Life Journey

 Inadequate financial and political situation in early Berlin called Mies van der Rohe to the United States where he reached highs of his career. The exposition "Mies in Berlin" will demonstrate the entire creative process of Mies, with the understanding of his rapid ascent into a world-wide respected architect. By the end of his career, he had founded his own architectural firm, developed his unique style that is quite similar to simple shapes, straight lines, wide spaces and quality material, in particular.

 

The exhibition demonstrates the depth and complexity of Mies's German work but also turns upside down the idea that this work is regarded in just a preparatory phase before his American work. Through the presentation of uncovered domains of his professional life, such as his Natural Space and Modem Space ideas, the exhibit makes the audience to realize the complexity and the deeper look into the nature of the design philosophy of Mies. Rather than being a part of a transitory phase, Mies's Berlin experience becomes one of the important pages in the history of modern architecture, shaping the work of the young generations of architects across the world.

"Mies in America," in turn, is an extremely piece of writing about the life of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his best works from the period when he left Germany to the USA at the end of 1938 to his death in 1969. Mies's impact on modernist U. S.  architecture is the primary subject matter illuminated in the exhibition held at the Whitney Museum of American Art.  Through Mies's ground-breaking work, he has been credited with revolutionizing the modernist movement in the United States. 

 

Mies's architectural ideology has never stopped evolving and improving over the years.  It is just that, as he adapted to the new environment, he continued to refine it to agree with and best suit the cultural and architectural aspects of his adopted country. The emblematic pieces, as the Seagram Building located in New York City, fully express the elegance and the functionalism, which are the hallmark of the mid-century modern architecture. The architecture legacy of Mr. Mies in America not only changed the face of cities but also found a follower generation of architects to undertake simplification, transparency, and structural honesty. 

 

In the end, by the means of the exhibitions "Mies in Berlin" and "Mies in America," the visitor can get acquainted with a life and work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, an architect, observing the essential aspects of German and American architecture. On a common thread, they again emphasize Mies's design approach that has continuum and progression over anything else, making his position among the prominent figures in the architecture history era and beyond.