Barragan: A Spiritual Master

20mm

11mm

300.8mm

11mm

11mm

300.8mm

20mm

20mm

A Spiritual Master PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Robert Duncan COLLABORATOR

Merrill Peterson

310.8mm

BARRAGÁN A Spiritual Master

BARRAGÁN

Robert Duncan & Merrill Peterson

$40.00 ISBN 978-0-578-88536-0

54000>

9 780578 885360

20mm Duncan Barragan Cover.indd 1

5/20/21 9:16 AM

BARRAGÁN

A Spiritual Master

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 1

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Preface I have been taking photographs all my life. Somewhere around home I still have my first Brownie.

My eye sees interesting things, curious things, imaginative things. I see colors and shapes, faces and spaces and the camera allows me to capture and keep those discoveries. I relive experiences through my photographs.

I love equipment and technology; so, like many, I thought I would stick with film… wrong. Through the years I have transitioned from the Brownie to Polaroid to 35mm with great bodies and lenses for a variety of circumstances. Then along came the iPhone and, for me, photography made the greatest leap yet. My iPhone is always with me, ready to capture whatever my eye sees. I still carry a Sony compact digital camera during photo excursions, but by far, the iPhone is my favorite. And I am totally sold on digital.

I have told friends over the years that if I had my life to live over again I might have become an architect. Barragán was a worldclass architect, or was he an artist? Is there a difference? Discovering his works in Mexico City blew me away. I could not stop taking photographs. There was color everywhere, applied in a most unique way. Then there were all the angles, the stairs, the use of water, simple pots and tools. The spaces were comfortable. . . welcoming. As a whole, Barragán’s work is minimalistic.

The beauty is in its simplicity. Once you see his unforgettable sites, you will always be able to recognize them.

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 2

Many visitors photograph his works. I hope I bring a fresh eye, but struggle to explain my rationale. I cannot say it any better than my friend and collaborator Merrill Peterson does: “Your photographs are intentional… your intention, your vision. Yes, you are working with the given environment, but the way you have seen the visual possibilities is much more than just being excited by the place. You have taken what is offered you and elevated the experience. You have also moved beyond sophisticated equipment and are back to seeing in a way much closer to your original Brownie. None of the images in the book are a result of ‘special lenses or photographic tricks.’ It’s seeing the possibilities.”

Please go see these places for yourself. Experience the joy you feel by being part of each environment. Take photographs, print them, share them. Tell stories of your encounters with Luis Barragán’s extraordinary works. Your life will be richer.

Robert Duncan duncanlnk@mac.com

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Barragán: A Spiritual Master Nelsa H. Farrugia

When I think of Luis Barragán, I think of a spiritual master more than an architect. Sure, he was an architect with a civil engineering degree; but, every time I walk into a Barragán site, I immediately and effortlessly feel calm and at peace, and that to me is the merit of a spiritual master or, at the very least, a true artist.

I have heard from people who knew him that he was indeed a fervent Catholic. He was also quite solitary, never married and never had a family. He enjoyed spending peaceful time alone.

His home, Casa Luis Barragán, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, certainly reflects this mood. It feels like you are in his own private monastery.

I am not an architecture expert, simply someone who has had the privilege of seeing his work many times over. I have witnessed his evolution from his early years in Guadalajara, where he was born in 1902, to the master works he called Emotional Architecture. These are the works known for their thick, high walls; intense, colorful palette, and emphasis on courtyards and gardens. They are the works that eventually made him the only Mexican architect to receive the Pritzker Prize.

The beautiful book you are holding in your hands right now highlights two of Barragán’s most iconic works in Mexico City: Cuadra San Cristóbal (1969) and Casa Giraldi (1976).

Cuadra San Cristóbal is a private residential complex built for the Egeström family on a huge 30,000 square-meter property that consists of horse stables, fountain, plaza, swimming pool, main house and gardens. It is very well worth the approximate onehour drive from the city center to the outskirts.

