THE EXHIBITION OF ARCHITECTURE BY LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE. ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, 1938-1939

The first monograph on Mies van der Rohe was published in 1947 to coincide with the exhibition curated by Philip Johnson at MoMA in New York. Although this exhibition has been considered by critics as the first to present Mies's work exclusively, new documents reveal that in December 1938 the "Exhibition of Architecture by Mies van der Rohe" opened at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), which included drawings, photographs and models from his European period. This article aims to present this monographic exhibition by graphically analysing the material that has remained unpublished until now: seven photographs in the archives of the University of Michigan and a press release in the AIC Archives Research Center. The three-dimensional survey provided details the architecture on display, and compares it with the American exhibitions that preceded and followed it (1932 and 1947), both organised by MoMA.