Santiago Calatrava, the world-renowned architect who has designed some of the most beautiful structures of our epoch, is the subject of a new exhibition, Santiago Calatrava: Sculpture into Architecture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This exhibition, on view through March 5, 2006, will demonstrate that many of the forms of his celebrated buildings originated in his independent works of art. Santiago Calatrava: Sculpture into Architecture will showcase sculptures in marble and bronze, drawings, and architectural models, including work related to the new transportation hub he has designed for the World Trade Center site. The exhibition is organized by themes found in both his art and architecture stacked cubes, wings and bird images, waves, and Cycladic forms. In addition to his architectural work, Calatrava spends much of his time drawing and conceiving sculptures. This will be the first major exhibition in the United States to feature such a large selection of Calatrava's independent work and to examine it in conjunction with his architecture. The exhibition is made possible by UBS, the global financial services firm. Calatrava was born in 1951 in Benimamet, near Valencia, Spain, and began his formal instruction in drawing and painting at the age of eight at the Arts and Crafts School. In 1968, he enrolled in the Superior Technical School of Architecture in Valencia, where he earned a degree in architecture and took a post-graduate course in urbanism. In 1979, he earned a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. In 1983, he won his first design competition, for the Stadelhofen Railway Station in Zurich, where he established an office. His international reputation for bridge building was set in 1984 when he won the competition to design and build the Bach de Roda Bridge, commissioned for the Olympic Games in Barcelona. In 1991, Calatrava won the design competition to complete the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City, a project that has not yet been realized. Other major projects include the Lyon Airport Station in France (1989-94); City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain (ongoing); the acclaimed expansion of the Milwaukee Art Museum in Wisconsin (2001); the Tenerife Auditorium in Santa Cruz, Canary Islands (2003); the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Greece (2004); and the HSB Turning Torso residential tower in Malm, Sweden (opened August 2005). Among his recent commissions, Calatrava has been selected to design the Museum dellOpera del Duomo in Florence, Italy; Symphony Center for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; and the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York City, now under construction. October 2005
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