THE ARCHITECTURE OF LUIS BARRAGAN
Emilio Ambasz
Emilio Ambasz: THE ARCHITECTURE OF LUIS BARRAGAN. NYC: Museum of Modern Art, 1976. Second printing, 1980. Slim quarto. Black cloth decorated in red. Photographically printed dust jacket. 128 pp. 28 color plates and 66 b/w photographs and diagrams, plans, etc. Short gift inscription and studio stamp on half title page. Jacket price-clipped. Slight lamination lift along bottom front edge. A nearly fine copy.9.5 x 12 hardcover book with 128 pages and 28 color plates and 66 b/w photographs and diagrams, plans, etc. Catalog that accompanied the 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The text discusses 7 of Barragan's major works. List of Works (an illustrated list, with some lengthy entries, includes all of Barragan's works and projects, to 1976). From the wrappers: "The illustrations assembled here provide a dazzling visual survey of [Barragan's] work, and the total Barragan oeuvre is documented in a list of works and accompanying bibliography."
"Barragan's magnificent gardens and carefully constructed plazas seem to stand either as great architectural stages for the promenade of horses or as echo chambers for the constant cascade of water. While his design approach is classical and atemporal, the elements of his architecture are deeply rooted in his country's cultural and religious traditions; through the haunting beauty of his heiratic constructions we may begin to understand the ardor and intensity of Mexico's architecture."
Luis Barragan is one of the most singular architects of the twentieth century. Winner of, among other awards, the Pritzker Prize in 1980 and the Premio America in 1987, he was launched to international fame by the exhibition of his work staged by New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1976. Barragan: The Complete Works covers, for the first time, his complete oeuvre - 119 documented works and projects (dating from 1927 to 1981)- as architect and landscape architect. Beautiful geometric forms, sensual colours, surreal abstract landscapes - perhaps no other architect in the 20th century has been able to fuse elements of Mexican vernacular architecture, the International Style, and pre-industrial materials more exquisitely than Barragan. Artfully combining traditional styles and local colours with the controlled use of pools and the subtropical landscape of Mexico, he has forged an architecture at once unique and instantly recognisable.
"Barragan's magnificent gardens and carefully constructed plazas seem to stand either as great architectural stages for the promenade of horses or as echo chambers for the constant cascade of water. While his design approach is classical and atemporal, the elements of his architecture are deeply rooted in his country's cultural and religious traditions; through the haunting beauty of his heiratic constructions we may begin to understand the ardor and intensity of Mexico's architecture."
Spreads from this volume can be viewed here.
out of stock