Scope and Content of Collection

This collection of drawings by Zaha Hadid contains 32 ink drawings (on mylar) and 47 acrylic paintings (on black and cream paper) that the architect executed for the design of the exhibition of Russian Constructivist art, "The Great Utopia," held at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1992. Hadid's drawings demonstrate her debt to Russian Suprematism and Constructivism, especially the work of Kasimir Malevich, Ivan Leonidov, El Lissitzsky and Konstatin Melnikov, as they offer spaces where these designers' work can be reexperienced and reinterpreted. Hadid recreates Malevich's "Tectonic" as a curved or "bent" form and uses color in a manner reminiscent of Theo van Doesburg and members of De Stijl. As always, she defies conventions of architectural drawing to evoke disorienting perceptual effects and, in this case, to undermine and extend those of the Guggenheim.

The collection includes designs that were not implemented for the exhibition as well as those that were. Apart from 32 "Study Drawings," the drawings are grouped by installation, each installation concerning a certain theme or interpretation of a Constructivist thematic: "Tatlin Tower," "Suprematist Walls," "Zig Zag Wall," "Porcelain Beams," "Black Room," "Globe Room," "Skyline of Tectonics," "Maze Room," and "Bent Tectonic." The black display boxes that originally housed the collection have been placed in a separate box (Box 2).