Original Le Corbusier Poster "Le Poème de l'angle droit", 1955 - Mourlot

This is an original lithographic poster created in 1955 by Le Corbusier and printed by Mourlot Frères for the exhibition of Le Poème de l'angle droit at the Galerie Berggruen & Cie in Paris — one of the most important and personal works Le Corbusier ever produced, and the rarest of his Mourlot posters. Le Poème de l'angle droit is not a building, not a manifesto, not a design system: it is a work of art and poetry in the fullest sense — a livre d'artiste conceived between 1947 and 1953, combining nineteen original lithographs with handwritten text in a meditation on man, nature, time, the right angle, and the harmony between them. It was published by Tériade in 1955, the same year Mourlot printed this poster to announce the Berggruen exhibition — making this one of the rarest documents in Le Corbusier's graphic oeuvre.

Le Corbusier (1887–1965) described Le Poème de l'angle droit as the work that expressed his deepest beliefs — more intimately than any building, any urban plan, any theoretical text. The right angle of the title is the angle between the vertical and the horizontal: the angle at which man stands upright on the earth, the angle at which architecture meets the ground, the angle that defines the relationship between human will and natural order. The nineteen lithographs — organised in seven thematic chapters (Milieu, Esprit, Chair, Fusion, Caractères, Offre, Outil) — are among the most emotionally direct images Le Corbusier ever made, entirely freed from the constraints of the built environment.

The Galerie Berggruen, at 70 rue de l'Université in Paris, was the natural home for this exhibition. Heinz Berggruen, whose gallery had become one of the most trusted spaces in post-war Paris for modern masters, had the rare instinct to understand Le Corbusier not merely as an architect but as a visual artist of the first order. Printed by Mourlot with the chromatic and tonal fidelity that only they could bring to such a work, this poster is a document of a singular encounter between a gallerist of genius and an artist at the height of his creative powers.

The poster has been freshly linen backed — the gold standard of vintage poster conservation — ensuring the piece is stable, flat, and ready for framing. See pictures for full condition details.

The rarest of Le Corbusier's Mourlot posters — his most intimate work, at the gallery that understood it best, in the year it was finally revealed to the world.