Late Architect Donated Art Works To Fogg Museum

The late architect Josep Lluis Sen. when left as indelible mark on the Harvard landscape by designing the Science Center. Holyoke Center and other striking area buildings, lately made another type of mark with the donations of 11 paintings by other masters to the Fogg.

The collection, which includes paintings by abstract artists John Miro and Fernand Leger, is now on partial exhibit at the Fogg. Three especially noted works now hand in the Fogg courtyard in Sert's memory.

Sert, former dean of the Graduate School of Design (GSD). dies March 15 of cancer in his native Spain.

According to Peter Walsh, public relations and publications officer of the Fogg, the donations make up "one of the most important 20th-century groups the museum owns." He added that the works hold a "special interest" because Sert was personally acquainted with both Leger and Miro.

In addition to the paintings, during his lifetime. Sert gave the Fogg the "Barcelona Series," a collection of prints also by Miro, and gave the University works by Calder and a pre-Columbian gold ornament collection.

Sert donated several works by LeCorbussier, another close friend and contemporary, to the GSD, along with his private library of architectural and art books and personal archives.

The contributions reflect the innovative and modernistic style on Sert and can be considered "an extension of Sert himself," Walsh said.

John P. Coolidge, Boardman Professor of Fine Arts, yesterday recalled the works by Miro, Leger and LeCorbussier as "extraordinarily lively and suggestive of excitement," and described Sert's own designs as "marvelously perceptive."

The collection "marks the rise of the modern movement in Spain and France in addition to reflecting the innovative style of Sert," added John Rosenfield, director of the Fogg.