This project became symbolic of Barragán because of the use of water, geometric abstraction of the diverse surfaces and color, recurrent elements throughout his work. The result is a poetic composition of colors that contrast against a dramatic water mirror.

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 3

Casa Giraldi, on the other hand, is a very small private home right in the middle of the city in the neighborhood of San Miguel Chapultepec. If you are walking down the street and don’t know it’s a Barragán house, you could simply walk by without noticing. That is the case with many Barragán houses. The facade was never really important to him, it’s what’s inside that matters.

Personally, this idea resonates with me for both practical reasons as well as the obvious metaphorical significance.

The house is small in size but definitely not in importance to his career. He came out of retirement to work on this project and it was the last one he completed before he died in 1988. It was designed around a jacaranda tree that was sitting in the middle of the plot of land before construction, so the whole design is based around this tree that is, of course, its main resident to date.

The most characteristic feature in the house is the indoor pool, which you discover after walking through an intense yellow tunnel of a hallway with striped windows on one side. It is a dramatic transition. Beyond double doors is a mesmerizing composition of intense cobalt blue, red and–depending on the hour and day you visit– a shifting natural light show that comes from the clever design of the windows. It’s really something that must be lived to be understood.

Barragán lived in Mexico City from 1936 until his passing in 1988 and it was here where he created most of his best-known works. A trip to Mexico City definitely should include at least one of his sites, whether you are an architecture fan or not, as they have become symbols of the city and are an intrinsic part of its history and culture.

Nelsa H. Farrugia is the founder and tour director for Mexico Cultural Travel in Mexico City. www.MexicoCulturalTravel.com

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Quenching Visual Enticements Anne Pagel

Like many of us, Robert Duncan was introduced to photography

as a child. His interest began to grow while he was a student at Northwestern University. Later, he fit the pursuit around the edges of his travels for pleasure and for Duncan Aviation business. With the additional time retirement has offered, Robert’s enthusiasm has mushroomed. He has amassed over 100,000 images.

He has taken a number of photography workshops, although it isn’t the technical aspects that draw him to the medium. He doesn’t enjoy time-consuming set up, nor is he compelled to edit his images extensively. For years, he used a 35mm Canon camera, but as digital advancements amplified the quality level in smaller and smaller cameras, he began to carry a little compact Sony and, of course, his iPhone. Several years ago, he took an iPhone photography class at Anderson Ranch in Colorado.

He has found this medium to be ideally matched to his style and outlook.

Robert’s interest in photography parallels and, in fact, is integral to his passion for collecting art. He loves the discovery of a visual surprise and is compelled to acquire it. He photographs intuitively, yet, a perusal of his images shows that he responds to unusual plays of light, whether shadows, surface washes, reflections or atmospheric ambience. The more ephemeral his found arrangements of forms, lines, textures, hues and values, the more pressing his need to visually ensnare them. While people and vistas occasionally capture his interest, he is more often drawn to objects in environments: a sculpture shrouded in fog on a winter morning… yellow leaves, newly fallen in circles beneath a row of locust trees.

It is no wonder, then, that the opportunity to tour several Mexico City sites designed by Pritzker Prize winner, Luis Barragán, was like Christmas morning for the Nebraskan.

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 4

This book was an outcome of that experience. Robert took the images at Cuadra San Cristóbal, an equestrian estate Barragán designed for a friend and fellow horseman, and at Casa Gilardi, a home conceived as a bachelor pad for young partners in an advertising agency. The images aren’t segregated by site, but instead, are ordered aesthetically.

The 20th century architect’s projects are quiet and contemplative, yet they confound visual perceptions.

For him, color and water were not decorative elements or afterthoughts, but instead, integral building blocks of his designs. He was acutely aware that the addition of light would yield everchanging shapes, patterns, shadows and reflections. He had an extraordinary talent for ostensibly coloring space.

Robert’s images reflect his own aptitude for seeing and building on Barragán’s compositional conundrums.

The renowned architect had been retired several years when Pancho Gilardi and Martin Luque convinced him to design their home. He agreed to the commission only because the clients accorded him the freedom to carry out ideas that had intrigued him for years and because he couldn’t resist the appeal of designing around the jacaranda tree that grew near the center of the property. The home’s lavender and shocking pink walls match the tree’s blossoms and replicate the color of bougainvillea intended to cascade into the patio. The book includes several images of the jacaranda in bloom, including a particularly poignant shot of spent blossoms around and upon an ancient stone vessel holding enough water to refresh birds on a hot day.

The house is oriented inwardly with two large windows that offer views of the colorful patio enclosure. Windows to the

5/20/21 9:11 AM

busy urban streets outside are painted yellow, lending privacy from public eyes and a wash of golden warmth within. Barragán was a devoted Catholic and, for him, yellow was the color of spirituality.

The home’s crowning glory is its pool, a space that so captivated Robert he has said he would love to return time and again to photographically explore its spatial secrets. The walls are white and royal blue, with a red panel rising through the water to meet the ceiling. Illumination comes through a small clerestory window that creates lines, patterns and shapes, constantly mutating as the day wears on.

While Casa Galardi is introspective, Robert’s photographs show that Cuadra San Cristóbal is integrated with the natural world.

Its huge pink walls provide shade from the searing Mexican sun.

Its openings are windows to the inviting woodland beyond. A large reflecting pool intersected by a tall double-wall fountain fosters the suggestion of a cooling, calming environment.

When Robert photographed there, the estate was presenting its first temporary exhibition, which featured site-specific paintings and sculptures by Irish artist Sean Scully. His works couldn’t have been a better fit for Barragán’s architectural philosophy. Both the 20th century architect and the 21st century artist intended their works to be deeply laden with expression.

Robert found that while works by both men offer dazzling first impressions, an investment of time to really look yielded rewards, such as the sweet, subtle reflections of sky and earth in Scully’s stainless-steel-and-Corten column. He also took several images of a stacked stone sculpture in which the artist squashed profuse textures, colors and shapes into a simple cubic form.

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 5

Lincoln artist Merrill Peterson recognized Robert’s adroitness as soon as he looked at the Barragán photos. They are images of beautiful sites, but they are also studies of crisp geometric shapes, pitch-perfect linear compositions, washes of blindingly radiant light, rhyming forms and transcendent color.

Merrill, a painter and photographer for more than fifty years, has said of his approach to his own work: “How we see, how we think we see, how we see what we expect to see and how we are deceived by our preconceptions and prejudgments presents fertile ground for exploration. I bring with me a basic attitude that almost nothing is what it first appears to be.

I continue to be fascinated and humbled by my preconceptions about what I think and know compared with what really is.”

As Merrill explored the complexities in Barragán’s works – and Robert’s responses to them– he suggested the images be presented as a book. That modest proposal resulted in a fruitful and gratifying collaboration.

These images tickle our longing for a balance of order and spontaneity, human connection and solitude, seriousness and quirkiness, simplicity and complexity, dynamism and stillness.

Robert wishes for these images to be a gift to those who delight in the pursuit of interminable visual possibilities.

Anne Pagel is curator of the Karen and Robert Duncan Collection

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Seeing Possibilities Merrill Peterson

Robert Duncan is an inveterate traveler and art collector. He

has a wide ranging, eclectic and diverse interest in art forms.

Over a period of decades, he has formed a personal aesthetic and point of view. Like most artists he is on the hunt for those unique situations when something resonates with him. He hears a whisper in his ear and pays attention. Luis Barragán’s structures whispered in his ear and the images in this book reflect his response.

The early French photographer Nadar said, “In photography, as everywhere, there are those who know how to see and others who don’t even know to look.” Robert is always looking and seeing.

The found environment of Luis Barragán is Robert’s kind of environment. He explores the possibilities by carefully recording the structural elements that excite his visual sensibilities. He is keenly aware of the formal compositional elements at play in concert with space and color to create an integrated image.

Robert’s photographs are carefully considered. They demonstrate watchfulness and attentiveness. He has made each image in an intentionally coherent manner.

