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A new documentary, to be shown at the IFC Center later this month, follows artist Jill Magid's bizarre journey to accessing the archives of revered Mexican architect Luis Barragán. Titled "The Proposal," the film is that last chapter in her project—The Barragán Archives—that started back in... View full entry
Luis Barragan’s Casa Gilardi is considered one of the most internationally transcendent works of contemporary architecture. His last project before passing, the house shows off the legendary Mexican architect's exemplary use of geometry and eye-popping color. In this new video for the design... View full entry
Magid agrees with those who argue that the Barragán archive should be open to the public and returned to Mexico, but she insists that this is not her focus. “If that’s what my intentions were, I don’t think I’d make art,” she told me. “I’ve always called the archive her lover. To marry one man, she negotiated owning another man, whom she’s devoted her life to. It’s a weird love triangle, and I’m the other woman.” — The New Yorker
“‘It intrigued me as a gothic love story,’ [Magid] said, ‘with a copyright-and-intellectual-property-rights subplot.’” A fascinating story about “architectural preservation” that focuses on an artist's elaborate negotiation to open Luis Barragán's tightly controlled archive to... View full entry
Some obvious reasons are deducible from the graphic elegance of his structures and their seductive saturated “Mexican” colors. Perhaps, though, new generations are also drawn by instinct to the deep humanism expressed in the work of this undervalued genius, a man who cited as his personal pole stars ideals like amazement, enchantment, serenity, silence and intimacy. — NYT
Back in June, Guy Trebay penned a essay 'Finding Mexico City, and Luis Barragán, Again'. Therein, he relates how after a long absence from Mexico City, he was inspired to rediscover both the city and the houses of the great Mexican architect.He also draws attention to the fact that many of these... View full entry
After passing to the widow of Barragán’s business partner, it was sold in 1994 to a wealthy Swiss couple, Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of Vitra, the international furniture company and design museum, and the woman who was to become his wife, Federica Zanco, an architectural scholar. In the years since, Ms. Zanco has devoted her life to promoting Barragán’s legacy. But her determination to keep the archive at Vitra headquarters near Basel has rankled many in Mexico... — nytimes.com
