14. November 2024
Arthur Erickson (photographer), Bali, Indonesia, ca. 1970s, photograph, 120 reversal film, ARCH289101, Arthur Erickson Fonds, CCA. (Gift of the Erickson Family © Emily Erickson McCullum and Christopher Erickson)
Being There: Photography in Arthur Erickson’s Early Travel Diaries is on display at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal from November 14, 2024 until March 16, 2025. Here we present a few of Erickson's photographs from the CCA archive that express how the Canadian architect's early travels informed his early projects and later evolution as an architect.
Born in Vancouver in 1924, Arthur Erickson studied at University of British Columbia and then at McGill University in Montreal, where he received his Bachelor of Architecture in 1950. He subsequently traveled throughout Europe and North Africa between 1950 and 1952, and then visited Japan in 1961, taking photographs but also writing letters to his family, teachers, colleagues, and friends.
It it these photographs and correspondences that comprise Being There: Photography in Arthur Erickson’s Early Travel Diaries. Curated by David Covo, an associate professor at McGill, the exhibition is part of the Arthur Erickson Centennial Celebration.
Below is a selection of photographs from the exhibition that expresses how, like other architects, “Erickson was convinced that architecture must be experienced to be understood,” and that travel “would be a lifelong preoccupation and crucial to his continuing growth as an architect and thinker.”
Arthur Erickson (photographer), Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, Rome, Italy, ca. 1950-1951, photograph, 120 reversal film, ARCH289326, Arthur Erickson Fonds, CCA. (Gift of the Erickson family © Emily Erickson McCullum and Christopher Erickson)
Arthur Erickson (photographer), Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy, ca. 1950-1951, photograph, 120 reversal film, ARCH289336, Arthur Erickson Fonds, CCA. (Gift of the Erickson family © Emily Erickson McCullum and Christopher Erickson)
Arthur Erickson (photographer), Kiyomizu-dera temple, Kyoto, Japan, 1961, photograph, 120 reversal film, ARCH289235, Arthur Erickson Fonds, CCA. (Gift of the Erickson Family © Emily Erickson McCullum and Christopher Erickson)
Arthur Erickson (photographer), Katsura Imperial Villa Shokintei (tea house), Kyoto, Japan, 1961, photograph, 120 reversal film, ARCH289259, Arthur Erickson Fonds, CCA. (Gift of the Erickson Family © Emily Erickson McCullum and Christopher Erickson)
Arthur Erickson (photographer), Daitoku-ji temple, Kyoto, Japan, 1961, photograph, 120 reversal film, ARCH289234, Arthur Erickson Fonds, CCA. (Gift of the Erickson Family © Emily Erickson McCullum and Christopher Erickson)
Arthur Erickson (photographer), Kagawa Prefectural Government Office East Building by Kenzō Tange, Takamatsu, Japan, 1961, photograph, 120 reversal film, ARCH289275, Arthur Erickson Fonds, CCA.
(Gift of the Erickson Family © Emily Erickson McCullum and Christopher Erickson)
