.
So wrote Phyllis Lambert, when building the case for her magnum opus, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal. But Lambert?s words can also be read as a blueprint for a life spent in the service of architecture.
Among notable contributions are her pivotal roles as Director of Planning for Mies van der Rohe?s Seagram Building in New York, as founder of the non-profit organization Heritage Montreal, and as architect of the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts in Montreal, the latter in honour of her mother. The exhibition Phyllis Lambert: 75 Years at Work?curated by Lambert herself to coincide with her 90th birthday?traces this public, yet deeply personal relation-ship with architecture, underscoring Lambert?s commitment to the city, the built environment and intellectual research. The exhibition fleshes out formative moments in Lambert?s lifelong involvement with architecture through a series of artefacts care-fully selected from the CCA collection and the Phyllis Lambert fonds, displayed in the seven large vitrines lining the institution?s corridor gallery. These range from a self-portrait dated 1947, one of her earliest artistic endeavours, to ...