Lecture by Jerzy J. Kierkuc-Bielinski

Sir John Soane: Architecture, Collecting and ‘…the Museum of museums…’

Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was one of the most innovative and forward thinking architects in British history. His house/museum at No.13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, was opened as a museum initially for his students in 1809 and left to the British nation by a special Act of Parliament in 1833. Although trained in the neoclassical tradition, Soane’s work anticipated much of modernist and postmodernist architecture in his approach to style and use of technologically advanced building materials. He was also one of Britain’s most important collectors of art and antiquities creating unprecedented installations of objects within his house. These too have provided inspiration for many contemporary artists.

Whilst looking at Soane’s architectural career this lecture will also focus on his equally important role as a collector, where he distinguished himself in showing contemporary British art to the public when other national museums were reluctant and whose displays of antiquities, paintings and sculpture, installed within the interiors of his house, challenge conventional readings of the nature of neoclassical art.

Jerzy J. Kierkuć-Bieliński is curator at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. Richard Julin, Deputy Director at Magasin 3, will open the lecture by presenting the Magasin 3 collection.

Free admission. Welcome!