veredes, arquitectura y divulgación VADo1 Los Inicios | Page 93

ISSN 2659-9139 e-ISSN 2659-9198 | Junio 2019 | 01.VAD
In that book, Riley would explain the contents in depth but also the subtle
nuances and the intrigues of the production. Answering to some ques-
tions 3 these authors proposed to him recently, Riley delved into this par-
ticular one and pointed out how Wright, if eventually excluded, would
have been very antagonistic with the exhibition as he had no problem to
spread their opinions and the media was happy to share with the public
and he had already started doing it. Since happily he was included, he
asked to redraw part of his former work to look more modern and less
dated. Wright –continued Riley– did not feel very well among his American
partners but he respected Mies’ work and all in all, he took part in the ex-
hibition and that contributed to its success.
3 Conversation and questionnaire
sent from the author to Terence
Riley on the occasion of the sym-
posium “On the verge of criticism”
on 2014, hosted by Roca Madrid
Gallery and curated by Brijuni
arquitectos.
The International Style aftermath:
a tag that turns into modern architecture
To measure the impact of the International Style, not just as a MoMA ex-
hibition, but also as a long-lasting term in history, we need to look at the
different histories of modern architecture to analyse how it has been ac-
commodated and how the confusion between terms was somehow an
issue from the very beginning. 4 See also Collins, Peter. The
Form-Givers. Perspecta 7 (1961),
91-96.
Starting with Zevi, the champion of Wright and the organic architecture
in Europe, in his book Verso un’architettura organica (1945) he is inclined
to use indifferently a number of concepts such as rationalism and func-
tionalism (previous and inferior stages of organicism for Zevi), or even
modern, which he uses as contemporary. Rational, rationalists, functional
or functionalists will be for Zevi Le Corbusier’s Ville Savoye, Mies’ German
pavilion in Barcelona and Gropius’ Bauhaus, whereas he would use the
adjective International when talking about the United States of America. 5 Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. “The
Evolution of Wright, Mies & Le Cor-
busier”. Perspecta, 1 (1952), 8-15.
Differently, in Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture, 1750-1950, Peter Co-
llins uses with some accuracy the term International Style as he tags Le
Corbusier, Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and the other International Style
architects as form-givers 4 who distorted the fundamental principles of ar-
chitecture as they leaned towards artistic parameters rather than rationa-
lism. That would be indeed in line with the criticism of Hitchcock 5 himself
and others about the rigidity and formalism of the architecture depicted
as International Style.
Texts from the sixties and seventies will give different room to the In-
ternational Style. Jürgen Joedicke will publish in L’architecture d’ajord’hui
in 1960 part of his forthcoming book of 1962 where he would not even
mention the International Style at all, but some of the architects featured
in the exhibition. Similarly, John Jacobus in 1966 acknowledges the archi-
tects’ work but does not concede a significant relevance to the exhibition.
Even Philip Drew in his seminal Third Generation, published in 1972, would
just mention in a few lines the architecture of the International Style. The-
se three text barely reflect on the exhibition and that might reflect the
criticism aroused previously in the decade of the 50s and particularly with
the well known text of Henry-Russell Hitchcock in 1951 for Architectural
Record:
“The International Style Twenty Years Later”.
FRANCISCO JAVIER CASAS COBO. The Survival of the International Style in the History of Architecture. pp. 90-101
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