Chau Chak Wing Museum co-presents Harry Seidler exhibition

A retrospective exhibition on the work and life of preeminent Australian architect Harry Seidler, co-produced by the University of Sydney’s Chau Chak Wing Museum and San Marco Art Centre (SMAC), opens in Venice this week. 

Migrating Modernism. The architecture of Harry Seidler coincides with the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. It is one of two inaugural exhibitions at the newly opened SMAC, in the heart of Venice. 

Open from 9 May, Migrating Modernism is curated by Chau Chak Wing Museum Senior Curator Ann Stephen, and Paolo Stracchi from the University of Sydney’s School of Architecture Design and Planning.   

Migrating Modernism will consider in depth both individual projects and Seidler’s collaborations with architects and artists. 

These include Josef Albers, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, Lin Utzon and Sol LeWitt. It positions Seidler not only as a standout practitioner in Australia, but as an exemplar of the modernism globally. 

A luminary among 20th century architects in Australia and one of the most influential voices of the country’s Modern Movement, Seidler’s legacy spans single-family dwellings, inventive towers, public buildings and progressive housing schemes. 

His vision was realised around the world, in cities including Acapulco, Paris (where he designed the Australian embassy), Hong Kong and his native Vienna.  

Australia Square and Grosvener Place in Sydney, and Riverside Centre in Brisbane are among his landmark designs in Australia. His first Australian design in 1949, Rose Seidler house built for his parents, is now a heritage-listed museum in Wahroonga, Sydney. 

“Living in Sydney, we see how Harry Seidler’s modern vision introduced a distinctly cosmopolitan culture to Australian cities—not only through his buildings, but also through the art he brought into public spaces,” says  Stephen. 

After fleeing Nazi-ruled Austria at the age of 15, Seidler was interned as an enemy alien in England before deportation to Canada, where he completed his first degree in architecture. He moved to the United States where he studied and worked under a series of masters: Walter Gropius, Josef Albers, Marcel Breuer and Oscar Niemeyer. He migrated to Australia, aged 24, in 1948.  

Among his many collaborations, the one with Pier Luigi Nervi stands out, enriching Seidler’s modernist vision with structural expressionism and giving a sculptural presence to his buildings.

As a result, the synthesis of Seidler’s rational architectural approach, research into visual effects, and expressive use of concrete structures, represents a major example of the modernist ideal of architecture as a seamless integration of art and technology. 

"Beyond its refined formal language, Seidler’s architecture stands as a reflection of the broader cultural, historical, and architectural conditions of its time,” says Stracchi. 

The exhibition at SMAC is open to the public until 13 July. The Chau Chak Wing Museum will host Migrating Modernism in 2027.  

Images supplied