LEOH MING PEI

The exhibition takes an expanded and closer look at Pei’s practice through six themes representing areas of focus and approaches throughout his career: ‘Pei’s Cross-Cultural Foundations’, ‘Real Estate and Urban Redevelopment’, ‘Art and Civic Form’, ‘Power, Politics, and Patronage’, ‘Material and Structural Innovation’, and ‘Reinterpreting History through Design’. The themes place Pei’s practice in close dialogue with social, cultural, and biographical trajectories that show architecture and life to be inseparable.  The exhibition features a rich selection of drawings, sketches, videos, models, photographs, and other archival documentation, many of which will be on view for the first time. To lend a contemporary lens to Pei’s work, the exhibition presents newly commissioned photographs of Pei’s buildings by a new generation of photographers: South Ho, Naho Kubota, Lee Kuo-min, Giovanna Silva, Mohamed Somji, Tian Fangfang, and Yoneda Tomoko. Architectural models of Pei’s built and unbuilt projects are also made in collaboration with architecture schools at The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Irving Penn. I. M. Pei, 1976. Vogue. © Condé Nast

Giovanna Silva. A bride’s photoshoot captured from Passage Richelieu at the Grand Louvre in Paris, 2021. Commissioned by M+, 2021. © Giovanna Silva.

Mohamed Somji. View of the faceted central structure of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, 2022. Photo commissioned by M+, 2022. © Mohamed Somji.

I. M. Pei explaining his proposal for Oklahoma City’s new downtown to one of the ‘city fathers’, ca.1964. © The Oklahoman – USA TODAY NETWORK

Model of Fragrant Hill Hotel (1979–1982), Beijing, ca.1979. Paper and acrylic. Gift of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Acquisition in progress. Photo: M+, Hong Kong, photographed with permission. © Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

Helmut Jacoby (illustrator), I. M. Pei & Associates. Rendering of museum and public plaza, Everson Museum of Art (1961–1968), Syracuse, New York, ca.1961. Ink on paper. Photo: M+, Hong Kong, photographed with permission. © Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

Irving Penn. I. M. Pei, 1976. Vogue. © Condé Nast

Giovanna Silva. A bride’s photoshoot captured from Passage Richelieu at the Grand Louvre in Paris, 2021. Commissioned by M+, 2021. © Giovanna Silva.

Mohamed Somji. View of the faceted central structure of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, 2022. Photo commissioned by M+, 2022. © Mohamed Somji.

I. M. Pei explaining his proposal for Oklahoma City’s new downtown to one of the ‘city fathers’, ca.1964. © The Oklahoman – USA TODAY NETWORK

Model of Fragrant Hill Hotel (1979–1982), Beijing, ca.1979. Paper and acrylic. Gift of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Acquisition in progress. Photo: M+, Hong Kong, photographed with permission. © Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

Helmut Jacoby (illustrator), I. M. Pei & Associates. Rendering of museum and public plaza, Everson Museum of Art (1961–1968), Syracuse, New York, ca.1961. Ink on paper. Photo: M+, Hong Kong, photographed with permission. © Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.