The Drawing Center is pleased to present Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities on view in the Main Gallery from April 18 through July 24, 2008. The first New York exhibition of Kiesler’s work in nearly two decades, Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities will explore the pivotal role of drawing in the work of this visionary Austro-American architect, artist, designer, and theoretician. The exhibition will be designed by nARCHITECTS, an award winning firm based in New York. Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities is organized by The Drawing Center, New York in collaboration with the Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Vienna, and curated by Dieter Bogner and João Ribas.

This historical exhibition will trace Kiesler’s interest in the expressive and conceptual possibilities of drawing through key projects from the 1940s to the 1960s and will include never-before-seen drawings on loan from the Kiesler Foundation, Vienna. Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities will present over 30 drawings related to Kiesler’s decades-long investigation into the correlation between man, nature, and technology, embodied in his iconic Endless House structure. Also featured will be Kiesler’s pioneering exhibition design drawings, including those for Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery in New York (1942) as well as works related to Kiesler’s drawing-based study of human perception.

Kiesler’s work highlights the role of drawing as a central activity within the practice of architecture. Kiesler used drawing to define his ideas of continuity—spatial, creative, and ideational—as well as to discover and develop the signature biomorphic forms that would redefine the language of modern architecture. As so few of his designs were ever realized, Kiesler’s drawings are essential to understanding his significant contribution to 20th-century architectural history. Exhibition Design. The works, organized thematically, will be installed in a series of curvilinear vitrines that forms an endless band throughout the space.