Author Description

The impact of visionary Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid (1950-2016) upon contemporary architecture cannot be overstated. Among her many talents, Hadid was also an accomplished artist and highly skilled calligrapher, influenced by the Russian avant-garde (Malevich, Tatlin and Rodchenko). This concise, beautifully designed catalog, with its die-cut cover that pays homage to her unique formal vocabulary, presents a large selection of her rarely seen paintings, drawings (including calligraphy drawings which would later be transformed into architecture), notebooks and visionary digital visual work, all of which echo the lightness and weightlessness of her buildings. Many of Hadid's early paintings pre-empt the potential of digital and virtual reality. These works, which date from the 1970s to the early 1990s, reveal her as an architect with drawing at the very heart of her work.