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Ricardo Bofill: The Modern Classicist as Architect
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13224 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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10 / 1987 |
2,525 Words |
| Author
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams
Hugh Aldersey-Williams is a writer specializing in
architecture, technology, and other subjects. |
The political renewal sweeping Spain ever since the death of Franco in 1975 has been matched by a cultural renewal. Both developments have been enthusiastically welcomed by other countries. Spain's newfound democracy immediately won the approbation of the rest of Europe when it joined the Economic Community. Spain's new cultural vitality has been crowned with international prominence, thanks both to its new generation of creative individuals and a number of timely exhibitions. They represent a restoration of Spain to the ranks of prime contributor to world culture rather than the entrance of a new player on the international artistic scene.
The country's creative hub is undoubtedly the region of Catalonia, which, along with some other Spanish regions, has won greater autonomy through recent political reforms. Its capital is Barcelona, which now ranks with Milan and Paris in art, fashion, design, and architecture.
Barcelona has long been a major city. A busy port and commercial center as well as a creative hothouse, it could be said that, like Milan, Rome, New York, or Washington, Barcelona creates the country's wealth while the bureaucrats in Madrid spend it.
This is one reason Barcelona has such a ready affinity with New York, notwithstanding New York's sister-city link with Madrid. Lately New York has been paying lavish and overdue homage to Catalonia. The Barcelona Art Nouveau architect Antonio Gaudi and his lesser-known but still influential contemporaries Luis Domenech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadalfach were recently celebrated at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Then there was a major retrospective of the work of Joan Miro at the
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