Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture was the first major architecture exhibition organized by MOCA and the first retrospective of Louis Kahn's work. The exhibition was designed by MOCA Grand Avenue architect Arata Isozaki, the exhibition contained hundreds of drawings, sketches, scale models, photographs, and artifacts documenting approximately sixty projects by the great 20th century modernist. Known for their enormous, unadorned, geometric shapes, Khan’s buildings and designs merged rigorous formal concerns of mass and space with a utopic social aim of fostering assembly, learning, and creative expression. Photos of Khan’s major American buildings were commissioned from Grant Mudford for the exhibition; also on view were video presentations produced by Peter Kirby.
After its initial opening at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, In the Realm of Architecture traveled to the Pompidou Center, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan; the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; MOCA; and the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio.
The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue.
Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture was organized by Elizabeth A. T. Smith, Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, with three guest curators from the University of Pennsylvania, David DeLong, Professor of Architecture; David Brownlee, Associate Professor of Art and Architecture; and Julia Moore Converse, Director of the Kahn Archives.