TADAO ANDO (Osaka, 1941).Untitled.Graphic work and coloured drawing on paper.Hand signed.Size: 15,5 x 13,5 cm.Tadao Ando is a self-taught architect greatly influenced by the work of Le Corbusier, trained mainly during his travels in the USA, Europe and Africa between 1962 and 1969. During his travels he visited buildings by Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn, which clearly influenced the forms and materials of his buildings. In 1968 he returned home and founded Tadao Ando Architects & Associates in Osaka. His achievements as an architect include winning the 1995 Pritzker Architecture Prize from the Hyatt Foundation. His early works show an incipient postmodern style, although clearly adapted to Japanese customs. In 1976 he completed his first work, Azuma House, where Tadao Ando divided the house into two volumes, one private and the other shared, with a courtyard between them for the "play of wind and light". The presence of natural elements in his works would accompany him throughout his career. During the eighties, Tadao Ando leapt onto the international scene as the leading exponent of the new Japanese architecture. From these years we highlight the Rokko Housing development (1983-1993) with his Chapel on Mount Rokko (1986), in these buildings the influence of Le Corbusier on Tadao Ando is evident in the use of concrete as the main material, although the individualised treatment of light gives his works a personal stamp. In 1992 he designed the Japanese Pavilion for Expo'92 in Seville. A large ephemeral wooden structure. The Museum of the Forest of Tombs (1992) is a space full of symbolism in which Tadao Ando abandons straight lines, but not the coldness of concrete. Among Ando's notable works at the turn of the century are the Awaji Yumebutai in Hyogo (1997) and the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas (2000). Among his latest works, particularly noteworthy are ambitious projects such as the Poly Theatre in Shanghai, a building consisting of a reinforced concrete box, enveloped by a glazed lattice skin, and perforated by steel tunnels lined with aluminium panels, which have a wood-like finish. A building that preserves the essence of Tadao Ando's work, but developed using more modern techniques.