Where function ends: the Architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens

14 July – 27 October 2019, Hestercombe Gallery, Taunton

Curated by Kate Best

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Edwin Lutyens at a site that he himself worked to transform, this exhibition showcased the architect’s sketches and plans alongside new work examining how he collaborated with Gertrude Jekyll to organise the garden space. Taking as its title and starting point Lutyens’ claim that ‘Architecture, with its love and passion, begins where function ends’, the exhibition investigated Lutyens as a man at odds with his modernist times.

Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944), Stable blocks, Imperial Delhi, 1918. Pencil, pen and ink on linen, 775 × 1230 mm. DMC 1578.

Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944), Sketch, Possibly Cathedral Church of the Redemption, New Delhi, 1929. Pencil on laid paper, watermark: crown and Papyrus Regna , 227 × 177 mm. DMC 1616.

Peter Womersley (1923–1993), Plan, House at High Sunderland, Selkirk, 1957. Pen and ink on tracing, 443 × 875 mm. DMC 3028.14.

Drawing Matter contributed both drawings by Lutyens himself and by architects who used him as a key reference, such as Peter Womersley. In addition, our own Niall Hobhouse spoke at the accompanying symposium event.