Student talks on art and architecture: Migrating Modernism

The fourth set of Student talks will focus on the Chau Chak Wing Museum's Migrating Modernism exhibition curated by Dr Ann Stephen and Dr Paolo Stracchi. 

Presentations by Dhwanee Kolage, Marcus Peake and Natalia Sheebowill draw out the detail of key works in the exhibition, helping visitors to see the works in the context of Seidler's career, and the broader artistic, historical and political milieu from which they emerged. 

Exhibition Overview

Originally produced by the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, in collaboration with and first presented at the San Marco Art Centre in Venice in 2025, this expanded exhibition brings together photographs, models, original drawings, and artworks to trace Seidler’s extraordinary journey.

Forced to flee Nazi-occupied Vienna as a teenager, Seidler embarked on a path that eventually led him to study in the United States under Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Josef Albers, and then work with Marcel Breuer, and later with Oscar Niemeyer. 

From Sydney, he launched a prolific international career that reshaped the architectural landscape of modern Australia. Over five decades, Seidler produced a body of work spanning continents and scales, including significant collaborations with structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi and architect Marcel Breuer.

With Penelope Seidler, his life companion and professional partner, he maintained a deep commitment to the relationship between architecture and art. Together they commissioned major artworks for his buildings and assembled a remarkable personal collection featuring works by Alexander Calder, Josef Albers, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, and Sol LeWitt.

Across Australia and abroad – from Acapulco, to Paris, Hong Kong, and his native Vienna – Seidler’s legacy emerges as both a personal story and a global narrative that reveals how modernist ideas migrated, evolved, and left a lasting imprint across cultures and time.

Student talks on art & architecture are presented by the Power Institute and the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney.