This is the first major retrospective of Ieoh Ming Pei (1917–2019), one of the greatest architects of the 20th and 21st centuries. Pei’s high-profile projects were realised with an exceptionally wide geographic reach, including the National Gallery of Art East Building in Washington, D.C., modernisation of the Grand Louvre in Paris, Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, and Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. These iconic landmarks solidified Pei’s position in architectural history and popular culture. This retrospective features more than 300 objects, many of them exhibited for the first time. The exhibition takes a close look at Pei’s life and work through six areas of focus that not only define his unique practice, but also place his architectural projects in dialogue with social, cultural, and biographical trajectories, showing architecture and life to be inseparable.

Photo | Portrait of I. M. Pei taken when he was selected to design the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Dorchester, Massachusetts; 1965; Image by John Loengard/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock