Minnette de Silva has been enjoying a bit of a resurgence. Sri Lanka’s first modernist architect and the first Asian woman to be made an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, de Silva has had conferences dedicated to her in rarefied academic institutions and retrospectives in magazines. This year, she featured in an exhibition on post-independence architecture at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. This would have been unthinkable even two decades ago. Back then, she was an anomaly one could scarcely believe had existed at all. I heard of her only by chance, through an old friend—a London architect who briefly worked with her in the 1980s. Over the course of long and spirited conversations, he’d tell me about this extraordinary woman who knew Picasso, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the father of modern architecture, Le Corbusier. And she was Sri Lankan. I was intrigued. This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-Four Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 50 Mariam Issoufou Kamara The architect building the ruins of the future. Arts & Culture Issue 48 Cliff Tan Four questions for a feng shui guru. Arts & Culture Issue 48 Peer Review Artist William Cobbing on painter, publisher—and family friend—Franciszka Themerson. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Peer Review Hadani Ditmars on the disappearing legacy of Rifat Chadirji, Iraq’s most influential architect. Arts & Culture Issue 46 Peer Review Upcycle designer Laurs Kemp on the influence of mid-century salvage artist Louise Nevelson. Arts & Culture Issue 45 Peer Review: Jean Lurçat Textiles expert Janis Jefferies on Jean Lurçat, the Frenchman who revived tapestry for the 20th century.
Arts & Culture Issue 48 Peer Review Artist William Cobbing on painter, publisher—and family friend—Franciszka Themerson.
Arts & Culture Issue 47 Peer Review Hadani Ditmars on the disappearing legacy of Rifat Chadirji, Iraq’s most influential architect.
Arts & Culture Issue 46 Peer Review Upcycle designer Laurs Kemp on the influence of mid-century salvage artist Louise Nevelson.
Arts & Culture Issue 45 Peer Review: Jean Lurçat Textiles expert Janis Jefferies on Jean Lurçat, the Frenchman who revived tapestry for the 20th century.
