MoMa’s Spain.
Nicolai Ouroussof spanks the MoMA for its Spanish architecture exhibit:
Packed with pretty images and elegant models, the exhibition lacks the scholarly depth you might have hoped for on a subject that has mesmerized architects and planners since the 1980′s. Also missing is the kind of basic information — historical background, a clear sense of a building’s context, the architects’ ages and nationalities — that would make the show accessible to a broad audience.
But you’re not a broad audience, are you?
For ourselves, we like the pretty pictures. And we can read about Spanish architectural history ourselves. But in the main it seems likely that Ouroussof has it right: It’s a big part of the character of a city whether it’s willing to be a Petri dish for architecture; why has Spain taken the role? There’s a long and interesting history to that that doesn’t have nothing to do with fascism.
- Tom McGeveran