Merrill Peterson is an artist who lives and works in Lincoln, Nebraska.

When he finds a subject, environment or circumstance that resonates with him, he begins the process of visual exploration and discovery. He looks for the possibilities to optimize what he sees and feels.

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 6

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Acknowlegements From Robert

The idea to publish this book of my photographs came from my

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 7

friend Merrill Peterson. Photography has always been a favorite of his, although he is an accomplished artist who works in several mediums. Merrill has a great eye and his ability to navigate Photoshop enables him to make a good photograph great. His editorial changes to my photographs were minimal, but important.

Nelsa Farrugia, through her travel company Mexico Cultural Travel, brought me to the Barragán sites during trips to Mexico City in 2017 and 2018. Without Nelsa, I would never have discovered these wonderful photographic opportunities.

I would highly recommend her to you. Check out her website: www.MexicoCulturalTravel.com, and then go see for yourself.

Merrill selected the twenty-six images from dozens of photographs.

He and I compared the originals with his edited copies, then we worked together on the layout. The entire book venture or should I say adventure has been great fun. It has been a special time for us to be together. Thank you for our friendship Merrill.

A big thank you goes to our good friend Anne Kohs for her critique and suggestions for the final layout. She connected us with iocolor in Seattle for the pre-publishing and printing. Anne has spent her entire working career helping artists, including the assembly and publication of a number of artists’ monographs.

We relied on our art curator and friend Anne Pagel for the principle text. Anne knows both of us and she writes exceptionally well. If it’s true that Anne could not read or write when she married Bud, he has really, really taught her well.

The collaboration, effort and creativity of these individuals resulted in the memorable project I had imagined.

Robert Duncan

5/20/21 9:11 AM

The invincible difficulty that philosophers have always had in defining beauty is an unmistakable example of its ineffable mystery. Beauty speaks like an oracle, and man has always worshiped her… The private life of beauty does not deserve to be called human.

– Fragment of the speech given by Luis Barragán given at the Pritzker Prize Awards

Casa Giraldi

8

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 8

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 9

9

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Beauty is the oracle that speaks to us all.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

10

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 10

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 11

11

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“I think that the ideal space must contain elements of magic, serenity, sorcery and mystery.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

12

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 12

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 13

13

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Colos that blaze in the Mexican sun have always been exuberantly featured in everyday life and rituals. These colors restore the spirits, of our people, for whose retinas supreme beauty vibrates with the more audacious values and contrasts of tropical colours, of the variegated colors of tropical plants and birds.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

14

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 14

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 15

15

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Serenity is the great and true antidote against anguish and fear, and today, more than ever, it is the architect’s duty to make of it a permanent guest in the home, no matter how sumptuous or how humble. Throughout my work I have always strived to achieve serenity, but one must be on guard not to destroy it by the use of an indiscriminate palette.”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

16

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 16

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 17

17

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“The lessons to be learned from the unassuming architecture of the village and provincial towns of my country have been a permanent source of inspiration. Such, for instance, the whitewashed walls; the peace to be found in patios and orchards; the colorful streets; the humble majesty of the village squares surrounded by shady open corridors. And as there is a deep historical link between these teachings and those of the North African and Moroccan Villages, they too have enriched my perception of beauty in architectural simplicity.”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

18

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 18

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 19

19

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“I have devoted myself to architecture as a sublime act of poetic imagination. Consequently, I am only a symbol for all those who have been touched by beauty. The words Beauty, Inspiration, Magic, Spellbound, Enchantment, as well as the concepts of Serenity, Silence, Intimacy and Amazement, all these have nestled in my soul. Though I am fully aware that I have not done them complete justice in my work, they have never ceased to be my guiding lights.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

20

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 20

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 21

21

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“The wall is an architectural striptease.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

22

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 22

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 23

23

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Architects are forgetting the need of human beings for half-light, the sort of light that imposes a sense of tranquility, in their living rooms as well as in their bedrooms. About half the glass now used in so many buildings—homes as well as offices—would have to be removed in order to obtain the quality of light that enables one to live and work in a more concentrated manner, and more graciously. We should try to recover mental and spiritual ease and to alleviate anxiety, the salient characteristic of these agitated times, and the pleasures of thinking, working, conversing are heightened by the absence of glaring, distracting light.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

