The Modern eye-catcher: Mies van der Rohe and sculpture

There are many striking examples of Modernist buildings that house sculptures that are much more traditional than the architecture that surrounds them. To some extent these disparities can be explained by the uncontrolled installation of sculpture, the result either of a lack of concern on the part of the architect or of ignorance of what was to come. Of more interest here, however, is the deliberate positioning of ‘non-Modernist’ sculpture in Modernist buildings. To some extent such juxtapositions require that we reconsider our definition of Modern sculpture. Beyond this, we can ask what figurative sculpture gave abstract architects, and why they used it.