Light Is the Theme: Louis I Kahn and the Kimbell Art Museum

by Louis I. Kahn, Nell E. Johnson

Originally published in 1975 as a memorial to the Kimbell Art Museum's architect, Louis I. Kahn, Light Is the Theme provides an extended expression of the major themes articulated in his design for the museum. The text consists solely of Kahn's own words and explores his innovative use of natural light and playful employment of materials, which achieve their most refined state in the Kimbell, widely regarded as the architect's crowning achievement and admired as one of the greatest museum buildings of the 20th century.

Marking the 40th anniversary of the Kimbell Art Museum, this is the first time this classic book, updated with a new bibliography and a foreword by director Eric M. Lee, has been available outside of the museum.

Genres: Architecture

79 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1975

About the author

Louis Isadore Kahn, born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky, was an American architect, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. While continuing his private practice, he served as a design critic and professor of architecture at Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957. From 1957 until his death, he was a professor of architecture at the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Influenced by ancient ruins, Kahn's style tends to the monumental and monolithic; his heavy buildings do not hide their weight, their materials, or the way they are assembled. Louis Kahn's works are considered as monumental beyond modernism.

Reviews

[Rogelio Vidales · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful short book about the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas. Kahn shares many of his ideas about architecture and how he implemented those in the design of the museum.

"Nothing static, nothing static as an electric bulb, which can only give you one iota of the character of light. So the museum has as many moods as there are moments in time, and never as long as the museum remains as a building will there be a single day like no other."

[Howard Mansfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elegant pairing of Kahn's words with photos of the museum under construction and finished. This concise book is spacious.

[Derenik Baghramian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short narrative of the architectural concept, the ideology of light and shadows that enriches architectural spaces.