Luis Barragán: The Quiet Revolution

Frederica Zanco

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Review

That Luis Barragan is known to the world outside of his native country is thanks to an exhibition of his architecture at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1976.  He was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize four years later and is now considered one of the very greatest artists Mexico has ever produced.

Mexico City today is a vast, sprawling metropolis where official taxi-drivers need to employ the services of their illegal brothers to find their way.  Apart from a few remnants of the Beaux Arts epoch, the only buildings or inner-city open spaces of quality, are either by, or directly influenced by, Barragan.

Travelling in Europe in the 1920’s he was inspired by the work of Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and above all by Le Corbusier, and he returned determined to introduce the principles of Modernism.  Often in association with European immigrants, his work thereafter was a singular symbiosis of minimalism and the indigenous, which makes for a style which is instantly recognisable.  Where Johnson in his glass houses and Neutra in his desert homes looked outwards, Barragan in the ‘pueblo’ manner, turned inwards, creating interior spaces with coloured walls and shaded courtyards linked seamlessly to the external environment which allowed for greater privacy in congested communities.  The way each of his buildings, whether a skyscraper or an artist’s studio, is integrated within its allotted territory is perhaps the key factor in his significance and renown.

The story of the man mirrors his country’s twentieth century history in its struggle for national identity.  He was, it would seem, a gregarious and affable companion who bridged gaps between political factions, intimate of Diego and Frida (she of hallowed reputation in her homeland) and the first port of call for endless distinguished visitors: this handsome volume records happy encounters with George Gershwin, Josef Albers, Edward James and most especially Mathias Goeritz, his collaborator on the Satellite Towers - surely the one of the world’s greatest sculptural monuments.

He died at the age of 86 in a beautiful environment of his own creation, acclaimed as a national hero and finally acknowledged as an architect of pre-eminent significance. - review by Stewart Grimshaw