On March 9, what would have been Luis Barragán's 119th birthday, we commemorate Mexico's most celebrated architect and discuss his winning of the 1980 Pritzker Prize.
"We honor Luis Barragán for his dedication and imaginative achievement within the field of architecture. Throughout his career, he has created gardens, plazas, and fountains of disarming beauty, as well as metaphysical landscapes that prompt meditation and companionship.
A stoical acceptance of solitude as man's fate permeates Barragan's work. Barragan's solitude is cosmic; Mexico is the temporal abode he lovingly accepts. It is for the greater glory of this House that he has created gardens where Man can make peace with himself, and a chapel where his passions and desires may be forgiven and his faith proclaimed. One complements the other. The garden is the myth of the Beginning and the chapel that of the End. For Barragan, House is the form Man gives to his life between both extremes."
The announcement naming the winner of the Pritzker Prize, given by the panel of judges consisting of J. Carter Brown (President), Kenneth Clark - Lord Clark of Saltwood, Arata Isozaki, Philip Johnson, J. Irwin Miller, Cesar Pelli, Carleton Smith (Secretary) and Arthur Drexler (Consultant).
