Pop Culture Reinterpretations of Le Corbusier's Famous Nude Photo

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You know you’re a design legend when almost 50 years after your death, a really clever website hosts a collage competition in honor of an infamous nude photo of you defacing the pristine white villa of your friend and neighbor, Eileen Gray.

Born Charles-Édouard Jeannere-Gris in Switzerland, Le Corbusier is without question the greatest architect and design thinker of the last century. Summing up the supreme responsibility he felt as a designer, he famously said “You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces: that is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say: ‘This is beautiful.’ That is Architecture.”

Upon his death in 1965 — he drowned in the Mediterranean just off shore of his tiny summer cabin — Lyndon B. Johnson, then President of the United States, said: “His influence was universal and his works are invested with a permanent quality possessed by those of very few artists in our history”. The Soviet Union added, “Modern architecture has lost its greatest master.”

A comment on his puckish genius, Corbu would have been flattered by the remembrance of two world leaders, but we think he would have loved this homage even more.

A celebration of the great man’s naughty side, click through to check out the best and the worst of the first ever Cor(nudie)r Collage Competition. We can’t decide which we love more, the provocative entries or the judges’ award categories. We were so inspired, we couldn’t help but add a few accolades of our own.

Best Foreground Fashion Moment Award: “Le Creep” by Jessica Helmandollar

Image credit: Reality Cues

Best Use of Yoko Ono: “Where is John?” by Jorge Cárdenas

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Best Use of Corb Award: “Towards a Nude Landscape” by Anne Ehrlich & Emily Cheng

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Sooo Should Have Been a GIF Award: ‘Beyonbusier’ by Darién Montañez

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Best Obligatory Star Wars Nod: ‘Jedi Nudier’ by Pedro Henrique Gonçalves

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Best Subtle Incorporation of Web 2.0: ‘Virgin Corbusier’ by Dong Min Lee

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Too Subtle, But Smart: “Where’s Le Nude?” by Jason Granado

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Best Wordplay/Worst Resolution: “Pass Le Courvoisier” by Rajiv Fernandez

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Best Use of Christian Bale: Le Corbusier in America[n Psycho] by Brian Hamilton

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Best Use of the Letter Z: (its as if) corb waz (never) ere by James Davies

Image credit: Reality Cues