Luis Barragan Architect Exhibition, Modern Mexico City Building, 20th Century Mexican Architecture

Sean Scully – San Cristobal Exhibition

Luis Barragan Cuadra San Cristóbal Exhibition, 20th Century Mexican Architect Practice: Pritzker Prize–winner

Dec 27, 2017

Sean Scully – San Cristobal Exhibition News

Sean Scully – San Cristobal exhibition: Luis Barragan Architect Mexico

20th Century Mexican Architecture

SEAN SCULLY AT CUADRA SAN CRISTÓBAL, LUIS BARRAGÁN’S MODERNIST MASTERPIECE

Works by one of the world’s leading abstract artists, Sean Scully will go on show at Luis Barragán’s iconic modernist landmark, Cuadra San Cristóbal in Mexico City from 7 February – 24 March 2018.

Curated by Oscar Humphries, Sean Scully – San Cristobal is the first exhibition to be presented at Cuadra San Cristóbal and it is first time the artist’s sculptures will be shown in Latin America.

The dramatic geometries and strong colours that form part of the architecture are a fitting backdrop to Sean Scully’s powerful and emotive works. Built in 1966 as an equestrian and residential complex, the design of Cuadra San Cristóbal represents the apex of Barragán’s ‘high period’.

In the interior spaces, including the horse stalls, paintings on aluminium and copper will be shown. Each stall will present a different aspect of Scully’s work, in a sequence made all the more powerful by the repetition of the architecture. The artist’s recent sculptures, in both Cor-Ten and painted steel, including the monumental Boxes of Air, will be installed in the grounds.

Seeing Scully’s work in such a setting will reveal the historic – both ancient and modern – and indeed architectural origins of his practice, by creating a juxtaposition that is both contrary and sympathetic. Produced in consultation with the Egerstrom family – the owners and occupiers of Cuadra San Cristóbal for whom the property was built – this sensitive intervention will shed new light on this well-known landmark and provide a different perspective on the work of one of our leading contemporary artists.

Sean Scully first visited Mexico in 1981 and on various trips throughout the subsequent decade, created works there. A 1984 watercolour was the first Scully work to use the title Wall of Light – something he revisited when he began the seminal series of that name. In the 2000’s Scully returned to Mexico with a series of photographs taken there which he included in his book The Color of Time. This exhibition is a celebration of the artist’s long relationship with Mexico, a country with which he has a strong relationship – literal, aesthetic and spiritual.

A book Sean Scully | Mexico will be published to mark the exhibition.

This exhibition is generously supported by Blain|Southern.

Sean Scully

Sean Scully was born in Dublin in 1945 and was brought up in London and immigrated to the States in 1975. He currently lives and works in New York and also has a studio outside Munich. He studied painting at the Croydon College of Art (London) and Newcastle University (England), received a graduate Fellowship at Harvard University in 1973, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1983, and Honorary Degrees, Doctorate of Fine Arts from The Massachusetts College of Art (Boston) and the National University of Ireland (Dublin). He has been the Turner Prize nominee at Tate London twice, in 1989 and 1993.

Luis Barragán

Luis Barragán (1902-1988) was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. Having graduated as an engineer from the Escuela Libre de Ingenieros in 1923, he travelled to Europe. There he encountered the new architecture of the Bauhaus Group and Le Corbusier (whom he met in the 1930s).

Returning to Mexico, Barragán opened his architectural practice in Mexico City in 1937 and there developed his distinctive and humane style which has come to define the world’s vision of a modern Mexico, and indeed mid-century architecture more broadly.

Notable examples of his work include Cuadra San Cristóbal (1966–68); Gilardi House (1975–77) and the convent Tlalpan Chapel (1954–60) – all of which are located in and around Mexico City. His place on the international stage was cemented in 1980 when he was awarded the acclaimed Pritzker Prize. His personal home, the Luis Barragán House and Studio was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.

Luis Barragán Architect, Mexico

Sean Scully – San Cristobal is curated by Oscar Humphries. Formerly the editor of the art magazine Apollo his past exhibitions include Architecture of Color: The Legacy of Luis Barragán, 2016, Albers & the Bauhaus, 2016, and Sean Scully: Doric, 2012, which toured the Benaki Museum, Athens, The Hugh Lane, Dublin, and IVAM, Valencia.

Location: Cuadra San Cristóbal, Mexico City, Mexico