24

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 24

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 25

25

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“I believe in an emotional architecture. It is very important for human kind that architecture should move by its beauty; if there are many equally valid technical solutions to a problem, the one which offers the user a message of beauty and emotion, that one is architecture.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

26

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 26

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 27

27

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Serenity is the great and true antidote against anguish and fear, and today, more than ever, it is the architect’s duty to make of it a permanent guest in the home, no matter how sumptuous or how humble.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

28

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 28

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 29

29

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“I believe that architects should design gardens to be used, as much as the houses they build, to develop a sense of beauty and the taste and inclination toward the fine arts and other spiritual values.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

30

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 30

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 31

31

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“A perfect garden, no matter its size, should enclose nothing less than the entire Universe.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

32

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 32

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 33

33

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“In alarming proportions the following words have disappeared from architectural publications: beauty, inspiration, magic, sorcery, enchantment, and also serenity, mystery, silence, privacy, astonishment.

All of these have found a loving home in my soul.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

34

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 34

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 35

35

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Architecture is an art when one consciously or unconsciously creates aesthetic emotion in the atmosphere and when this environment produces wellbeing.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

36

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 36

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 37

37

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Life deprived of beauty is not worthy of being called human.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

38

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 38

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 39

39

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Architects should make houses into gardens, and gardens into houses.”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

40

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 40

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 41

41

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy.”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

42

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 42

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 43

43

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“I don’t divide architecture, landscape and gardening; to me they are one.”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

44

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 44

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 45

45

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Any work of architecture that does not express serenity is a mistake.”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

46

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 46

6/7/21 11:29 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 47

47

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Art is memory’s mise-en-scène.”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

48

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 48

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 49

49

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Don’t ask me about this building or that one, don’t look at what I do, see what I see.”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

50

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 50

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 51

51

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“I believe that architects should design gardens to be used, as much as the houses they build, to develop a sense of beauty and the taste and inclination toward the fine arts and other spiritual values. It is impossible to understand Art and the glory of its history without avowing religious spirituality and the mythical roots that lead us to the very reason of being of the artistic phenomenon. Without the one or the other there would be no Egyptian pyramids, nor those of ancient Mexico. Would the Greek temples and Gothic cathedrals have existed?”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

52

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 52

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 53

53

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Silence. In the gardens and homes designed by me, I have always endeavored to allow for the interior placid murmur of silence, and in my fountains, silence sings.”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

54

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 54

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 55

55

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“The Art of Seeing. It is essential to an architect to know how to see: I mean, to see in such a way that the vision is not overpowered by rational analysis.”

Luis Barragán

Cuadra San Cristóbal

56

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 56

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 57

57

5/20/21 9:11 AM

“Art is made by the alone for the alone.”

Luis Barragán

Casa Giraldi

58

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 58

5/20/21 9:11 AM

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 59

59

5/20/21 9:11 AM

ISBN 978-0-578-88536-0 Copyright for this publication is held by Robert Duncan, 2021 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any other information storage or retrieval system, or otherwise without written permission from Robert Duncan.

Consultant: Anne Kohs Designed by Merrill Peterson Typeset in Fruitiger Color and print management by iocolor, LLC, Seattle, WA Printed and bound by Artron Color Printing Company, China

Duncan Book 3-30 V2.indd 60

5/20/21 9:11 AM

20mm

11mm

300.8mm

11mm

11mm

300.8mm

20mm

20mm

A Spiritual Master PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Robert Duncan COLLABORATOR

Merrill Peterson

310.8mm

BARRAGÁN A Spiritual Master

BARRAGÁN

Robert Duncan & Merrill Peterson

$40.00 ISBN 978-0-578-88536-0

54000>

9 780578 885360

20mm Duncan Barragan Cover.indd 1

5/20/21 9:16 AM