Past Exhibitions

Architecture of Silence: Cistercian Abbeys of France—Photographs by David Heald

29 March – 3 July 2005

"To visit a Cistercian abbey is to make a voyage of discovery, but not necessarily a physical voyage. It may be an inward voyage, where one discovers a part of one’s own being, an inner experience from which one seldom returns unaltered….[I]t may be a brief and pleasant diversion, or it may invite a change in the direction of one’s life."

—Terryl N. Kinder, architectural historian,
archaeologist, and editor-in-chief of Citeaux: Commentarii cistercienses

Long revered for their exquisitely proportioned spaces and ethereal acoustics, early Cistercian abbeys of France, together with the great cathedrals, embody the profound mastery of architecture that blossomed in 12th- and 13th-century Europe. Built by monks nearly 900 years ago, these remarkable medieval buildings are renowned among contemporary architects and artists for their austere, almost minimal, design and immensely refined construction. David Heald, chief photographer for the Guggenheim Museum who is particularly interested in architecture and the natural environment, made seven trips to France between 1985 and 1995 to photograph 22 of these sites.

Organized by Exhibitions International of New York, the show includes 40 luminous large-format black-and-white images that are saturated with surface detail, penetrating illumination, and rich tonal range. Tom Hinson, curator of photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art, notes, "Heald’s photographs capture the essence, the emotional impact, of these incredible spaces. In his detailed images, the marriage of light, space, and texture is succinctly, beautifully expressed. His serene photographs perfectly render the distinguishing quality of Cistercian architecture and monastic life: silence.”

Heald’s work is included in many public and private collections and has appeared in numerous publications, including the highly acclaimed book of the same title as the exhibition (Harry N. Abrams, 2000). Chosen as one of the finest books on architecture in 2000 by the New York Times Book Review, the photographs in it were described by the Times as “hauntingly beautiful…perfectly illustrat[ing] Le Corbusier’s famous definition of architecture as ‘the skillful, correct and magnificent play of volumes assembled in light.’”

In the book’s introduction, Terryl N. Kinder writes, “These photographs awaken a longing for a quieter, simpler existence. The abbeys seem to grow out of the landscape as though they had always been there, like a waterfall, an old tree, or an arched rock scooped out of a cliff eons earlier. Soft sunlight falling on a doorway, creating a muted shadow, carries the visitor to another time and place. The immediacy of the images makes us want to touch stone, to run a hand across the ancient surfaces, angles remarkably fresh, tool marks still visible….The indefinable magnetism present here—one might call it the attraction of God—is almost lost on the surface of today’s culture. Yet in the poetry of an image one can be stirred by the same spirit that flickered in Cistercians….”Among the foremost architectural photographers of today, Heald has created a unique body of work that is the defining photographic record of an extraordinary architectural legacy.

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