Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes: The Story of Architect I. M. Pei
It may seem simple and trite to start off a review by saying, “WOW,” so please forgive the cliché, but: WOW. Who would have thought that a children’s picture book about an architect could be so dynamic, inspirational, and enriching? Leung and Wu, each elite participants, have envisioned nothing short of a punchy powerhouse read. Sit back and enjoy.
From the photographs online, Suzhou, China looks like a stunning city full of gardens, canals, zigging-zagging streets, and a centuries old historical atmosphere hovering over its aesthetic. All within striking distance of the buzzing cosmopolitan Shanghai. Ioeh Ming (IM) Pei grew up in this idyllic space spending summers with his grandfather among the gardens and rocks of the Suzhou gardens. The pronounced shapes of the rocks, the pergola, the bridges, the reflections in the waters—all participate in telling this story.
Pei’s grandfather would explain to him how the shapes came to be many generations ago. A forward-thinking rock farmer chiseled holes in certain kinds of rocks and positioned them in the rivers so that the water would help form intriguing curves that people many years in the future could enjoy. Wu’s illustrations of these rocks recreate an equally mesmerizing scene, drawing in the viewer to explore the subtle shading in each curve and crevice. It’s hard not to get lost in the first few vibrant pages, lingering in the garden along with young Pei and his grandfather. But turn the page, there’s lots still to see.
An impressionable ten-year-old Pei moved to Shanghai with his family in the booming and bustling year of 1927 when buildings couldn’t be built fast enough to keep up with the throngs of commerce. Going from the peace and tranquility of Wu’s garden illustrations to her jam-packed chaos of the bursting-from-the-pages street scene, our inner ten-year-old is also captivated with the sights, sounds and smells of the city.
It was here that Pei took pen to paper and drew the skyscrapers as they were being built up around him. He watched as the buildings grew to be as tall as mountains. His own future, he thought, could also reach great heights if he could construct buildings like this. He could be like the rock farmer who constructed scenes with the river rock and build something for the generations yet to come. Pei’s ah-ha moment is illustrated in a glorious prism of color beaming down from his drawing pencil held above his face, shining on him like a spotlight. Brilliant.
From that moment on, Pei’s career is launched. He studies in the United States, learns about traditionalism versus modernism, and invents his own artistic voice with creative design solutions almost from day one of being an architect. Unable to return to China in the 1950s, Pei earns US citizenship, works as an architect in New York City, and starts a family—all while building a reputation with clients such as the John F. Kennedy presidential library, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the remodel of the Louvre in Paris.
Throughout Pei’s career, he continuously invented unique shapes with sleek materials and contributed dozens of iconic buildings to cities all over the world. Towards the end of his life, when he was in his nineties, he came full circle back to Suzhou, China. The city requested an art museum and Pei was able to tuck his shapes in next to the shapes that had been ebbed and flowed into the rock farmer’s garden rocks. Such a truly touching apotheosis. Pei lived an extraordinary life and ultimately passed away at the age of 102.
While there aren’t any actual photos in Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes, all of the artwork is purely and delightfully Wu’s, one might be so inclined to look them up online. It’s well work seeing photos of some of Pei’s architecture and the gardens in Suzhou. Taking a moment to match them side by side with Wu’s insanely creative artwork, one might have a similar conclusion to the vast wealth of genius contained in this book: WOW.